The Innocents, a harmony trio from Sun Valley, California, scored four
quick hits – twice in their own right with ‘Honest I Do’ and ‘Gee Whiz’, and
twice with Kathy Young (‘A Thousand Stars’ and ‘Happy Birthday Blues’) – on the
mysterious Indigo label of Los Angeles. Following its collapse in 1962, the
cool trio went on to record equally strong material for Reprise, Decca and
Warner Brothers, all of which is heard on this new compilation CD, together
with previously unissued masters from the same period in stunning stereo. None
of this – even the tunes originally released on 45s back in the 60s - has ever
appeared on CD before. Better still, the cache of unissued Warner Brothers and
Reprise material is worth the price of the CD alone. Also included are two
versions of the Innocents’ superb rogue 45, ‘Tick Tock’. A couple of the guys
later moonlighted as the Sugar Beats on an A&M single, and that’s here too.
When they left Indigo,
to get out of contract, they had the lead singer Jim West sing two songs for
release. Skip
Battin arranged and produced him using the
name Bobby James: "5000 Tears" and Memories Linger On". Both songs are included in this new
ACE CD "Classic Innocents".
You can get more info and order your copy here:
This info and more details were sent to us by lead singer Jim West. Many
thanks to him.
