There’s a reason musical legend Lenny Kaye put The Electric Prunes' debut single ‘I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night’ as the first song you heard on his influential Nuggets compilation of 60s garage music—it sets the scene!
Formed in 1966, The Electric Prunes had a novel approach to being a band, initially deciding to be a recording unit rather than a live performance band. They rehearsed at Leon Russell’s house, discovering their signature sound – reverb-drenched, beautifully chaotic garage/pop. Taking that route also led them on one of the strangest career trips and recorded outputs of the mid to late '60s.
Signed to Reprise Records, they would release one of the most fantastic, fuzzed-out singles of all time, ’I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)’. Written by Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, this debut single went to #11 on the US Hot 100 charts, and then it was decided that their debut album, The Electric Prunes (1967), would be written by the team of Tucker & Mantz.
The results were anything but a creative stranglehold on the band. Imagine a combination of Headquarters-era The Monkees smashed together with the jazzy elements of De Capo-era Love and just a generous dose of The 13th Floor Elevators screams, and you’ve got quite a record. Guitar effects drip and splatter as they lay into the material with brute force as if they had written it themselves.
There’s a reason musical legend Lenny Kaye put The Electric Prunes' debut single ‘I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night’ as the first song you heard on his influential Nuggets compilation of 60s garage music—it sets the scene!
Formed in 1966, The Electric Prunes had a novel approach to being a band, initially deciding to be a recording unit rather than a live performance band. They rehearsed at Leon Russell’s house, discovering their signature sound – reverb-drenched, beautifully chaotic garage/pop. Taking that route also led them on one of the strangest career trips and recorded outputs of the mid to late '60s.
Signed to Reprise Records, they would release one of the most fantastic, fuzzed-out singles of all time, ’I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)’. Written by Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, this debut single went to #11 on the US...
