Thee Midniters were an American group, amongst the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. Also, they were one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960’s, with a cover of “Land of a Thousand Dances”, and the instrumental track, “Whittier Boulevard” in 1965. They were among the first rock acts to openly sing about Chicano themes in songs such as “Chicano Power” and “The Ballad of César Chávez” in the late 1960’s. (More from Wikipedia)
The liner notes by Nigel Strange on Pebbles, Volume 1 (the CD that is) says of Kim Fowley: “What more can be said about this writer/singer/producer/hustler who’s had his hand in everything from ‘Alley Oop’ by the Hollywood Argyles, to Helen Reddy, to the Dead Boys, to Guns N’ Roses. . . . This song [“The Trip”], released at the onset of teenage freakout mania, was something of a sensation in L.A. at the time and was covered by others including Thee Midniters and disc jockey Godfrey. A real classic.”
(January 2015/1)
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Regarding the title of the EP 5 x 4 by the Crawdaddys, I was thinking of the 1964 Rolling Stones album 12 x 5 myself, but the Stones had previously released a British-only EP called 5 x 5 in August 1964. One of the cuts on the Stones EP is a group-penned instrumental called “2120 South Michigan Avenue” – the street address of Chess Records in Chicago – and the Chicano garage rock band Thee Midniters used it as the basis for their popular track “Whittier Boulevard”.
(January 2015/2)
