The Electric Prunes, sometimes referred to as I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night), is the 1967 debut album by the American garage rock band, the Electric Prunes, released on Reprise Records. The first track, “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”, was a hit and became the band’s signature tune. The album also contains another notable psychedelic rock composition, “Get Me to the World on Time”. The album was listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. (More from Wikipedia)
The Electric Prunes had two glorious psychedelic rock songs, with the first being “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”; the title is a takeoff on having “too much to drink”. Their producer Dave Hassinger considered their songwriting to be weak, so much of their material was written by others. This song was written by two female songwriters, interestingly enough, Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz. Tucker and Mantz also co-wrote five other songs on their debut album, The Electric Prunes, also known as I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night); one is based on a cigarette commercial, “Are You Lovin’ Me More (But Enjoying It Less)”. Annette Tucker co-wrote their follow-up hit that had similarly unusual wording in the title, “Get Me to the World on Time” with yet another female songwriter, Jill Jones. “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)” made it to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, while their second hit was at #27; both songs just missed the Top 40 in the UK.
The accompanying album by Blues Magoos, Psychedelic Lollipop was one of the first albums to have “psychedelic” in the title. I wound up ordering both Psychedelic Lollipop and the Electric Prunes’ first album, The Electric Prunes in the same order from Columbia Record Club, so that was my introduction to psychedelic rock.
(July 2015)
