THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN/SNOOPY VS. THE RED BARON SL 10202 (-67) UK MONO

Florida group started as "Posemen", but renamed trying to correspond with the British Invasion to US in the mid-sixties. In a way they can be called a one hit wonder. "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" became a world wide block buster in 1967, topping lists in a number of countries and selling gold in US. It seems many of the bands efforts after that in some way was connected to the Peanuts hype, trying to recompose the success with singles like "Return Of The Red Baron", "Snoopy's Christmas", "Snoopy For President" and even "Snoopy vs.Osama" 2006. So when I gave this debute album a spin for the first time I didn't expect much. It's all covers embracing a wide range from "Alley Oop" to "Road Runner" and could have been a catastrophe, but it's actually pretty good. They adapt easily between the different styles - light pop, r&b, garage - the vocals are attractive and there's lots of nice organ. Many aspiring groups back then coupled more or less successful singles with cover versions to get an album out for sale. To my ears this is one of the more enjoyable. The US issue (Laurie LLP 2038) reached #44 on Billboard while this English didn't chart. First UK had label as shown here, thick vinyl and laminated flip/back cover.