Pat Shannon

Nice soft, sunshiny LP. Some background: In dealing with Pat Shannon and his career, it's important to remember that sometimes nepotism isn't a matter of undue favoritism — Pat Shannon's real name was Pat Glasser, and he was the brother of Warner Bros. staff producer Dick Glasser. That obviously gave him an edge in getting recorded, but he did have the talent to justify the effort. His career began in the late '50s with the single "Maybelle" b/w "Knock Knock (Who's There)" at Decca, and he cut a total of four singles for the label through the end of 1959. These records were mostly in a country-pop vein, with several sides featuring the Anita Kerr Singers and Owen Bradley producing several of them. Shannon was a charismatic singer with a gentle folk tenor that had an enticing dark edge, and he might have found success as part of the early-'60s folk revival. Instead, he emerged again — produced by his brother — on the far side of the psychedelic era with "Candy Apple, Cotton Candy," released in the final week of May 1968. The single retained the gentle trippiness appropriate to 1966-1967, and had a great beat plus some powerful bass work amid the tasteful brass and gently twanging sitar. It was also written by Ruthann Friedman, who'd composed "Windy." Listening to the song's reverb-laden voice and flutes, and its general sunshine pop elegance, one wonders whether the people playing here aren't the same session musicians who handled most of the playing on the Association's records, and whether Warner Bros. might have been trying to groom a potential sound-alike act. Alas, this record never took off, and Shannon was to release only one more single, on Uni in 1969, before giving up his career as a recording artist. "Candy Apple, Cotton Candy" was pretty much forgotten until Rhino Handmade resurrected it for 2004's Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults. At last report, Shannon was living in retirement in California, and had suffered a stroke.

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