While searching for obscure 60's/early 70's single to burn I came across a record on the Karma Records label out of the Bay Area pairing a rock version of "What The World Needs Now" with a very cool garage pop track called "You Don't Get Young Anymore" by a group listed as Sincerely, San Jose on the label. While trying to put a year to the single I ran a Google search on the composer of the B-side, Javier Pacheco. Knowledgeable Mac/Buckingham/Nicks fans can probably already see where this is headed. J
Of course the Google search led to The Penguin Javier Pacheco Q&A Session at
http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/...acheco_qa1.htm. It became clear that the single I had was a legitimate release of two of the three Fritz tracks recorded during a demo session in San Mateo in 1968 with Lindsey singing the lead on both (the info is in Section Three of the Q&A mentioned above; the third, unreleased track is "Wondering Why" with a Stevie lead vocal). Going back and relistening to the single it's clear that it indeed is Fritz with Lindsey and Stevie! As stated before Lindsey sings lead on both songs, and while he obviously sounds younger here, he already has all the vocal inflections that would characterize his later work. And Stevie is clearly audible in the harmonies, especially on "You Don't Get Young Anymore" where she stands out more in the vocal blend.
How did Karma Records - who around the same '68/'69 timeframe also released a now very expensive Northern Soul collectable called "Woman, Love, Thief" by Stemmons Express - get ahold of these tracks? And why was this issued under the name Sincerely, San Jose? Well, whatever the answers, we should be glad they got these tracks out there. The cover of "What The World Needs Now" is about the same tempo as the Jackie DeShannon hit version, but has more of a rock drive to it. But it's the flip side that's the real keeper, a great garage pop track with multiple changes in tempo and feel with cool organ and guitar work throughout (and great ba_ss as well).
I am going to be putting this record up on ebay within the next few days with scans of both labels on the ebay page. And since I realize there's likely to be some skepticism as to the authenticity of this new discovery, I'll also be putting up a web page where you'll be able to download an mp3, 1:38 in length, with excerpts of both sides highlighting Lindsey and Stevie's vocals (it'll be a 64 kbps mono mp3 as the single is mono; this will give it the same sound quality as a 128 kbps stereo mp3 while being easier and quicker to download).
Right now I'm looking at putting these up about 4 PM US Pacific Daylight Time this Sunday (June 13). I'll post here again when it's up.
And good luck in advance to anyone who bids on what might be a new FM Holy Grail item!
Jeffrey Glenn
Burbank, CA