Friday January 29, 2021 “Arizona” Mark Lindsay
Sometimes credited as Mark Lindsay, sometimes as The Raiders this song was recorded by Lindsay with the legendary Wrecking Crew in LA.
The Wrecking Crew was a group of LA studio musicians who are considered one of the most successful and prolific session recording units in music history. Notables in the group included Leon Russell and Glen Campbell among so many others and the Crew worked on literally hundreds of hit records in the sixties. There is a great documentary about them The Wrecking Crew that will amaze and entertain you relative to all the very familiar records that they worked on.
As for Mr. Lindsay, he started out early on as the saxophonist and lead singer for popular sixties group Paul Revere & the Raiders. Now you may think it is hard to play the saxophone and be the lead singer and, well you’d be right. The group’s first recording was the iconic garage band song “Louie, Louie” which was recorded in the same studio as the Kingsmen’s version which unfortunately for the Raiders was released before their own version.
Although an iconic number one song for the Kingsmen, “Louie, Louie” would be their only hit while Paul Revere & the Raiders would go on to have more than twenty hits and sell over fifty million records. Maybe it’s not always good to be first.
Many of the Raiders later hits were produced by Terry Melcher, actress Doris Day's son, and he and Mark Lindsay shared a house in the Hollywood Hills for a short period of time. As a producer, Melcher had rejected an audition from a singer named Charles Manson, yes that Charles Manson, and as revenge for that rejection Manson sent some of his followers to kill Melcher.
Fortunately for Melcher and Lindsay they had moved out of the house which was then rented by Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate. It did not turn out well for Ms. Tate and her houseguests though.
Stay safe and well...and enjoy the photos of Arizona, the state, that accompany this tune.