Harpers Bizarre

Formed in Santa Cruz, California, from the ashes of The Tikis, who had enjoyed some local successes with Beatlesque songs in the mid-1960s, Harpers Bizarre signed to Autumn Records, a label started by Tom Donahue of Bay Area radio station KYA.

The newly-named group reached #13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1967 with their version of Simon and Garfunkel‘s 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy). The track also reached #34 in the UK.

Under the guidance of producer Lenny Waronker, Harpers Bizarre developed a unique sound which experimented with heavy vocal layering and became closely associated with the Sunshine Pop genre, though none of their subsequent singles achieved the same level of success.

While other vocal groups of the genre – such as The Left Banke and The Association – had an element of rock and soul to their multi-layered cheese, Harpers Bizarre were doomed to fail.

Despite being given material by Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks, Harpers Bizarre turned it all into a saccharine mush. They also padded their albums out with versions of naff golden oldies like Chattanooga Choo Choo – which did reach #1 on Billboard‘s Easy Listening chart, despite a drug reference (“do another number down in Carolina”).

Between 1967 and 1970 Harpers Bizarre – comfortable in their gentle retro harmony world –  released four albums and more than a dozen singles.

In October 1969, while returning to San Francisco after playing a concert in Pasadena, the TWA flight the group were travelling on was hijacked. All the passengers were safely released in Denver, Colorado, but the plane and its crew continued on to Rome, Italy, where the hijacker was apprehended. Dick Scoppettone later described the hijack as “the best publicity we ever had, by a mile”.

By the time of their 1969 album 4 (so-named as it was their fourth album), which included a massacre of The Beatles‘ Blackbird and an actual song called Soft Soundin’ Music, things were beyond explanation. The band broke up shortly after.

A partial reunion of the group (without Ted Templeman) occurred in 1976 when the group recorded a new album, As Time Goes By.

Drummer John Petersen died suddenly in November 2007 of a heart attack. Dick Yount died in March 2019.

Ted Templeman 
Vocals, drums, guitar
Dick Scoppettone 
Vocals, guitar, bass
Eddie James
Guitar
Dick Yount 
Guitar, bass, vocals
John Petersen 
Drums, percussion, vocals
Tom Sowell
Guitar