"Little Girl" is a rock & roll classic. With its sneering vocals, vague threats, crude chords and rhythms, it's a menacing, swagger masterpiece of garage rock. It's also the only good thing the Syndicate of Sound ever recorded. Little Girl - The History of the Syndicate of Sound compiles nearly everything the group recorded, yet none of it comes close to matching the power of their hit single; it's a mess of weak originals and limp covers. The patience of even the most dedicated garage rock fan will be tested by the disc.

This CD comes from Performance Records, a New Brunswick, New Jersey operation that began in the 1980s specializing in re-releases of 1960s music and contains: 1. Little Girl; 2. Games; 3. Rumors; 4. Dream Baby; 5. Big Boss Man; 6. I'm Alive; 7. Mary; 8. Get Outta My Life; 9. Keep It Up; 10. Upper Hand; 11. You; 12. You're Lookin' Fine; 13. Change The World; 14. Brown Paper Bag; 15. Mexico; 16. First To Love You; 17. Reverb Beat; 18. Prepare For Love; 19. Tell The World; 20. Saturday Night; 21. Way Over There; 22. Memphis Underground. The sound reproduction quality is quite good and it comes with an insert containing background notes by Jud Cost.

The subject of the CD, The Syndicate Of Sound, is among those now regarded in U.S. Pop musical history as being among the so-called "Garage Bands" - a tag based upon the thinking that many had honed their skills in family garages - which had their heyday from about 1963 to 1967 when literally hundreds appeared on the scene. Most never amounted to much, some enjoyed modest to quite decent results (e.g. The Kingsmen of Louie, Louie fame), while others had to settle for primarily one notable song. Such is the case with this band which began with vocalist/guitarist/horn player Don Baskin (born in Honolulu on October 9, 1946), vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist John Sharkey (born in L.A. on June 8, 1946), lead guitarist Larry Ray (born in San Francisco on September 12, 1945), bassist Bob Gonzales (born in San Jose on February 14, 1947) and drummer John Duckworth (born in Missouri on November 18, 1946).

After winning a trip to L.A. and a 1965 recording session at Del-Fi Records, their first release was Prepare For Love b/w Tell The World (Del-Fi 4305) which did fairly well on a regional basis. In January 1966 they then recorded the snarly, menacing Little Girl, written by Baskin, Gonzalez and Sharkey, which was released b/w You as Hush 1, a tiny San Francisco operation. When KLIV in San Jose began giving it considerable airplay, the resulting demand was beyond Hush's capabilities so in stepped the NYC-based Bell Records and by late June-early July it was peaking at # 8 Billboard Pop Hot 100 as Bell 640.

That led to the LP "Little Girl" (Bell 6001) which, with Ray replaced by lead guitarist Jim Sawyers, contains: 1. Big Boss Man (2:55); 2. Almost Grown (2:13); 3. So Alone (3:05); 4. Dream Baby (2:34); 5. Rumors (2:06); 6. Little Girl (2:25); 7. That Kind Of Man (2:18); 8. I'm Alive (2:21); 9. You (2:42); 10. Lookin' For The Good Times (The Robot) (2:26); 11. Witch (2:33); 12. Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? (2:29). Tracks 2, 3, 7 and 10 to 12 are not included in this CD. Rumors then became their follow-up single and in Aug-Sept 1966 it topped out at # 55 Hot 100 b/w the non-LP cut The Upper Hand as Bell 646 - not a huge hit but one that removes them from any One-Hit Wonder stigma as far as I'm concerned.

It was also around this time that Duckworth had received his draft notice, his replacement being Carl Scott, but unfortunately neither of the two following singles could get them back on the charts: Keep It Up b/w Good Time Music (Bell 655) and That Kind Of Man b/w Mary (Bell 666) both in 1967. At this stage Sharkey departed. Their last kick at the can came 3 years later in April 1970 when Brown Paper Bag got to # 73 as Buddah 158 b/w Reverb Beat. Not long after the band broke up. In 1988 their sound received renewed interest when Performance issued a 16-track LP (see the Comments below), and in 1990 Baskin, Gonzalez and Duckworth put the band together again to play on the "Oldies" circuit, joined in 2005 by original lead guitarist Larry Ray. A year later The Syndicate Of Sound was among the initial inductees into the San Jose Rock Hall of Fame.



Tracklist:

01. Little Girl (2:30)
02. Games (2:43)
03. Rumors (2:09)
04. Dream Baby (2:38)
05. Big Boss Man (2:57)
06. I'm Alive (2:23)
07. Mary (2:40)
08. Get Outta My Life (2:44)
09. Keep It Up (2:54)
10. The Upper Hand (2:17)
11. You (2:48)
12. You're Lookin' Fine (3:11)
13. Change The World (4:39)
14. Brown Paper Bag (2:19)
15. Mexico (2:26)
16. First To Love You (2:35)
17. Reverb Beat (2:19)
18. Prepare For Love (2:47)
19. Tell The World (2:33)
20. Saturday Night (2:50)
21. Way Over There (2:47)
22. Memphis Underground (3:07)