Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

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Tagged: Sunshine Company

1960s, Folk

Back on the Street Again

First recorded by Steve Gillette (1967).
Also recorded by The Stone Poneys (1967).
Hit version by The Sunshine Company (US #36 1967).

From the wiki: “‘Back on the Street Again’ was written by Steve Gillette and first recorded by him for his own debut eponymous album released in 1967. Later the same year, Gillette would record a cover of his own song as a member of The Stone Poneys, singing harmony to Linda Ronstadt’s lead on the group’s debut album which yielded the hit single, ‘Different Drum‘. The Sunshine Company (‘Up, Up and Away‘) would also record the song in 1967 and with it achieve the group’s biggest chart success with their only US Top 40 hit.”

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1960s, Pop

Up, Up and Away

First recorded by The Sunshine Company (1967).
Hit versions by The 5th Dimension (US #7/MOR #9/CAN #1/AUS #1 1967), Johnny Mann Singers (UK #6 1967).

From the liner notes to The Best of the Sunshine Company:

“The Sunshine Company’s very name summons the spirit of the mini-genre of 1960s pop-rock that, long after its heyday, was named Sunshine Pop. So does their music, with the requisite exquisite multi-part male-female harmonies, buoyant optimism, and luxuriant late-1960s L.A. studio production … a brief career that whisked them through the orbits of the Carpenters, the 5th Dimension, Jackson Browne, the Jefferson Airplane, Mary McCaslin, and John Davidson, ending at the even unlikelier destination of a pre-stardom Gregg Allman.

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