Los Shakers In The U.S.A. (Part One)

 The date is the 7th of July 1965. Odeon is in the middle of a large marketing campaign promoting the group’s upcoming debut album which had been recorded between March and June of that year. The group’s first single, a cover of Del Shannon’s ‘Keep Searching’ backed with a Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso original ‘Only In Your Eyes’ had been a huge success released that May with the group’s second single ‘Break It All’ backed with ‘More’ already receiving significantly hype prior to it’s release later that month. The sudden success of the group intrigues several international EMI distributors. On this day, a rough mix of the debut album is compiled as an ‘audition tape’ to interested parties. A deal is quickly struck to release Los Shakers’ current and future musical productions globally. One week later ‘Break It All/More’ was released in Argentina on the 14th of July, the same day as The Beatles’ latest single ‘Ticket To Ride/Yes It Is.’ Whilst The Beatles’ single initially has the advantage, reaching number one with a rocket, Los Shakers’ persistent touring and radio schedule as well as occasional appearances on ‘Escala Musical,’ Argentina’s only music television program ‘Break It All’ secures the number one position giving Los Shakers their first ever number one single. By the end of the month, the first international Los Shakers product will be released. A unique coupling of ‘Break It All’ and ‘Keep Searching’ credited to the name of ‘The Shakers’ is released in four countries: Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Whilst the musical quality of the single’s A-side ensures some minor chart movement, ultimately due to unfamiliarity of the group and lack of promotion, the single reaches the very low positions of each country’s singles chart before bowing out only a couple of weeks later. 

The 6th of August 1965 is a big and heavily awaited day for EMI. As both The Beatles’ newest studio album ‘Help!’ and Los Shakers’ debut self-titled album was released. Both records sold extremely well, but the level of sales and preorders of Los Shakers’ album significantly exceeded expectations prompting many South American countries to produce their own version of the album as quickly as possible. The success of the album was so huge in Argentina, that the band’s first two singles climbed back onto the charts. The prospect of bringing Los Shakers internationally is one that becomes more and more viable through the coming months. A large contribution to the album’s sudden explosive success was a large marketing campaign pulled out by Odeon, but even they knew to bring the band to foreign audiences they would have to do something even larger. On the 20th of August, a memo was sent to television channel Canal 13, the channel that produced and broadcast ‘Escala Musical.’ This memo prompted them to make copies of any future and potentially still surviving Los Shakers appearances to be used for international promotion. As the records would be released everywhere at the same time, it would be impossible for the group to directly promote or tour in every single country at once, therefore television stations across the world would air previously filmed appearances as well as specially filmed interviews in English for non-Spanish speaking audiences. Behind the scenes, American distribution is still being decided.

Although the group had never set foot in the United States let alone released a record, numerous deals and offers came in after hearing the commotion the group’s sales figures had sparked across the record industry. One of the most enticing deals was by Audio Fidelity Records, a record label best known for stereo demonstration and sound effects records. Whilst their track record with promoting or selling pop music was few and far between, the advantage of their deal was the promise to deliver an eight-track recorder and compatible equipment to the group’s EMI Studio in Argentina, far exceeding their current two-track machines. This would provide a huge technical boost from many of the band’s competitors in the continent, many of whom were still recording on just one mono track. This equipment could also be used by other EMI artists in between Los Shakers projects, including bringing in other artists from overseas. However, Odeon wasn’t convinced a small company could provide them with the level of marketing and reach that was needed to make this large operation succeed. Labels such as Liberty Records, United Artists Records, MGM Records and even Reprise Records put in bids. In spark contrast to this heated debate between record labels in the States, the group’s music was easily and calmly separated to various EMI owned record labels in other countries of the world such as Parlophone in England and Australia and Odeon in many European countries. 

One company who had been fighting to have the band land on their label was Capitol Records. Capitol Records was once appointed the distributor to many of EMI’s rock and pop artists throughout the United States and Canada, however many of their artists were rejected by their higher ups and placed on rival labels such as The Hollies’ signing to Imperial Records in 1964. Many of the artists that defined the British Invasion sweeping over the country had been turned down, and although they (eventually) signed the ultimate money cow which was The Beatles, the huge monopoly and additional cash flow Capitol could’ve had prompted them to immediately take interest in signing Los Shakers, purely to not let another golden opportunity go past them. Odeon knew the wonders of Capitol’s PR department, with the incredible results of its ‘The Beatles Are Coming’ campaign in early 1964 allowing The Beatles to overnight take over the country’s record-buying public so drastically. However initially their offer was a little weak in comparison to some of the deals put forth by other companies. After hearing of some of the deals by other companies, Capitol greatly expanded their contract including the delivery of its own eight-track machine and equipment like what was promised by Audio Fidelity. However, what the group were the most pleased about was the money. A large cash payment and for the first time, as well as a fairly high royalty cut for their record sales, something which was vastly different to the group’s own 0.25% cut on their own record label. Although the band had some input into the proceedings, it was ultimately Odeon who made many of the calls.

There were two small problems with the Capitol deal. One was Capitol’s full control over American record releases which wasn’t too big of a problem to begin with as Odeon themselves didn’t allow Los Shakers much input in their releases already. The second problem, which also happened to be a much bigger problem was that their previously released material from their first album and first two singles would have to be re-recorded in full 8-track stereo for American release, something that would take up unnecessary time for the group. By this point, the group’s ability to play particularly of the two guitarists had vastly improved since their first recordings and the re-recordings allowed the music to have a more polished sound. Finally, on the 12th of September 1965 the four members were flown out to the famous Capitol Records Building to sign a contract with Capitol Records for Los Shakers’ American distribution. A press conference and various pictures would occur on this date both to further fuel the band’s popularity in South America but produce the first words and acknowledgement of the group to North American audiences. 

In late September, the group spent a week re-recording their older material as well as recording new material for their new record deal. Although most countries would end up using the original versions, these recording sessions totalled around two albums worth of material for American albums. The band however started becoming nervous over the increasingly large touring and promotional schedule across the world, particularly the group’s overall lack of English which would become essential. The group’s fears would be eased receiving tutoring in the language as well as learning how to correctly answer questions and pull jokes in English whilst in a filmed interview setting. 

Whilst many of the famed engineers at Argentina’s EMI Studios were well-versed with one and two track recording technology, the natural complexity and hurdles of working in eight-track caused many headaches and slight delays. In addition, these new recordings were mixed with stereo in mind, and although they had occasionally done stereo mixes in the past, had never done anything with pop instrumentation let alone with eight tracks to deal with. Fifteen tracks were eventually mixed into stereo and sent to Capitol Records in America with unique mono mixes also being made and  saved for possible single releases or television appearances. From this point on, each ‘Escala Musical’ appearance would have to be filmed twice. Once with the original versions of the songs for non-American audiences and one with the redone versions of the songs for American audiences. Whilst this took up valuable time and energy, it was important to keep the group’s music and image consistent across their respective markets. When the fifteen song tape appeared at Capitol Records on the 3rd of November 1965, a couple of songs were mislabelled due to the engineer’s lack of knowledge of English which is what the songs had been written and sung in. Pictures and outtakes of the photo session from the band’s first album ‘Los Shakers’ were also sent to compile the artwork for the first American album. A new reel was compiled with the final tracklisting on the 15th of November and additional reverb and compression by Dave Dexter Jr. was added on the 17th of November. On an unknown date, fold-downs were created to produce the mono version of the album. 

As the band was due to begin their American tour on the 3rd of December and the album had now secured a release date on the 6th of December, Capitol rush released the group’s first single (‘Break It All’ backed with ‘What A Love’) on the 22nd of November with promotion across music publications and radio stations later that week helping to push the single into the charts. The single eventually peaked at an impressive number 8 on the Billboard Top 100 charts. 

The first American Los Shakers album entitled ‘Break It All’ was released in mono and stereo variants on the 6th of December 1965. But whilst it had a large hit single as its title track and the band had been touring the country (with Manfred Mann as joint headliner), the album peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. The band had only just entered public consciousness in America and the single and the album had been placed a little too close together release date wise for the album to create as big of an impact as many would’ve hoped. 

Break It All (6th December 1965)

Side One: 

Break It All

What A Love

Only In Your Eyes

Don’t Ask Me Love

Do Not Disturb 

Give Me

Side Two: 

It’s Not Bad

For You And Me

Ticket To Ride (Spanish)

Thinking

Won’t You Please

Forgive Me

(Note: the tracklisting and edits of this fantasy album mirror that of the real ‘Break It All’ album released by Audio Fidelity in March 1966)

(This post originally posted on the 1st of January 2023)