Los Shakers: Alternate Global Timeline

  Compared to the first half of 1966, the later half of the year was fairly silent in terms of the group’s direct impact into the German market. The group had been preoccupied with touring commitments elsewhere, including what would prove to be The Beatles’ final tour playing across the United States Of America throughout August of that year. Thus although for the time being the group weren’t releasing new records or making personal appearances in the country, they maintained mainstays in newspapers and teen magazines all over. In September a new single was released, a cover of The Beatles’ song ‘Michelle’ backed with ‘Let Me Alone,’ an outtake recorded back in March of 1966. The group did appear on German television to promote the single, through a filmed insert that was originally filmed for and used on an episode of the Argentina music television show ‘Escala Musical.’ This segment was aired on ‘Beat-Club’ in early October and is currently the only surviving source of that mimed...

  Following the airing of ‘der Klang von Los Shakers’ on ARD1 during the 13th of March 1966, Odeon issued another single this time of ‘Stop The Game’ backed with ‘Tell Them.’ Due to the A-side’s sonic similarity to their previous hit single ‘Won’t You Please,’ this song too was a success peaking at number 16 on the GfK singles chart. By April, the group’s next engagement in the country had been announced in the press, this time with The Who, The Alan Price Set (fronted by ex-Animals member Alan Price) and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Tich, all artists who were hoping to break into the German and subsequent European markets. The tour was scheduled so as to give enough time for The Who, the Alan Price Set and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Tich to return to England for the heralded Whit Monday Pop Gala Festival held on the 30th of May 1966.   Later that month, a reissue of the group’s debut album was released on the Hörzu label instead of their regular Odeon label. Hör...

  1965 had been a massive year for Los Shakers both in their home continent and in many nations across the globe, however the lack of success in one of Europe’s biggest markets in Germany had been disappointing managing only one record entering the charts (the single release of ‘Break It All’ and ‘More’ which peaked at the lowly position of number 38). One of the goals of 1966 was to make more concentrated efforts breaking into the German markets, beginning with a brief European tour in January. The band touched down in Germany on the 17th of January 1966 this time with much more press than their brief stint back in August 1965. The group appeared on a tour alongside The Lords, a German beat band who had been gaining huge momentum in the country who, much like Los Shakers, was marketed by EMI as their countries’ equivalent of The Beatles.  The German branch of the tour was dubbed ‘Kampt um den Beat’ which translated into English is ‘Battle Of The Beat,’ and lasted for two week...

  The later half of 1966 was without a doubt the most intense and stressful period of Los Shakers’ original tenure. Work on their highly anticipated second studio album ‘Shakers For You’ was still ongoing but heavily interrupted by the group’s gruelling schedules of global touring, especially as the group insisted on recording at their familiar surroundings of the EMI Studios in Argentina. In August 1966, the group again appeared in the United States in what would prove to be the final US tour undertaken by The Beatles as support acts alongside The Ronettes and The Remains. By September after nearly six months, the final recording session of ‘Shakers For You’ took place with the artwork and mixing rushed to meet its scheduled release date in October 1966 for South America. Due to the group’s success performing on The Beatles’ US tour, there was an increase in demand for Los Shakers records which Capitol Records met by reissuing the group’s previous American releases. Some of the ma...

  By the middle of 1966, the pop music scene was changing. The album era had well and truly begun with artists such as The Beatles with ‘Rubber Soul’ and The Beach Boys with ‘Pet Sounds’ revolutionising the musical landscape, proving that not only was this new music not a fad, but it had depth and meaning far beyond what many dismissed it as. Los Shakers however were not unfamiliar with the strength and power of an album, as the jazz world had fully adopted it the moment music jumped from 10 inch 78 rpm discs to 12 inch 33 ⅓  rpm discs. Still, the scene was as competitive as possible with a never-ending stream of new artists entering. Back in South America, much of this new music however would take much more time to appear not only because of the amount of time it took to ship over and release an album or even a single from England or the US, but also because most artists wouldn’t or couldn’t travel over to the continent. Over in Argentina and Uruguay, the band was living the ...