Los Shakers: Alternate Global Timeline

  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...

Los Shakers In Germany: July 1965 to October 1965 (Part One) Much like the rest of the world in the mid 1960s, the youth of Germany was fully consumed by the sounds of the British Invasion. Although many of the groups didn’t tour the country frequently, the sales of their records skyrocketed and began to influence a new generation of musicians in the country with bands such as The Rattles and The Lords as well as enticing overseas talent such as The Liverbirds to relocate to the country.   Being one of the largest markets in Europe, Odeon was keen to push Los Shakers into Germany as quickly as possible. When talk of expanding the group’s music to overseas territory, Germany was one of the first countries discussed and one of the quickest arrangements to be created, being in large part that EMI’s main label for distribution in the country was an international branch of Odeon. Thus the group was (rather quickly) signed onto Odeon Records in Germany with very little hassle. ...

  As a result of the Toto’s Bar fiasco in January 1968, Odeon forced Capitol to drop Los Shakers from the label and although these events affected Los Shakers and Odeon, ultimately the final double-disc album was finished and released later in the year. As the group was working on the album, Odeon signed a deal with Columbia Records for American and Canadian distribution of their material and as a consequence of the fallout, Odeon did not allow another one of their artists to have their records released by Capitol in the United States until the label became rebranded and regrouped into EMI during the 1970s.  Los Shakers’ releases from this point onwards mirror the intended Argentinian albums/singles perfectly regarding track listings, artwork and titles and edits. The first release under this practice was the two disc edition of ‘La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto’s Bar’ released in August 1968. As Los Shakers focused solely on albums from this point onwards, very few singles wer...

  After the immediate success of ‘Red Rubber Ball’ and ‘Hallelujah’ across the world, Los Shakers returned to Argentina to record what would become their double album ‘La Conferencia Secreta Del Toto’s Bar.’ It was decided that the project would be recorded as two separate parts with a break in between to allow for several months of touring. The album was set to be released in June of 1968 and recording of the album began in June of 1967, allowing the group a full year to complete the project comfortably. A memo in August 1967 was sent to Capitol Records, alerting the fact that a Los Shakers release could not be produced until January 1968 at the very earliest if permission was given to produce the first disc’s worth of material on its own, and not until June or July 1968 when the entire double album was finished. To combat this large gap in their release schedule, Capitol Records decided to create a fourteen track compilation album entitled ‘Escala Musical: The Best Of Los Shakers...

If you were to ask someone who lived in South America to name a Los Shakers song, depending on where you lived you’d probably hear ‘Break It All’ or ‘Never Never’ mentioned from the top of their heads. However, if you had asked someone in the United States to name a Los Shakers song, the first song that would come to their heads would be ‘Red Rubber Ball,’ a song written for the group especially by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley from The Seekers which proved to be the band’s only chart-topping single in the United States. By the end of 1966, Los Shakers were focusing all their attention outside the United States, keeping up constant television appearances in Argentina and various visits and tours to outside countries. However, their name was beginning to cross the minds of many well respected individuals throughout the music scene such as John Lennon’s ravings which caused a short promoting the ‘Shakers For You’ album to precede American showings of Richard Lester’s comedy ‘A Funny Thing...

  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 ...