When the Blues Magoos sang “life will be sweet someday” and “someday our names will be spread all over town” on “(We Ain’t) Got Nothin’ Yet,” little did they know such statements would soon ring true. A Top 5 hit in the early days of 1967, the brash and bobbing anthem was the song that gave the Bronx, New York band their big breakthrough.
Although the Blues Magoos never revisited the widespread commercial success of “(We Ain’t) Got Nothin’ Yet,” they continued to create plenty of fine music. Check out albums like Psychedelic Lollipop and Electric Comic Book — along with a best-of collection, Kaleidoscopic Compedium — and you’ll be treated to track upon track of fun and freaky garage pop sounds.
Late in 1967, just in time for Christmas, the Blues Magoos released “Jingle Bells! / Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (Mercury Records), which was not included on any album and available only as a single. Both these songs are, needless to say, renditions of the standards we’re all so familiar with, but arranged and executed in a totally left-field manner.
Crunching and grinding with determination, the Blues Magoos’ “Jingle Bells!” appropriates a hard-rocking funky pose bringing to mind a wiggy cross-pollination of the Rascals and Vanilla Fudge, where “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” is greased with swinging jazz rhythms. Giddy harmonies, whipping keyboards and bursts of fiery guitar noodlings also form the songs,
So grab a glass of eggnog, a plate of sugar cookies, switch on the lava lamp and tune in and turn on to the Blues Magoos and their happening holiday greetings!
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