The Ballroom - Sunshine Today - Non-Album Tracks (1967)

Have you ever heard of the musical genre "sunshine pop?" Think of the mid- to late 1960s cheery pop music of the Mamas and the Papas, the Association, and the 5th Dimension, coming out of folk rock and usually with lots of vocal harmonies. I like that kind of music when it's done well. There's something about the naive optimism of the music from that time that's really appealing to me, especially compared to the jaded cynicism that's common these days. 

Anyway, one of the leading lights of sunshine pop was a musician and producer named Curt Boettcher. In 1966, he formed a group with Sandy Salisbury, Jim Bell, and Michele O'Malley called the Ballroom. The band didn't stay together that long, maybe six months. They made very little impact at the time, only releasing one single that didn't go anywhere, and they only played a concert or two in their home base of Los Angeles. But it turns out they recorded an album's worth of songs that is excellent, in my opinion. I consider this just as good as any album by the three groups mentioned above (Mamas and the Papas, the Association, and the 5th Dimension), but those groups had the luck and/or persistence that this group didn't have.

After the Ballroom broke up, Boettcher went on to slightly more success with the bands Sagittarius and the Millennium. I like both of those groups a lot too, and plan on posting albums by them later, but it makes sense to start with this one. Sandy Salisbury would end up being a key member of the Millennium also. But a big difference between this band and those two bands is the Ballroom's songs are mainly sung by a woman, Michele O'Malley. So that makes the Mamas and the Papas comparison even stronger.

In putting this album together, I included most, but not all, of the band's recordings. The first ten songs were part of an album that was almost released in early 1967, to be simply called "The Ballroom," while the rest are from other recordings the band did. I deliberately left off a few songs that were later done by the Millennium ("5 A.M.," "The Island," and "Karmic Dream Sequence") because the Millennium versions are much better known, and I think of them as Millennium songs. I've also excluded a couple of weak tracks, and well as some that are by related Boettcher-led groups that aren't actually by the Ballroom. For instance, there's a Ballroom compilation called "Preparing for the Millennium" that ends with a few songs that are labelled as Ballroom songs but actually are Koettcher solo demos.

In my opinion, this band had the songs, the talent, and the production to be a big success. I find it telling that the first song here, "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning," was covered by a New Zealand band in 1968, and had a number one hit with it in that country. I also think the song "I'm Not Living Here" should have been a big hit.

It's too bad this band never had a chance it deserved in the 1960s. But as time goes on, forgettable music is forgotten, and the good stuff lives on. The related band Sagittarius and the Millennium have developed growing cult followings. The Ballroom should be remembered and enjoyed along with them.

This album is 50 minutes long. Most of the songs are written by Boettcher, or Salisbury, or other people in their musical circle, except for the covers "Baby, Please Don't Go" and "Sun Arise."

01 Spinning, Spinning, Spinning (Ballroom)
02 You Turn Me Around (Ballroom)
03 Would You Like to Go (Ballroom)
04 Forever (Ballroom)
05 Love's Fatal Way (Ballroom)
06 It's a Sad World (Ballroom)
07 Magic Time (Ballroom)
08 Musty Dusty (Ballroom)
09 I'll Grow Stronger (Ballroom)
10 Baby, Please Don't Go (Ballroom)
11 I'm Not Living Here (Ballroom)
12 Lead Me to Love (Ballroom)
13 Sun Arise (Ballroom)
14 A Time for Everything (Ballroom)
15 Believe You (Ballroom)
16 Opus to a Friend (Ballroom)
17 Sunshine Today (Ballroom)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15852639/TBallrom_1967_SnshineToday_atse.zip.html

Since the Ballroom was a short-lived obscure band that pretty much only existed in the studio, there are virtually no photos of them. In fact, I've only come across two photos, period. One of them has been used as an official album cover already. I actually like the other one better, and that's the one used here. The original was in black and white, but I've colorized it.