The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Best of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy (1966-1969)

Sometimes, the "album that should exist" for a particular musical artist is a best of collection. I haven't posted many of those yet, but I hope to eventually. The Peanut Butter Conspiracy are one such band. There are a couple of best ofs out there already, but those are skimpy and inadequate, in my opinion.

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy was an American late 1960s band with a sound that was halfway between folk rock and psychedelic rock. I think their sound is right between the Mamas and the Papas and Jefferson Airplane. Like both of those bands, they stood out by having a woman, Barbara Robinson, who sang lead on most of their songs.

The band was first known as "The Ashes." The first five songs here were recorded under that name. But apparently as the band's sound became more psychedelic, that name wasn't "groovy" enough, so they renamed themselves but kept the same personnel. Unfortunately, I think now if people remember them at all, they tend to look down on their goofy name, seemingly chosen so they could name their first album "The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading," which they did. They had one minor hit in 1967 with the song "It's a Happening Thing," which barely scraped the bottom of the Top 100 charts in the US. Their second album, "The Great Conspiracy," released in late 1967, was probably their best. After that, they petered out, releasing one pretty bad album in 1969 with a very different line-up before breaking up around 1970.

If you want to know more about them, here's their Wikipedia page:

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - Wikipedia

Personally, I really like the late 1960s psychedelic sound. This band's music captures the magic of that time period, though it's more on the poppy and folky side of that sound than most. Barbara Robinson's vocals are very good. The songwriting can be hit or miss, which is why a best of like this is necessary. When they were on, for instance "Dark On You Now" and "Living, Loving Life," they were really on.

Everything here is officially released. My selections are unusual compared to the official best ofs out there. Instead of drawing mainly from their three studio albums, I've included a lot of songs from two rarities albums, "Spreading from the Ashes" and "Barbara," as well as two songs from a 1969 movie soundtrack, "Angels from Hell." One of the strange things about the band is that they had many good songs that not only didn't appear on their albums but didn't get released at all until archival releases decades later.

The length of this album is a bit problematic. This is 58 minutes long, which is too long for a double album of that time period, but too short for a single album. But these are all the songs I really liked. This band really deserves more recognition.

01 Is There Anything I Can Do (Ashes)
02 Roses Gone (Ashes)
03 Dark On You Now (Ashes)
04 Winds Up High (Ashes)
05 So Lonely (Ashes)
06 Love's Last Ground (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
07 Eventually (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
08 You Should Know [Live] (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
09 It's a Happening Thing (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
10 Time Is After You (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
11 Living, Loving Life (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
12 Turn On a Friend [To the Good Life] (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
13 Too Many Do (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
14 Get Out of My Dreams (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
15 Shuffle Tune (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
16 No One Says a Word (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
17 Crystal Tear (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
18 Step Aside [You're Crushing All the Flowers] (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
19 Come a Little Closer (Peanut Butter Conspiracy)

https://www.imagenetz.de/mjH9P

I don't know where the album cover photo comes from. I found it searching around the Internet, but it doesn't seem to be from any official album. I added the text from one of the official best of collections.