You've got to love a guy who has a song on his first album that translates as "Catechism, Toothpaste and You". From that same LP, here's a great off-kilter tropicalia with a heavy baroque-pop influence and really odd instrumentation, featuring fuzz guitar, organ and trumpet in a very nice way.

Given the recent reevaluation of "mainstream" 60s pop acts such as the Association, the Monkees & Free Design, it seems a shame that more people aren't aware of how great the Grassroots were. Best known for their oldies-radio staples "Midnight Confessions" and "Let's Live for Today", they were purveyors of great well-crafted, country-rock-tinged pop music. This track is a perfect example, deftly combining vibes, mandolin, handclaps, fuzz guitar and terrific lyrics into an inimitable 60s L.A. sound. Check them out, it's high time that they got their due. And a special note for all you trainspotters out there...you can see the band perform this song in the 1968 Doris Day vehicle "With Six You Get Egg Roll".

Great bubblegum-pop theme to the Dean Martin spy flick done by Boyce & Hart, best known as one of the songwriting teams behind the Monkees. This track features some terrifically dated, non-P.C. lyrics like "blonde hair, brunette, redheads/lying like injuns in the grass/they're comin' through the pass/and buster/you're General Custer". It also features a great Tijuana Brass-esque horn arrangement, and since this came out on A&M, it may actually be Alpert and the boys themselves. The single is pretty easy to find, but it's also available on the fantastic "Mad, Mad World of Soundtracks" comp from Germany, with its accompanying book of soundtrack cover art.