In 1969 Michele O'Malley, founding member of the Ballroom as well as their lead vocalist on songs like "It's a Sad World" and "Lead Me to Love", secured a solo recording contract with ABC records. Since the late 1966 Ballroom sessions, Michele had kept busy as a session vocalist, as well as through her involvement with the Subud faith. In 1967 she co-wrote "Song to the Magic Frog (Will You Ever Know)" and "You Know I've Found a Way", two of the highlights on Sagittarius' classic PRESENT TENSE album. By 1969, it was Michele's turn to get her share of the spotlight, and the man she turned to in hopes of rock superstardom was the author of "Lead Me to Love", session guitarist extraordinaire Mike Deasy.

Deasy would produce Michele's debut LP, surrounding her with a stellar cast of backing musicians including former Mothers Of Invention Lowell George and Elliot Ingber. George, who would go on to form the much loved Little Feat, is responsible for a great deal of this album's charm via his stellar flute playing. Another L.A. session stalwart, Mike Melvoin (father of future Prince collaborator Wendy Melvoin, as well as the late Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin) was responsible for the arrangements and no doubt contributed instrumentally to the record as well.

Wither Curt Boettcher? Well, it's largely a matter of speculation at this point, but it's obvious that he is at least singing harmony vocals here-- his voice is largely evident on songs such as his "Misty Mirage". In fact, Curt wrote or co-wrote at least 7 of SATURN RINGS' 11 tracks, though he is uncredited for two of his compositions on the album's sleeve. As Curt had already been ripped off in the past by collaborators such as Steve Clark and Tandyn Almer, the missing credits may have felt like a slap in the face to the man who was largely responsible for whatever notoriety Michele had already achieved. Whatever the case, the two would never work together again.

Musically speaking, the SATURN RINGS album is not the lost classic some overzealous record dealers have claimed it to be. While such numbers as "Fallen Angel" or the single "White Linen" provide a nice showcase for Michele's lilting voice, it's also obvious from this material that she's no Grace Slick. Instead of the dynamic swoops and miasmas that made Grace a natural at singing Eastern-influenced material (the likes of which comprise the majority of this album) Michele sounds like she's better suited back at the coffee house singing "Wild Mountain Thyme". While the singing here is certainly not weak, it's just not well suited to the material. But it was 1969 after all, and the folk and lounge jazz that are Michele's stock-in-trade were largely out of time. Furthermore, the album is largely overwhelmed by the electric violin playing of one Bobby Notkoff (ex-Rockets). While intended to provide additional Eastern textures to the material, it mainly gets in the way of the otherwise stellar instrumental backing tracks, compromising something that would have sounded just fine without it.

But perhaps the biggest drawback to SATURN RINGS is the fact that the Boettcher-penned material is, without fail, inferior to Curt's original versions of the same songs. And while the more mystical numbers "Astro Cowboy", "Misty Mirage" and "Believe You" still manage to generate some sparks, the same cannot be said of Michele's re-workings of Ballroom sunshine pop numbers like "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning" or "Would You Like to Go?". It's not so much that Michele couldn't do the songs justice. It's just that no one outside of Curt Boettcher himself could hope to make material this trite actually work. It's unknown to this author how many copies SATURN RINGS actually wound up selling, but whatever the tally was, it was not enough to prolong the recording career of Michele O'Malley. In the liner notes to MAGIC TIME: THE MILLENNIUM/ BALLROOM RECORDINGS, Sandy Salisbury bemoans this fact. "(Michele) should have gone places. She was a huge talent." Right on, Sandy.

--Jason Penick