The self-titled Your Gang LP was a late 1966 release on the Mercury Records label. Curt Boettcher cut the record during the period between his work on albums by the Association and Tommy Roe. It is the only album of instrumental music that he is known to have worked on.

Not much information is currently available regarding this lost chapter in the Curt Boettcher saga. What can be deduced is that the group Your Gang was actually comprised of Curt and his stable of sidemen. It's the same line-up of musicians that appear on Mike Deasy's 1967 Mercury LP release FRIAR TUCK AND HIS PSYCHEDELIC GUITAR, for which Curt served as vocal arranger. That line-up is as follows: Mike Deasy - lead guitar, Ben Benay - guitar, Mike Henderson - organ, Butch Parker - keyboards, Jerry Scheff - bass, Jim Bell - oboe, Toxey French - vibes, Jim Troxell - drums and Boettcher himself on percussion. Most of these players also appeared on the Curt-produced albums for The Association and Tommy Roe. The Our Productions House Band (or "Your Gang") as they were known were further augmented on this album by trombones, clarinets and even a tuba, but unfortunately the names of these brass and wind players may have already been lost to the ages.

The music contained within the grooves of YOUR GANG is something of an anomaly amongst Boettcher's body of work. The sound is generally a throwback to the Dixieland jazz style of the roaring 1920s, quite like something one would expect to hear upon entering a house of burlesque. Dixie, or "trad jazz" as it is sometimes called, was popular in the 1960's with young people who looked back upon the twenties as an era of unabashed good cheer and high times. It was a natural fit with the sunshine pop sound of 1966-67, and groups such as the Association, the Mamas & Papas, Sopwith Camel, Lyme & Cybelle, the Sunshine Company and Spanky & Our Gang all incorporated it into their sound to some extent.

What's missing from this particular record, however, is what any fan of Curt Boettcher would instantly expect from anything associated with the producer-- soaring walls of harmony vocals and spacey studio experimentation. Instead, we are treated to a different side of the Our Productions House Band. It is fun to hear the musical give and take here between the rhythm section and the horns, quite unlike any of the other dynamic grooves that the O.P.H.B. specialized in.

Occasionally, a stellar instrumental run will break through the polished arrangements-- Mike Deasy's trademark guitar frenzy on the group's own "Let's Go Again" and the anonymous sax solo that penetrates the optimistic "Spoonful of Love" come to mind immediately. More often than not, however, the musicians relax comfortably into their groove and maintain stasis. This, as well as the lack of vocals, may be why this album has failed to ignite much passion amongst Boettcher devotees. Occasionally, however, the group would try to stretch the Dixie sound to suit the 1960s, rather than simply matching hit songs to retro arrangements. The most obvious example is the Boettcher-composed "Tomorrow's Dreams", a charming pop ditty reminiscent of Brian Wilson's PET SOUNDS outtake "Trombone Dixie" (which was itself a forward-looking homage to the vintage "trad" sound.) Wilson and Boettcher had already crossed paths at this point during the infamous Lee Mallory vocal session at Columbia Studios. Whether Curt had actually heard the unreleased Wilson track by the time of the Your Gang sessions is questionable. As to the issue of why the album itself was initially contrived, it is possible that the idea here was to market current pop music hits to an older generation of record buyers. However, despite takes on the current hits "Daydream", "Rainy Day Women", "These Boots Are Made for Walking", and the Mamas & Papas' version of the Beatles "I Call Your Name", the album didn't make the charts and any notion of a Your Gang follow-up was quickly dropped. According to author Kingsley Abbott, Boettcher would later disavow any involvement in the making of the Your Gang album.

After the Your Gang sessions, Curt and Jim Bell went on to record with The Ballroom, while Ben Benay, Jerry Scheff and Toxey French (now ensconced on the drums) would team up to back Lee Mallory as the Lee Mallory Group during various gigs around L.A. Mallory was also a part-time contributor to the Ballroom who would go on to work with Curt and Gary Usher on the classic Sagittarius PRESENT TENSE LP. Around that time, Benay, Scheff and French formed their own band Goldenrod. Their self-titled 1967 LP contained a fantastic instrumental version of Mallory's "Karmic Dream Sequence #1". The Goldenrod were all offered slots in the Millennium, but Benay and French chose to persue their careers as session musicians instead. (Scheff would go on to serve as the Millennium's unofficial bass player.) The 1969 ouster of nearly all of the Gary Usher contingent at Columbia Records would mark the end of the association of most of these musicians, though Curt would continue to work with Deasy and Benay occasionally over the next few years.

--Jason Penick