"Turn On" / "Make It"

MISC NOTES:

DON AND THE GOODTIMES

The early fall months of 1964 saw Oregonians becoming acquainted with a rock band known as Don and The Goodtimes. Founded some nine months earlier and originally dubbed simply The Goodtimes, the young group gained initial noteriety as house band for The Chase, a teenage nightclub in the Portland suburb of Milwaukee.

As engendered by a Seattle band, The Counts, "Turn On Song" (Sea Crest 6003) was a smoothly polished, jazz oriented number featuring  subtle, but strong and flowing organ chording overlaid by distinctive trumpet-sax riffs  For Don and The Goodtimes, as the band came to be called with the record's release, the melody was the same, but there similarities ended. Gone was the smoothness and any inkling of jazz precision. Replacing subtle perfection was coarseness and raw power. As Goodtimes sax man Don McKinney put it, "(Musically) we really didn't know what we were doing, so our version came out pretty funky." Funky? Maybe, but distinctive enough to bypass Northwest regional release and jump straight to New York's Wand record label where not long before another Portland group, The Kingsmen, had made their mark with a song entitled  "Louie, Louie."

Backed by the straight ahead instrumentality of "Make It", "Turn On" wasn't destined to sell a million copies, but it did prove to be the first step in breaking Don and The Goodtimes out of their Portland environs. Exposure southward through their home state soon turned northward to the Puget Sound region of Washington where adoption of a "top hat and tails" image of good living, plus wild showmanship ala Paul Revere and The Raiders soon made Don and The Goodtimes a staple within the thriving Northwest teen dance scene. Points beyond now beckoned.

A variation of the preceding article originally appeared in NORTHWEST DISC-COVERIES & SOUND REPORT  Volume 4 #8 October, 1979.

 

LOCATION:
RECORDING PERSONNEL:
RECORDING STUDIO:
RECORDING ENGINEER:

FORMAT:disc
SIZE:7"
SPEED:45 rpm
DISC NOTES:

[HEAR IT] "Turn On"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUumUmMI39s

[HEAR IT]  "Turn On Song" (The Counts) / "Turn On" (Don & The Goodtimes Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LyjfZmv4-8

Known Label Designs:
1.) A - B promo disc. Black and white label label. WAND in white. All other numerals and lettering black. No promotional wording.

2.) A - B retail disc. Black and white label. WAND in gold. All other numerals and lettering red.

"Turn On" Album Reissues:
1) 1966. As "Turn On Song" Side One, Track #3 album Where The Action Is! (Wand 679)

2 )1979. As "The Turn On Song" Side Two, Track #7 compilation lp The History Of Northwest Rock Volume II. (The Great Northwest Music Company GNW 4008)

 

A-SIDE MATRIX:
1.)
2.)
A-SIDE STAMPER CODE:
1.)
2.)
A-SIDE COMPOSER: Olason
A-SIDE PUBLISHER:

B-SIDE MATRIX:
1.)
2.)
B-SIDE STAMPER CODE:
1.)
2.)
B-SIDE COMPOSER: Pete Oulette
B-SIDE PUBLISHER: