GRAPEFRUIT "AROUND GRAPEFRUIT" 1969 Dunhill LP in shrink M-/MINT "Dear Delilah"

$

54

GRAPEFRUIT "AROUND GRAPEFRUIT" Original 1969 U.S LP featuring the first signing of Apple Publishing (Dunhill) DS-50050 M-/MINT. Still In the original shrink wrap. Including "Dear Delilah" & "Elevator". Produced by Terry Melcher. 

After the Beatles achieved super-stardom & expanded their empire to include publishing & record companies, their goal was to find another group similar to themselves- sort of a mini-Beatles. After the formation of Apple Records, the main contender was the Iveys more famously known as Badfinger but before that Grapefruit was the heir apparent. Grapefruit, named by John Lennon after a book by Yoko Ono actually got off to a great start as the first act signed to Apple Publishing.  But at the time their first record “Dear Delilah” was ready to go in early 1968,  Apple Records was not yet up & running, so it was placed with RCA Victor in the UK & Equinox in the U.S. Terry Melcher, the studio whiz behind the Byrds & Paul Revere & the Raiders (not to mention the son of Doris Day) was brought to England  where he produced a great pop-psychedelic single that was the best example of “phasing” this side of the Small Faces' “Itchykoo Park”. It climbed to #21 on the British charts & spent one week at #98 in the U.S Top 100. Grapefruit followed up with “Elevator”- a bouncy non-charter but their cover of the Four Seasons' “C''mon Marianne” made it to #31 in the UK before fading into obscurity. By the time the album “Around Grapefruit” was released in 1969, interest in the group & pop-psych music in general had waned considerably. But it contains 10 songs by bassist & lead-singer George Alexander, one by lead guitarist John Perry & the previously mentioned non-original. They are all very good examples of the genre but it was just too-little too-late for Stateside in the UK & Dunhill in the U.S. to gain any critical or commercial traction for the LP. Of particular note is “Lullaby” a song that Lennon & McCartney felt could be a hit single but despite both of them spending time on it in the studio, it only remained an album track. George Alexander (born Alexander Young) was the older brother of George Young of the Easybeats & Angus & Malcolm Young of AC/DC. He remained in England when the rest of the Young family emigrated to Australia & teamed up with John Perry & the Swettenham brothers- all former members of Tony Rivers & the Castaways to form Grapefruit. “Dear Delilah” is a prime example of British Pop-Psych circa 1968 while the rest of the album more than holds its own as essential listening.