They started as The Howling Wolves and then became The Road Runners, playing R&B around the Portsmouth area, home of the Shulman brothers, becoming Simon Dupree and the Big Sound in early 1966.
[1][failed verification] Those early group names aside, their repertory was focused a lot more on the songs of Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, and Otis Redding, than on Howlin' Wolf or Bo Diddley.
[1] Their first few singles, including "I See The Light" (1966), failed to chart, then in October 1967, the group's management and their record label decided to try moving Simon Dupree and the Big Sound in the direction of psychedelia.
[1] The follow-up, "For Whom The Bell Tolls", was only a minor hit, and a subsequent single "Broken Hearted Pirates", featuring an uncredited Dudley Moore on piano, made no headway at all.
[3] A then unknown keyboard player by the name of Reginald Dwight was hired to fill in for an ill Eric Hine and he joined them on a 1967 tour in Scotland.