In addition, guitarist Ken Williams' and singer James Lowe's concept of "free-form garage music" provided the band with a richer sonic palette and exploratory lyrical structure than many of their contemporaries.

[6] However, the original group disbanded by 1968 when they proved unable to record the innovative and complex arrangements by David Axelrod on the albums Mass in F Minor and Release of an Oath.

For their next set of recordings on September 29, 1965, the group, then known as Jim and the Lords, was joined by keyboardist Dick Hargrave, who left shortly afterwards to pursue a career in graphic arts.

The songs went unreleased until Heartbeat Productions distributed the 2000 album, Then Came The Electric Prunes, which was commended for its good sound quality, considering the circumstances in which it was recorded.

Hassinger, who had been working as the resident sound engineer at RCA Studios and recently completed development for The Rolling Stones' album, Aftermath, expressed a desire to produce a record.

"[8][10] As a result of the recordings, a single, featuring a cover of the Gypsy Trips' folk rock tune, "Ain't It Hard", and the Lowe-penned song, "Little Olive", was released in early 1966, but failed to chart.

Weakley departed the band after the single, and was replaced by Preston Ritter, and rhythm guitarist James "Weasel" Spagnola was recruited to make The Electric Prunes a quintet.

Although the band was composing their own material, Hassinger called upon songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz to write the majority of the group's songs.

The fluttering buzz sound was utilized for the opening to the Tucker-Mantz song, "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)", which also included a heavily textured psychedelic guitar motif.

The group's debut album, The Electric Prunes possessed exotically combined effects, and violin-like guitar riffs, mixed with a diverse, and somewhat uneven, selection of pop songs, with only "Train For Tomorrow" and "Luvin'" being penned by the band.

The song, which featured Williams playing a prototype steel guitar, and childlike to maddening vocals, was described by music historian Richie Unterberger as "sounding more like a horror movie theme run amok than a radio-ready hit", and consequently the single bubbled under the Hot 100 at number 128.

[16] However, in the middle of the recording sessions the line-up went through changes when Ritter departed for musical differences, and was replaced by original drummer Weakley, who appeared on five tracks.

[18][19] At the suggestion of manager Lenny Poncher and Hassinger, The Electric Prunes agreed to record a concept album that integrated Gregorian music into psychedelic pop, with the belief it would launch them into commercial success.

As a consequence, Hassinger enlisted the Canadian group The Collectors, among other session musicians, in completing the album, although Lowe, Tulin, and Weakley did contribute to every track.

The album, titled Release of an Oath, utilized several session musicians including Howard Roberts, Carol Kaye, and Earl Palmer, and saw Whetstone as the only band member to contribute to the recordings.

[25][26] Afterwards, Axelrod returned to his past position at Capitol Records, and The Electric Prunes toured as a supporting act for bands such as Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, and New Buffalo Springfield.

[27] The band's final album, Just Good Old Rock and Roll, was released in June 1969 with the cover describing the group as The "New Improved" Electric Prunes.

He was replaced by Ron Morgan, who had been the guitarist of Three Dog Night, and an essential session musician for the first three albums released by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

With the exception of "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers", which was co-written by Jimmy Holiday, all the songs on Just Good Old Rock and Roll were composed solely by the band.

Morgan and Kincaid constructed another line-up of The Electric Prunes that included Michael Kearns, Clay Groomer, Huey Plumeigh, and Galen Pugh; however, by mid-1970 the band dissolved.

Following the inclusion of "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" as the first track on the seminal Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 in 1972, a slow return of interest in the band's music began.