Now with Taylor, the group traveled to Nashville to record the album Bittersweet, which displayed a more eclectic and relaxed approach, despite its closing song, a raucous version of Van Morrison's' Gloria".
The Hangmen were founded in 1964 by bassist Mike West and rhythm guitarist George Daly at Montgomery Junior College in Rockville, Maryland.
[2][3][4] In 1965 they recruited fellow Montgomery students guitarist Tom Guernsey and drummer Bob Berberich previously from a band called the Reekers, who were on indefinite hold after two members Joe Triplett and Mike Henley departed for college.
[2][3] He was first referred to a female vocalist, but she, in turn, introduced the group to Dave Ottley, a hairdresser for Vincent Hair Stylists, who had been in the United States for two years.
[2][3] Ottley was from Glasgow, Scotland, though some newspaper articles covering the band at the time suggested that he was from Liverpool, a town popularly noted for its being the hometown of The Beatles.
[2] In early summer of 1965, the Hangmen's managers, Larry Sealfon and Mike Klavens, played a track to Fred Foster of Washington, D.C.'s Monument label that had been recorded by the Reekers and written by Guernsey called "What a Girl Can't Do".
[2][4] Under the assumption that both recordings preceded the Hangmen, Guernsey and Berberich were the only two members of the Reekers that played on the cuts as the Edgewood sessions were done after Triplett and Henley left that group.
[2] In 1965 Arnold Stahl, a local an attorney, and Mike Klavans of WTTG formed 427 Enterprises and took over as the band's management team, helping to further promote the Hangmen.
[2][3] The February 19, 1966, edition of Billboard reported a "Beatlemania"-style incident that took place at the Giant Record Shop in Falls Church, Virginia, in which a crowd of teenagers convened to hear the Hangmen play a show there, but after the first fifteen minutes of the performance, police had to disperse the excessively large queue, which had caused a traffic jam outside, in fear of possible violations to fire codes.
"[2] By February 1966, "What a Girl Can't Do" displaced the Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" b/w "Day Tripper" from the top slot on Arlington's WEAM charts.
[2][4] In late 1966 Guernsey made a decision to quit college, when a scheduled performance on the Jerry Blavat TV show coincided with his final exams.
[2] Guernsey recalls Link Wray borrowing a guitar and coming up on stage to join the Hangmen during one of their shows, launching into a long version of Jack the Ripper.
[2] The Hangmen then proceeded to recorded a more aggressive sounding follow-up single, "Faces", produced by Fred Foster, which featured a sneering vocal from Ottley and a razor-like fuzz guitar riff, backed with "Bad Goodbye", in which noted session musician Charlie McCoy made a cameo appearance on harmonica.
[2][3][5][9] This time around, Monument put a sizable investment into the song's promotion, even taking out full page ads in various national trade magazines.
[2][5][11][12] The Bittersweet album showed a gentler and more folk-influenced side of the band, as they were beginning to explore more eclectic stylings in-keeping with the psychedelic mood of the.
[2] The Button re-located to New York and recorded an unreleased session for RCA and played at Steve Paul's club the Scene on West 46th Street and at the Cafe Au Go Go on Bleeker.