[citation needed] In 1962, the saxophone player from The Revels (Norman Knowles) met Merrell and his bandmates after a show at The Rose Garden Ballroom, and convinced them to record a session with Tony Hilder at a backyard studio in the Hollywood area.
Merrell would encounter many more of these so-called song sharks during his musical career, although he and his bandmates were wiser after this hard lesson.
Fankhauser moved back to the coast, formed a new band, Merrell and the Xiles, and had a minor hit with "Tomorrow's Girl" in 1967.
[1] For the album the band was credited as Fapardokly, taking its name from the surnames of the original members — Fankhauser, Dan Parrish (bass), Bill Dodd (guitar) and Dick Lee of The Brymers[4] (drums).
Fankhauser and Dodd then formed another, more overtly psychedelic, band with Jack Jordan (bass) and Larry Meyers (drums), naming it HMS Bounty.
Increasingly fascinated by legends of the lost continent of Mu, Fankhauser then relocated to the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1973.