Wayne Fontana founded the band in June 1963 with Bob Lang, Ric Rothwell, and Eric Stewart.

The name of the group was inspired by the title of a 1963 UK feature film, starring the British actor Dirk Bogarde, called The Mind Benders.

The Mindbenders decided to carry on as a trio—Stewart was the primary lead singer and guitarist, Lang played bass, and Rothwell was the drummer.

The Mindbenders' first single without Fontana was the hit "A Groovy Kind of Love" (a Carole Bayer Sager / Toni Wine composition).

[1] On 4 July 1966, the Mindbenders began their United States tour in Atlanta, Georgia in front of a capacity 25,000 crowd as the support act for James Brown.

"[1] In September/October 1966 they embarked on a 12 date package tour of England backing Dave Berry of 'The Crying Game' fame.

However, the Mindbenders generally sought material from outside the band, with only a handful of B-sides and album tracks being written by Stewart, occasionally in collaboration with Lang and Rothwell.

[1] However, The Mindbenders’ release With Woman in Mind really had no overarching narrative or story, the 'concept' being simply songs written about relationships with women.

[1] Graham Gouldman became the band's producer around this time; future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones was also involved in arranging their records in 1967/68.

[1] On 20 November 1968, The Mindbenders broke up at the final concert of a UK tour with The Who, Arthur Brown and Joe Cocker.