The Wild Cherries were an Australian rock group, which started in late 1964 playing R&B/jazz and became "the most relentlessly experimental psychedelic band on the Melbourne discotheque / dance scene" according to commentator, Glenn A.
[1] The band released four singles for Festival Records, including "Krome Plated Yabby" in June 1967 and "That's Life" in November, which peaked into the Go-Set National Top 40.
[1] The new line up made a crude recording of Manfred Mann's "Without You" in Gilbert's parents' living room before Lovett left in October 1965 to join The Loved Ones.
Reduced to a quartet, they made three more crude recordings at a rehearsal at the Fat Black Pussycat, including a cover of John D. Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road".
After rehearsing for several months, former The Purple Hearts lead guitarist, Barry Lyde aka Lobby Loyde, from Brisbane, completed the second incarnation in January 1967.
While there, they laid down tracks for a debut single, including the Loyde penned "Krome Plated Yabby"[4] and a cover of Otis Redding's "Fa-Fa-Fa" which was never completed.
[1][3] By early 1968, Eddey had left to return to Sydney, and university, and John Phillips from The Running Jumping Standing Still joined on bass guitar.
[1][3] For the group's final Festival single, Robinson and Loyde collaborated on the sublime "I Don't Care", which took the "wall of sound" approach, complete with echo effects, orchestration and female backing vocals.
The Wild Cherries' crowning achievement on a creative level, it was another chart failure[1][3] and the group underwent a mass exodus with founding member Les Gilbert first to leave in September 1968.
Rock historian, Ian McFarlane described their four singles for Festival as "exciting, revolutionary excursions into a musical void with no concessions to commercial demands [...] all remain classic examples of hard guitar psychedelia.
Loyde resurrected the name in 1971 as a three-piece hard rock outfit with Johnny Dick on drums and Teddy Toi on bass guitar (both ex-Max Merritt & the Meteors, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Fanny Adams).