Sunlights' Seven - "David" / "Judy In Disguise" (1969) [Original Single]

Sunlights' Seven - "David" b/w "Judy In Disguise"

Original 1969 stereo 45 RPM single

Entra Records EN1082 / EN1083  (Discogs)

~ThePoodleBites rip in 96kHz / 24bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

Here are a couple bonus tracks for those of you who have yet to burn your Creation Of Sunlight CDs. This rare 45 is a necessity for pop-sike / Sunlight fans, since it boasts the non-LP B-side "Judy In Disguise," to my knowledge the only cover that the band ever recorded. Sunlight's version is by far and large an improvement over the cheap bubblegum-pop original version (by John Fred & His Playboy Band), with added fuzz guitar, backwards tape, flute, etc. "David" is the same recording / mix as on Creation Of Sunlight, but it's a substantially different (darker) mastering, with much louder bass guitar, and I actually maybe prefer it to the sibilant album version. 

Major thanks to C.F. for loaning out this 45 for a proper digital transfer & restoration!

Appearance as entry #3 on Billboard's
"Brite Star's Pick Hits," 6 Dec 1969

These tracks, like the rest of the songs on Creation Of Sunlight, were recorded at Independent Recorders in north Hollywood, California. The recording was overseen by Bobby Engemann of the Lettermen, who handled the finances for recording, and actually forced the band to record "Judy In Disguise," much to the dismay of some group members. The arrangements were handled by Jerry Griffin, who also assisted Gary Young and engineer Howard Gayle in production. 

Both of these songs in particular were recorded sometime early in 1969 and were selected for release on the private Entra Records label later that year, with the single's debut advertisement appearing in Billboard's "Brite Star's Hit Picks" corner on 6 Dec 1969, persisting there weekly through 24 Jan 1970, whence afterwards it disappeared without a trace. The ad annoyingly didn't even get the band's name right, which initially appeared as "Sunlight Singers" and was then 'corrected' in later weeks to "Sunlight Seven," neither of which were actually the band's true moniker. Perhaps this mishap was a harbinger of the name confusion yet to come with the mistaken Creation Of Sunlight naming ordeal. Despite (or perhaps due to the weakness of) the advertisement, the single failed to sell enough copies to chart. However, make no mistake; the musical quality here is on par with the group's sole LP, an album good enough to have made major labels drool but was pushed back a bit too late by label politics to have made as big of a popular impact as it should have. 

The band holding engineer Howard Gayle

"Judy" has been reissued as a bonus track on the 2005 Lion CD with absolutely horrendous sound quality. As a friend of mine observed, "then again, they did successfully use their noise reduction program to get rid of those annoying cymbals, the lead guitar, the snare springs, and the clarity of the vocals." It goes without saying that this rip is a drastic improvement upon the sound quality as available anywhere else.  

Sunlights' Seven lineup:
Gary Young – Lead Vocals
Jerry Griffin – Keyboards & Vocals
Carl Estrella – Lead Guitar
Don Sain – Rhythm Guitar
Steve Montague – Bass Guitar
Bob Morgan – Drums
Ron Clark – Woodwinds & Percussion

Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CreationOfSunlight (all band photos taken from this page)
Official YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/sunlight7band

Track listing:

1) "David" (Prophet, Daugherty) -- 4:18

2) "Judy In Disguise" (A. Bernard, J. Fred) -- 2:35

Vinyl condition: M-

Dynamic range: DR10

Equipment Lineage:

– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge

– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)

– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply

– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)

– Adobe Audition CC 2020 (recording)

– iZotope RX 7 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)

– Audacity 2.3.3 (fades between tracks, split tracks)

– Foobar2000 v1.5.1 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

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Enjoy, and have a happy New Year! :)