This day in HISTOROCK !! Iron Butterfly !!

       This day in HISTOROCK !!

                    In 1968, Iron Butterfly's second album, ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'', entered the US album chart for the first time. The album contained the 17-minute title track that filled the second side of the LP which went on sell over four million copies in the US alone and 20 million worldwide !! The band formed in 1966 in San Diego, California and consisted of  Doug Ingle on organ and lead vocals, 17 year old Erik Braunn on guitars / backing vocals, Lee Dorman on bass and backing vocals, plus Ron Bushy on drums !! Iron Butterfly is a perfect example of a band that that had one big hit, but had an incredible impact on the music industry. What really blows me away is the fact that   ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'' was cut from the original 17 min version to a 2 min 56 sec for radio !! Can you really do that without affecting the integrity of the song. For money's sake some would say yes !! ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'', was recorded on May 27, 1968, at Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. The story goes that the album you and I listened to on our stereo's, was meant to be a sound check for engineer Don Casale, while the band waited for the arrival of producer Jim Hilton. Without the band's knowledge, Casale had rolled the tape, and when the rehearsal was completed it was agreed that the performance was of sufficient quality that another take was not needed !! WOW this incredible song was recorded in just one take !! Legend has it the band was so stoned, when they recorded the track they could neither pronounce the title or stop playing the song lol, so it ended up filling one the whole side of the album, coming in at a full 17 minutes of psychedelic rock !! The song's title was originally In the Garden of Eden but at one point singer Doug Ingle slurred the words, creating the misinterpretation that stuck as the title. Another explanation, as given in the liner notes of the 1995 re-release of the "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'' album, is that Ingle was drunk or high, or both, when he first told Bushy the title, and Bushy wrote it down. Bushy then showed Ingle what he had written, and the slurred title stuck. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts And the album when it fell from the Billboard charts had been there for an astounding 140 weeks !! They also hold the distinction of being the first album to go Platinum (shipping more than 1,000,000 copies) in the US, when the Platinum Award was introduced in 1976 !! Without further adieu, the 17:06 version of ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'' !!

Keep on ROCKIN !!
Trike :-)