I Have Been Seeking P.F. Sloan I Quiz

Answer: Flip

Sloan was born Philip Gary Schlein, but his father changed the family name to Sloan when he was 12. "Flip" was a childhood nickname for Philip, given to him by his sister Lynn.

Answer: Elvis Presley

Meeting Elvis so unexpectedly became a major influence on the young Sloan, who learned to do an excellent impression of The King. A year later, Sloan had a recording contract for his first single, "All I Want Is Loving" / "Little Girl on the Corner", with the L.A.-based soul label Aladdin Records.

The single was credited to Flip Sloan, but the songwriting was credited to Phil Sloan. On his second single, at 15, Sloan used "P.F." to reference both names.

Answer: Lou Adler

Lou Adler had been a successful songwriter in his own right, teaming with Herb Alpert to compose Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World". Although Sloan was signed by Adler as a songwriter, Adler primarily wanted him at Screen Gems as a "trend-spotter," thinking that a teenager would be more in touch with the musical tastes of modern youth.

Answer: The Beatles

Brian Epstein had sent copies of the Beatles' early British releases to Lou Adler, who hated them but passed them along to Sloan. However, Sloan loved them. After Adler threw the records out to show how little he thought of them, Sloan offered to buy them from him. Hesitantly, Adler decided to listen to Sloan and negotiated a low-money deal to sign the Beatles and a better-known British artist on the same label, Frank Ifield, to Vee-Jay Records for U.S. distribution. Then came Beatlemania.

Although Vee-Jay only controlled the Beatles' first three singles and first album after extensive litigation between it and EMI, which belatedly realized it had made a mistake in licensing the Beatles' U.S. rights, Vee-Jay released numerous Beatles albums in different packages containing the same songs. One of the albums released on Vee-Jay, an interview album entitled "Hear the Beatles Tell All," was even an Adler production.

Answer: Steve Barri

Barri had worked at a record store before Lou Adler hired him as a songwriter, at about the same time he hired Sloan. The initial Sloan-Barri songwriting efforts went nowhere, but not long after the Beatles broke at the start of 1964, they wrote their first two Billboard Hot 100 hits: "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann" by Round Robin and "Summer Means Fun" by Bruce and Terry.

Answer: Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)

After the success of "Dead Man's Curve" inspired Jan & Dean's former backing group, The Matadors, to record on their own, Sloan and his writing/performing partner Steve Barri joined Jan & Dean as studio backing vocalists and backing musicians, with Sloan on guitar and Barri on percussion. Sloan was particularly adept at imitating Dean Torrence's falsetto vocals. During the "Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" recording sessions, Berry (who was producing) kicked Dean Torrence out of the studio due to multiple flubs and then had Sloan record Dean's lead parts (as well as the intended backing parts) on the subsequent takes, including the take that ended up as Billboard's number three single in the U.S.

Answer: Fantastic Baggys

Mick Jagger, who liked surf music, told Sloan that the demo tapes were "fantastic", and so the group became the Fantastic Baggys. Although four people appeared on the cover, the Fantastic Baggys were just Sloan and Steve Barri. The other two people were friends who were there to make them look like a real group. They had a modest U.S. regional hit entitled "Tell 'Em I'm Surfing." However, Lou Adler, who managed Sloan & Barri as well as being their boss, refused to permit the Fantastic Baggys to tour behind their single, because he could sell just about every song they wrote, so they were more valuable to him as writers than as performers. Barri said that he and Sloan were embarrassed to face Brian Wilson, because a few of their songs were copies of Beach Boys songs, but Wilson didn't mind and wished them good luck.

Even without touring, the Baggys album became a substantial hit in South Africa, and Adler, who claimed ownership of the group name, later allowed a South African band to tour as the Fantastic Baggys.

Answer: Dunhill

Imitating his old partner Herb Alpert, who was having great success with A&M Records, Lou Adler started Dunhill Records. At the beginning, the songwriting and performing talents of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri were the new label's principal asset, although Adler would never have admitted that.

Dunhill's first album was "The Surfing Songbook", credited to the "Rincon Surfside Band", which was Sloan & Barri (with members of the "Wrecking Crew" such as drummer Hal Blaine) playing instrumental versions of surf hits. Interestingly, Adler not only released the album on Dunhill but also sold the album to RCA, which credited it to "Willie & the Wheels". But neither version was successful.

Answer: Eve of Destruction

After Sloan wrote "Eve of Destruction" without Steve Barri, Lou Adler told Sloan that the song was "unpublishable." However, Sloan was able to get the Turtles to record it as their next single. Meanwhile, Adler had signed folk singer Barry McGuire from the New Christie Minstrels to Dunhill, and McGuire, after meeting with Sloan, picked it as one of four Sloan compositions to record. Because Adler didn't like it, it was recorded at the very end of a four-hour session on a Thursday. According to McGuire, he only got one take at the vocal, and some of his hesitations resulted from being unable to read the handwritten sheet with the lyrics.

However, after listening to the session tape, even Adler realized that the song was a certain hit, making it essential to release it as a single before the Turtles did. Dunhill rush-released the McGuire single on Monday, just four days after the recording, and it gave Sloan his only number one composition on the U.S. Billboard charts.

However, the song's lyrics were immediately controversial and sparked a backlash that both McGuire and Sloan felt damaged their careers.

Answer: Secret Agent Man

CBS had acquired the rights to the James Bond-influenced British spy series "Danger Man", which it renamed "Secret Agent" for U.S. broadcast, and it wanted a new theme built around an electric guitar riff. Although CBS owned its own music publishing company and had some of its writers attempt the theme, the P.F. Sloan-Steve Barri entry, with Sloan playing the guitar riff and Johnny Rivers singing, was ultimately selected.

When the show became a U.S. hit, Lou Adler, who also managed Rivers, had Sloan and Barri expand the theme into a full song. "Danger Man" eventually morphed into "The Prisoner", but Sloan and Barri had no connection with the latter show, even though their song's line "They've given you a number and taken 'way your name" became a major theme of "The Prisoner".

Answer: Songs of Our Times

Because of "Eve of Destruction", Lou Adler decided to have Sloan release a solo album styled after Bob Dylan. Although singer-songwriters like Dylan were common in folk music, they were unheard of in pop music in 1965, and folk singers railed against pop influences in their music. In September of that year, folk singer Ewan MacColl called Dylan's experiments with folk-pop hybrids "tenth-rate drivel." Folk singer Phil Ochs then criticized Sloan's similar efforts by calling them "tenth-rate Dylan."

A year later, Neil Diamond broke through as the first commercially successful folk-pop singer-songwriter with his album "The Feel of Neil Diamond", which included the hits "Solitary Man" and "Cherry, Cherry". In the 1970s, folk-pop singer-songwriters such as Carole King and James Taylor would become superstars. But Sloan and Dylan were the pioneers. Dylan became a legend. Sloan did not.

Answer: Let Me Be

Turtles producer Bones Howe had decided to use one of Sloan's songs for the band's follow-up single so that the Turtles wouldn't be seen as just another group of Dylan "wannabes". Originally, Sloan had given the group "Eve of Destruction", but Barry McGuire's huge hit with that song forced the Turtles to release "Let Me Be" instead, which reached the Billboard top thirty in the U.S.

The other choices here are all Dylan songs.

Answer: California Dreamin'

According to Sloan, John Phillips, who wrote "California Dreamin'" with his wife Michelle, asked him to help make the song more commercial. While Phillips was playing the introduction on a 12-string acoustic, Sloan played counter-harmony on both an electric guitar and a 6-string acoustic, creating the distinctive opening hook for the song. Sloan also opened up Phillips' three-chord original melody, borrowing chording ideas from the Ventures' 1960 hit "Walk, Don't Run." When Lou Adler, who was producing the Barry McGuire sessions, decided instead to use the song to launch the career of the Mamas and the Papas, Sloan performed as their lead guitarist on their first two albums.

Answer: A Must to Avoid

The movie was originally entitled "There's No Place Like Space". However, during filming, the title was changed to "A Must to Avoid", and Lou Adler, who was then married to movie co-star Shelley Fabares, suggested that Sloan be given the assignment to write a new title song -- in two days. The haste didn't hurt the song, which ultimately reached number eight on the U.S. Billboard charts. However, the film company required that the movie title be changed again, for fear that critics would mock the movie by saying that it too was "A Must to Avoid." Sloan and Steve Barri also wrote the new title song, "Hold On!"

The other choices were also hits for Herman's Hermits. Both "Listen People" and "No Milk Today" were written by Graham Gouldman, who was later part of 10cc, and "Dandy" was written by Ray Davies of the Kinks.

Answer: Paint It Black

Although Oldham took credit as the producer of both the "Paint It Black" single and the "Aftermath" album, Mick Jagger was squeezing Oldham out of any actual musical role with the Rolling Stones. Sloan said that Oldham wasn't even in the studio and that Jagger was acting as producer, but he deferred to Sloan for the single. Sloan also said that he suggested that Brian Jones add the distinctive sitar track to "Paint It Black", since there was a sitar in the studio and "the song needed something a bit special."