Crazy Elephant -

Crazy Elephant was an American psych-rock band from Camden, NJ, that released a self-titled album on Bell in 1969. Two years earlier, they self-released a single as The Livin’ End. Their album was produced by bubblegum stalwarts Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. Drummer Bob Avery hailed from garage-rockers The Music Explosion. Keyboardist Larry Laufer subsequently cut an album with hard-rockers The Third World.

Members: Robert Spencer (vocals, 1968), Kenny Cohen (flute, saxophone, vocals), Bob Avery (drums), Larry Laufer (keyboards, vocals), Hal King (vocals), Ronnie Bretone (bass)

Background

Crazy Elephant formed by January 1969 in New York when Super K producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz paired singer Robert Spencer with the Marzano-Calvert studio band for “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’.” The studio lineup comprised drummer Joe D’Andrea, bassist Norman Marzano, keyboardist Ken Laguna, and guitarists Jimmy Calvert and Paul Naumann. Spencer came from the Cadillacs, where he sang lead and contributed songs, then continued as a New York session singer.

Joey Levine and Ritchie Cordell wrote “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’” for Spencer. Levine and Artie Resnick produced the recording, which Bell issued in January on Bell Records. The label replaced original B-side “Hips and Lips” with “Dark Part of My Mind” in February. Kasenetz and Katz promoted Crazy Elephant with a fictional biography that cast the musicians as Welsh coal miners.

Kasenetz and Katz assembled a separate road group with bassist Ronnie Bretone, drummer Bob Avery, keyboardist Larry Laufer, and singers Hal King and Niki Aukema. Avery previously drummed with the Music Explosion, while Laufer played piano and organ with the Bravados, a collegiate group active around Cornell University. The musicians were completing the first Crazy Elephant LP in New York by April. By June, the five-piece lineup comprised King, Bretone, Avery, Laufer, and multi-instrumentalist Kenny Cohen as Bell prepared the self-titled first album.

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