Mark Lindsay - The Complete Columbia Singles Review

Mark Lindsay will always be remembered as the lead vocalist of Paul Revere and The Raiders, who produced some of the better American pop singles of the 1960s. Hit songs such as “Just Like Me,” "Kicks,” "Good Thing,” and “Him Or Me, What’s It Gonna Be" were perfect vehicles for Top 40 radio play at the time as they were catchy, staying in your mind for days. The band sold tens of millions of those old 45 RPM records. Lindsay became the recognizable centerpiece of the band, which changed its name in 1966 to Paul Revere and The Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay. Their catalogue of hits has been rereleased dozens of times through the years.
After leaving the band, he embarked upon a solo career. While it produced several commercially successful singles, it was not as successful as his Paul Revere days despite his producing some of the smoothest and catchiest pop of the era. His career might have taken a different turn if he had released, as planned, the old John D. Loudermilk song, “Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian),” as a solo release. Instead he issued it under The Raiders name and it became the only number one hit of his – or the band’s – career. Most of his solo material has been out of print for decades and much of it has never been released on CD.
...full text According to the singer, Gold had stumbled on him in the studio goofing around with Johnny Mathis’ “Chances Are” and felt the time was right to launch Lindsay on a solo career as an adult vocalist. But Lindsay balked at Gold’s suggestions of material, covers of then-contemporary songs that Columbia proffered to a stable of singers including Mathis, Andy Williams and Robert Goulet. Lindsay envisioned ballad-oriented original songs as his calling card, and Gold agreed. The fruits of their labors at 45 RPM have been compiled by Real Gone Music as Mark Lindsay’s The Complete Columbia Singles (RGM-0027, 2012), a companion to 2010’s same-titled collection for Paul Revere and the Raiders on the now-defunct Collectors’ Choice label.

Although Real Gone is still a new kid on the block, this collection ranks hands-down as one of its finest and most consistently enjoyable releases to date. There’s a palpable joy in rediscovering these long-unheard sides from a talented singer who took on a very different vocal character for his solo recordings. Gone is the snarling punk of many Raiders records, but Lindsay even reinvents himself track by track here, adapting to the unique sound demanded by composers like Jerry Fuller, Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb. The Complete Columbia Singles makes for pure pop gold....full text The Complete Columbia Singles of Mark Lindsay includes every 45 rpm released on that label by the former vocalist for Paul Revere and the Raiders. These 24 tracks differ greatly from the frat/garage rock recorded during that band's mid-'60s heyday. In the late '60s, as the Raiders' singles began to fall off the charts, Mark Lindsay branched out from the garage sound and recorded singles that emphasized country rock and mainstream pop with sophisticated arrangements and lyrics by such songwriters as Kris Kristofferson, John Denver, Neil Diamond, Jimmy Webb, and Gordon Lightfoot. "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)" was the first single that pointed in that direction and was, ironically, the Raiders' only number one hit. Lindsay officially left the band following its release. ...full text