1971 50th Anniversary: Teenage Head - The Flamin' Groovies

Here's another album in the short series of albums that have reached their 50th Anniversary this year. This time round it's Teenage Head by The Flamin' Groovies, released in March 1971 by Kama Sutra Records in the USA and Buddah Records in France. It didn't get released in the UK until August 1971 but not as a stand alone album, rather it was packaged as a Double Album with their 1970 album 'Flamingo' (see picture below) with the title 'Flamin' Groovies'.

The Flamin' Groovies are one of those bands that never really fitted in because either their sound was too dated (Rock 'n' Roll), too rough (Garage Rock) or ahead of its time (Power Pop) and it's hard to put them in one particular bracket because they were the square pegs in the round holes and even managed to find themselves closely associated with the American Punk/New Wave scene from 1976. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were also clearly part of their influences.

Teenage Head was their third studio album, though you would never really know that was the title of the album as neither the band name or album title appeared on the front cover or on the labels of the record. On the back cover it says, "Kama Sutra Records Presents The Flamin Groovies in Teenage Head".

All songs written by Cyril Jordan and Roy A. Loney except '32-20' (Robert Johnson, new lyrics by Roy A. Loney), Evil Hearted Ada (Loney) and 'Have You Seen My Baby?' (Randy Newman).

1. High Flyin' Baby

2. City Lights

3. Have You Seen My Baby? (this was released as a single)

4. Yesterdays Numbers

1. Teenage Head (This was released as a single in the UK when the Double Album, 'Flamin' Groovies' was relased in August 1971

2. 32-20

3. Evil Hearted Eva

4. Doctor Boogie

5. Whisky Woman

Teenage Head finally got a British release on Vinyl (with the original artwork) in 1988 on the Dojo label.

Teenage Head has been reprinted a few times on vinyl sice its 1971 release. In France it was released on CD for the first time and Big Beat Records in the UK Reissued it with five bonus tracks in 1990 (see picture above). Buddah Records Remastered the album in 1999 with an additional seven bonus tracks (see picture below).

The album might not have had the cultural impact or even the chart impact of other releases from 1971 but it's still a highly regarded album 50 years later.