On Stuart's first day with the group, Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols brought him to Elektra's offices where, unbeknownst to him, they had planned another attempt to end their commitment with the label. Lee then recruited Tjay Cantrelli (born John Barberis ), a jazz saxophonist and flautist whom he had crossed paths with in the early 1960s, bringing the band to a seven-piece. To replace him on drums, Lee hired Michael Stuart – formerly of the Sons of Adam, who had occasionally opened for Love and had a local hit with one of Lee's songs, "Feathered Fish". Reluctant to fire Pfisterer, Lee instead elected to move him over to keyboards – organ, piano, and harpsichord – as he had been classically trained as a child. During that same time, the band decided to make some changes to their lineup for their second album. Released in July, "7 and 7 Is" spent ten weeks climbing the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 33 and becoming the highest-charting single of the band's career. I don't know how many times I tried to play that damn thing and it just wasn't coming out. Pfisterer later said: "The session was a nightmare. Due to drummer Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer's limited abilities, he and Lee took turns attempting the song's intense drum part. a loud, aggressive, no-holds-barred, garage-style punk song, a decade before that musical term was current." Despite being a creative success, however, the song's recording sessions, held at Sunset Sound Recorders with Holzman producing and Bruce Botnick engineering, were the last to feature the five-piece lineup of the debut album. The song was a radical departure from the band's original folk rock sound biographer John Einarson writes that it was "like nothing anyone had either conceived or heard before. On June 17 and 20, Love recorded their second single, " 7 and 7 Is". The contract was then notarized on May 6 to prevent further issues regarding the members' ages Holzman also ensured that a photocopy of Lee's driver's license was stapled to the document. Lee later claimed that he also demanded 100% of the publishing rights, but Holzman said this was never agreed on. Īn addendum to the contract was made, dated April 25, which gave the band $2,500 in cash and an increase in their royalty rate from 5 to 7 percent however, it also required them to produce 20 more recordings for Elektra to be released on future albums. He said he wasn't making a second album, which meant that Da Capo wouldn't have happened". This infuriated Elektra president Jac Holzman, who later said: "That was the point in my relationship with Arthur where he moved from being a scoundrel to being totally dishonest. In an attempt to get off the label, bandleader Arthur Lee revealed that when he had signed the recording contract on January 4, 1966, he was not yet 21 years old, making the agreement void. It was also a pivotal release for Elektra Records, giving them their first rock album as well as their first hit single however, the band quickly grew dissatisfied with the label's production and promotional efforts. According to author Barney Hoskyns, the album "trumpeted the presence of a major new musical force on the LA scene". In March 1966, Love's self-titled debut album, along with the single " My Little Red Book", was released to moderate commercial success, reaching number 57 on the Billboard Top LPs.
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