Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965-1968 and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 13: Liar, Liar by The Castaways
From: Twin Cities, Minnesota
Rating: 7/10
LIAR, LIAR – The Castaways [1:52]
(James Donna/Dennis Craswell)
Personnel/BOB FOLSCHOW: vocals, guitar * JIM DONNA: organ * ROY HENSLEY: bass, vocals * DENNY CRASWELL: drums
Producer unknown
Recorded in Minneapolis, MN
Soma single #1433 (5/65); Pop #12
The Castaways formed in 1962 to perform at a fraternity party. ‘Liar, Liar’ was their first single, and it enjoyed mainstream success, reaching #12 on the Billboard charts.
It was written by organist and band leader Jim Donna, who wrote it on a napkin at his parent’s house. It sounds professional, like a Brill Building song. The most distinctive musical element is the falsetto of guitarist Bob Folschow.
In 2022, Donna released the book Liar, Liar: From Garage Band to Rockstars, The Story of Minnesota’s Castaways in the 1960s. The hit song changed the band’s fortunes overnight. They went from practising in Donna’s basement to opening for The Beach Boys and Sonny & Cher.
‘Liar, Liar’ was covered by Debbie Harry for the 1988 film Married to the Mob.
Despite their success with ‘Liar, Liar’, which the band reprised in the 1967 movie It’s a Bikini World, the Castaways never made a studio album. They split in 1968, but have reformed periodically. Jim Donna still plays live with The Castaways at state fairs.
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I’ve always kinda liked this one. That’s an epic organ riff, a classic earworm. And they didn’t wreck it by trying to milk it into something longer and more complicated. My brother had this somewhere when I was a boy. I wanna say the soundtrack to Good Morning, Vietnam. Probably that. Seems like half the old school tracks I’m very familiar with were on that thing.
I’d never heard the Debbie Harry version before. Some odd choices. Of all the things to choose to tone down, they chose the organ riff? That’s weird. I can understand how they’d think organ wouldn’t play in the 80s but they could have kept the riff at the forefront using another instrument. I like Debby Harry but that’s not a composition where a singer is single-handedly going to make the song compelling.
I think I read it was on Good Morning Vietnam. I’d never actually heard it before Nuggets.
I have always liked this song a lot. It has that sixties garage sound plus that cool organ. The falsetto always messes with me at the start but now it wouldn’t sound as good without it.
I like Harry’s version…like what youngflier said…it’s not a song that a singer can do much with but with her voice and that falsetto of the original…it fits her…she has good taste in covers.
I’d never actually heard it before, weird because it was a biggish hit.
I heard it on oldies randio stations here a while back…a lot. This and Nobody But Me…and others.
I’m so old I remember when this song came out. I liked it a lot.
Cool! I’d never heard it before, weird as it’s pretty likeable.