This song by one-hit wonders The Castaways is the archetypal Sixties garage song. I first heard it on the Nuggets compilation a decade or so after its original release in 1965.
With its wheezing Farfisa organ and echo-drenched falsetto vocals, it’s an instant classic; listen out for lead singer and bass guitarist Dick Roby’s blood-curdling scream that comes out of nowhere before Bob Folschow’s guitar solo.
Keyboard player Jim Donna wrote the song on a napkin in the living room of his parents’ house in Minnesota, playing his musician dad’s organ, with help from drummer Dennis Craswell
Two hours later it was finished and they took it to the other members of The Castaways (Roby, Folschow and rhythm guitarist Don Hensley), who had formed in 1963 initially just to play at a frat party. The rest of the band liked it enough to record it in March 1965.
So did Soma Reccords president Amos Heilicher who signed them to a contract, and Liar Liar reached No.12 in the US chart, going on to sell a million copies.
The Castaways, who came from the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis/St Paul, never had another hit despite issuing two follow-ups, Goodbye Babe b/w A Man’s Gotta Be A Man, and Girl In Love b/w Why This Should Happen To Me.
Meanwhile, Liar Liar went on to have a life of its own. They immortalised it on celluloid when they performed it in the 1967 beach party film It’s A Bikini World.
Since its appearance on Lenny Kaye’s first Nuggets compilation – famously subtitled Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 – it has also appeared in the films Good Morning, Vietnam and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.
In 1988 Debbie Harry recorded her own version for the film Married To The Mob and more recently The Castaways’ version was sampled in a tune called Klink by the rapper Death Grips.
Jim Donna’s music career began when he went to see his idol Jerry Lee Lewis live at the age of 17: a local DJ invited him onstage to meet The Killer and the cheeky teen asked him to show him how to play Great Balls Of Fire.
In their heyday The Castaways supported The Everly Brothers and The Beach Boys and their biggest show was playing in front of 18,000 fans at a multi-artist show in San Francisco headlined by Sonny & Cher in 1965.