My Amazon Reviews: The Royal Guardsmen "Snoopy Vs The Red Baron"

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty of more

2 out of 5 Stars

I bought this because "Snoopy And The Red Baron" is the first 45 single I can remember owning as a kid, and the original album may have been the first album I ever really took to as a kid, A very well worn and scruffy covered Laurie label 12-inch album is still packed away in a box here at the Tbrough mancave. Therefore, it's my nostalgia and I am 100% OK with that.

The Royal Guardsmen were a Florida bunch of college students who formed a garage band and got lucky with a string of novelty songs based on the adventures of Snoopy V The Red Baron. When it came time to actually flesh out an entire album, they covered a lot of hits of the period. They kept it safe, fun and perky; just prefect for my 8 year old self to bounce around to. Period songs like "Bo Diddly," "Peanut Butter" and "The Battle of New Orleans" are covered, with a smattering of originals ("Bears" is a really bizarre song that has taken a relevance for me years later!) This also contains their lone non-Snoopy hit, a cover of The Rascal's "Baby Let's Wait."

The second lp here was actually the RG's 3'rd (another twofer CD included the band's 2nd and 4th), and was a total cash-in. Fake newscast done it cornily exaggerated European accents link together semi-related Snoopy WWI songs and the Christmas Novelty "Snoopy's Christmas." The band tried mightily to come up with some originals to overcome their novelty status; you get the feeling they really dreamed of being be The Loving Spoonful or The Rascals ("Airplane Song," "So Right") but it's drowned out by the likes of "Do The Sopwith Camel" (and yes, I loved that one as a kid, too).

One quick word about the sound; it's very lo-fi. But having read that the band recorded most of this stuff on their own, you shouldn't be expecting Sgt Pepper.