The Strangeloves

The Strangeloves were an American songwriting/production team in the 1960s, who were from New York but pretended to be an Australian band. Their biggest hits were "I Want Candy," "Night Time" and "Cara-Lin."

Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer (FGG Productions) had already scored big hits for other artists with "My Boyfriend's Back" by The Angels, when they decided to invent the Strangeloves.

According to the press releases, the Strangeloves were three brothers named Giles, Miles and Niles Strange that had grown up on an Australian sheep farm. The faked backstory, involving a sheep crossbreeding (Gottehrer Sheep - See Album Cover Notes, The Strangeloves, I Want Candy ) get-rich-quick scheme, did not exactly capture the public's imagination, but the music was indelible.

When "I Want Candy" became a hit single in mid 1965, the producers found themselves in the unfamiliar and uncomfortable position of performing as live artists. This short-lived experience was followed by a road group made up of some of the studio musicians who actually recorded these songs. The initial musicians who made up the road group were bass player / vocalist, John Shine, guitarist, Jack Raczka, drummer, Tom Kobus and sax player / vocalist, Richie Lauro. This troup was followed by another trio of studio musicians in the FGG stable, that more closely adhered to the founding concept of the Brothers Strange, made up of guitarist, Jack Raczka (Giles Strange), drummer / vocalist, Joe Piazza (Miles Strange), and keyboardist / vocalist, Ken Jones (Niles Strange).

While on the road as The Strangeloves, Feldman, Goldstein and Gotteherer came upon a band known as Ricky Z and the Raiders, lead by Rick Derringer (who was Rick Zehringer, at the time). The producers brought Rick and his band to New York, recorded Rick's voice over an existing music track from The Strangeloves' album, I Want Candy, and released "Hang on Sloopy" as a single under the name The McCoys.

The Strangeloves only LP, I Want Candy, was released in 1965 on Bert Berns's Bang Records, with several of the album songs having been released as singles. Other singles by The Strangeloves have appeared on Swan Records.

Their songs have been covered by the J. Geils Band, The Fleshtones, and (with great pop success) by Bow Wow Wow.

Gottehrer went on to later fame as a record producer of early CBGB's luminaries Richard Hell & The Voidoids and Blondie, as well as the co-founder, with Seymour Stein, of Sire Records. He also worked with Robert Gordon who was one of many who revitalized rockabilly in the late 1970s.

In his role as a producer and manager Goldstein also continued to have an effect on the music world. He suggested to the band Nightshift that they team up with Eric Burdon, who became War, and had the Circle Jerks on his Far Our Productions management company and LAX record label.