Whilst you may not immediately recognize the name, P F Sloan, there ' s every chance that submerged somewhere in the depths of your record collection, perhaps in the section reserved solely for the 1960s, you ' ll find a song written by the gifted teenage composer, or indeed, even a track or two recorded by him, under one of his many pseudonyms.
Phil Sloan, as he was then known, already had a false start as a singer behind him when he was signed as a staff writer for the West Coast branch of Screen Gems in 1964, at the splendidly tender age of eighteen. He was immediately teamed with another young songwriter, Steve Barri, and together they wrote, in quick succession, a stream of Billboard 100 hits, in a wide variety of genres, ranging from R & B and folk-rock to girl group and surf-pop. Sadly, a simmering feud with Dunhill Records ' President, Jay Lasker, which was largely the by-product of Sloan ' s understandable desire to perform under his own name, led to his being summarily dismissed from the fledgling label at the back end of 1967. Barri, who ' d always been content with his role as a writer / producer, went on to become the label ' s Head of A & R before taking up the same post with Warner Bros. Records. He currently earns a crust touring the college circuit lecturing on the history of rock ' n ' roll.
After releasing a couple of solo albums, Measure for Pleasure( 1968) and Raised on Records( 1972), Sloan simply disappeared without a trace. He has subsequently admitted to being ' desolate and mentally ill ' for long periods. A review in the LA Times of a 1993 gig at the Troubadour, in West Hollywood, to promote his comeback album( Still on the) Eve of Destruction, suggests that his problems may not have been fully behind him even then:
' Unfortunately, Sloan ' s eccentric performing mannerisms too often jarred uncomfortably against the more attractive qualities of his songs. Constantly in motion, full of nervous tics and movements, chewing gum incessantly, he frequently interrupted the flow of the music with long, out-of-focus stories that were disconnected to the point of disassociation. As the evening wore on, he occasionally added aggressive harangues in support of a vague socio-political agenda '.
He had subsequently recorded just one more album, Sailover, in 2006.
His incredible work rate at Dunhill, in the years preceding his devastating breakdown, must have taken their toll. Between 1964 and 1967 he penned, in partnership with Barri, hits for some of the decade ' s biggest acts, including The Searchers, The Mamas and Papas, The Fifth Dimension, The Turtles, Herman ' s Hermits and Johnny Rivers. In addition, his anguished protest song " Eve of Destruction ", written in the wake of the Cuban Missile crisis, was a world-wide smash for Barry McGuire. He also charted in the U. K under his own name or, at least, his latest variation of it, P. F. Sloan, for the first and last time, when his Dylanesque pot-boiler ' The Sins of a Family ' reached no. 38 in 1965.
Throughout the Dunhill years, Sloan was also recording around the clock with Barri, under such group names as The Lifeguards, The Wildcats, Sheridan Hollenbeck Orchestra and Chorus, Phillip and Stephan, Willie & the Wheels, The Fantastic Baggys, Themes Inc., The Street Cleaners and The Grass Roots. The Fantastic Baggys, perhaps the best of these side-projects, cut a truly wonderful surf pop album, Tell Em I ' m Surfin ' in 1964, which is still regarded today as one of the best albums in the genre ' s history. When he wasn ' t writing or recording songs, on an industrial scale, Sloan was busy playing guitar on a multitude of other seminal records, including The Mamas and Papas ' all time classic " California Dreaming ". 1