Everything about Sagittarius Band totally explained
Sagittarius was a late-60s studio group devised by producer and songwriter
Gary Usher.==History==
Usher had been involved with music as a songwriter since the early 60s (including writing lyrics for some of
Brian Wilson's earliest songs), and soon branched out into production work. After considerable success as a producer, he eventually became a staff producer for
Columbia Records. It was at this position that, during
1967, he found himself producing the pop group
Chad & Jeremy. They had played him several songs, which he felt lacked any commercial potential. He had heard a demo around that time for a song called "My World Fell Down" (also recorded by British pop group
The Ivy League), and he played it for them, thinking that it was a sure-fire hit. They balked at the idea of covering the song, and Usher felt that, if they weren't going to record it, he'd do it himself.
So, he brought in the top
Los Angeles session musicians, as well as drafting friends such as
Beach Boys touring alumni
Glen Campbell (who did the lead vocal on the track) and
Bruce Johnston for vocals. He finished off the recording by adding a
musique concrete bridge. He presented it to
Columbia executives under the group name Sagittarius, named after his
astrological sign.
The single, despite the uncommercial nature of the bridge, did manage to reach #70 in the national charts, and when there was pressure from
Columbia for the group to tour, it was revealed that a group didn't exist.
Usher did, however, start working on an album for
Columbia under the Sagittarius name. Most of this work was done in conjunction with a young songwriter, producer and musician named
Curt Boettcher.
Usher had met
Boettcher when he was working with a group that he led and produced called
The Ballroom. The group was signed to
Warner Bros., and they recorded an album which wasn't released at the time.
Usher, however, was impressed enough by
Boettcher's talents that he utilized him as a songwriter, musician, and producer (indeed, two of the album's tracks were the same recordings made for the unreleased
Ballroom album, though they appeared in stereo) throughout the album.
Prior to releasing an album, another single appeared, with the song "Hotel Indiscreet" as the a-side (it should be pointed out that the b-sides for some of the Sagittarius singles for
Columbia consisted of instrumental jams that
Usher had originally recorded for another studio project called
The Astrology Album). As was the case with "My World Fell Down", the bridge featured an unrelated comedy bit by
The Firesign Theatre, another recent
Usher discovery, but unlike the previous single, it failed to chart.
In
1968, the
Present Tense album was released, though it was a commercial failure. Because
Clive Davis disliked the usage of
musique concrete in the two singles,
Usher removed these segments from the album versions (though it's worth pointing out that the album version of "My World Fell Down" featured a few bars of additional music between the first and second verses that didn't appear in the single version, and both were mixed in stereo for the album).
However, in 1969,
Usher made a bold move in deciding to leave his job at
Columbia Records in order to start his own label, Together Records. Once again,
Usher started work on another Sagittarius album,
The Blue Marble, but this time, he contributed more as a musician, particularly as a vocalist. As he'd done with the
Byrds album
The Notorious Byrd Brothers, he made extensive use of a
Moog synthesizer throughout the record.
A cover of "In My Room", culled as a single from
The Blue Marble, became a minor hit, peaking at #86 on the charts, though the album itself failed to chart. Several more non-album singles were released by Together Records, but the death of the label guaranteed the obscurity of later Sagittarius material.
Both Sagittarius albums have been reissued on
CD, and both contain bonus tracks (including single versions of Sagittarius songs, which differ considerably from the album versions in some cases).
Discography
Further Information
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