Out of Our Heads

This album was released July 30^th of 1965 and was their earliest to go platinum. It also ranks 114 on Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 500. 'Out of Our Heads' reached number one on the Billboard pop album chart in 1965 and reached 16^th in 1966. However, the album enjoyed more success in the UK. The singles: ‘The Last Time’ and ‘Satisfaction’ ranked first on the singles charts in the UK, whereas in the US the ‘Satisfaction’ reached number one and ‘The Last Time’, and ‘Play With Fire’ received befitting attention.

Intense Review

The album begins with two covers: ‘Mercy, Mercy’ and ‘Hitch Hike’ that set the tone for the third song, the first original single on the album: ‘The Last Time’. ‘Mercy, Mercy’ --a don’t leave me plea with a repetitious guitar riff that transitions nicely to Hitch Hike –a tune where the title is belched like a car-horn by the back-ground vocals. The clear lead vocals and hip-hop sound in both these songs makes-way for the next track: ‘The Last Time’ -a tune with simplicity and togetherness of a Beatles tune that carries morals that are rather gray in comparison to the Beatles black and white.

The intensity of the album then breaks and slows down into another cover: ‘That’s How Strong My Love Is’ –a love ode with repetitious lyrics that highlight a Jaggar’s rough sounding voice. The theme of love continues into the following cover by Sam Cooke: ‘Good Times’ that has a smooth and easy mellow breeze to it –the kind of song I’d want to sneak onto mix CD for a romantic evening at the beach.

The next cover: ‘It’s alright’ containing lyrics about trying to make a girl jump-starts the album’s intensity with a rock-out partying sound matched with rough and yelling lead vocals preparing the listener for the following original: ‘(I can’t get no) Satisfaction’. ‘Satisfaction’, a fun tune with a catchy guitar riff evokes a feeling everyone can relate to: a general discontentment with life. This tune reverberates with ideas against the grain of social norms that constantly bombarded us through electronic media. The next song, another cover: ‘Cry To Me’ that has a strong and bluesy guitar and clear lead vocals.

The next four songs are all originals composed by members of the band. ‘The Assistance West Coast Promotion Man’ with its talking vocals reminds me of a less intriguing Arlo Guthrie mixed with a swanky harmonica. ‘Play with Fire’ has a slow beat and mystical sound to it highlighting Jaggar with amazingly sharp vocals. This progresses fluently to the next tune: ‘Spider and the Fly’ --a nice little ditty with clever lyrics, that has ritzy country bar-room sound. The album concludes with ‘One More Try’, a fast paced tune with Jaggar’s vocals sounding rough.

This is the first album that I would classify as a car album, and it would seem only practical that you be listening to the climatic ‘Satisfaction’ if you were to see a cruiser in your rear-view lighting up his cherries as your heart asserts that you couldn’t have been doing much more than a hundred.

Other Tunes getting a lot of attention at this time were Tom Jones ‘It’s not Usual’ and the Beatles ‘Help’.