Sticking with yesterday's theme — my current obsession with the intense creepiness of Gary Puckett's oeuvre — here's a clip from the December 3, 1969 episode of "The Jack Benny Show," which features Gary and the Union Gap running through "The Beggar" (which is now really starting to grow on me, thanks in part to the groovy guitar riff that sounds like a cross between Elvis's "Edge of Reality" and the Mamas and the Papas' "Straight Shooter"), followed by a duet with Nancy Sinatra on Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Spinning Wheel."
The latter number is especially interesting, because it backs up what I was saying earlier about how GP-UG could be considered an underappreciated "horn-rock" (or, in this case, "horn-dog rock") band. "Spinning Wheel," after all, is one of the acknowledged classics of the genre, and Gary handles his vocal parts with ease — and minus all the David Clayton Thomas/Jim Peterik "desperately in need of stool softener" grunting that went hand-in-hand with horn-rock.
It's also interesting to note that Gary seems to have no chemistry at all with the lovely Ms. Sinatra — though I guess that's not entirely surprising, given that she was 28 at the time, which would have put her out of Gary's, er, "target demographic" by at least 12 years...
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