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The
Will-O-Bees Greatest Hits
1. The World I Used To Know (R. McKuen) (Date 1515)
2. Why Can't They Accept Us? (R. Atkins - C. D'Errico) (Date 1515)
3. Shades Of Gray (B. Mann - C. Weil) (Date 1543)
4. If You're Ready (D. Dahlquist) (Date 1543)
5. It's Not Easy (B. Mann - C. Weil) (Date 1583)
6. Looking Glass (R. Novak) (Date 1583)
7. Make Your Own Kind Of Music (B. Mann - C. Weil) (SGC 002)
8. Listen To The Music (From the film "Wild In The Streets")
(B. Mann - C. Weil) (SGC 002)
9. The Ugliest Girl In Town (From the TV Series "The Ugliest Girl
In Town") (H. Greenfield - H. Miller) (SGC 004)
10. I Can't Quit Lovin' You Baby (Al Ciner) (SGC 004)
11. November Monday (B. Martin - T. Wine - C. Bayer - C. Douglas) (SGC
007)
12. It's Getting Better (B. Mann - C. Weil) (SGC 007)
Produced by Bill Traut
The New York folk/pop trio known as The Will-O-Bees — Janet Blossom, Steve Porter and Robert Merchanthouse — had only one charted record, It's Not Easy (Date1583). It was issued in late 1967 and entered the Billboard Hot 100 in February of '68 peaking at #95. It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for The Righteous Brothers shortly before their break-up in 1966. The only hit version of the song we know of is the one by Australian pop star, Normie Rowe who made it a big hit down under. Apparently there were many artists and producers who regarded the song highly as it was recorded by numerous artists from '66 - '78. In addition to Normie Rowe's hit, there were versions by Eric Burdon & The Animals, Sandy Posey, The Sweet Inspirations, Neil Macarthur (Colin Blunstone), Cissy Houston, Joey Heatherton and Dickie Lee. Former Righteous Brother, Bill Medley recorded a version for his 1973 album, Smile.
The Will-O-Bees had two Date singles before the release of It's Not Easy. The World We Used To Know b/w Why Can't They Accept Us (Date 1515) in late '66 and Shades Of Gray b/w If You're Ready (Date 1543) in early '67. In 1968, the threesome signed with SGC (Screen Gems - Columbia), for whom they made three singles, including the theme song for the TV show The Ugliest Girl in Town.
The band seemed to be attracted to the songs of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil beginning with Shades Of Gray which, as far as we've been able to determine, was recorded earlier than the better known version by The Monkees for their 1967 album Headquarters. Three of their sides for SGC were also Mann & Weil songs, Listen To The Music and two covers of Mama Cass songs, Make Your Own Kind Of Music and It's Getting Better. Their versions aren't copies but unique interpretations that take full advantage of the boy/girl vocals. We don't know which versions were recorded or released first since the only info we have about the times of the releases is the year.