Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2025 July 14 • Monday

The career of former teen idol Fabian was winding down in the late'60s. He didn't make the jump to movies as successfully as Elvis had done. But here he is in 1970, using his full name of Fabian Forte and playing real-life gangster Pretty Boy Floyd in a movie called A Bullet for Pretty Boy. The music, mostly by Harley Hatcher, is the 865th Soundtrack of the Week.

The success of Bonnie and Clyde was one of those things that nudged the industry in a certain direction and, well, this movie was part of that direction.

The soundtrack album has a vocal side and an instrumental side. The vocal side, Side One, features American International Records group The Source doing a bunch of songs that freely mix rock, pop, country, even touches of prog. It's really impressive.

There are voal harmonies, bass, drums guitar and Hammond organ. The song "Gone Tomorrow" reaches back in time to The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" while "It's Me I'm Running From" is a sunshine country rock/pop anthem.

"Got Nowhere To Go" is less than a minute long, so that's truth in advertising right there.

For the instrumental Side Two, it wouldn't do just to say some guy wrote the music, so this is a "Harley Hatcher Happening", not just boring old Harley Hatcher.

The tunes there are more on the bubblegum/novelty side of things, with perky, bouncy rhythms, flutes and keyboards and other interesting sonic textures and, on "I'm Runnin'", some extremely energetic bongo playing paired with some very languid electric guitar work.