Max Frost and The Troopers was a fictitious band with a complicated history. But who recorded songs attributed to the band? Was it an existing band using a pseudonym or a faceless group of studio musicians? And just how many tracks can we consider to be "Max Frost and The Troopers" songs?
- There Is a Party Going On
- You Might Want Me Baby
- Shape of Things to Come
- Lonely Man
- Shine it On
- It's Wrong
- Captain Hassel
- Fifty Two Per Cent
- Try to Make Up Your Mind
- Let Your Mind Run Free
- She Lied
- A Change is Gonna Come
- Love to Be Your Man
- Free Lovin'
- Psychedelic Senate
- Fourteen or Fight
- Wild in the Streets
- Listen to the Music
- Sally LeRoy
- Shelly in Camp
- Paxton Quigley's Had the Course
- Sittin' in Circles
- Max Frost Theme
Some believe the music recorded under the name of Max Frost and The Troopers was actually by a group called 13th Power, which recorded one single in 1967. 13th Power was apparently the same group that went by the name The Mom’s Boys and recorded songs that appear on the soundtracks for the films "Riot on the Sunset Strip" and "Freakout USA."
However, others think Max Frost and The Troopers were actually the band Davie Allan and the Arrows, which also recorded songs for soundtracks to movies issued by the same studios. A third theory is that Max Frost and The Troopers was a mixed group of members from both 13th Power and Davie Allan and the Arrows, as well as various studio musicians.
Max Frost, played by Christopher Jones, was the main character in the May 1968 movie "Wild in the Streets." Frost is a rock star who rises to become president of the United States after the voting age is dropped to 14. The soundtrack to the movie was credited to Max Frost and The Troopers.
However, the first recordings issued that were credited to the band were two tracks on the soundtrack to the film "Glory Stompers," which came out in November 1967. Both films were produced by American International Pictures, which focused on low-budget horror and exploitation movies targeted at teenagers.
It’s unclear whether the studio decided to recycle the name Max Frost from the fictitious band on the "Glory Stompers" soundtrack, or if the songs on the "Glory Stompers" soundtrack were a way to give the group some rock cred before "Wild in the Streets" came out.
Two of the Max Frost songs on the "Wild in the Streets" soundtrack had previously appeared as a single a few months earlier credited to 13th Power. The soundtrack versions are re-recordings but seem to have the same vocalist, Paul Wibier, who wrote or co-wrote most of the songs on the soundtrack. One of the songs he didn’t write was "The Shape of Things to Come." It was written by the Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and the song became a hit, rising to No. 22 on Billboard and remaining on the charts for nine weeks. Now considered a classic psychedelic / garage rock anthem of its era, the song sounds as if it’s a collaboration of The Yardbirds and The Grass Roots with a little Doors thrown in as well.
Considering it was a fictitious band that was featured on screen, you might expect that "Wild in the Streets" was the end of Max Frost and The Troopers. However, American International Pictures distributed the film "Three in the Attic" in 1969 with a soundtrack by Chad and Jeremy. But the studio didn’t have the rights to issue Chad and Jeremy songs on records. So they resurrected Max Frost and The Troopers, rerecorded one Chad and Jeremy song “Paxton Quigley's Had the Course,” and issued a single with the track “Sittin’ in Circles” on the flip side. And these songs may have indeed been recorded by Davie Allan and The Arrows (or studio musicians, or a combination – who knows?)
The original soundtrack for "Wild in the Streets" contained just 10 songs. In 2014, Captain High Records released an expanded version with 19 tracks, including "Paxton Quigley's Had the Course," but curiously not "Sittin’ in Circles." If we take the Captain High compilation, and add "Sittin' in Circles" as well as the two tracks from the "Glory Stompers" soundtrack plus another B-side, we have the complete 23 recordings of Max Frost and The Troopers.
But full disclosure: I'm actually still searching for the two B-sides of "Sittin' in Circles" and "Max Frost Theme." So my "complete recordings" is incomplete. If anyone out there has mp3 files of these two songs, I'd be thrilled to have them.
For cover art, I took inspiration from the first line of "Shape of Things to Come" ("There’s a new sun, rising up angry in the sky...."), found this photo online taken by Giuliano Maiolini, cropped it and added titles.
UPDATE: June 2022: I managed to get an mp3 of "Sittin' in Circles." Just one more to go.
