Early life and career Sloan was born in
New York City, United States, to a Jewish American father and a
Romanian-born mother. His family moved to
West Hollywood, California in 1957, where his father, a pharmacist, changed the family name from "Schlein" to "Sloan" after repeatedly being denied a liquor license for his store. and the duo made several attempts at recording a hit single under names such as Philip and Stephan, The Rally-Packs, The Wildcats, The Street Cleaners, Themes Inc., and The Lifeguards. In 1963, they came to the attention of Screen Gems executive
Lou Adler, who decided to use them as backing singers and musicians (Sloan on lead guitar and Barri on percussion) for
Jan and Dean, whom he managed. Sloan and Barri wrote the theme song for the
T.A.M.I. Show (Teen Age Music International Show) and were credited on all Jan and Dean albums from ''Dead Man's Curve / The New Girl in School
in early 1964 through Command Performance'' in 1965.
Jan Berry used Sloan as the lead falsetto voice instead of
Dean Torrence on the band's top 10 hit "
The Little Old Lady from Pasadena". Around that time, Sloan and Barri also wrote their first U.S. Billboard Top 100 hit, "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann",
arranged by
Jack Nitzsche and performed by a
Watts, California-born artist named Round Robin. Soon they also appeared on surf records by
Bruce & Terry and the Rip Chords, and they recorded their own surf singles and album as
The Fantastic Baggys.
Dunhill Records Adler then doubled their salaries to hire them for his startup publisher Trousdale Music and startup label
Dunhill Records. Using the name Phil F. Sloan or P. F. Sloan (the "F" stood for "Flip", his nickname), Sloan wrote or co-wrote
hits for many performers, including "
Eve of Destruction" (
Barry McGuire); "
You Baby" and "Let Me Be" (
The Turtles); "
A Must to Avoid" and "
Hold On!" (
Herman's Hermits); "Take Me For What I'm Worth" (
The Searchers); and
"Secret Agent Man" (
Johnny Rivers). This last song was the
theme tune for
Danger Man, a British TV series that had been given a new title (
Secret Agent) and theme for the US market. Due to its line "You're old enough to kill, but not for votin'", "Eve of Destruction" was used as a rallying cry by supporters of the
Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which changed the voting age from 21 to 18 as of 1971. Sloan also became a session guitarist as part of the group of L.A. session musicians known as
The Wrecking Crew, working with such well-known backing musicians as drummer
Hal Blaine, guitarist
Tommy Tedesco, bassists
Joe Osborn and
Carol Kaye, and bassist/keyboardist
Larry Knechtel, among others. While working with Barry McGuire, Sloan created and played a guitar introduction as a hook to a new song by
John Phillips entitled "
California Dreamin'", and the same backing track was used for the hit version by Phillips' group
The Mamas & the Papas, which led to Sloan being a regular in their recording sessions. Sloan generally played the lead guitar tracks on most of the songs he wrote, including the famous riff in "Secret Agent Man". Sloan and Barri also were performers while on Dunhill. They released Dunhill's first album, a collection of surf instrumentals, as the "Rincon Surfside Band", and the album was later issued by RCA under the name "Willie and the Wheels". Sloan's successful folk-influenced songwriting caused Dunhill to record two solo albums by him. His single "Sins of a Family" reached the Billboard top 100 in fall 1965, in the wake of the huge success of "Eve of Destruction". During this time, Sloan & Barri continued to do session work with Jan Berry of Jan & Dean, until Jan's near-fatal car wreck in April 1966, which basically ended Jan & Dean's career. They also produced a number of other acts, from
Ann-Margret to
The Robbs to Canadians
Terry Black and Patrician-Anne McKinnon (both of whom had hits in Canada with Sloan-Barri songs) to Dunhill acts such as
Shelley Fabares, The Ginger Snaps featuring Dandee Duncan, The Thomas Group (headed by
Danny Thomas's son Tony), and The Iguanas (a Mexican band that did not speak English). The main Sloan-Barri recording effort for Dunhill was done under the name
The Grass Roots. However, after The Grass Roots enjoyed a Billboard Top 30 single with "Where Were You When I Needed You", the band's
first album failed to chart, and Dunhill forced Sloan and Barri to recruit a real band to perform as The Grass Roots. Ultimately, a second band had to be recruited after the first one quit. Sloan and Barri continued as producers for the band, and they quickly generated a U.S. top 10 hit with a cover of the European hit "
Let's Live for Today" (by the British band
The Rokes). After that, though, the new Grass Roots wanted to write their own songs, and Sloan, who still wanted to be a recording artist, became alienated from both Barri and Dunhill management. During this period, Sloan's growing experience and reputation also attracted the attention of other young and aspiring musical artists, seeking both musical and business advice. As a favor to a friend, Sloan in 1968 first met the relatively unknown
Jimmy Webb at a private home for an informal but eye-opening visit. The very first song Webb played for him was "
Wichita Lineman". Sloan recalls, "He played a couple of chords and began to unload. I was aware immediately that I was listening to a songwriter's voice. It was filled with feeling and emotion. Most songwriters don't have a voice, but this one was haunting and unusual and raw and wonderful." Sloan further explains, "There are singers and there are songwriters, and only rarely is there something known as a singer-songwriter. Singer-songwriters were a threat to the establishment. And I was one of them." Sloan explains that as the song continued, he felt relaxed at first, then nervously on edge "...figuring that he would screw the song up in some way. But he didn't. The song got better and better." This was followed by "
Up, Up and Away" and an early version of "
MacArthur Park". The next song, "
By the Time I Get to Phoenix", brought Sloan to tears. Sloan assured Webb that every song could be a major hit, quipping that "Songwriters don't cry tears, they cry diamonds." According to Barri, Sloan changed after the success of "Eve of Destruction": "He was two people. We were just two Jewish kids from New York. We liked the same movies. We played Wiffle ball together. But when 'Eve of Destruction' became such a smash, he went with Barry McGuire to England, and he came back a different person. His girlfriend, who I later married—both of us felt he never returned from England. He was a major, major talent. God, he was good." this seminal event occurred prior to the
Monterey Pop Festival held the following weekend, although unlike the Monterey event no film or audio recordings were preserved and its history is much less known. Sloan's final Dunhill release was a solo single, "I Can't Help But Wonder, Elizabeth" b/w "Karma (A Study of Divinations)", once again released under the name Philip Sloan.
After Dunhill in 2007 After leaving Dunhill, Sloan recorded an album in 1968 titled
Measure of Pleasure. It was produced by
Tom Dowd and released by
ATCO. In 1969, Sloan's "New Design" was included on the ''
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town'' album by
Kenny Rogers and The First Edition. Sloan left the music scene due to numerous business and legal problems. He repeatedly reported that Dunhill made threatening advances to force him to sign away the rights to his valuable compositions and that the reason for his absence from the music scene was to battle illnesses. After 1969, he did not frequently record or perform until the new millennium. He finally found relief from his long illness with help from Indian guru
Sathya Sai Baba. In 2006, describing this period away from the world, Sloan said, "I was ill I guess for a good 20, maybe 25 years. ... Catatonia for a long time." In 2015, Sloan published a book, co-written with S.E. Feinberg, entitled ''What's Exactly the Matter with Me? Memoirs of a Life in Music''.
Death Sloan died on November 15, 2015, at his home in Los Angeles, aged 70. He had pancreatic cancer for several months and his death was attributed to that disease. == Hit songs as songwriter ==