The Crusaders was a five-member band that evolved out of
surf bands Scope Unlimited and The Sidewinders who got together while attending
Westchester High School, Los Angeles. Scope Unlimited, which included Fred Barnett, his brother Jeff Barnett, Dan Altchuler and Walt Flannery, played mostly at recreational centers in Westchester and school dances. According to lead guitarist Fred Barnett, he was taught how to play surf style
lead guitar by Tom Stanton, the original guitarist of The Crossfires from the Planet Mars, another Westchester surf band, who became
The Turtles in 1965. Scope Unlimited rehearsed for eight years in Barnett's parents' garage, played songs by
Duane Eddy,
Dick Dale, the
Surfaris, and
the Pyramids, and recorded a surf music "
Square Dance" and a surf instrumental written by Fred Barnett.
Freddy and the Fanatics While still students at Westchester High School, Altchuler and Flannery created a new band named Freddy and The Fanatics, incorporating the Barnett brothers and Mike Joyce. and their name was changed to The Crusaders. While the band was described as: "five sincere young men ... who have chosen the Big Beat as the means of expressing the religious faith", Flannery and Joyce were both raised as
Roman Catholics, while Altchuler and the Barnett brothers were raised in liberal Jewish families. The Crusaders were "one of the first on the scene with a “contemporary musical expression: The Beat”".
"Little Drummer Boy"/ "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1966) The Crusaders' debut release was a single produced by the newly created No.1 Productions of veteran
arranger-
conductor Hank Levine, who was previously the
A&R director for
Colpix Records, who had produced songs for
The Monkees'
Davy Jones, and
psychedelic hard rock band
The Other Half, and
record producer Larry Goldberg, who had previously been Western sales manager at
Hanna-Barbera Records, featuring "
The Little Drummer Boy" backed with "
The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (Tower 286), that was released in early November 1966. A reviewer for
Billboard magazine described the single as: "A new concept of the holiday material features a solid rock dance beat with a straight well done vocal. A controversial conversation piece that should prove a sales giant". The album's liner notes claim: "For the first time, God is praised in song through the most contemporary musical expression: The Beat!". Kelly Lawler argues that "One of the very first releases that could clearly be considered a Christian Rock release, the Crusaders' Make a Joyful Noise with Drums and Guitars, stands as a landmark LP". Lawler describes the album: "By today's standards, the band really sounds quite subdued. Heavy emphasis on group harmony, and a reliance on Christian standards ... keep the LP from being heralded as an all-out Garage assault. However, they do whip up a snazzy rendition of "Little Drummer Boy" - no kidding. The rest of the material was apparently penned by the band with the exception of the
Rodgers-Hammerstein composition, "You'll Never Walk Alone." With the just the right amount of fuzz-tinged guitar and bass, coupled with enticing organ, the band's Garage roots remain firmly planted, yet not quite the "rocking, muscular, explosive, sound-power" lauded in the LP's liner notes. ... One could certainly make a strong argument for the Crusaders blazing the trail. After all, who predates this LP as far as a straight rock band singing clearly religious music? Yes,
Elvis Presley and
Jack Scott both released Gospel LPs, but neither could be confused with a rock album. This and the overall quality of the music have contributed to the album's increased notoriety among collectors. Surprisingly the Crusaders had the backing of a label, Tower, with fairly broad distribution". ‘With the Lord On Your Side’ and ‘ Make a Joyful Noise’ bore more than a passing resemblance to
The Association, while their covers of ‘
Battle Hymn of the Republic’ and ‘
Onward Christian Soldiers’ offered up a nice introduction to
Duane Eddy-styled rock".
The Love Exchange (1967–68) By 1967 their manager Barry Kaye, who was "a real Hollywood creep ... [who] took every penny we made off of some real big gigs", and moved to San Francisco, California. According to Richie Unterberger: "The Love Exchange were a typical support-level Los Angeles band of the
psychedelic era, right down to their name. the only daughter of actor
Alan Hale Jr., famous as the skipper on ''
Gilligan's Island'', as their female lead singer,
"Swallow the Sun" (1967) By late November 1967 The Love Effect released a single "Swallow the Sun" (written by John Merrill) (backed by "Meadow Memory") (Uptown Records 755), which is described as the band's "chief claim to fame", and "a nice
folk-rock-psychedelic tune that's emblematic of the time with its trippily optimistic lyrics, garage-like
Mamas & the Papas female-male harmonies, and swirling organ". The song was
anthologized on the
Los Angeles portion of the
Highs in the Mid-Sixties series, and also on the
folk-rock volume of the vinyl
Nuggets series on
Rhino in the 1980s. produced by Number One Productions of Larry Goldberg, who "put his name on our songs", with the exception of "the appropriately melancholy and ghostly 'Ballad of a Sad Man' (written by
bassist Mike Joyce)". In April 1968
Love Exchange was released without the two Broadway songs, and received a favorable rating by
Billboard magazine. However, Richie Unterberger described this album: "In addition to featuring "Swallow the Sun," [it] had an assortment of minor-league psych-folk-pop crossover efforts, few of them written by the band. ... These were pretty shallow garage-psych-folk-rock efforts with their
utopian rose-colored lyrics and organ-modal-guitar combinations, like a minor league
Peanut Butter Conspiracy (who weren't such major talents themselves)". who later became a member of
Steppenwolf, played guitar on this album. In 1969 Charity was signed to
Uni Records, managed by Barry Kaye, who also produced their only single: "Never Change Your Mind" (written by Oxman), backed by "I Still Love You" (Uni 55159).
Charity Now (1969) Their only album
Charity Now (Uni 73061), which was released in 1969 by
Uni Records, contained songs written by members of The Love Exchange, although they "never received royalties for anything, though we wrote half of, what I admit, was total crap".
The Blossoms provided backing vocals for this album. ==Later years==