The Will-O-Bees - Shades Of Gray

The Will-O-Bees were a trio from New York comprised of members Janet Blossom, Steve Porter and Robert Merchanthouse. They released a total of six records (three on Date and three on SGC). This was the second of them, released in December of 1966. In January of 1967 the record became a hit in Cleveland where it charted on WIXY for several weeks. Soon the airplay spread over to Rochester, New York on WBBF and Buffalo, New York on WKBW by March of 1967. After a few months, the Monkees' own version of the song came out on their Headquarters LP where it began getting radio play and this version by the Will-O-Bees suddenly took off again in several other New York cities as well as in Oxnard, California (KACY), Sikeston, Missouri (KMPL), Manitowoc, Wisconsin (WOMT), and Orlando, Florida (WLOF), to name a few other cities. However the record never did well enough to chart nationally and by mid August 1967, the record was completely off the charts. It still holds up today as a great song, however, thanks to the writing team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.