Difficult listening 10 - a few 45s

If you haven't heard these, and are willing to try, two quintets and a quartet...

MAMA GET YOUR HAMMER by Bobby Peterson Quintet (1961) was the B side of a completely unremarkable R&B number. It should have been the A side but the raucousness was a bit too much for the teenage death ballad market of the early 1960s. The quintet was from Philadelphia and had a couple of moderate R&B hits before this record. This was their final record.

COLOR ME COLUMBUS by Johnny Thompson Quintet (1966) is clearly influenced by the work of Arthur Lee of Love, just a little twisted. Johnny Thompson owned a music store in Monterey Park, California where he had large array of instruments and some competent fellow musicians (who gave lessons in the backroom studios) to draw on. They get used well on this "garage" classic.

The only quartet in this group, The Fastest Group Alive had a moderate regional hit with THE BEARS (1966). It is a safe novelty reworking of an A.A. Milne poem with a beat. It's the B side that fits my criteria, and also explains the name of the band.

Links to follow.