Our friends at Real Gone Music have another packed month in July.  We’ve already told you about the Toomorrow soundtrack out on Second Disc Records and Real Gone and the reissue of Eugene McDaniels’ Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse.  Now we’ve got the details for two more vinyl reissues, both due on July 9: the soundtrack to the film The Endless Summer by The Sandals and Spacehog’s 1995 debut album Resident Alien.

The road to the soundtrack album of the 1966 film The Endless Summer is a most interesting one.  The group who recorded the album, The Sandals, got their start in 1962 when drummer Danny Brawner joined The Twangs.  This band was in The Ventures’ surf-rock mode and with the addition of Brawner changed their name to The Shadow and finally The Sandells.  The core of the group was Brawer, brothers Gaston and Walter Georis on keyboard and rhythm guitar, respectively, John Blakely on lead guitar, and John Gibson on bass.  They released their first album, the instrumental Scrambler!, on World Pacific Records in early 1964, with the majority of the tracks written by Blakely and the Georis brothers.

The connection with World Pacific Records had brought The Sandells in contact with filmmaker Bruce Brown, who was working on his next documentary feature The Endless Summer.  Brown had been making surf films for several years and the idea for his new picture was to follow a pair of surfers as they travel around the world, chasing the summer in one location to the next.  The Sandells played several of the tracks intended for Scrambler! to Brown who was just beginning to edit his film.  He eventually agreed to put several of the songs in the movie.  A theme for the movie was also written and put on the album.  But the film would take time to come out.  So Scrambler! was released instead and the band worked on a few other singles, eventually changing their name to The Sandals.  Finally, in June of 1966, the movie was released and became a hit, earning $20 million at the box office and sparking a movement of surfers to travel the world.  Wanting to capitalize on the film, Scrambler! was re-released with a new cover and title as The Endless Summer.  The group would also tour with screenings of the film.  “The Theme From Endless Summer” would become a surf-rock staple and the album would be recognized as a classic in the instrumental rock genre.

The Sandals’ next LP would be the soundtrack to a skiing documentary in 1969.  After that, the group split up.  They have reunited twice over the years.  First, in 1992, the Georis brothers and Blakely got together to re-record the Endless Summer album and work on a sequel to the original film.  They released other albums during this time.  In 2002, the entire band got back together for a concert.

Real Gone’s new vinyl reissue marks the first time the album has been reissued on vinyl in the United States.  It features the original artwork and comes in violet vinyl.  An orange “sunburst creamsicle” vinyl is available exclusively at Rough Trade stores and is limited to 500 copies.

Next up is a vinyl reissue of Spacehog‘s 1995 debut album, Resident Alien.  The glam-rock group consisted of Royston Langdon on bass and vocals, Anthony Langdon on rhythm guitar and vocals, Jonny Cragg on drums and Richard Steel on lead guitar.  The title of the album derives from the fact that all of the members were not from the U.S. (three were from Leeds, West Yorkshire in the U.K. and Steel is originally from Canada).

Released on Sire Records in October of 1995, Resident Alien would eventually go gold.  The first single off the album was “In The Meantime,” released in March 1996.  It would also prove to be the biggest hit off the album and the band’s most successful single, hitting the top of the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart and the U.K. Rock chart.

Spacehog released their second album in 1998 and were then dropped from Sire.  Their third album came out in 2001 on Artemis and then the band broke up.  The group would reunite for some shows in 2008-2009 before commencing on a new album.  As It Is On Earth was released in 2013 and is the band’s final album to date.

Real Gone first reissued Resident Alien on vinyl as part of last year’s Record Store Day event during the August drop.  It is now coming to general retail for the first time.  The 2-LP set features the gatefold packaging newly-created for the RSD reissue and comes on pink vinyl.

Both of these titles are out July 9.  If you would like to give either a try, we’ve got the preorder links below.

The Sandals, The Original Sound-Track Music From Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer (World Pacific Records LP ST 1832, 1966 – reissued Real Gone Music, 2021) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rough Trade – Exclusive Variant)

Side One

1. Scrambler
2. 6-Pac
3. Drifting
4. Theme from Endless Summer
5. Good Greeves
6. Decoy

Side Two

1. Out Front
2. Wild as the Sea
3. Trailing
4. Jet Black
5. Lonely Road
6. TR-6

Spacehog, Resident Alien (Sire CD 61834-2, 1995 – reissued Real Gone Music, 2021) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Side One

1. In the Meantime
2. Spacehog
3. Starside
4. Candyman

Side Two

1. Space Is the Place
2. Never Coming Down (Part I)
3. Cruel to Be Kind
4. Ship Wrecked
5. Only a Few

Side Three

1. The Last Dictator
2. Never Coming Down (Part II)
3. Zeroes

Side Four

1. To Be a Millionaire…Was It Likely?
2. Untitled​