Today's Forgotten Oldie...

The Leaves were an American garage band formed in California in 1963. Their biggest hit was the song "Hey Joe", which was a hit in 1966. Theirs is the earliest release of this song. "Hey Joe" became a rock standard, covered by the Byrds, the Cryan Shames, Jimi Hendrix and many other bands in the late 60's. The Leaves released a few singles as well as three albums, but never achieved great success and broke up in 1967. Jim Pons, a Leaves founder, joined another group which did make it big... the Turtles. But "Hey Joe" made a huge mark on the 60's, it seemed like every band from coast to coast did the song on stage, and it's influence was strong enough that the song was included in a garage rock compilation called "Nuggets" in the 70's. The song is truly a great example of American rock of the British invasion era.