The Holy Mackerel (Reprise 1-6311) is one of the most underrated albums of the Sixties. Fronted by then-up-and-coming Paul Williams and produced by Richard Perry (two personalities who would soon define the musical tones of the Seventies), Perry tapped Williams to record his own album after featuring Williams' quot;Fill Your Heartquot; (Co-written with Biff Rose) on the flip-side of Tiny Tim's hit quot;Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me.quot; Part music album and part like the soundtrack to a lost sub-culture movie, The Holy Mackerel traverses the spectrum of Sixties-synonymous musical sounds; psych-rock to sunshine pop to folk rock to country rock to AM pop - it's all here. Standouts include the organ-driven, haunting quot;Scorpio Red,quot; the Chicago-esque quot;Bitter Honeyquot; (written by Williams and Roger Nichols prior to their smash-hits quot;Rainy Days and Mondaysquot; and quot;We've Only Just Begunquot;) and an early, folk version of quot;The Lady Is Waitingquot; (Williams re-recorded the song on his 1972 album Life Goes On). The group's original line up was as eclectic as the album's song selection: joining Paul Williams was his brother Mentor Williams (who would go on to author Dobie Gray's hit quot;Drift Awayquot;), original Jefferson Airplane bassist Bob Harvey (who contributed quot;Wildflowersquot; to the album), guitarist George Hiller (who later played on Williams' 1970 solo-debut Someday Man), flautist Cynthia Fitzpatrick, and former Turtles drummer Don Murray. Though the group's sound may have become more refined if pop music history had been blessed with a follow up Holy Mackerel album, liner notes contributor Richard Barone notes that Williams' sound is quot;the driving force [on this album]... that would soon break him through the top of the charts.quot;
