Continental V - Wake Me Up Girl / Tell My Why (Continental 101 & Radel 107)
Very little information has surfaced on the mysterious Continental V, the group who crafted the psych classic "Wake Me Up Girl." A surviving studio receipt, however, gives us some clues. The session was done at Gold Star in Houston on July 29, 1967, with Jim Duff engineering. Karl Horn of 1818 Wayside Drive, Texas City, paid $219.50 for the studio time and 100 records. This was not an insubstantial investment -- $219 being the equivalent of spending $1,400 today. Both sides were recorded and mixed in three hours.
One hundred copies were pressed on the band's own Continental label, but these must have sold out quickly, and it was soon re-pressed on the Radel label. The producer credit shifted in the meantime from K. Horn to Ray Dale Boynton. And that was all from Texas City's number one psych band. I'm guessing that they didn't survive into the '70s.
Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman fame has recorded a new version of "Wake Me Up Girl" that is scheduled to be released this year.
Below: Gold Star Studio receipt for Continental V session.
