[Video Link] Bedazzled has a short, interesting history of a band called The What's New, which formed in 1959 in Long Beach, CA. They got their start playing at Disneyland.
The What's New have always fascinated record collectors: mistakenly listed as a Florida band, they released two EPs in France but nothing in the U.S.Their story starts with the Yachtsmen, a folk group founded by students at Long Beach City College in 1959. They became regulars at Disneyland in Anaheim, releasing an LP on Disney's Buena Vista label (BV-3310), "High and Dry with The Yachtsmen" in 1961.
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Their second EP showcases four original songs by Colin Scot, putting a sharp folk-rock sound behind Scot's plaintive lead vocal and the group's harmonies. It includes the now-famous "Up So High" ("Got no use for LSD, every time you look at me I'm up so high") and the excellent "Get Away" which moves from dreamy verse to tough chorus.
The What's New disbanded in early 1967. Colin Scot became part owner of a nightclub called Kahuna's Cave in Cala Mayor, Palma de Majorca, and toured the folk circuit in the UK in the late '60s. In the 1970s he released LPs on United Artists and Warner Bros, with a final single "Mandolin Man" / "Boris" on RCA in 1977. He died in Amsterdam in 1996 (though I've also seen it listed as 1999).
Check out the other What's New videos at Bedazzled.
