Now we talking ORGAN! Jimmy Smith could get more sounds out of an organ than Bach!
Howard Wales (who also played with the Grateful Dead from time to time) was the keyboard player for Sugarloaf. You can also hear his organ playing on “American Beauty.”
I once found a manual for a Hammond B-3 at a library yard sale (IIRC, they wanted about 50c for the thing). I leafed through it and was amazed at all the permutations and effects. I’m guessing that a player in a band would only use a half dozen or so, but still the variation was huge.
I must confess that the tune that came to mind was not an ELP or an Animals number but rather “Chest Fever” by Three Dog Night off the One album.
I don’t think I’m gonna live
ver-ry much longer…
Uriah Heep, although again that was more 70’s not 60’s.
Also, Tony Banks from Genesis was a pretty good organ player in the old days before he went synth.
As info, Boston continues to use a Wurlitzer organ in their music. It was very evident in their mid-80s album, the name of which escapes me at the moment, and plays a key role in their mid-90s album “Walk On.”
You’re correct. I was thinking of “I’ve Got A Woman”, which was a knockout version by McGriff.
Can’t believe no-one has mentioned Garth Hudson of The Band yet.
Check out any Band album, especially the first two, Music from Big Pink and The Band. Also his solo moment on “The Genetic Method” on Rock of Ages. He’s just about the best that there is. He played a Lowery, getting much more subtle and elegant sound than a Hammond B-3.
On a more recent note, the band The Mercury Program uses a Rhodes (and a vibraphone) in their music. They rarely use vocals and are strangely terrific live.
I hear the Mellotron is getting pretty popular amongst indie rock circles as well.
Silvio-right- the 1st 2-3 minutes of “Chest Fever” w/ Hudson is great. Cortez’ follow up is good too-“Rinky Dink.” Rydell lifted the organ riff for his “Cha Cha Cha.” The Beach Boys had some excellent organ work by Leon Russell? -Surfin USA, Fun Fun Fun & a few others.
Frank Zappa used a lot of organ music in the early 70’s, if you are into Frank Zappa.
Contemporary indie rock duo Mates of State consist of only a drummer and organist. Great pop.
One word: The Zombies
Well that’s actually two words but I’m not sure if “the” counts.
Your post is excellent, but the B-3 and its guts are not a myth, were talking legend here!
My favorite: Stevie Winwood playing on Gimmie Some Lovin’ (Spencer Davis Group).
Fashions come and go in pop music the same as anywhere else. A few current hits with B-3 prominently displayed and you would see a revival of the sound immediately. Remember that chime-ish DX-7 Rhodes sound that was on every ballad recorded in the 80’s? Yeesh.
The sound that has (at least for me) replaced the organ, synth, vibes, marimba, xylophone, and anything else besides the piano, of any of the keyboard type instruments, is the steel drum. There are several recordings I’ve heard, but can’t identify, that sound terrific, with that sort of a dull thud that still has a definite pitch. I love that sound these days.
Check out Lee Michaels self titled album. Released in 1969, features a killer ‘Stormy Monday’.
You’ll probably be able to still find his hit ‘Do You Know What I Mean?’ from his album “5th”. It was featured in the party at the swimming pool scene in the movie Laurel Canyon.
The Buckinghams were big on the organ thing. Their organist played in my dad’s jazz quartet briefly before grabbing the brass ring.
I immediately think of Born to Be Wild when organs come up, no pun intended. And I remember a viewer letter on Letterman years ago, someone asked why Paul Schafer never changed the organ sound (and he didn’t, as far as I remember). He said, “'Cause it’s classic sound, man!” Whatever.
It’s a unique sound that I miss, if I ever think about it. I mean, the Doors wouldn’t have been the Doors without that organ. And I’m going to look for some of the stuff listed here, as I don’t recognize the non-rock/pop stuff. Could be cool.
Two things in this thread I’d like to expand on RE Hammond organs. First, the “tone wheels” were not a percussion device. The percussion effects were a later addition to the Hammond line, when they tried to spice up the sounds offered. They were a crude attempt at controlling the envelope, like the ADSR (Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release) concept used in synthesizers. The tone wheels were the actual mechanism that created the waveform. A serrated wheel was rotated near a coil of wire (the “pickup”), and the notches in the wheel caused a varying magnetic property to the coil, which generated an electrical waveform with a pattern correlated to the wheel’s shape.
This method of signal generation is fundamental to the characteristic Hammond sound, unlike other organs of the era, which used either real pipes or electrical circuits as oscillators.
Second, the Hammonds with the slider bars made thousands of different timbres available to the operator, in a nearly infinite progression. Each slider bar controlled one overtone series and had 8 positions from none (0) to max (8) for each.
There were 9 bars in a set, although some cheaper models left off the first 2. If helps to know a bit about acoustics to understand this chart:
1: Brown bar, Sub-fundamental (=16’ organ pipe, or a Bass stop to a pipe organist)
2: Brown bar, Sub-3rd Harmonic (=5 1/3 organ pipe, Quint)
3: White bar, Fundamental (=8’, Principal)
4: White bar, 2nd Harmonic (=4’, Octave)
5: Black bar, 3rd Harmonic (=2 2/3’, Nazard)
6: White bar, 4th Harmonic (=2’, Block Flote)
7: Black bar, 5th Harmonic (=1 3/5’, Tierce)
8: Black bar, 6th Harmonic (=1 1/3’, Larigot)
9: White bar, 8th Harmonic (=1’, Sifflote)
FYI: Bars 1-2 are called the Sub group, Bars 3-6, the Foundation, and Bars 7-9, Brilliance. The white bars are all octave-related; the black ones, non-octave harmonics; and the brown ones, sub-fundamentals.
(In case you noticed the 7th harmonic is omitted, that’s because it produces a dissonant sound to our ears.)
If acoustic theory is not your strong point, think of it this way. With the Middle C key held down, and all sliders pushed in (off position) except the Fundamental, you would hear a very pure Middle C (sine wave, I think). Pull out the 2nd Harmonic slider, and the octave C above would be added to the sound. Likewise, the 3rd harmonic would add a G, an octave and a fifth above Middle C; 4th, C 2 octaves above; 5th, an E 2+ octaves above, etc. Once the sliders are set, playing any key on that keyboard will sound the same overtone series beginning at a different fundamental pitch.
You could produce a mix of sliders pulled out to various positions to simulate the characteristics of orchestral instruments. Clarinets, for example, naturally produce odd harmonics more than evens, so the bars for these would be pulled out more than the others. Trumpets are bright, so the higher bars would be pulled out quite a bit. A flute is a very pure, soft sound with few overtones, so you might use a 006400000 setting (bars 1…9). A deep, pipe organ sound would have a lot of sub-fundamental to add richness and strong bass.
Later Hammonds used presets which just stored common settings so the organist didn’t have to mess with the bars all the time, but the good units always had at least one set of slider bars to play with.
Hope you-all find this interesting – it’s a fun and versatile instrument! 
First thing I thought of on looking at this thread was the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (which came out when? 1971 or '72), which really does need to be invoked under this topic…
drool 
I love playing B3. I was trained on organ as a kid and it is a sound dear to my heart. I still hear it on many newer tunes, just not quite so prevelant anymore. Also, some of the newer synths have done wonders with making organ sounds that are more realistic, especially in reproducing the leslie effects.
Ah, what a wonderful instrument!