Primarily recognized through his involvement with the Millennium, Lee Mallory performed as a vocalist, composer, and guitarist in the late-1960s sunshine pop ensemble whose lone release cultivated a devoted following. He supplied writing or co-writing credits on several tracks for the intricately arranged group, whose style merged the 1966-1967 Beach Boys approach with a more commercially focused variant of Southern California harmony pop. On the band's Begin album he claimed sole authorship of "I'm with You," "Sing to Me," and "Some Sunny Day" while sharing credit on additional numbers.
Under his own name Mallory issued two singles on Valiant Records during 1966-1967. The strongest performer, "That's the Way It's Gonna Be," climbed to number 86 on the national chart and achieved particular traction in Seattle. That release also stands as his most distinctive effort, marked by an energetic yet intricate sound dominated by producer Curt Boettcher's signature layered vocal harmonies. Although the song originated with Phil Ochs and folk musician Bob Gibson, appearing in acoustic form on Ochs' The Broadside Tapes 1, its folk origins became nearly undetectable once Mallory and Boettcher transformed it into a densely produced pop/rock single. Having worked earlier as a folk performer through the early and mid-1960s, Mallory shifted toward pop once he began collaborating with Boettcher. He further participated in several other projects linked to Boettcher, among them the Ballroom, Summer's Children, and Sagittarius.
Numerous recordings Mallory completed in the 1960s remained unreleased during that decade. The CD That's the Way It's Gonna Be gathers twenty of his 1966-1970 demos, the majority his own compositions. These tracks provide a useful complement to his more familiar Millennium output and occasionally display a harder-rocking edge than the material associated with that group.
