Mark Lindsay

Singer, saxophonist, songwriter, and producer Mark Lindsay rose to prominence as the lead vocalist for Paul Revere & the Raiders, the group that tallied multiple chart successes spanning the 1960s and early 1970s. Though keyboardist Paul Revere Dick supplied the band’s name, Lindsay quickly emerged as its most recognizable face and gradually assumed primary responsibility for composing and producing its material. Departing in the mid-1970s, he largely stepped away from the spotlight yet continued occasional performances of earlier material and resumed independent recording by the 1990s.

Born and raised in Idaho, Lindsay joined Paul Revere Dick’s ensemble as lead singer and saxophonist while still in his teens. By 1960 the musicians had adopted the moniker Paul Revere & the Raiders, a playful nod to the historical figure using Dick’s first and middle names, and they later adopted Revolutionary War costumes for live shows. Their debut single, the instrumental “Like, Long Hair,” appeared on the small Gardena imprint and climbed into the national Top 40 in 1961. Progress stalled when Revere was drafted; as a Mennonite conscientious objector he completed two years of civilian government service, after which the band regrouped in Washington state and began building a regional following. Their version of “Louie, Louie” surfaced on Sande Records shortly after the Kingsmen’s hit and received wider distribution through Columbia, yet it remained overshadowed; Columbia nonetheless offered the group a contract. Subsequent singles, beginning with “Louie – Go Home” (co-written by Lindsay and Revere), appeared over the next eighteen months, each bubbling beneath the Billboard Hot 100. Although not a domestic hit, the track influenced British acts: both David Bowie and the Who covered it early in their careers.

Television producer Dick Clark booked Paul Revere & the Raiders for his weekday afternoon program Where the Action Is in summer 1965. The series debuted on June 27, coinciding with Columbia’s release of the band’s first album, Here They Come!, which entered the charts in July. That September, “Steppin’ Out,” another Lindsay–Revere collaboration, marked their first Hot 100 entry in over four years. Much of the newfound visibility stemmed from Lindsay’s photogenic presence, which quickly turned him into a teen idol. Columbia began crediting releases as “Paul Revere & the Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay,” starting with the next single, “Just Like Me,” which nearly reached the Top Ten in January 1966. The year proved highly successful: “Kicks” and “Hungry” both entered the Top Ten, while Just Like Us! and Midnight Ride each achieved gold status and Top Ten album placement. By autumn, Lindsay had increased his songwriting contributions alongside producer Terry Melcher. “The Great Airplane Strike,” co-written by Revere, Melcher, and Lindsay, peaked at number 20 in October, and the gold-certified The Spirit of ’67, issued late in 1966, featured six Lindsay co-writes, among them the Top Ten single “Good Thing.” Its follow-up, the Lindsay–Melcher composition “Ups and Downs,” reached number 22 in March. Although Where the Action Is concluded at month’s end, the band proved its resilience by scoring another Top Ten hit, “Him or Me – What’s It Gonna Be?,” again penned by Lindsay and Melcher.

The same writing team next delivered the Top 20 single “I Had a Dream,” and the August 1967 album Revolution! consisted entirely of their joint compositions. Sales momentum softened, however, and “Peace of Mind” fell just short of the Top 40 in December. On January 6, 1968, the group returned to television with the weekly Saturday series Happening ’68, which continued until September 20, 1969 (later shortened to Happening) and was supplemented by the summer weekday program It’s Happening. Lindsay had by then taken full control of production and begun writing alone. The result was five consecutive Top 40 singles—“Too Much Talk,” “Don’t Take It So Hard,” “Cinderella Sunshine,” “Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon,” and the gold-selling “Let Me”—through summer 1969. Albums from this era—Goin’ to Memphis, Something Happening, Hard ’n’ Heavy (With Marshmallow), and Alias Pink Puzz—relied largely on studio musicians and enjoyed only modest success. One notable track, “Freeborn Man,” co-written by Lindsay and Raiders guitarist Keith Allison and featured on Alias Pink Puzz, had already been recorded by Glen Campbell and later became a country and bluegrass staple for the Outlaws, Hank Williams Jr., Jerry Reed, and Jimmy Martin.

In 1969 Lindsay branched into two new directions. He began producing country sides for Raiders member Freddy Weller, commencing with Weller’s number-two country reading of Joe South’s “Games People Play.” He also launched a solo career while still a Raider. Working with producer Jerry Fuller, known for his work with Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Lindsay favored middle-of-the-road covers rather than the stylistic shifts he was exploring with the band. His debut solo single, Jimmy Webb’s “First Hymn from Grand Terrace,” barely grazed the Hot 100 yet reached number 24 on the easy-listening chart. The follow-up, “Arizona,” became a gold-selling Top Ten pop hit in early 1970 and spawned a similarly titled album that outperformed recent Raiders releases.

At that juncture Lindsay might have exited the group, yet instead he convinced Revere to shorten the name to “Raiders,” prompting some listeners to assume he had already departed. Subsequent solo singles fared less well, though “Silver Bird” cracked the Top 40 in August 1970 and the Silverbird album entered the Top 100; both the title track and its successor, a reading of Neil Diamond’s “And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind,” also ranked in the easy-listening Top Ten. By then Raiders and solo releases sounded increasingly interchangeable, and in spring 1971 Lindsay briefly considered issuing “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)” under his own name before opting to release it as a Raiders single. It unexpectedly topped the chart in July and eventually earned platinum certification. Meanwhile Lindsay toured as an opening act for the Carpenters and served as a regular on their summer replacement series Make Your Own Kind of Music. He also contributed to film soundtracks, co-writing “Amanda” with Artie Butler for Dionne Warwicke (as she then spelled her name) to perform in The Love Machine. Additional solo singles and his third album, You’ve Got a Friend, charted modestly through year’s end. Bolstered by “Indian Reservation,” the accompanying album reached the Top 20, yet the follow-up, 1972’s Country Wine, failed to register, and Columbia dropped the group after further singles in 1972 and 1973 underperformed. Lindsay’s own final Columbia solo release appeared in 1975.

He continued film work, placing three songs in 1973 releases—“Jodi” in Santee, “It’s Only Me” in Your Three Minutes Are Up, and the theme for The Harrad Experiment—and co-writing “Don’t Let Him Down” with Butler for Barbra Streisand’s 1974 vehicle For Pete’s Sake. He remained with the Raiders as they shifted to the oldies circuit and Las Vegas lounges, but without songwriting or production authority his friction with Revere intensified; his 1975 departure was therefore unsurprising, although he rejoined briefly for 1976 Bicentennial dates. A handful of solo singles, two on Warner Bros., surfaced in 1976–1977 without impact. Thereafter Lindsay operated primarily behind the scenes, writing and singing jingles, appearing briefly in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and serving as an A&R executive at United Artists, where he worked with Gerry Rafferty and Kenny Rogers and assisted on Michael Christian’s 1979 album Boy from New York City. His voice was dubbed into the American release of the Japanese film Shogun Assassin in 1980, and he composed the score for the 1982 documentary The Killing of America. In 1984 the song “In the Night,” co-written with Michael Bradley, appeared on the Savage Streets soundtrack. Drawn back to performing for the Statue of Liberty centennial in 1986, Lindsay resumed regular touring, often playing up to 100 dates annually. With Bradley he completed his fourth album, Looking for Shelter, which he issued independently in 1990 after major labels passed. He made occasional television appearances, including a 1992 cameo on Married with Children, and sang “Ups and Downs” with Carla Olson on her 1994 album Reap the Whirlwind. His fifth solo album, Video Dreams, followed in 1996 as another self-released project, later made available alongside other catalog material via his website, www.marklindsay.com. In 2003 he announced plans to retire from live performance by year’s end in order to focus on writing an autobiography and creating new recordings.