Biography
A little-known garage-punk ensemble from mid-1960s Trenton, Michigan, Sweet Cherry included lead vocalist Mike Carli, guitarist Ray Soucie, bassist Greg Chaivre, and drummer Paul, whose surname has been lost to time. Its members assembled the group while still attending high school. In 1967 they cut their sole lasting artifact, the self-financed single “Funny Things Floating”/“Eight Day Blues,” a record now prized by collectors as a prime specimen of period garage sound. Pressed initially in a run of only a few hundred copies, most of the discs were handed out at Sweet Cherry shows or flung, frisbee-style, from a local hillside by the musicians themselves. After the release the quartet abandoned its earlier approach and re-formed as an instrumental unit, with Carli switching to saxophone, performing nothing but original material in the form of lengthy live jams. Although neighboring players respected the new direction, the refusal to play the cover tunes favored by clubowners cost the band countless bookings, and within a year Sweet Cherry had split.