The Comfortable Chair

Formed in California during 1968, the Comfortable Chair assembled as a pop-psychedelic sextet comprising songwriter and singer Bernie Schwartz, vocalist Barbara Wallace, guitarist Gene Earfin, bassist Gary Davis, drummer Greg Leroy, and keyboard player Tad Baczek. The group issued a lone self-titled album on Lou Adler’s Ode Records label, where it appeared in the release sequence immediately ahead of Peggy Lipton’s folk-rock effort at a moment when the company’s activity was so sparse that new titles could easily vanish unnoticed. A marginally more durable trace of their career surfaced through an on-screen appearance in the 1969 comedy How to Commit Marriage, a Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason vehicle. Still, the episode most worth noting centers on two individuals who never joined the lineup: Robbie Krieger and John Densmore of the Doors, who produced the Ode album as their first work apart from their primary band.