The Fantastic Baggys

P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri assembled the Fantastic Baggys as an L.A. studio project even though the act reached listeners as a legitimate band. During the mid-1960s the pair composed numerous strong and middling pop-rock and folk-rock numbers, yet at this juncture they turned to surf and hot-rod themes, a choice reflected in the ensemble’s name. Any resemblance to Jan & Dean therefore follows logically, given that Sloan and Barri supplied material for the duo and contributed backing vocals to several of their contemporaneous releases.

The Fantastic Baggys recorded a single long-player for Imperial, Tell ’Em I’m Surfin’, in 1964, and issued three singles across 1964 and 1965 that contained three additional tracks absent from the album; a pair of Fantastic Baggys LPs also appeared in South Africa. Although the cover of Tell ’Em I’m Surfin’ displayed four members, the two individuals beyond Sloan and Barri were merely acquaintances who never performed on the recordings. In both composition and execution the album closely mirrored, yet remained a lesser imitation of, the 1964 work of Jan & Dean and, to a lesser degree, the Beach Boys. The project ceased in 1965 once the surf craze subsided and Sloan and Barri chose to pursue more ambitious and nuanced songwriting.