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The Left Banke

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Musicians

The Resume

    (1965-1969)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Steve Martin Caro, lead vocals
    Michael Brown, keyboards
    Rick Brand, guitar
    Tom Finn, bass guitar
    George Cameron, drums
    Recorded the singles ‘Walk Away Renee’ and ‘Pretty Ballerina’ (both 1966)
    Recorded the albums ‘Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina’ (1966) and ‘The Left Banke, Too’ (1969)
    Reunions in 1971, 1978, 2011, and 2015

Why they might be annoying:

    They recorded jingles for Coca-Cola, Hertz rental cars, and Toni hair spray.
    Dissension within the group kept them from following up on their initial success.
    Brown would have preferred concentrating on writing and recording in the studio (much like Brian Wilson), while the rest of the band toured.
    The rest of the group wanted to oust Brown’s father from his position as the band’s manager.
    Brown assembled a new group of musicians and recorded a ‘Left Banke’ single with them, prompting the other band members to hire attorneys to file a ‘cease and desist’ order and to urge members of the band’s fan club to boycott the record (1967).
    The dueling band factions got together for one more single before Brown left for good (1968).

Why they might not be annoying:

    Brown wrote ‘Walk Away Renee’ at age 16.
    Their combination of Beatle-esque harmonies with harpsicords and intricate string arrangements was dubbed ‘baroque pop.’
    One of the backing vocalists on their second album was a pre-Aerosmith Steven Tyler.
    Their song ‘I Haven’t Got the Nerve’ was sampled by Folk Implosion on their hit single ‘Natural One’ (1995).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 14 Votes: 35.71% Annoying