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Mark Lindsay

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Mark Lindsay's professional singing career
began as the 15 yr. old rockability vocalist in an Idaho country group known as Freddy Chapman & the Idaho Playboys. Freddy was a DJ at the country station KFXD out of Nampa, Idaho and recruited Mark after hearing about "a real talented kid" who had just won a local talent contest
A year later, when Freddy's radio career took him out of the area, Mark heard about a band that was playing the local I.O.O.F. Hall, so new that they didn't even have a name yet. He took off his thick glasses, walked up to the stage, and asked to sing a song--"Crazy Arms". Overcome with shyness, he ran off the stage after his performance.
The next day, Mark was at his job at McClure's bakery, and the bandleader (Paul Revere Dick) stopped by to pick up an order of buns for his drive-in restaurant. He was telling Mark (who was unrecognizable in his baker's hat, thick glasses, and light dusting of flour) about the show of the previous night, and how "this crazy kid" got up on stage with them. "How was he?" asked Mark nervously. "Not bad!" admitted Paul. Mark whipped off his hat and glasses and announced, "It was ME!" Shortly thereafter, he was the official lead singer for still-unnamed band.
Many personnel changes later, they became Columbia Records' first rock & roll band, Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Before long, Mark's profile was showcased on the cover of many prominent magazines, and his popularity as a "teen idol" was becoming legendary. At the same time, Dick Clark signed Paul Revere and the Raiders as the featured performers of the immensely popular 5 day a week ABC Television music show, "Where The Action Is". Mark continued his association with the network as co-host of the "Happening" series.
Paul Revere and the Raiders appeared as the guests on several hundred network programs, including the Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, Ed Sullivan, Smothers Brothers, Lucille Ball, Glen Campbell, and the Red Skelton Shows. On his own, Mark followed up on a tour with The Carpenters by co-hosting the "Make Your Own Kind of Music" series with them.
As lead singer with the Raiders, Mark recorded a string of commercial hit singles, such as "Just Like Me", "Kicks", "Hungry", "Ups & Downs", "Him or Me", "Good Thing", and "Let Me", many of which he produced and wrote or co-wrote. During this period, Paul Revere and the Raiders, featuring the distinctive and charismatic voice of Mark Lindsay, sold over 50 million units all over the world, in addition to earning many gold and platinum albums and singles.
One of the songs that Mark co-wrote and recorded in 1967 was "Freeborn Man", which has since become a bluegrass classic. It has been recorded by more than a dozen artists, including Bill Monroe, Glen Campbell, Clinton Gregory, The Outlaws, Hank Williams Jr., and Junior Brown.
In 1969, Mark expressed an interest in producing fellow Raider Freddy Weller, and the result was the debut of Freddy's country career on Columbia Records. Mark produced several singles and albums for Freddy, including the hit "Games People Play".
The same year, Mark became a solo career while still recording with the Raiders, and recorded a series of hit singles, including the platinum "Arizona". He followed up this success by signing and producing the #1 hit "Indian Reservation", recorded by him under the Raiders' nomenclature. This single sold nearly 4 million copies, and was the largest-selling single in Columbia Records' history to that date.
In 1974, Mark left the Raiders, and began a career that kept him 'behind-the-scenes' for several years. As head of A & R for United Artists Records, he continued to demonstrate his remarkable musical ability. He was instrumental in the success of Jerry Rafferty's smash single 'Baker Street', numerous Kenny Rogers hit singles, and many other prominent tunes. During the 70's and 80's, Mark's attention turned to commercials and motion picture scoring. He wrote many national jingles and was the featured voice on ad campaigns for companies such as Levi Strauss, Anheuser-Busch, Western Airlines, Nissan, Yamaha, and Baskin-Robbins. He continued by composing the scores for several movies, as well as the title songs 'For Pete's Sake' (sung by Barbra Streisand) and 'The Love Machine' (sung by Dionne Warwicke). Considered one of rock and roll's greatest performers, Mark was enticed to return to the stage when he was asked to host and perform on a series of shows to benefit the Statue of Liberty. Encouraged by a new generation of fans, as well as those who had never given up their hopes of seeing him perform again, he later embarked on an extraordinarily successful one hundred city tour across the United States, and made a decision to again make his career in recording and performing. Today, Mark performs over a hundred shows per year, backed up by his 'Mighty Band'. Appealing to a broad range of fans, he is well-known for a dynamic and spontaneous stage show that combines the best of his Raider songs with a glimpse at his contemporary music. A USA TODAY review of one of his performances states: "And Mark Lindsay is possibly better than before. The former leader of Paul Revere & the Raiders looks and sounds great and is a potent showman." He still does television occasionally, and has appeared on 'Married, With Children' and other top-rated shows. Mark spends the rest of his time writing, recording, and producing. He is currently in the studio finishing a new album for a late 1995 release. A 2-CD anthology of Mark's hits while lead singer for Paul Revere & the Raiders has already been released on Columbia Records, and he also worked with the label on a twenty-track retrospective CD that was released on June 6th: "Paul Revere & the Raiders: The Essential Ride '63-'67." It includes several previously unreleased songs, as well as an alternate, previously-censored version of 'Hungry.' When he's not travelling on business, Mark settles down either at his log home in the mountains of northern Idaho, or at his vacation home on Maui.

The Music of Paul Revere & The Raiders, featuring Mark Lindsay!


They were the first rock & roll group signed to Columbia Records, and the first group to bring CBS a gold rock & roll record.
According to Chuck Eddy, in "Stairway To Hell"-The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe": "Ages before Subpop Records made the Great Northwest famous again, this Portland bunch rocked with more guts and gusto than Soundgarden and Mudhoney ever would." He ranked the Raiders' GREATEST HITS as #33.
According to Ken Barnes, in Phonograph Record Magazine (March 1973): "A group whose vast recording output turns out to be as solid a legacy of straight-forward, exciting mid-sixties rock & roll as America produced in that illustrious era.
They came out of the Northwest playing in that region's dominant style as exemplified by the Wailers, Sonics, Kingsman, and other local hotshots...raw, wild organ/sax-dominated versions of raunchy rock & roll and R&B records. Their first Jerden Records release was recorded live with Mark Lindsay displaying bombastic bull-throated vocal power. Similarly, their first Columbia LP, HERE THEY COME, sports ferocious live versions of 'Money', Louie, Louie', 'Do You Love Me', 'You Can't Sit Down', Big Boy Pete', and 'Ooh Poo Pah Doo.'"
The Raiders had been signed to Columbia Records on the basis of their local success with an indie release of "Louie, Louie", and CBS released that master as the group's first single. While it was a huge success in the Northwest, the Kingsmen's version took the country by storm, largely because of the controversy over its definitely unintelligible and supposedly obscene lyrics. As it turned out, the Kingsman's version was merely the garbled result of lead singer Jack Ely trying to sing into an awkwardly-placed microphone while wearing braces on his teeth, while the Raiders' version really does have an obscene ad-lib during the guitar solo.
The Who certainly took notice of the Raiders at this time. Check out The Raiders' "Louie, Go Home" (1964) from the Columbia/Legacy anthology LEGEND OF PAUL REVERE and then check out The Who's "Lubie (Come Back Home)" (1965) from WHO'S MISSING...you'll hear an identical song...note for note, word for word, ad-lib for ad-lib, with Roger Daltrey's vocal style an exact copy of Lindsay's on the original song. By the way, "Louie, Go Home" was also covered by David Bowie.
Newly signed as the house band on the squeaky-clean MTV percursor "Where The Action Is", the Raiders released "Steppin' Out", which Barnes describes as "...a classic number with a brilliant prototypically punk Lindsay vocal, and the next single, the pulsing rocker 'Just Like Me' [later covered by Pat Benatar] went Top 10."
The follow-up album, MIDNIGHT RIDE, has been included as #63 in Tom Hibbert's "The Perfect Collection-The Rock Albums Everybody Should Have and Why." He says, "There was nothing innocuous about the Raiders' music just listen to the power and drive of 'I'm Not Your Stepping Stone.'"
Paul Revere & the Raiders, featuring Mark Lindsay, continued to record new material for Columbia through 1974, including the largest selling single in Columbia Records history to date, "Indian Reservation." Although the Raiders' final album was never released (it has been dubbed THE LOST ALBUM), a few cuts made it to THE LEGEND anthology, including "Chain of Fools"...with the group returning to it's R&B roots on that track.
Ken Barnes concludes with: "Those who are willing to re-examine what they've overlooked for years will find a wealth of fine music...impressive intrumentation (the powerful chording or the whining twin guitars on 'Just Like Me' or 'Hungry' for example), superb singing (Lindsay at times 'Just Like Me' or 'Hungry' for example), superb singing (Lindsay at times approached the status of an American Jagger) and enthralling precise harmonies...in short, some of the best American rock & roll of the sixties."

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