The Hangmen

The Hangmen were an American garage rock band from Rockville, Maryland who were active in the 1960s. In an effort to distinguish themselves from other American groups and tie-in with the popular British Invasion, they lured Scottish vocalist Dave Ottley to join the group. Eventually they became the most popular band in the Washington, DC area, having a huge regional hit with "What a Girl Can’t Do", that appeared on Monument Records, but had actually been recorded by an earlier local group, the Reekers, whose membership included two future Hangmen, Tom Guernsey and Bob Berberich. The single was nonetheless credited to the Hangmen. The song became so popular that the band was greeted with near "Beatlemanic" adoration from fans, whose enthusiasm on one occasion erupted into a near riot. The group followed-up with the single "Faces", which featured more aggressive sound, replete with a snide vocal from Ottley and a razor-like fuzz-driven guitar riff. Ottley shortly thereafter departed from the band and was replaced by Tony Taylor. The group, now with Taylor, went to Nashville to record the album Bittersweet, which displayed a more eclectic and relaxed approach, which, despite its closing song, a raucous version of Van Morrison's' Gloria", stood in marked contrast to their previous efforts. The album's opening cut was sitar-embellished version of "Dream Baby, which was also released as a single. After additional rounds of lineup changes and in an effort to emphasize their increasingly psychedelic orientation, the Hangmen changed their name to the Button. As the Button, they taped an unreleased set of songs for RCA Records in New York, but subsequently changed their name to Graffiti and recorded briefly for ABC Records.