Paul Revere Remembered: The Raiders' Greatest Hits

Paul Revere, the outrageous organist who founded and gave Paul Revere & the Raiders their name, died Saturday, Oct. 4, at his Idaho home.

He was 76. No cause of death has been revealed, but Revere had been battling cancer.

Known for their crowd-pleasing stage shows, performed in matching Revolutionary War-style costumes, the Raiders were among the most commercially successful artists tied to the '60s garage-rock sound, scoring their first Top 40 hit in 1965 with "Just Like Me" and going on to top the Hot 100 in 1971 with their version of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation (The Lament of Cherokee Reservation Indian)." They also had a major TV presence in the '60s, as featured performers on the Dick Clark show, "Where the Action is," and then hosts of their own series, "Happening '68" and "It's Happening."

In July, Revere posted a note about his health on the Raiders Facebook page:

Even though I've had some health issues, nothing can stop the old man. I'm like the Energizer Bunny! I jump on my tour bus and go from city to city, packing a trunk full of great Raider songs, tight pants and bad jokes - all against doctor's orders, by the way!

I've been the worst patient these guys have ever seen, and they've been on me to take a break all year. So, we finally did take a break, and recorded two new singles (due out in September), but that's not good enough for them. They want a longer break. I told them, "Hey, I've got to hit the road, I'm booked! And I'm bored!!"

Well, you can't ignore doctor's orders forever, and I have to give in this time or these wonderful men and women might stop trying to help me. It breaks my heart to have to stay home while the band goes out without me to our next block of dates. You don't even know how much it kills me. But the truth is, The Raiders kick major butt with or without me. We've designed this show to run like a Ferrari, even if it's only firing on 11 cylinders. It's built for speed from the ground up. High energy and fun is what a Paul Revere and The Raiders show is all about, and that's always the same, no matter which one of us shows up in a body cast. So come out and see my boys, and tell them how much you miss me. We have the absolute best fans. I love you all and will see you soon.

The show must always go on!

And the songs, of course, will certainly go on, especially the 10 we've featured on our playlist of essential Raiders' singles, starting with the irrepressible garage-rock swagger of their 1965 hit, "Steppin' Out."

10. "Him Or Me, What's It Gonna Be" (1967)

Part "Between the Buttons"-era Rolling Stones, part Monkees with more-than-occasional hints of the Kinks, this single peaked at No. 5 in 1967 and probably sounds hipper now than many of their early hits. It's got that early psychedelic rock sound, pre-"Sgt. Pepper," with backing vocals singing "Sha La La" as Lindsay confronts his woman with suspicions that she's found another baby, telling her she has to choose between them. "What's it gonna be?," he asks on the infectious chorus. "Him or me?" That hook alone should be enough to make her stay with Lindsay, but there may be other factors to consider.

9. "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)" (1971)

Their first and only No. 1 here in the States was a John D. Loudermilk protest song about the shoddy way the Andrew Jackson administration's Indian Removal Act of 1830 treated the members of the Five Civilized Tribes, including the Cherokee people. The ominous organ work of Revere sets the tone for a stinging indictment that begins with a solemn Mark Lindsay intoning: "They took the whole Cherokee nation / Put us on this reservation / Took away our ways of life / The tomahawk and the bow and knife / Took away our native tongue / And taught their English to our young. And all the beads we made by hand are nowadays made in Japan."

8. "Let Me" (1969)

They set the tone with a Stonesy guitar riff, organ swelling underneath as Lindsay pleads for her to "Let me." One can safely assume from the urgency of Lindsay's pleas that that particular sentence would not end with "help you clear those dishes." They'd abandoned the Revolutionary War costumes at that point, and you can hear it in the music, which sounds like it's meant to be taken more seriously by the rockers. None of which would matter if they hadn't delivered the goods in the form of a singalong chorus hook. This one peaked at No. 20 on the Hot 100.

7. "The Great Airplane Strike" (1966)

It starts with the sound of buzzing planes, which is probably weird for a story song about the planes all being grounded because of a strike, but it's a cool effect. The lead vocal is total garage-rock on the shades-of-Dylan side with Lindsay sneering, "I was down in L.A. town / When our manager said 'jump' / I threw my clothes and my saxophone in a two-by-four-bit trunk / I pushed it to the airport and I ran to the ticket line / Man said 'Son, you could have saved the run / Those airplanes just quit flyin'." And the infectious chorus gets off to a brilliant start with the line, "If I can't leave here, I just might stay."

6. "Good Thing" (1966)

Their producer at the time was Terry Melcher, whose association with the Beach Boys may explain the very Beach Boys-flavored harmonies on that vocal break where they sing, "Good, good, good, good thing." For the most part, though, the vibe is closer to the psychedelic side of the garage-rock spectrum with gritty lead vocals from Lindsay, who tells his lover, "Seems this world's got you down / Your feelin' bad vibrations round / Well, open your eyes girl, look at me / I'm gonna show you how it ought to be." This one peaked at No. 4.

5. "Steppin' Out" (1965)

This song is the essence of '60s garage, from the second it stomps into view, the snare and tambourine attacking every beat while the vocalist makes a three-syllable sneer out of "Yeah" and the lead guitarist fires off one stinging blues-rock lick after another while the bassist keeps the verses swaggering. The lead vocal is classic garage -- all snotty attitude and brilliant phrasing. Check the way he accents "Sam" in the opening line, "Well, I had to leave town because of Uncle Sam's deal." And then, he laughs, which only makes it that much more effective. And after the chorus? A rave-up. How garage is that? This single peaked at No. 46.

4. "I Had a Dream" (1967)

The followup to "Him Or Me, What's It Gonna Be" hit No. 17 on Billboard's Hot 100, its psychedelic whimsy recalling the Kinks as Lindsay delivers his breathiest vocal ever to recount the dream he's had "most every day since you been gone." And waking up has clearly lost its charm: "Wake up in the mornin' and I find / You're not in my room / You're in my mind / Suddenly, the sun has lost its shine." This is one of their catchiest moments, especially the chorus hook where Lindsay's sighs are punctuated by a riff that's handed off from lead guitar to horns and organ.

3. "Just Like Me" (1965)

It's hard to imagine how they could have squeezed more Kinks into that intro (although, to be fair, Revere's organ part wouldn't have been there on an early Kinks song -- they'd have used piano). And the record that follows more than lives up to that promise, rocking a stop-start guitar riff straight from the "All Day and All of the Night" school. LIndsay's lead vocal is suitably fevered and the lead guitar part picks up where the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" left off with occasional echoes of the Kinks' Dave Davies. This is easily the most raucous hit single they managed, peaking at No. 11 for their first Top 40 entry on the Hot 100.

2. "Hungry" (1966)

Another urgent rocker from the psychedelic side of the garage, its rhythm mirrors the approach that worked so well on "Steppin' Out," the drummer punctuating every quarter-note of the classic guitar riff. There's also a brilliant performance from Linsday. His vocal is gritty and soulful on "You wanna know what moves my soul / And what ticks inside of my brain." But the best part of Lindsay's delivery is that crack in his vocal on "can't" in "I got this need I just can't control." This one peaked at No. 6.

1. "Kicks" (1966)

Twelve-string guitar licks! Motown drumming! A lead vocal from Lindsay that can't quite decide between tender and sneering! The wistful bridge that seems to drop in out of nowhere! Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote this song for the Animals, but Eric Burdon turned it down. Or so Wikipedia tells me. And get this! It's a cautionary tale that paints the experimentation of the '60s drug scene as a dead-end street with no real answers at the end. Consider the opening verse: "Girl, you thought you found the answer on that magic carpet ride last night / But when you wake up in the mornin' the world still gets you uptight / Well, there's nothin' that you ain't tried / To fill the emptiness inside / But when you come back down, girl / Still ain't feelin' right." And bonus points for beating Steppenwolf to "magic carpet ride."