Classic Albums-Surrealistic Pillow by Jefferson Airplane

This week's classic album segment I am looking at the 1967 album by legendary American group Jefferson Airplane called Surrealistic Pillow which was the second album. The group were formed in San Francisco in 1965 with Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Marty Balin, singe Anderson, Bob Harvey and Jerry Peloquin which that line-up played @ the Matrix Club on San Francisco on August 13th 1965 but that did'nt last long as Both Jerry and Bob left and were replaced by Skip Spence on drums which he was actually an guitarist and on bass Jack Casady who knew Jorma from Washington when they went to high school and also played together in an group called the Triumphs. That line up recorded the one album "jefferson Airplane Takes Off" that was released in march 1966 which went to no 128 in the USA and on mid 1966 Skip left to form Moby Grape which he replaced by Spencer Dryden an jazz drummer who was also the nephew of legendary actor Charlie Chaplin and in october 1966 Signe left the group which she was replaced by Grace Slick who was from an group called the Great Society which included her husband Jerry Slick and brother in law Darby Slick and also it was the line up with Grace and Spencer would become the classic line up that would record most of the successful work including the album Surrealistic Pillow. The recording of the album started on October 31st 1966 @ RCA Victor's music Center in Hollywood , California and it lasted for 3 weeks until November 22nd. the album was released in February 1967 which it went to number 3 in the USA and it went gold as well as selling over 1 million copies which it stayed in the album charts for 56 weeks. It was produced by Rick Jarrad who was an staff producer for RCA and Dave Hassinger who had worked with the Rolling Stones was the engineer and also from that album had the hit singles Somebody To Love (written by Darby Slick) and White Rabbit(written by Grace)which she had previously recorded it with the Great Society. The album is an excellent and an great album with great songs which it sounds great today in 2012 as it back in 1967 and it was actually Jerry Garcia from the Greatful Dead who came up for the name of the album Surrealistic Pillow as well as apparently playing on some of the tracks of the album as there is some controversy exists about his part on the album. Apart of the 2 hit singles on the album there is great songs including 5 Marty Balin songs, Embryonic Journey written by Jorma Kaukonen, My Best Friend written by Skip Spence and others. this album came at the time when the Summer Of Love era was happening in 1967 and the San Francisco Sound was emerging with groups like the Greatful Dead, Moby grape, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Country Joe and the Fish etc and also the Jefferson Airplane was first San Francisco band to achieve not just mainstream success but critical success. This album is an classic and one of the best albums ever made by Jefferson Airplane as well one of the best 60's albums ever made.