Steppenwolf - 1969 "At Your Birthday Party"

At Your Birthday Party is the third studio album by Steppenwolf, released in 1969 on the ABC Dunhill Records label. It was the first Steppenwolf album to feature bass player Nick St. Nicholas; and the last album to feature guitarist Michael Monarch, who left the band in August 1969. Although it was less critically acclaimed than their successful first two albums, Steppenwolf and The Second, it contains a few well-known hits, such as "It's Never Too Late" and "Jupiter's Child", as well as "Rock Me," which had been featured in the 1968 film Candy. Although the band would be very successful in the early 1970s, At Your Birthday Party would be their last top ten album and features their last top ten single. The album showcases Steppenwolf coming out of, but not yet completely abandoning, the psychedelia of The Second and stepping into the distinctive hard rock of their later releases.

The album's cover was designed by art director Gary Burden. The original LP was a gatefold with a punched-out front cover; the punchout revealed a photo of the band which comprised the inner sleeve's recto. This photo of the band was shot by Henry Diltz, and it shows the band sitting in the remnants of amplifiers and equipment in a charred house which had belonged to Canned Heat. (A 1969 fire ripped through Canned Heat's house and rehearsal studio on Lookout Mountain Ave in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California.) Original lead guitarist Michael Monarch did not show up for the photo shoot. Steppenwolf producer Gabriel Mekler bore a physical resemblance to Monarch, and it was decided that Mekler would take Monarch's place in the photo. Mekler was able to hide himself all the more in the photo by sporting a pair of sunglasses. Initially, not too many noticed. Monarch was still in the band, however. (A dispelled myth is that Monarch was no longer in the band at the time of the photo shoot; he was in the band until the latter part of 1969, and the album came out in early 1969.) The LP was reissued on CD by MCA in late 1980's. MCA decided to not use the photo for their CD re-issue and opted only for the original unfinished war mouse painting, originally intended as the LP's cover. The resulting CD artwork indeed looks bare as a result. The surrounding black-and-white image of the LP's gate-fold sleeve was made by importing images of cartoon mouse heads onto the bodies of soldiers within an image of a U.S. Civil War trenched battlefield. The black-and-white portion of the album art was a collage made by Rick Griffin, who was supposed to paint a final version of what became the album art, but Dunhill Records declined to pay for the painting and so used Griffin's black-and-white prototype.

The recording sessions for "At Your Birthday Party" started to show the wear and tear of the road on all of us. In addition, some band members for the first time, tried their hand at songwriting and I had run out of tunes to contribute. This album nevertheless includes some of my favorite Steppenwolf tracks such as "Happy Birthday", "Jupiter's Child" and "Rock Me". Nick St. Nicholas (who had replaced our original bassist Rushton Moreve) had an idea for a song titled "It's Never Too Late", which triggered me to work out the rest of the song. That one is an all time favorite of mine. Gabriel Mekler (our Producer) had his hands full trying to be fair to all band members and stay neutral to allow us to work out the difficulties on our own. The fact that the song "Rock Me" (which had been written for the soundtrack of the motion picture "Candy") had already been a hit single before it was included in the "Birthday album" may have reduced the impact of the album because the initial sales of the LP were not what we had hoped for, although over the years, it became quite popular with many of our fans.

With two top ten albums and two top three singles in America in 1968, Los Angeles rockers Steppenwolf gave themselves some act to follow. But in the early months of the following year, they were at it again. On 7 March 1969, they released their third LP, At Your Birthday Party, and would soon see it residing in the top ten, along with its flagship single ‘Rock Me.’

The new album, more rock-leaning than the band’s previous work, was the first to feature Nick St. Nicholas on bass, replacing Rushton Moreve. The arrival of St. Nicholas divided opinion among Steppenwolf diehards, but the new band member had co-writes on two tracks, including a solo credit for ‘Sleeping Dreaming,’ even if that was little more than a minute-long jam. Frontman John Kay wrote ‘Rock Me,’ which had the further benefit of a placement in the 1968 feature film Candy, a period piece of permissiveness featuring Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and even Ringo Starr.

Steppenwolf Rock Me Single Sleeve web optimised 350The single made its Hot 100 debut the week before the album release, and although it only managed a ten-week chart stay, compared to 13 for ‘Born To Be Wild’ and 16 for ‘Magic Carpet Ride,’ it nevertheless reached No. 10. It was a similar story for At Your Birthday Party, which fell short of the gold certification already achieved by Steppenwolf and The Second, but still spent 29 weeks on the Billboard album chart.

Track listing:

01 Don't Cry 3:04
02 Chicken Wolf 2:51
03 Lovely Meter 3:12
04 Round And Down 3:15
05 It's Never Too Late 4:05
06 Sleeping Dreaming 1:11
07 Jupiter Child 3:24
08 She'll Be Better 5:15
09 Cat Killer 1:30
10 Rock Me 3:39
11 God Fearing Man 3:50
12 Mango Juice 3:14
13 Happy Birthday 1:20

Personnel:

John Kay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Michael Monarch – lead guitar
Goldy McJohn – organ, piano
Nick St. Nicholas – bass
Jerry Edmonton – drums, backing vocals