Soul Survivors

About this artist

Not to be confused with the Philadelphia group who had a huge 1967 hit with “Expressway to Your Heart,” these Soul Survivors were from Colorado and cut a couple of fair garage-pop singles in 1965 and 1966. The best of these, “Can’t Stand to Be in Love With You,” was a good, tough mix of Merseybeat, the Zombies, and American garage. The group’s most known, though, for containing some of the members of the Poor, formed by ex-Soul Survivors Allen Kemp and Pat Shanahan with Randy Meisner and Randy Naylor after the Soul Survivors broke up. The Poor had a run of their own taking in four obscure 1966-68 singles before breaking up. Kemp and Shanahan went on to play with the Stone Canyon Band, Rick Nelson’s backing group, before joining New Riders of the Purple Sage; Meisner also did time in the Stone Canyon Band, and Poco, before joining the Eagles. Both sides of the two Soul Survivors singles have been reissued on the 2003 compilation The Poor, which also has everything from the Poor’s singles. ~ Richie Unterberger