I want it...

I checked out The Doo Wop Box: Vol 3 from the Cincy library and stumbled upon a real gem, "Whole Lot of Love" by Godfrey Daniel.

I hadn't, of course, heard of Godfrey Daniel, but I sure wish I could track down Take a Sad Song.... Seems like they were an anonymous group - or a producer or the members of the Amboy Dukes - who did covers of 60's and 70's songs in various 50's styles.

For example...

Doo wop is one of the group's greatest strengths, and they use it effectively on tracks like "Whole Lotta Love" and "Honky Tonk Women"

...

Versions of "Hey Jude" bookend the album, and the closing take is a stirring, Righteous Brothers-like epic, a production gem that salutes masters Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and George Martin. Stunning and dramatic, it may be the finest Beatles cover version on record.

...

the Del Shannon treatment of "Woodstock," complete with slippery organ solo

...

a Rudy Vallee–ish crooner fronting a Goodman-like combo for the ultimate throwback cover of Buddy Miles' "Them Changes."

This sounds like a blast to hear, but sadly, it's never shown up on cd or - as far as I can tell - in the digital realm at all, though you can check out samples of all the tracks here and here.

The latter site also has a customer review which purports to tell the true story of Godfrey Daniel...

The album is only Andy Soloman ('ALL' vocals, and 'All' instruments) and Dave Palmer (Drums). Studio musicians appear on two cuts credited as the Charles Soloman Orchestra. Dave co-produced with Andy, and engineered|mixed as well. The album is mixed in mono, except for the splash cymbal ending on 'Groovin' which is stereo. It was born out of a send up demo Andy made with Dave on a sound-on-sound Sony TC-630 reel-to-reel recorder in 1969. While making The Amboy Dukes last original lineup album 'Marraige' for Polydor records, lengendary producer|engineer Eddie Kramer heard the doo-wop version of 'Hey Jude' and totally flipped out. The Atlantic deal soon followed. Dave left the band to become an engineer at Electric Lady Studios with Eddie, and Andy eventually left Ted for a career in commercial music writing. That's the true backstory...Dave Palmer is my cousin.

From Godfrey Daniel, it's on to Big Daddy and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. And I'm thinking that's about the end of the genre.

By the way, if anybody out there is able to find the Godfrey Daniel tracks in full digital sound, I would be most grateful.