The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Arthur Brown was the fourth member of the 3 Tenors. Sort of. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was a late-60s band, Himself with a psychedelic, rock-operatic power trio (organ, no guitar) that backed the flights of Brown's amazing voice - whose rough edges, extremes, and volatility made Robert Plant and Janis Joplin sound like Bing Crosby. Their debut LP (with worldwide hit "Fire" and a version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You") was produced, in part, by Pete Townshend; Brown later did the film version of Tommy. Drummer Carl Palmer would later join ELP.

Arthur Brown also did some work on the Alan Parsons Project's first album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination. He sang on "The Tell Tale Heart", and his "rough edges, extremes and volatility" really came through, as he sounded just how I imagined the mad murderer from the Edgar Allen Poe story would sound like.