The Rose Garden started out as The Blokes in 1964 to ride the wave of Beatlemania, and then morphed into a Byrds knock-off a year later. In 1967, they hooked up with legendary LA producers Charlie Greene and Brian Stone. The young hot shot record hustlers changed their name to The Rose Garden (just as they had convinced The Herd to change their name to Buffalo Springfield). Greene & Stone also got the band to drop the Byrds imitation and sound more like the "sunflower pop" coming out of California - i.e. The Mamas and the Papas and Scott McKenzie.
The only real hit from the album is "Next Plane to London", a song about a frustrated singer ready to leave Los Angeles in search of greener pastures in England, even though it means leaving her boyfriend behind. It topped out on the Billboard charts at #17 in December, 1967.
Open or Download mp3 from Rapidshare. My record, from which this mp3 is ripped, is pretty scratchy. Otherwise, I'd share the whole LP.
Diana Di Rose was a vocalist and acoustic guitarist for the band. Even after they had been converted from the British Invasion sound-a-likes The Blokes to the Californian sunshine pop The Rose Garden, she continued to pretend to be from Blackpool, England, when in fact she was from West Virginia. On their appearance on American Bandstand, Dick Clarke actually pointed out how her British accent seemed to come and go!
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The only member to continue in the music business was Diana. She apparently became a member of the group, Rotondi (who I can't find any information on). She also worked as a session musician in Nashville.
