The Forum - The River Is Wide ( usa psych pop 1967)

Sunshine pop arranged by Easy Listening / Soundtracks master Les Baxter. The Forum was an alter ego of the Les Baxter Balladeers, who were supposed to be a Folk group ; so they changed their name for this album, which borrowed from everything groovy: the title song sounds like The Righteous Brothers, most of the time it reminds you of Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66, The 5th Dimension and such. Of course it is a pure exploitation album, surfing on the trends of the time. But commercial music like this is not bad at all ...

The British cd reissue includes bonus songs, some very good Les Baxter instrumentals, and 3 alternate versions of "the River Is Wide", really different from the main version.
From RYM (crissmass61)

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