Hey, What’s That Song? “Hide The Moon” by The Extremes

By Houston Roby

It’s nigh impossible to know exactly how many singles were released in the US in the 1960s. Somewhere around a gajillion? Certainly a number with a lot of zeros. It wasn’t too difficult at that time to get yourself immortalized on a 7-inch platter of circular black wax since a plethora of small indie labels operated nationwide — labels both well established and fly by night — all hoping to score with that one winning lottery ticket: the big hit record.

So they bought a lot of tickets.

The major labels played the game, too. They used the copious amounts of money produced by their big fish to fund the guppies at the lower levels. Of course, this led to a very crowded pond.

One of those many singles from an act looking to ascend the fish hierarchy came in 1966 from a group called The Extremes. Where are they from? Who knows? The omniscient and infinite internet has no answer, and it’s usually pretty thorough about this kind of thing. We also don’t know any of the members or what happened to them. And since the song we’re talking about comes from the one and only single by The Extremes, what little information we have stems solely from the credits on the label.

The A-side of the single, “S.O.S.,” crashed and burned, and in turn dragged down the hidden gem on the flip side, “Hide The Moon.” Dan Folger, a Nashville songwriter under contract to the Acuff-Rose publishing house, wrote “Hide The Moon” and would later pen many other songs recorded by the likes of Roy Orbison, Tom Jones, and Nick Cave. The producer of the track, Felton Jarvis, was on staff at RCA Victor and is best known for producing Elvis during the late 60’s and throughout the 70’s, as well as working with Tommy Roe, The Monkees, and Willie Nelson. In 1967, The Newbeats — of “Bread And Butter” fame — recorded their own version of “Hide The Moon” for an unsuccessful single.

And that’s all we’ve got.

An unknown group called The Extremes went into a studio in 1966 and recorded two songs with contributions from a couple of Nashville pros and were never heard from again. One of a gajillion.

10 thoughts on “Hey, What’s That Song? “Hide The Moon” by The Extremes”

    • I like S.O.S. as well. In fact, both songs were in my pool of possible choices and I only settled on Hide The Moon because it kept getting stuck in my head. I wish I knew what happened to them because both songs are certainly good enough to warrant RCA giving them another shot at a single.

  2. Such a strange, sad little story … kinda eerie, like this song. The Extremes … a singing group hailing from parts unknown slide into a recording booth at RCA and into obscurity as well. Sounds like the trailer for a B movie starring Nick Adams. Cue the music as a ’57 Ford Thunderbird glides down the highway against the profile of the moon. What a story!

    • I have a lot of songs with this kind of lack of information. Those are going to be short posts!
      Have you ever seen the movie Eddie & The Cruisers from back in the 80’s? Not quite the same, but a similar mysterious vibe.

      • You’re right about Eddie/Cruisers! That must have been in the back of my brain playing possum (like so many things these days)! Now I want to watch that movie again! This is what happens when we get laid up after surgery; we start watching episodes of Matlock and The Love Boat. That’s when we know we’re in real trouble, Houston! 😂

        Here’s to your health!

  3. 1966 was the year that I was knocked over during an earthquake, and spent the next few months nursing a fractured bone somewhere near my ankle and hobbled around on crutches. It was also the year that my dad tried to help me with algebra … which I flunked anyway. Those are the things that I remember – I don’t remember this song though. 🤣 I’ve discovered that it’s referred to as “garage rock”. What? Why?

    • You had quite the eventful year in 1966! There’s no reason at all why you should remember this song — maybe 20 people heard it at the time 😂
      There’s two kinds of garage rock: the one you expect, like “Louie Louie,” literally punky, raw teens fresh out of their garage, and then there’s a broader categorization which encompasses any obscure artifact like this song, regardless of genre. I’ll grant you, it doesn’t make sense at all!

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