The Rainbow Press

American Psychedelic Rock group from New York, USA, late 1960s. They recorded two albums in 1968 and 1969 as a way to, unbenownst to them, lose money for tax purposes for the owner of the record company. Famed-arranger Ray Ellis asked his son Marc Ellis if he'd like to record an album, Marc not knowing that Herman D. Gimbel, owner of Audio Fidelity Records, was looking to lose $15-20K as a tax write-off. Marc contacted Bill Yergin, the drummer from his high school band, The Specs. With the help of college friend, bassist Dave Troup, they recruited lead singer Joe Groff, keyboardist Larry Milton and organist Charlie Osborne. The Rainbow Press was born. Marc and Larry spent weeks writing songs and the band rehearsed, then cut the album “There’s a War On” at the 4-track recording studio at Radio City Music Hall. Five hundred albums were shipped to various markets with the ones sent to San Francisco selling out in a few days, multiple reorders came in and in a few weeks the Rainbow Press was a smash in San Francisco, having sold 20,000 albums. The band was excited, but Herman Gimbel wasn't. So, a few months later Marc’s dad proposed cutting another album. When the album “Sunday Funnies” was released, there was no promotion, just money spent. Mr. Gimbel had his tax deduction. In 2018, the band celebrated a 50-year reunion by performing and recording new music together.