The earliest song that I ever heard flanging in was a late 50s early 60s song by a female vocalist but I can't remember her name and the title of the song is on the tip of my tongue but I can't spit it out.I know that Billy Joe Royal had a song in 66 called Everything Turned Blue that had flanging and also predated The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix' use of it.Can anyone recall who that lady vocalist or what that song was?

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Miss Toni Fisher the song was "The Big Hurt" around 1959.
The Ventures used it in 62 in "Telstar" loved that song.
The Small Faces used it in 67 in "Itchycoo Park"
Eddie Kramer supposedly did it first in Stereo on Hendrix's "Bold as Love"
Freaked me out through headphones when I first heard it.

It's a great effect. I still like it. I still think tape flanging sounds better than any stomp box.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I love Geezer Talk!!!!

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

The Ventures may have done a "redo" of Telstar, but the Tornados, a Brittish group did it first in 1962, referring to AT&T's communication satellite launch, also in '62. (From another Old Geezer ) Can't remember for sure, but wasn't the dominant sound either an organ or a synthesizer in the original?

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The quintessential sound of 60/70's R&R:
Fender Tube Amps
Gibson Guitars

Had to have been an organ. I don't think synthesizers came till later on. The Ventures used tape flanging in their version.

Talk about flanging, Eric Burden and the Animals used it in the song "Sky Pilot" pretty effectively too.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Those are some great old songs 63Supro!! Thanks for refreshing my memory banks my friend!!

Toni Fisher and The Big Hurt were the ones I was thinking of 63 Supro that sounded pretty cool back then,I remember asking people for years what the cool effect was but nobody knew what it was until Eddie Kramer said that it was flanging.Itchycoo Park was the first top 40 song where it was really a dominant feature of it.Back in the 70s or 80s Guitar Player magazine had a feature on how to achieve the flanging effect used in studios if my memory serves me correctly you had to have 3 reel to reel tape recorders with the playback set on moniter so that the sound going to the heads came through in real time and you slowed down the middle one by resting the heel of your hand on the flange of the tape(Hence the name) and this resulted in the "whoosh" associated with the effect.It was discovered-as a lot of cool effects are-by accident.The process that I described had a few more steps to it and the decks had to be jacked together in a certain way but that was the gist of it.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Sky Pilot !! I don't hear that one on the radio anymore. I remember hearing that cool effect on the drums and wondering what it was. I think it was one of the first stereo 45s, too.

Ah, a subject dear to my heart! Thanks for the excellent info guys.
I spent ages learning how to flange manually with tape, and it's not too hard, heaps of fun! I used just one 1/4" reel to reel and my Protools setup, recorded the track to tape then did my best to sync it, manually with the digital version, played them both together while slowing the reel with my hand on and off.... recorded the blend of both for a big full frequency flange effect! Very satisfying. If you've got a reel to reel spend and afternoon playing with it.... it took a while to get a performance of the flanging that worked for me, but man it was fun. I'd love to try it with 3 tape decks!

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"...Compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees, I am an Apeman."

And guess what I found on YouTube?

Miss Toni Fisher: "The Big Hurt"

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

I know that curiosity killed the cat, but once started on these oldies trivia things, sometimes I just can't help myself.

Reading your post about when synthesizers first came to be, I thought about the first song I could remember with a synth.....It was Del Shannon's Runaway. Upon researching, I found "The 1961 song "Runaway" by Del Shannon. The song features a famous solo by Max Crook, performed on a heavily-modified clavioline that Crook called the "Musitron"." It was the forerunner to the modern synthesizer; and I further discovered "The 1962 hit instrumental "Telstar" by The Tornados (Univox Clavioline)."

Now that's got to be more that you wanted to know

And "Sky Pilot" was a great sound, too! I had forgotten it was by the Animals.

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The quintessential sound of 60/70's R&R:
Fender Tube Amps
Gibson Guitars

Thanks for the link. Hadn't recognized the song by the title nor artist, but now that I heard it, I sure do remember it...great song!

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The quintessential sound of 60/70's R&R:
Fender Tube Amps
Gibson Guitars

Thanks for the link RRH,I had to play it a couple of times,that must be the first "headphones" song as songs with flanging sound especially great with headphones and when that's combined with left/right panning as in Jimi's Axis Bold As Love it's just mind blowing.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.