How is it that “Outside Chance,” written by Warren Zevon (going by his ’60s stage name Lyme), never charted at all? At least the White Whale label valued the recording enough to toughen up the Turtles’ 1967 Golden Hits with it. It’s otherwise tricky sorting through the group’s catalog, in which so many worthwhile outtakes show up alongside officially released tracks on post-breakup compilations. (In the Lloyd Thaxton Show clip below, lead singer Howard Kaylan here reminds me vaguely of the mid-sixties Wayne Newton.)
The Turtles – “Outside Chance” (from The Lloyd Thaxton Show, 1965)