The Raiders are a group that needs to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they're not. Like the Monkees, they may have been denied this honor because, in their prime, they appealed to an early and pre-teen audience. Mark in particular appealed to girls. I've felt for several years that there is some sexism involved with Rock Hall of Fame selection, not so much the artists (although I think there is some there, too) but with artists that primarily appealed to female fans being ignored in the voting.
The Raiders' earliest hits were usually covers or remakes of other artists' songs or ones written by notable songwriters of the time such as Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Mann and Weil wrote one of their best-known hits, "Kicks":
Another song they did around this time was one written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart that was also recorded by the Monkees, "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone":
Later, Mark Lindsay and group leader and keyboard player Paul Revere began writing most of their songs. Sometimes record producer Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son) collaborated in the songwriting. Here is one of the Lindsay-Melcher songs, "Him or Me - What's It Gonna Be":
Starting in 1969, Mark Lindsay made some solo recordings while remaining a member of the Raiders. The biggest hit among these was "Arizona":
A lesser-known one was "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind", a song that Elvis Presley also recorded, as well as the guy who wrote it, Neil Diamond:
Finally, in 1971, the Raiders had their biggest hit record, "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)". It was their only single to go to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. By the 1970s, the Raiders were doing a lot of songs by outside songwriters again. This one was written by John D. Loudermilk. I will probably do a blog post about his songs one of these days because I think he was underappreciated.
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