“Time Has Come Today” by the Chambers Brothers – Classic Hit or Miss

Columbia president Clive Davis didn't want them to record their song "Time" and said that they didn't record that kind of stuff at Columbia. He also wanted to find a white group to record the song for them. The band said that this would never happen. When they broke the news to David Rubinson he was very heartbroken as he was really looking forward to producing "Time". He found a solution to the problem. He told the brothers that he might lose his job for doing this but they were going to record the song. He told them to come in early for the session. Everything would be ready but they wouldn't have any time to overdub or fix anything on the recording. They went into the LA studio in 1966 and recorded it with Rubinson adding some strange sitar like sounds over the song with some primitive / early Roland Farfisa synthesizers that he found in the studio. It didn't do any good because Columbia refused to put the single out.

Later on when the group had a regional hit with the song "All Strung Out Over You", Columbia allowed Rubinson and the Chambers Brothers to re-record "Time" in 1967. By this time they had expanded "Time" to be the showpiece of their live show. They recorded the new version in one take with all of the effects live in the studio. Rubinson had set up the reverb and reinsertion things with Fred Catero, the studio engineer. Rubinson recalled that it was just one of those incredible magic sessions with all of them reacting to each other and even the trippy time tunnel section in the center of the song was a spontaneous creation.

The band scored its first major hit in 1968 with "Time Has Come Today" (written by Joe & Willie Chambers), from the group's similarly named third album, The Time Has Come. The song spent five consecutive weeks at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, just missing the Top Ten.