ABSTRACT
In surveys of the history of popular music, the short-lived Los Angeles group the United States of America is rarely mentioned. Although the group enjoyed a fair amount of critical attention and media notoriety surrounding the release of its only album in 1968—Lilian Roxon gave the band a nearly one-and-a-half page entry in her seminal Rock Encyclopedia and composer Elliot Schwartz praised the groups music for its “enormous creative vitality” in his Electronic Music: A Listener's Guide 1 —the band has received only parenthetical mentions in later rock history accounts. 2 Interest in the United States of America has increased in recent years, however: Richie Unterberger's 1998 book Unknown Legends of Rock V Roll contains a chapter devoted to the band, and its album was reissued on CD in 1997 by Britain's Edsel label.
