Chamaeleon Church | en

Psychedelic pop band Chamaeleon Church is best remembered as the launching pad for a pre-Saturday Night Live Chevy Chase. The group formed in Boston in 1967 after singer/guitarist Ted Myers, an alumnus of the Lost, met multi-instrumentalist Tony Schueren through mutual friends in another Bosstown Sound band, the Ultimate Spinach. After recruiting another Lost alum, Kyle Garrahan, to play bass, Chamaeleon Church (named after the astrological constellation The Chamaeleon) completed its lineup with Chase, whom Myers met while recording in New York. At the time Myers was under contract as a songwriter to N.Y.C. producer Alan Lorber, who agreed to produce the fledgling band's debut LP -- Chamaeleon Church later renounced the end result, issued on MGM in 1968, claiming Lorber's soft psych production ethos compromised their original vision.

The band dissolved soon after a brief tour that included an appearance on the ABC television special What Gap? Myers and Schueren next reunited in the Ultimate Spinach, with the latter also collaborating with Chase on some sketch comedy pieces for The Groove Tube. Myers later worked at Rhino Records, while Schueren went on to join the staff of the National Lampoon, appearing regularly on their Radio Hour as well as on the Grammy-nominated albums The Missing White House Tapes and Goodbye Pop and composing the bulk of their mock-rock festival Lemmings. Chase, of course, joined the original cast of the landmark NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, becoming the program's first breakout star -- he left after one season to pursue a film career, appearing in comedy classics like Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, and Fletch before his career nosedived thanks to a series of painfully unfunny features. He also hosted his own notoriously short-lived late-night talk show. .