Even prior to The Beatles' takeover of the United States, much of the talk surrounding the Fab Four was on their hair. A budding young singer named Billy J. Kramer saw them in the early sixties when they were still mainly a Liverpool concern and recalled their hair being "longer than what I'd ever seen in me life". American newspapermen got the idea that the foursome must have been wearing wigs. If only they could've seen into the not so distant future. As the decade progressed, everyone's hair got longer and longer — The Beatles themselves were only just able to keep up with a trend that they started.
By the time The Cowsills emerged with their breakthrough hit "The Rain, the Park and Other Things", they sported hairdos that would have rivaled The Beatles in 1964. But being a clean cut family act, they weren't really at liberty to let their locks grow out, any more than they were permitted to experiment sonically or to fool around with certain substances. Billy and Bob Cowsills' musical heroes enjoyed all sorts of freedoms that they didn't. Yet, the desire to be as free spirited as The Beatles and Dylan and The Bryds remained, albeit hidden down in the depths.
With The 5th Dimension tackling "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", there was clearly a market for middle-of-the-road groups to take on numbers from the hit musical Hair. They did so competently, if in rather uninspired fashion, and this was to be expected. They were a polished act that was as establishment as any in pop at the time. Why not look for similarly milquetoast acts to turn numbers from the raunchy Broadway show into family-friendly pablum? The Cowsills? Sign 'em up!
As YouTuber Matt Williamson notes in a longform piece about the family act, it was the older boys who took what was meant to be a send up of the hippies seriously. Studio ringers were kept off and Billy and Bob co-produced it. If they lacked the freedom to do their creative thing then this would be the closest they'd get. Sure, the younger siblings were there to make it all cute and even Mama Cowsill was involved so there was still an element of this being just a gag. But behind this was some musical muscle and a conviction that the thing they were meant to be spoofing was exactly what they longed for.
Listening to it now, I'm rather glad that there were these poles. Had Billy and Bob taken it too seriously then it wouldn't be so engaging. Spoofing the hippies needn't be the exclusive preserve of Frank Zappa (and, in fact, The Cowsills do a far more convincing job of it). Though the rousing chorus and bridge that borrows from "The Star Spangled Banner" are there to remind everyone this is a song from a musical, much of it otherwise just sounds like a terrific pop song, the sort of thing the older boys wished to make all along. Unfortunately, "Hair" would be their one and only shot at artistic independence. It makes one wonder what they could have accomplished had been allowed to write their own songs, take a few illicit substances and, yes, let their hair down a bit.
