With the Addicts Sing
(see entry below) shooting up the record charts and intoxicating fans with the
invigorating power of a speedball chased with angel dust, Word Records was
eager to get the coveted teen market hooked on the nascent addiction craze, birthing
a crack baby of an album called Teen
Challenge, the debut from the all-teen Addicts Choir. Unlike the original Addicts Sing record, Teen Challenge doesn’t conceal the money
shot—an illustration of a dude mainlining—on the back cover. This time, the
label puts it right there on the front, right next to co-ed Addicts Choir, in all its graphic glory for
all to enjoy: a darkened full-color action shot of a young man, presumably a
teen, shooting up in the shadows. The album cover and record contained within
became the hit of 1965, outselling all Beatles and Rolling Stones albums
combined. After a long stint in rehab, the Addicts Choir took their show on the
road and earned a coveted spot opening for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the
Joseph Smith Coliseum presented by Alpo in Provo, Utah. Sadly, the sold-out
crowd never got to experience the Addicts Choir. En route to the show, on a
perilous stretch of highway near Moab, the group’s bus driver nodded off at the
wheel (he had more heroin in him than an Afghani poppy field), and the bus
careened off the highway, plunging some 2,000 feet to the canyon floor below,
so ending the Addicts Choir and the whole addiction fad. In 1997, more than
three decades after this leading light was forever snuffed out, a feisty punk rock band
from Spokane, Washington, called the Flies emerged with an EP called Teen Challenge (Empty Records)—a worthy tribute
to the Addicts Choir and their great album.
