The Kit Kats did some recording for Virtue, Laurie, and Lawn in 1963 and 1964. They didn't hit their stride, however, until linking up with Jamie and concentrating on original material. That's the Way and Let's Get Lost on a Country Road were big local hits for the group in 1966, the latter making number 119 on the -Billboard charts. The records had a spacious, orchestral production, with impeccable high harmonies and quasi-classical keyboards, and were cuts above the levels of most locally targeted releases. But, although Jamie had had numerous national hits in the past, the singles did not break out nationally. Nor did the group, who were making a lot of money as local concert attractions -- probably more money, indeed, than a lot of groups with international hits were -- and weren't pushing for national exposure as hard as they could have.
The group continued to record singles, as well as a couple of albums, for Jamie throughout the rest of the '60s, changing their name to New Hope in 1969. As New Hope, their 1969 single Won't Find Better Than Me -- one of their strongest self-penned numbers, which they had already released twice under the Kit Kats' name for Jamie -- became the closest thing they had to a national hit, reaching number 57. As New Hope they did a few singles and an album, moving to Paramount for one single in 1971. Although there were hints throughout the Kit Kats/New Hope recordings on Jamie that the musicians were intelligent and creative enough to compete on a higher level than AM pop, they ultimately were not hip or ambitious enough to find a niche in the album-oriented rock market, and disbanded in 1974. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi