Category Archives: Panik

The Rainy Days

The Rainy Days
The Rainy Days, l-r, back row: Paul Isaacson, Jim Nosakowski, Al Hafeli, Gary Rozycki; front: John Einowski, Tom Brzezina
 Mogen David and The Grapes of Wrath at the DrumBeat
Mogen David and The Grapes of Wrath at the DrumBeat

The Rainy Days are known for a great version of “I Can Only Give You Everything”. They regularly won battle of the bands contests over Bob Seger and the Last Heard, and appeared many times on the Robin Seymour TV show, Swingin’ Time. The members were:

Tom Brzezina – vocals
Gary Rozycki – lead guitar
Alan Hafeli – rhythm guitar
Paul Isaacson – organ
John Einowski – bass
Jim Nosakowski – drums

In early 1967 the Rainy Days released two 45s on the Panik label. Their first 45 was supposed to include a version of the Fugs’ “Dirty Old Man”, which I would love to hear. Though acetates were made, that song’s uncommercial lyrics may have doomed a commercial release, and the song hasn’t surfaced in the years since it was recorded.

 Mogen David and The Grapes of Wrath at the DrumBeat
Mogen David and The Grapes of Wrath at the DrumBeat
“Go On and Cry”, an original song written with their manager is excellent, with a soulful sound at times very reminiscent of the Stones’ “Heart of Stone”, plus the vocals are full of attitude. The Panik label put “Go On and Cry” on the b-side of each of their 45s, once with “Turn On Your Lovelight” and again with “I Can Only Give You Everything”. I’ve seen “Turn On Your Lovelight” issued on red vinyl, with a plain Panik label.

When their third release “Without A Soul” was shelved the band slowly faded away. Tom Brzezina joined Target with Dennis Wezalis, who had written “Without a Soul”, while the other members stayed active in music for some time. As yet, “Dirty Old Man”, “Without a Soul” and their appearances on the Robin Seymour show seem to be lost, but until they are found we have their Panik releases to listen to.

Jim Nosakowski, Gary Rozycki, Alan Hafeli wrote this description of the band:

In the wake of the British Invasion, interest in forming bands to play live music was rampant in Detroit as well as across the country. In 1965, two groups of enthusiastic, budding musicians, The Brimstones and The 69ers combined to form Mogen David and the Grapes of Wrath which soon became The Rainy Days. This hard-driving six man group was noticed by PANIK Records and in the fall of 1967 they released ” I Can Only Give You Everything” backed by the original song, “Go On and Cry”.

The single charted in Detroit and resulted in several appearances on CKLW’s (Windsor, Ontario) popular show “Swingin Time” with Robin Seymour. The Rainy Days appeared with James Brown, The Contours, Bobby Hebb, and others. Recordings of “Turn on Your Lovelight” and an original, “Without a Soul”, failed to chart and the band broke up shortly after a three year run of good fun and great music. Alan and Jim continue to play together after 40 years in various blues and oldies bands.

The Rainy Days
The Rainy Days, l-r, back: Al Hafeli, Jim Nosakowski, mid row: Gary Rozycki, John Einowski, Paul Isaacson front: Tom Brzezina

Rainy Days Panik 45 Go On and CryI asked Jim Nosakowski some questions about the band, and he responded with Alan Hefeli:

The 69’ers were experimenting with a keyboard player, John Issacson, who could not really play. His brother, Paul Issacson, was a friend of Alan and Gary from the Brimstones and was a very good keyboardist. Through these brothers, the two bands became aware of each other and ultimately Tom (lead singer), and Jim (drums) from the 69er’s, Alan (rhythm), Gary (lead guitar), and Paul (keyboards) formed Mogan David and the Grapes of Wrath. John (bass) was a friend of Tom’s. Dan Bayer (Brimstone’s drummer) joined some of the remaining 69er’s to form Mother’s Little Helpers, a good British-type rock band.

We had been trying to find someone to record us. We wanted to record “Gloria” by Them sensing a sure hit, but the Shadows of Night beat us to it. One agent was interested in Tom but not the rest of the band. A soul recording studio called Big Mack Records, as we recall, was interested in us as their first white group but nothing came of that.

One day our bass player, John, was hitchhiking with his guitar and was picked up by Tony Printz of PANIK Records (he was driving a very cool pale blue Continental convertible). He came to a few practices and decided to sign us. Soon after the decision was made to record “I Can Only Give You Everything”.

Rainy Days Panik 45 I Can Only Give You EverythingWe recorded ICOGYE backed by an original credited to our manager, Tony Printz, though we all worked on it. The recording studio was United Sound, a Motown studio near Wayne State University. Our producer was Danny Dallas and as I recall, PANIK was paying $60 an hour for studio time.

When we heard the master we were really disappointed. The lead guitar was out of tune but Tony said it sounded ok. After much pleading by the band, he agreed to go back and redo the cut. The second effort was much better.

Shortly after we recorded, Tony got a call from someone at United Sound saying that the MC5 had also recorded a version of ICOGYE at the same studio two weeks after we did. This motivated PANIK to release our record as quickly as possible.

Thanks to Jim, Gary and Alan for sending in the photos and history of the band, and to Don Rozycki for putting me in touch with his brother. One source for this story was Koen Goossens interview with Tom Brzezina and Jim Nosakowski on his site devoted to the song I Can Only Give You Everything. The link for that is http://icogye.0catch.com/icogyeinterview1.htm – but be warned of ugly pop-up ads that can crash your browser!

The Rainy Days
The Rainy Days, l-r, back row: Al Hafeli, John Einowski, Tom Brzezina, Jim Nosakowski; front: Paul Isaacson, Gary Rozycki
The Rainy Days
The Rainy Days, l-r: John Einowski, Gary Rozycki, Al Hafeli, Jim Nosakowski, Paul Isaacson, Tom Brzezina

The Only Ones

The Only Ones have one good harmony pop 45 on the Panik label, “You’re the Reason” and “Find a Way”. Larry Calder wrote both songs, registered with the Library of Congress in September, 1966 along with another original “The Only One” that seems to have been unreleased.

The band was from East Detroit, Michigan (now known as Eastpointe). I didn’t know anything about the group until family and friends posted comments below.

Members included:

Larry Calder – guitar and lead vocals
Jim Bohr
Gary Daniels
Mitch Aiken – drums

Anyone have a photo of the group?

The Shy Guys “We Gotta Go”

Shy Guys Oak Park Photo

The Shy Guys from Oak Park, Michigan and their closest brush with fame was opening for a tour of the Dave Clark Five.

The Shy Guys consisted of Ron Nelson (previously known as Ron Lefko) – lead guitar and vocals, Stu “Hirshfield” Howard – rhythm guitar and vocals, Marty Lewis – bass and Mark Finn – drums. Both sides of this 45 are great garage pop with good harmonies. “We Gotta Go” certainly had the potential to break into the charts, but only had local success.

Scott Regen of WKNR had the Shy Guys adapt “We Gotta Go” into “The Burger Song” to promote his show. Hear it on the Motor City Radio Flashbacks site, along with a photo of the Shy Guys and a Scot Regen fan card.

The Panik label was started as JR by Joe Revaz out of Detroit, originally for soul artists. A couple other garage and pop bands like the Rainy Days and the Human Beings also have 45s on Panik.

These two tracks were also released on the local Palmer label, along with a second 45, “A Love So True”/”Where You Belong”. Their last release was a fine Ron Nelson original “Without You” on the Canusa label, with a cover of the Byrd’s “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” on the flip.

These are not the Shy Guys from Florida responsible for the incredible psych 45 “Black Lightning Light”.

Thank you to Ron Domilici for the news photo at top.