Category Archives: Showcase

Showcase Discographies

A partial discography for Showcase shows the styles and production credits to be all over the map, with soul, folk, and even show tunes. Mop Top Mike wrote to me “The S400 series was the 1965 release numbering for Showcase. They switched it to 98xx in 1966; 99xx in 1967.”

S-401 – Gary Burghoff – As I Am / Rainbow
S-402 – Little Freddie & the Gents – Betty / Push, Kick & Shout (group from Ft. Lee, New Jersey)
S-403 – The Wouldsmen – What’s The Use Of Crying (Adler-Ross, pub. by George Paxton, Inc., ASCAP) / Summer’s Over
S-404 – Shan Dels – Please Stay / Treat Me Like a Man

9800 – Mat Matthews – Milk and Honey / Shalom
9801 – ?
9802 – Sonny Stevenson – Night Stroll (parts 1 and 2)
9803 – ?
9804 – ?
9805 – Beverly Ann – Great Pretender / We Got Trouble
9806 – Adam & Eve – The Game of War / Hang Me From The Highest Tree
9807 – Johnnie Shepherd – Coming Home / Mr Weather Man
9808 – ?
9809 – The Parris Mitchell Voices featuring Chips Murphie – We Need a Little Christmas / Mame
9810 – Henry the IX – Don’t Take Me Back, Oh Nooo! / Don’t Take Me Back (part 2) (Beducci)
9811 – Lost In Sound – You Can Destroy My Mind / Stubborn Kind Of Fellow (August 1966)
9812 – Yesterday’s Children – Feelings / Wanna Be With You (September 1966)
9813 – Larry Benson – I Do, I Do / Together Forever
9814 – Don Goldie – Popcorn / Summertime

9901 – Maurice Bower – What’s More American / America The Beautiful
9902 – Beechnuts – Nature’s Company / My Iconoclastic Life

The Beech-Nuts (not the Lou Reed group the BeachnutsBeachnuts Showcase 45 Nature's Company – even though he did plenty of work for Pickwick) cut their Showcase 45 at Majestic Studios in Manhattan, a studio also used by the Lovin’ Spoonful. I’ve read the Beechnuts record was bootlegged years ago.

There were at least two other Showcase labels, unrelated to the Pickwick one. Davie Gordon writes, “The 2500 series was from Nashville … the label changed its name to Sound Stage 7 and became Monument’s R&B subsidiary. There was another Showcase label using a 10xx series but it has no connection to the others. It’s from the early sixties.”

2500 – Barbara Grindstaff – Have Mercy (Mr. Lonely) / Where the Red Roses Grow
2501 – Delcos – Arabia / Those Three Little Words (Distributed by Monument Records, Nashville)

Sources include: Beech-Nuts info from Beyond the Beat Generation. Special thanks to Mop Top Mike and Davie Gordon for help making sense of the Showcase release numbering, and to Rich, Max Waller and Ad Z. for their help.Wouldsman Showcase 45 What's the Use of Crying

Yesterday’s Children “Wanna Be With You” / “Feelings” on Showcase

Yesterday's Children, Showcase 45, Wanna Be With YouYesterday’s Children, one of many groups by that name. Released in September, 1966, “Wanna Be With You” / “Feelings” was this particular group’s only 45, both sides written by Don Krantz.

“Wanna Be With You” was the top side. It starts off cooly as can be and builds, but the chorus comes as something of a letdown after the tension in the verses.

For me, it’s “Feelings” that has the magic. The bass floods the opening and I’m immediately hooked. The patented garage rhythm and Farfisa organ kick in and the background chorus repeats what, as far as I can make out, is the phrase “sure enough!” over and over through the verse.

There’s a great moment before the chorus as the bass (plugged directly into the board but still so well recorded and mastered) slides down the neck. You couldn’t ask for a better scream at the end of the chorus. The guitar break is nicely by the book – four bars of bluesy soloing and four bars of just one note picked in sixteenths until the emphatic return to the rhythm.

My feelings inside are [of?] this day and age
And society.
Those people walking around down there they say
“Alright now, who are you?
You walk around looking like a girl wearing boots up high and pigtails”.
What’d I say?

Who are you?
You tell me what I should do,
You got your feelings,
But mine are true – whaah!

My feelings inside are this day and age
And society
Those people walking around down there they say
“Alright now, who are you?”
They tell you how to dress, how to wear your hair,
Not giving you the chance to think for yourself.
What’d I say?

Who are you?
You tell me what I should do,
You got your feelings,
But mine are true – whaah!

The Showcase label was part of Pickwick International based out of Long Island City in Queens. This 45 was produced by Ronnie Eden and Joe Simmons, with publishing by Impeccable Music and Barmour Music. Joe Simmons had a long career dating back to the late ’50s as both singer, song writer and producer, with many releases in one of those roles on Josie, Diamond and other labels. He had one other co-production with Ronnie Eden: The Ground Floor People “Walking on Eggs” / “It’s All Right Now”, (on Parfait 101, from 1966).

Exactly where Yesterday’s Children came from and who was in the band was something of a mystery until recently. I’d read them listed as being from Valhalla in Westchester County, but the only basis for that was the fact that Don Krantz also was in a hard-rock group called Valhalla. In actual fact they came from Rockville Centre in Nassau County, Long Island.

I reached Don Howard Krantz who answered some of my questions about the band:

Q. Who else was in Yesterday’s Children besides yourself?

Bob Huling – vocals
Don Howard Krantz – guitar
Rich D’Benideto
Dave Natis – keyboard
Joe Delio – bass
Fred Davenport – drums

Q. So was Yesterday’s Children your band between the Vibratones and Valhalla? Did you have other bands before Valhalla?

I had many bands thru the years (I won’t list them because we didn’t last long). The Vibratones included Mike “Eppy” Epstein (my oldest friend) who went on to own Never When (store) and was the owner & manager of My Father’s Place, famous club in Roslyn, Long Island. Eppy & I grew up together, his book is coming out in the fall. Yesterdays Children lineup was brand new.

Q. Did the band last long?

Probably three years…with various band members.

Q. How did you get the Pickwick contract?

Ronnie Eden heard me play at a club & approached me, we talk’d & he offered me a recording contract / management and I (being the only song writer) went with it. Remember I was only 17 yrs old at the time. Started playing guitar at 9 yrs. I will never forget the drive into New York City in the back seat of Ronnie’s car…but that’s another story.

Q. Do you remember any specifics about the recording session?

After the 45 was released i told the bass player (best friend at the time) to leave the band. We were all changing musically & he couldn’t. The sessions were tuff as I recall, get’n the bass right, & if you listen real close to “Wanna Be With You” the bass hits a wrong note.

The president of Pickwick was in the sound booth with the whole family….wife & kids….& I thought that was killing the moment/feel. I think I ask’d to have the light turned down so have a live club feel.

I have three or four Yesterday’s Children tunes that were rough demos done by me & Bobby Huling. I may add some other parts, mix down & upload on YouTube …. but that’s way in the future.

Bob Huling & I (best friends) went on to start Euphoria with Mark Mangold later to become Valhalla. Mark went on to play with many bands & co-wrote with Michael Bolton for Cher. For a long time I was teaching guitar & producing some & doing the unplugged thing on acoustic guitar. The Don Howard Band – Poet’s Road came next & was mixed & mastered by Jack Douglas who won a grammy for John Lennon’s last album. The DHBand is now “Poets Road” and we work on a new album in 11/12.

I’ve seen photos of the Vibratones from 1963 and Valhalla from 1967 on, but none featuring Yesterday’s Children. If anyone has any please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com.