The Rofran Studio & Labels

In the mid 1960’s the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana became a center for innovative jazz and avant-garde electronic and computer music. Starting in 1967, the Red Herring Coffeehouse just off the main quad on W Oregon became a center for folk artists. And of course there was a thriving band scene at the Illini Brown Jug and other student beer joints. For those not familiar with that area’s geography, the school is located in eastern-central Illinois, roughly equidistant from Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.

Roger Francisco began recording out of a home studio to the east of campus in Urbana, Illinois circa 1964. Rofran (a combination of the first syllables of his first and last names) was the name he gave to his studio, one of his labels, and also the name of his production and publishing companies. It’s an open question as to how prominent the studio was in that area, as many bands recorded at other studios: Dean Carter, the One Eyed Jacks and the Bacardis for example.

I’ve only heard a few of these records. The Cliques has had the most exposure, showing up on Back From the Grave vol. 7. I’ve heard one side of the Keepers, which is good harmony pop, and the first Prodigies 45, “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” a bluesy instrumental with sax and some odd organ sounds, backed with “Don’t Look Back”, which starts out with a hip bossa groove but the vocals are square, mimicking the complex harmonies on brazilian groups from the time.

Mike Markesich filled me in on some Rofran releases:

The Sound Studio Production (Rofran 1010) was a label printing goof – the real group is the Prodigies, university guys from Champaign IL. I have the 45 crediting the Prodigies. They have a second 45 on Rofran 1013 “I Want To Do It” / “What I’d Say”, both released in ’66.

Quarternotes “My Baby Left Me” crude thumpin’ garage rocker with a kinda ‘rural’ vocal vibe.

There are other Rofran releases on different-named labels. One that comes to mind is the Ravins “Andy” on the Syndicate label (#1028). Very cool, moody organ swinger with a crisp guitar break. Flipside is “I Had a Feeling”, which is more aligned to a pop sounding jangle ballad. This was their only recording. One of the songwriters on the 45 made a solo Rofran record.

The Cliques “So Hard” / “Ballad Of A Destitute Man” on Custom 1020 (Jan ’67) is a Rofran release. Ditto the Keepers “Why Have You Changed” / “Tiny Teardrops” on Custom 1021 (Jan ’67).

Rogues Rofran 45 Gone to StayRogues Rofran 45 Wait Till the Summer

Although early releases seem commercially-minded, Rofran became a studio for more adventurous music sessions towards 1968 and 1969. Some of those musicians, like James Cuomo and Howie Smith, came out of the jazz and experimental music programs at UICU.I asked Howie Smith about his time with the Prodigies at Rofran studio:

The studio, indeed, started in the basement of Roger’s home in Urbana, and at some point he leased a much larger space in a building on Race Street for the studio.

At the time I enrolled at the University of Illinois, the band with Roger Francisco, Gordy Wilson and Bill Steffen was looking for a sax player and I got the job. I played with them on a nightly gig at The Beacon (a bar/roadhouse located just south of Rantoul Air Base) for about 2 years. Roger played guitar and electric bass, Gordy played some sort of electronic keyboard (my memory is that it was an early Farfisa, but I could be totally wrong about that), Bill was the drummer, I played tenor sax and electric bass, and we all sang.

I don’t remember whether the band went under the name of The Prodigies at that time or not, but it was under that name that we recorded “Don’t Look Back” and “KYSMYPH.” At some point the name of the band was changed to Sound Studio One, but I’m almost positive that didn’t happen until later.

As The Prodigies (a name that always made me cringe) we also released a Christmas recording of “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer” backed with “Sleigh Ride.”

As Sound Studio One we recorded “Never Tell” backed with a very strange “Never Marry a Woman Who is Taller Than You” that richly deserves (and should maintain) its status as unknown by virtually everyone.

The Prodigies/Sound Studio One was also used as the band behind various singers who recorded at rofran. One of those was Al Ierardi, who I believe had some success with “Drifter” backed with “Dureen.”

I was also doing some writing and arranging for other groups in the area and remember recording horn parts at rofran for at least one song by Feather Train.

At Rofran we were also writing and recording music and voice-overs for some ad agencies in the area. “Oh Boy, Tom Boy” was a commercial jingle written for a short-lived drive-in restaurant a-la McDonald’s.

At some point after leaving Sound Studio One I worked for a time with The Nickel Bag. The band at that time consisted of T.T. Coleman singing lead vocal, Bob Crownover on guitar, Rick Raines on organ, Pat Hammond on bass, John Phillips on drums, Rick Bendel and Ron Meng on trumpets, and Ron Dewar and me on tenor saxes). The group was very popular and quite busy in the Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin area, but we never released a commercial recording.

I haven’t been in touch with Roger or Bill for quite a long time, but I get back to Champaign-Urbana a couple of times a year to do a jazz gig, and Gordon showed up at one of then a couple of years ago.

Shades of Blue Shades Rofran 45 Not The Way Love Should BeImpalas Rofran 45 Lost Beat

Roger Francisco wrote to me:

I still have file copies of most of the singles we released on RoFran (which I backed and promoted) and the Custom label (for which I was just studio for hire and processed the pressings for). I remember our ongoing special was a few hours of studio time and a hundred 45 RPM pressings for $100.

As we moved into the 70’s, I got involved with the annual Red Herring Coffee House folk festivals, location recording and producing their LPs, and ultimately got involved co-managing and publishing The Ship, running sound for their live gigs and mixing their Elektra album in LA, and also recording the early efforts of Dan Fogelburg.

I sold the studio operation to Al Ierardi (the Drifter single) around 1974-75 and ultimately became chief engineer at Creative Audio, home to Columbia artist Champaign. I eventually transitioned into commercials and industrial sound track production, and ultimately to Human Kinetics where I put together a corporate recording studio and produce all their DVD and web streaming soundtracks.

The Spoils of War consisted of James Cuomo, Roger Francisco, Frank Garvey, Al Ierardi, Anne Whitefish-Williams and James Stroud. They made a seven-inch, 33 1/3 rpm EP (sometimes listed as You’re Invited to Hear the Spoils of War) in 1969, running over seventeen minutes with five songs: “What Happend Now”, “Now Is Made in America”, “Henry T. Joseph”, “Void of Mystery” and “The Greyness Moves in Quietly”.

In 1999 the Shadoks label released recordings made in 1968 without Anne, and a second CD, The Spoils of War II unearthed further live and studio material from James Cuomo’s archives.

Rofran produced another lengthy seven-inch, 33 1/3 rpm, five song EP in 1970 for James Cuomo, known as Cuomo’s Record and featuring Al Ierardi, Charlie Braugham, Bob Witmer, Cal Drake, Larry Dwyer and Steve Larner. Side A: Suzan Never Smiles”, “Remembering”, “Ring, Magic Telephone, Ring”, and “Victoria Falls”; Side B: “Crimson Uniform”.

Cuomo’s Record

Rofran productions and discography (incomplete, any help would be appreciated):

Early 45s on Rofran, Custom and Syndicate seem to follow a 10xx numbering system:

Rofran 1001 – The Intruders “Deception” / “Intrudin'”
Rofran 1002 – The Rogues “Gone To Stay” / “Wait Till the Summer”
Rofran 1003 – Lee Rust “Scramble” / “Do You Ever Kinda Wonder?”
Rofran 1004 – Lee Rust “Mystery House” / “Come on Back”
Rofran 1005 – Lee Rust “Try, Try to Leave” (W.L. Rust) / “I’m Spoken For”
Rofran 1006 – Lee Rust “She’s Gone Tonight” / “World Made of Romance”
1007 – ?
1008 – ?
1009 – ?
Rofran 1010 – Sound Studio One “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” (Instrumental by Wilson-Smith-Steffen) / “Don’t Look Back” (H.A. Smith) (1966)
Rofran 1010 – The Prodigies “Kysmyph (KIS-MIF)” (Instrumental by Wilson-Smith-Steffen) / “Don’t Look Back” (H.A. Smith)
1011 – ?
Rofran 1012 – The Impalas “Kristina” / “Lost Beat” (both by R. Dilling)
Rofran 1013 – The Prodigies “I Want To Do It” / “What’d I Say” (1966)
Rofran 1014 – The Quaternotes “My Baby Left Me” / “You And I (Are In Love)”
1015 – ?
1016 – ?
1017 – ?
Rofran 1018 – The Lindsey Triplets “Tomorrow’s Another Day” (C.F. & R.E. Francisco) / “Terry”
Rofran 1019 – Al Ieradi – “Drifter” / “Dureen”
Custom 1020 – The Cliques “So Hard” (J.D. Vance, J.S. Walbillig) / “Ballad of a Destitute Man” (Jan. ’67, produced by Tim Abel)
Custom 1021 – The Keepers “Why Have You Changed” (S. J. Beresford) / “Tiny Teardrops” (Jan. ’67)
Star Record and Recording P-1022 – Count Demon and His Four Members – “(I Got To) Work With It” / “C-C Rider” (836R-1022, U4KM-9165/6)
1023 – ?
Custom 1024 – The Dearly Beloved “Cindy” (M. Gallivan) one-sided record
1025 – ?
Psychedelic 1026 – Puppet, Dingbat & Odie – “Transcontinental Balloon Ride” / “Julie” (836R-1026, U4KM-3650/1)
1027 – ?
Syndicate 1028 – The Ravins “Andy” / “I Had a Feeling”
1029 – ?
Shades 836R-1030 – The Shades of Blue “Not the Way Love Should Be” / “You Must Believe Me”
1031 – ?
1032 – ?
1033 – ?
1034 – ?
Custom 1035 – The Camaros “I Need You No More” / “Just For The Love Of A Man” (836R-1034)
Psychedelic Sounds 1035 – Howie Thayer and his Psycho-Electric Happening “Movin’, Groovin’ Fairy Tale” / “If Death Don’t Get You (Then the Government Will)” – 1968 -“A Custom Product of Rofran Enteprises”
1036 – ?
1037 – ?
1038 – ?
1039 – ?
1040 – ?
1041 – ?

K. Sandra Wyman Rofran Folksound PS

Folksound 836R-1042 – K. Sandra Wyman (Spud Baldwin, guitar) “Until It’s Time For You To Go” / “Where Does It Lead” (W4KM-5157) with picture sleeve
1043 – ?
Psychedelic Sounds 1044 – Howie Thayer and his Psycho-Electric Happening – “Bazap!” / “Side 2”
Soul 1045 – Soul Brothers – “Twinkle Twinkle” / Miss Delores” (W4KM-5880, 836R-1045)
1046 – ?
Custom 836R-1047 – Linda Fanakos “Candyland Town” / “Let’s Make It Clear” (both by Linda Fanakos). Yellow label with RCA custom press X4KM-2636/2637, which indicates this was mastered in the second half of 1969. (label reads -“A Custom Product of Rofran Enteprises”)
Soul Sounds 1048 – Leroy Knox and the Gaypoppers – “The Mistakes I Made” / “Here I Am” (X4KM-3311)

Rofran 836R-2005 – Sound Studio One – “Never Tell” (Roger Francisco, H.A. Smith) / Never Marry (A Woman Who Is Taller Than You) prod. by Howie Smith, W4KM-4773, 1968

Marvin Lee Midwesterners Century Rofran 45 I've Made My Mind UpOther Rofran productions:

Rofran XALS-2605 – The Spoils of War “What Happend Now”, “Now Is Made in America”, “Henry T. Joseph”, “Void of Mystery”, and “The Greyness Moves in Quietly”

Depot Records (RoFran 0608) – James Cuomo (Cuomo’s Record) – “Suzan Never Smiles”, “Remembering”, “Ring”, “Magic Telephone”, Ring”, “Victoria Falls”, and “Crimson Uniform” 1970

Century 44090 – Mad John Fever “Breath & Thunder” / “One World Lost To Another” (1971?)

Century 35921 – Marvin Lee & the Midwesterners “I’ve Made My Mind Up (To Leave Today)” / “Until My Dream Come True”

Marvin Lee & the Midwesterners – album featuring Sandy Kay, Wil Wilson, Don Markham and Cousin Hi

Lindsey Triplets Rofran 45 Tomorrow's Another DayNotes:

The names on the Prodigies 45 are Howard A. Smith, Frederick W. Steffen III, and James Gordon Wilson. BMI listings show Wilson and Smith wrote a song I haven’t heard, “Oh Boy Tom Boy” with Roger Francisco.

The Keepers is not related to the New York group who cut “She Understands” on the Bravura label, nor do I believe it’s the same group that recorded “Now She’s Gone” for the Mystic label of Hazen, North Dakota.

Lindsey TripletsFrom a reader:

The “Lindsey Triplets” are identical triplets and were a very popular singing group at the time. They traveled the tri-state area performing at various venues. They also traveled on various U.S.O. tours to entertain the troops and made a few guest appearances on then popular variety shows on national television. For a short time they also were ‘fashion’ models (not Playboy Bunnies) for Playboy.

The group went by two different stage names “The Lindsey Triplets” and “The ABC Triplets (Their first names were Anita, Becky and Cathy). The song ‘Terry’ was sung by Becky with accompaniment from her sisters. While they looked alike their voices were distinctive and each triplet sang their own solos when performing.

They actually did a number of demo tapes of their songs. The group was very talented but did reach the notoriety they deserved due to poor management and not being adequately promoted.

The Lindsey Triplets had one commercial release, “Jiminy Jum Jum” / “Fallin’ in Love” on Top Rank 2010.

Thank you to Adam Lore for the loan of the Sound Studio One 45, to Mike Markesich for much information, to Myskatonic, Bob of Dead Wax, Jeff LaSee, Tim Adams, Ryan Luellwitz, Laurent Bigot, and Downstate Sounds for help with the discography.

The Legend (UK)

The Legend photo
from left: Doug Ayris, John Sergeant (hidden) and Brian Hoskins

The Legend were a Twickenham band that never recorded. Their members were bassist Brian Hoskins, lead guitarist Doug Ayris, Nigel Kingswell on lead vocals and John Sergeant on drums. Hoskins later joined the Kool. John Sergeant sent in the photos here and wrote to me about the band:

As promised here are some photos of myself and the Legend at Firestone’s tyre factory on the Great West Road, at Isleworth, near Heathrow. I look so young I can’t believe that it really is me. Doug Ayris is the one walking off the stage. Brian Hoskins is the one pointing at me! The buggers left me to do a 15 minute drum solo while they went for a pint and to chat up the girls.

We did lots of gigs in and around Twickenham area which took in Isleworth, Feltham R & B Club, Heatham House in Twickenham was one of our regular spots. They still have music and youth work there even now in 2011. Amazing! We must have deafened everybody because we played in a very small room.

All the bands at that time were doing R & B, all Howling Wolf and that sort of thing. We had been doing that stuff too but we discovered Zoot Money, Georgie Fame, plus some soul and out and out rock and roll and that was where we wanted to be. We played a wide range of stuff but NOT the R & B that everybody else was doing. We had Cliff Bennett, Johnny Kidd, the Drifters, the Impressions plus the best stuff of our own groups like the Hollies etc. It was a two guitar, drums and vocals line up and (we were told) was pretty damn good! Loved it anyway.

I am still very friendly with all the other guys in the band and we see each other quite regularly. However, I have lost touch with Brian and have been trying for years to find him. Last time I saw him was at a jam session above his battery business in Slough circa 1970.

John Sergeant

John Sergeant with the Legend
John Sergeant with the Legend

John Sergeant with the Legend

The Ugly Ducklings – Somewhere Inside & Thump and Twang CDs

The Ugly Ducklings – Somewhere Inside (Pacemaker PACE-086, 2011)
The Ugly Ducklings – Thump & Twang (Pacemaker PACE-087, 2011)

Review by Rebecca Jansen

Considered by many to be Canada’s premier ’60s garage rock outfit, for decades fans of The Ugly Ducklings had to content themselves with the group’s handful of Yorktown singles and one LP, Somewhere Outside. So it was with some shock I discovered these two (two!) CDs just released by Pacemaker, and as far as I can tell all but one cut on them are previously unavailable!

The Somewhere Inside set comes first chronologically and has as its basis a January 1967 appearance on CHUM radio in the Ducklings’ hometown of Toronto. Framed by on-air interview segments are six live in studio recordings, three demos, and one alternate mix. The live in studio tracks are all of good fidelity, and of the familiar numbers also recorded for Yorkville, “Nothin'” features a more elastic and looser Roger Mayne lead guitar, while this “My Little Red Book” is a bit faster and more like the Love version.

Another of the tracks listed as “live” is “My Watch” which is an original Dave Bingham and Glynn Bell composition and has a solid funky blues quality to it. The cover of “I’m A Man” did turn up previously in Sundazed’s Garage Beat ’66 compilation series, but it goes well with the short take on “Home In Your Heart”.

Of the three songs listed as demos (only here does the fidelity vary, though never too badly), all are covers. “Somebody Help Me” was a hit for the Hollies, “You’ve Got It Made” is the blues song, and “Out Of Sight” the soul number. There is also a great alternate mix of “Postman’s Fancy” which has a more psychedelic effect than the original side. With all the historic interview and radio segments this disc makes a good addition to the Ugly Ducklings collection.

The recordings on Thump & Twang begin with a November 1967 studio session wherein new member Mike McKenna’s original “The Blues Fell This Morning” is cut. Following Glynn Bell’s departure the Ducklings continued recording as a four piece, still fronted by singer Dave Bingham and backed by original drummer Robin Boers who is said to have added a second bass drum ala Ginger Baker at this time. Aside from two takes of Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge A Book” (one being from a TV appearance), all tracks are written by Bingham and/or McKenna. They’re all solid early 1968 vintage blues rock pointing toward the future Mainline group and sometimes with a bit of a Byrds country vibe. Apparently this was not the kind of hit single music Yorkville had been hoping for however, and after the falling out with their label the Ugly Ducklings broke up.

See the Pacemaker site for more information on this release.

Rebecca Jansen’s writing and artwork can be seen at Hippies stole my blog! *.

Garage Hangover accepts recently-released LPs, CDs, books and DVDs for review. Please contact us for a mailing address.

The Red House “Mary Ann” / “Sunflower” on Big-K

The Red House band photo: James Noe, Billy King, Ric Gonzalez, John Coco and Tommy Durham
The Red House, left to right: James Noe, Billy King, Ric Gonzalez, John Coco and Tommy Durham

Members of Red House were:

Two songs that would appear as by The Red House, one is titled "Mary Ann" (without the ending "e")
Two songs that would appear as by The Red House
Note one is titled “Mary Ann” (without the ending “e”)
Scan from the collection of Andrew Brown
John Coco (vocals and harmonica)
Ric Gonzalez (lead guitar)
Tommy Durham (guitar)
James Noe (bass)
Billy King (drums)

By 1969, the Stereo Shoestring had splintered, leaving singer John Coco and bassist James Noe to find new musicians. At first they kept the Shoestring name, but by the time they released their new single “Sunflower” / “Mary Anne” (not “Mary Jane” as a certain error-prone reference book lists), on the Big “K” label, they had changed their name to the Red House.

Red House Big "K" 45 Mary AnneThe arrangement of the vocals on “Mary Anne” is very much like the singing in the Stereo Shoestring’s “On the Road South”, but otherwise the songs are different. Songwriting credits to James Noe and John Coco. “Sunflower” has a country-rock feel to it, and a lot of fine guitar picking from Tommy Durham. It was written by Coco and Durham.

Lew Knippa owned Big “K” Productions in Ingleside, Texas, just across the bay from Corpus Christi.

Red House band: Tommy Durham, Ric Gonzalez and James Noe
from left: Tommy Durham, Ric Gonzalez and James Noe

Red House Big "K" 45 SunflowerLead guitarist Ric Gonzalez sent me a copy of the 45 and the photos seen here, and answered my questions about the band:

Billy King, a drummer, and I had played together since junior high in various teen bands in the Corpus Christi area. The bands Billy and I were in prior to Shoestring copied the Zakary Thaks’ sets song for song, note for note, as best we could. The “Thaks” would play Stones, Yardbirds, Hendrix, etc.

When “The Shoestring” reformed they contacted Billy, he in turn called me. Besides John Coco on vocals and James Noe (bass) from the original Shoestring; new members were Tommy Durham (rhythm guitar), Billy King (drums), and me, Ric Gonzalez (lead guitar).

 Ric with his 1967 Epiphone Riviera
Ric with his 1967 Epiphone Riviera
Coco had the English version of Are You Experienced which had “Red House” on it. Not many people had heard “Red House” 42 years ago. Also, there was an old movie with Edward G. Robinson called, “The Red House”, which had been on the late movies back then. Coco and Noe (a true genius) wanted a new name. I suggested “Red House”.

I didn’t play on “On The Road South”, that was the band before Billy and I joined, but I did play lead on “Mary Anne”, and 2nd lead on the flip-side, “Sunflower”. We recorded the 45 a week after we joined.

 Ric Gonzalez, May 1969
Ric Gonzalez, May 1969
“Sunflower” was the “A” side. It was a KEYS Radio (Corpus Christi, Tex) Pick-Of-The Week in June ’69. We recorded that 45 at Andrus Studios in Houston on Monday, April 7th, 1969. It was the day after Easter Sunday. Amazingly enough, the Easter Everywhere album by Thirteenth Floor Elevators was also recorded there in 1967.

We would play those songs [“Mary Jane” and “Sunflower”] live. In the summer of ’69, we were the house-band at Corpus Christi’s “Love-Street Light Circus and Feel Good Machine” club. I had just turned 16. Billy was 17. Coco was 21. And we opened for many great bands: Bubble Puppy to name one.

Billy Gibbons sat in with the band once. ZZ Top was in the formative stage, he mentioned the name “ZZ Top”. We knew his band as The Moving Sidewalk. We immediately thought of “ZIGZAG” and “TOP” rolling papers. And, also of R&B singers ZZ Hill and also of, BB King. Original in the rock world. Old hat in the R&B network.

Ric Gonzalez

 from left: John Coco in yellow shirt, Billy King holding Ric Gonzalez's guitar
from left: John Coco in yellow shirt, Billy King holding Ric Gonzalez’s guitar

Update: I’ve changed all instances of James Coco to John Coco, as I’ve had two people who knew him comment that is his correct name.

The Wild Ones on Tu-Lang

Wild Ones of Richmond VA photo

Wild Ones biographyThe Wild Ones of Richmond, Virginia put out one 45 in late ’65 featuring two original songs. The A-side is “Listen to the Drums”, an atmospheric chant led by Rennie Renfro’s drumming on the toms and bassist Rick Payne’s lead vocals. The flip “Baby I Love You” is wilder. Loosely structured after “Twist and Shout”, there are fine lead vocals by Jimmy Sandy and great piercing screams after the line “do you love me?” Both songs have excellent natural reverb and feature Jim Sandy’s sharp lead guitar playing.

Drummer Chuck “Rennie” Renfro and keyboardist Clyde Atkinson assembled this detailed history of the band:

Clyde Atkinson: I’ll let the fan club biography speak to the early history of the band, Rennie (I still have a hard time calling him Chuck after all of these years) can add some more to the early history.

This is the text from the Fan Club Bio that was in the club membership packet:

A few years back, Bill Sandy bought a straight guitar, took it home, picked at it awhile and put it away. Then he became interested in painting. Incidentally, you should see some of the artwork. Rick is an artist, too.

Jim, Bill‘s younger brother, got hold of the guitar and taught himself to play it. He listened to records and played along with them even though he didn‘t know the notes or chords by name. He also watched other groups and picked up different lead runs.

Then Bill, who plays some piano, too, taught Jim the notes and chords by name. Jim got together with Rennie who plays drums and another drummer and the two alternated with Jim playing guitar. In 1962 another guitarist who was pretty good on the guitar joined them and the four guys formed a band called THE TRAVELERS. The last addition to the band was discovered playing with another band so they said goodbye to him. Another guitarist came along and the group became the OFF-BEATS.

Listening to Jim —— Bill and Rick (Rick plays bass now) became more interested in their guitars and decided to put a lot of effort into learning more about playing.

Jim talked them into going to a practice session with him at Rennie’s home -·- Bill and Rick joined the group and they now had four guitarists and two drummers and were known as the TYCOS. The group then began playing engagements for about one year.

The original group then decided to become four members – consisting of three guitars and the drums. They still were not satisfied with the sound and one night while playing a gig with another band were very impressed with their organist. He was Clyde, who became a member of THE WILD ONES GROUP. They were ready at that time to cut and release their first record:
LISTEN TO THE DRUMS – flip side – BABY I LOVE YOU

AND TWO WEEKS LATER THEY DID !

The group then and now consists of:

Bill Sandy – Leader; Rhythm Guitar
Rick Payne – Bass Guitar
Jim Sandy – Lead Guitar
Rennie Renfro – Drummer
Clyde Atkinson – Organ

All the guys sing both lead and background. They play most all of the pop, rock ‘n roll tunes as well as the slower ones, and write and play many of their own songs.

Wild Ones photo

Wild Ones Tu-Lang 45 Listen to the Drums

Wild Ones Tu-Lang 45 Baby, I Love You

Wild Ones band business card

Wild Ones band business card Charles Renfro manager
Clyde Atkinson: I started playing in bands at the early age of 13, the first band I was in practiced a lot but rarely played a gig, I think we played one office party and a pool party at the Community Center in Bon Air, VA.The next band I was in was called the Tempos (yeah, real original, but we were in our early teens), that band played a song mix more to my liking (no more Beach Boys like the first band), a lot of Beatles, Stones, etc., this band also practiced a lot and our main gig was at a couple of community centers for teen dances on Friday or Saturday nights where we got half of the door admission price of 25 cents. We’d get done playing, pack up our gear and head to the Ten Pin Coliseum to shoot pool and eat hamburgers and fries and pretty much blow our earnings. We finally got a decent gig booked at a local club called the Paper Tiger for their teen night, we would open for the Wild Ones! So we did the opening set, packed up our gear and stayed to hear them, their manager (Chuck Renfro, the drummer’s father) invited me over to their table while the Wild Ones were playing. We talked for a good while, he mentioned that they were going to be recording a record soon and asked me if I would be interested in joining their band, I told him I’d think about it and let him know. Out of loyalty to my band mates I initially turned down the Wild Ones offer, the following Monday I was talking to an older friend at school that also played in a bands (students at my school were in a lot of groups including the Panics and the Fugitives), he advised me that I should take advantage of the offer to better my career, loyalty aside he said I needed to look out for myself. So I called the Wild Ones manager and accepted their offer (a few months later two brothers that had been in the Tempos with me joined the Fugitives).

Rennie Renfro: I started playing drums when I was fourteen. I guess you could say it was earlier than that. I was 5 when my parents bought me a toy drum set. When I was six I sat down at some real drums at a dance hall at the river when the band was on break and played. Some drunk guy and his girl started dancing and he gave me a twenty dollar bill for the music. My parents made me give it back.

At fourteen I met Jimmy Sandy. He had a guitar and wanted to start a band. He asked if anyone could play the drum beat to the Ventures song “Walk Don’t Run”, he showed us the beat with his hands and each one us of tried. I tried and could not do it. I walked away and went back home and I sat on the sofa and tried to figure out why I couldn’t do it. Then it dawned on me that Jimmy was right handed and I was left handed. I tried it left handed and there it was. I actually ran back to the group of guys yelling I could do the beat. Jimmy said I could be the drummer. I got some cheap drums and we started practicing with Bill and another guy from the neighborhood. My dad got us into some restaurants that played country music. Well that did not go too well when we played rock and roll. They passed the hat around and we got 75 cents. We kept on playing to anyone that would listen. We got better at each place we played, then we added Ralph to the band and also started buying better equipment. Later on some promoters from New York came and asked if we would be the backup band to the singing group the Newbeats at a show in the area. They are the guys that made the song “I Like Bread and Butter” with a high pitch singer. We learned the music but at the last minute they canceled the show. That’s show biz.

Q. Was there a particular neighborhood or school in Richmond that the band came from?

Clyde: Rennie (Chuck) Renfro the drummer went to Midlothian High School, though he had previously lived in the “East End”, actually Henrico County and that’s where he met Jimmy Sandy and how the band first started. That is the same area that most of the Barracudas came from. I went to Huguenot High School, which had a lot of students in many different bands. Midlothian, Huguenot and Manchester High Schools were all in Chesterfield County outside of Richmond.

Q. You mention the Fugitives and the Panics. Both those bands had records on the Shoestring label. Do you have any recollections of either band, or other groups from the area at that time?

Clyde: Mickey Russell, lead guitarist of the Fugitives went to Huguenot for a while after transferring from Manchester. We ran across them often as they were quite popular, a very good band and played some of the same clubs that we did. And of course the rhythm and bass guitarists, Jimmy and Tommy Sickal had played with me in the Tempoes and later joined the Fugitives. Jimmy and Tommy went to Manchester, I think the Fugitives did at least a couple of 45s and an album. I last talked to Mickey Russell around ‘97/’98, he was living and working in VA Beach for a TV production company. Some members of the Panics went to school with me at Huguenot, Bill LaRue lead guitar, Jimmy Sherwood rhythm guitar and Bill Lyles bass [Bill Lyell]. They were another good band with a large following. I last saw Bill LaRue and his wife doing a C&W gig at a club in the early ‘80s. The Barracudas as I said were from the East End, also a very good band and probably the one we considered as our biggest rival.

Richmond, VA had a pretty good music scene in the ‘60s, there must have been three dozen or more clubs that featured live bands with music. In fact the Richmond scene was good up into the ‘80s/’90s, may still be good to some extent (there are few clubs and restaurants with live bands these days). It was a tight, very competitive music scene back in the ‘60s and yet at the same time friendly with a spirit of co-operation between bands and individual musicians.

Not much later after I joined the Wild Ones (I think it was a couple of weeks) I got to take the day off from school to go to the recording studio with the band. And then, just like a little kid waiting for Christmas to come, it seemed like it took forever for the master tapes to finally become a record. And what a thrill it was to finally hear our record on the radio (WLEE 1480 AM was the first station in Richmond to play it). And we had a growing fan club that came to a lot of our gigs when we played in Richmond.

Rennie: Oh and the scream on “Baby I Love You” is me. Hey I was still a young kid and my voice hadn’t changed. I still get kidded about that.

Clyde: And scream you did!! I think the first take nearly blew the headphones off of the recording engineer’s head. I had become good friends with the members in the Wild Ones, Rennie and I being the same age and the two youngest members kind of formed a tighter bond between the two of us. Rennie and I tended to get a little wilder as were younger, and we often interacted with dance steps and stuff that sometimes got a little crazy.

Rennie: You and I were in the back of the band so we stuck together and tried to do different things to entertain the crowds. We became good friends and still are today.

Why was the record label called Tu-Lang, and was that session and the pressing something the band paid for themselves? Do you remember which studio you used?

Clyde: We did not own the record label. You’ll notice on the label it says an LM Production, that label belonged to a Mr. Meade (forget his first name), he and his son had a band called the Commanders in the Richmond area, more country pop oriented and played mostly for older crowds (real popular at Moose Lodges, etc.), but a decent band. They formed the production company to get records done for their own band and I have no idea why they selected the TuLang name, perhaps he served in the Pacific in WWII? A side note, he had a much younger daughter that sometimes would sing with their band, she eventually moved to Nashville to pursue a C&W career, Donna Meade who later married C&W star and sausage king Jimmy Dean and they eventually moved to Richmond.

The Wild Ones paid for the studio session at Capitol Transcription in Washington, DC, as well we paid for the pressing and most of the distribution. We actually spent several weekends riding around VA in our hearse visiting different radio stations and dropping of copies of the record, photos, and a promo pack.

Clyde: The band was booked quite a bit, we played clubs, sock hops after football games, proms, bar mitzvahs, we even played at a used car dealership as partial payment for the Cadillac hearse we bought to transport the band. We had the hearse painted sort of a purple/lilac color with the Wild Ones in dayglo pink script on the sides! When we played “Long Tall Texan” at gigs, we always added an extra verse that went something like “Well I’m a long tall Wild One, I drive a lilac Cadillac (he drove from Texas in his lilac Cadillac)”, well, you get the idea. We spent a lot of hours in that old hearse driving all over Central Virginia and points beyond to our gigs, you had to get pretty close emotionally after spending so much time together.

Rennie: You have hit a lot of points about the band. I remember driving in the hearse to the river, that most likely would have been one of the Coles Point tavern gigs or the Windmill Point Yacht Club gigs. Anyway, the hearse had come from a country funeral home that also used it as an ambulance, so it had red lights and a siren, they never took the siren out of the hearse. Bill Sandy hit the button that started the siren, and we pulled a car over. We kept going. Well, we had a gig to get to!!

Clyde: The Rock and Roll Show of 1965 that we played in 1965 at the Bellvue Theater in Richmond, VA was done a second time by the same promoter a couple of months later at the Beacon Theater in Hopewell, VA. Pictured on this site is an ad from the Entertainment section of the Richmond News Leader and one of the admission tickets from the actual show. Also pictured is another ad from the entertainment section where we played for the Grand Opening of the Patterson Drive In, it was a brand new drive in theater with a teen area.

The business cards pictured were two of the several designs we used, the plain blue one was an early version from when I first joined the band, the tan/color print version was later. We also had one that had colored sort of circle shapes (sort of like large ‘O’s or spiral shapes) that was done in a series of different colors, some cards were green, some red, some blue, etc., unfortunately I don’t have any examples of that series. The band pictures on this site are from three different times, one was the formal band portrait that we used in our promo packs and also handed out at times to fans (I think fan club members got one with their copy of the band biography). Then there was a photo from one of our gigs, I’m pretty sure that was taken at the Olde Mill in Farmville, VA. The last photo is a well worn copy of a night time photo taken at the end of the Tobacco Festival Parade in Richnmond, VA. You’d never know it from that photo, but at the beginning of that parade the float looked pretty good, that parade was a major event for the Richmond area back then and many of the company sponsored floats were close to the quality of major parades like the Rose Bowl Parade.

Wild Ones photo at the Tobacco Festival Parade, Richmond
at the Tobacco Festival Parade, Richmond

Wild Ones dance Fairfield Junior High May 1, 1965
Rennie: The Tobacco Festival Parade, I remember that we were toward the end of the staging area waiting to get in line with the rest of the floats. While we waited, we decided to tune up and play a very quick part to see if everything worked. Well we were surrounded by fans and could not move the float. The police had to come back and escort us into the parade line. We were holding up the floats behind us.Our float was being pulled by our band hearse with two of the WLEE on air personalities sharing the driving while we were playing for the entire time on the float. Teens along the route were actively plucking “decorations” the entire night, by the time we made the several mile journey through downtown Richmond, our float had been stripped clean down to the bare chicken wire structure before we even made the circle through Parker Field Stadium (now replaced by The Diamond). It was a pitiful site to behold as we passed the judging stand and the hundreds of spectators in the stadium. The picture here was taken after the stadium pass through and a couple of our fans, family and friends had hopped aboard for a ride to the stadium parking area.

Clyde: Favorite spots to play: the Olde Mill in Farmville, VA always had a good crowd and we played there fairly often, Coles Point Tavern on the Potomac River where you parked your car in the parking lot in VA and walked out on the pier where you were in Maryland and they had slot machines and liquor by the drink (which VA didn’t at that point in time), the high school Sock Hops were usually fun, frat parties at UVA were wild, lots of enjoyable gigs. Teensville Club was always going to be a huge crowd. The record was doing OK in our region, we were in the process of getting songs ready for a second record, we also had to practice a lot since we were mostly a top 40 cover band and you had to know the latest hits as they were always “requested” (if I EVER have to play “Wooly Bully” again it will be too soon!!), sometimes the sheer number of hours we played worked on you physically. Rennie and I sat down a couple of weeks ago talking about those old days and I asked him if he remembered one Saturday back then, and he did, it was a monster day and would be hard to forget.

Rennie: How could I forget a day like that one? Those kind of long nights made it hard to be excited by the time you got to the second set of the third gig that day.

Fugitives, Wild Ones, Panics and the Jaguars at Bellevue Theatre, Nov. 26, 1965
Fugitives, Wild Ones, Panics and the Jaguars at Bellevue Theatre, Nov. 26, 1965
Clyde: We played the Saturday afternoon jam session at Johnny’s or the Satellite on Jeff Davis highway, packed up and hopped in the hearse and played at the Chesterfield County fair from 6-10 PM, packed up there and drove all the way across town to play at the Mechanicsville Moose Lodge from 12-3 AM, what a day!

Somewhere in this time frame we participated in the Battle of the Bands in Richmond at the old Tantilla Ballroom on Broad Street. Some radio stations were promoting it and you had to send in an audition tape to see if you would be asked to participate, we recorded a reel to reel tape in Bill Sandy’s garage (which is where we practiced most often) and sent it in, after a few weeks we were informed that we were one of the bands selected. I think they started with 30 bands from all over VA (but mostly from Central VA), we survived the first couple of cuts and got to keep playing. We made it to the final round where they announced the top three that would play again to determine the results, after all three bands had played the judges came back and announced the third place band (which wasn’t us!) and then said that for first and second there was a tie between the Wild Ones and the Barracudas.

Ticket for the Fugitives, Wild Ones, Panics and the Jaguars at Bellevue TheatreRennie: So both bands played again and the judges left again, came back and announced that there was still a tie (not a good thing, having an even number of judges), we played yet again and they finally decided it with a coin toss with the Barracudas finishing first and we were second. So while we would have like to finished first, it was still quite an honor to have been one of the top three bands!

Clyde: At one point we went to VA Beach without having any bookings there, we checked into a cheap hotel and then went to find an inexpensive dinner, saw a little place called the Lion’s Den on Atlantic Avenue that had a steak special and would also have live music, so we went in for dinner. It appeared that the band they had booked for the week cancelled at the last minute, so no entertainment. We got to talking with the restaurant manager while eating dinner and told him we were a band and would be happy to play for our dinner, he said if you want to play then dinner is on the house and he’ll pay us if we can draw a crowd. So we brought in our gear and set up, by the time the first set was over they were turning people away at the door as we had packed the house (though it was a small club). He ended up booking us for the rest of the week and we picked up some other bookings in the area, the Ebb Tide, the Pirates Den, even a one shot deal at the Peppermint Lounge. We met a band that was booked at the Ocean View amusement park for the entire summer, a group called the Canaries from the Canary Islands.

Rennie: In Virginia Beach I remembered we walked into some club during the day. The Spinners were playing there. I thought I remembered jamming with a few members, but I am not sure. We were doing a lot of gigs at the beach and we met a lot of other bands. I also remember that the hotel we were staying at got a little out of control. The manager was going to kick a lot of people out. Someone told him it couldn’t be us because we were a band from England. He believed it and we got to stay.

Clyde: Things were looking up and the next record would probably be recorded soon (two more original songs), things went along smoothly for a while. Then there was a huge argument, basically Rick Payne the bass player against the rest of the band, he decided to quit the band, being co-author on the songs we were going to record put a serious crimp in developing the second record, eventually it just never happened. We needed somebody to fill in, I called a friend, Ronnie Bowers that had played with me in the Tempos, originally a sax player, he could also play guitar, bass, a little drums, he filled a lot of spots for us and having a sax player certainly helped with a lot of songs. We continued our gigs and didn’t look back and kept trying different things to evolve our style, we later added a second sax player, Buddy Diggs, who played with us for a few months. Tragically, Buddy was killed in a traffic accident and I felt it was quite a blow to my young mind (and I’m sure to some other band members).

Rennie: It certainly was a tragic event. A young, talented musician gone so suddenly, some of us were pallbearers at his funeral.

Clyde: I guess the final blow for the Wild Ones was when Uncle Sam decided to draft Jim Sandy, the lead guitarist. Jimmy was an awesome guitarist that was always on the cutting edge of equipment and techniques, he could learn anything if he heard it a couple of times. After he left, we tried to “replace” him, we auditioned several guitarists but nothing was working out, we wound down our gigs and the band pretty much fell apart. Bill Sandy (Jim’s older brother and rhythm guitar/vocals) decided he had had enough, and Rennie, Ronnie, and myself just could not put the pieces back together again. The end of the Wild Ones era was upon us, it all happened in just a few short years.

Are there any demo tapes or unreleased songs of the band?

Clyde: As far as I know, no demos, tapes or anything else still exists. The songs for the second 45 were never recorded in the studio. Rennie and I are pretty sure we recorded a reel to reel demo of them in Bill Sandy’s garage, but we don’t know if that tape still exists. The only thing we are sure still exists are the few copies of the original 45 that Rennie and I have.

Wild Ones at the new Teen PavilionI went on to play in an R&B group that practiced a lot but rarely was booked, that lasted a few months. They had a female drummer that I had first seen in the east end of Richmond with her then band of “Barbara and the Boys”. After the R&B group broke up, Barbara called me a few months later and asked if I was playing with a group, she was very excited and said that she was playing with a San Francisco type rock group that would soon be the house band for a new club opening up near VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), the new club was owned by several VCU students. She asked me to come audition for this new band called the Lower Floor and I ended up with them and indeed we were the house band for that club while it lasted. We were putting on quite a show, breaking up equipment on stage, the club had a full light show with strobes and oil/water projectors.

After that band broke up, I was pretty much through with bands for a while and eventually sold all of my gear and quit playing entirely in the mid ‘70s. I got into construction as a carpenter’s helper and learned a trade, tried a few other things, sort of stayed in touch with both Jim and Bill Sandy, Rick Payne and every once in a while I’d give Rennie a phone call or a quick visit. Rick ended up doing shows for advanced techniques for some of the nationally known hair care products companies (like Redken and Fermodyl) and doing seminars all over the country. He and his wife ended up putting together a complete show package and I ended up doing lights and sound for them. They moved from Richmond to New York, NY after they became the National Style Directors for Lord and Taylor. Bill and Jim Sandy both were hair stylists and for a number of years had a shop together, I finally lost touch with all three of them in the early ‘80s. I knew Rennie had gotten into computers and worked for a large computer company, every once in a while I’d give him a phone call and we’d chat for a few minutes, I did have a couple of quick visits with him over the years.

In the mid ‘80s I decided that I wanted to start playing music again, I went out and looked at equipment and everything had changed, instead of a Hammond and a Wurli EP giving you a total of two basic sounds, now you had a 45lb keyboard with hundreds of onboard sounds and if you didn’t like those you load a couple of hundred new sounds. I got into synthesizers and started learning how to program them, I added gear as I could afford to and thought about playing in a band again. I went and sat in with a couple of bands and immediately I was like “(smack forehead) … how could I ever have forgotten how hard it is to get five people to agree on something”. So I decided to go the home studio route and play/write/record for my own pleasure, these days I devote some of my spare time answering questions on YamahaforumsUK as I’m a forum specialist/moderator there, a fancy title for volunteering information you may know and sharing it with others so they can learn about their synthesizers. A way for me to pay back a little to all the people that helped me and shared knowledge with me over the years, a small price to pay for all of the pleasure, good times (and a few bad ones) and the knowledge that those in the music world helped me accumulate over the years.

Rennie: After we broke up I got drafted. Overseas I joined two other guys that brought their guitars and had brought a set of bongos. We started singing and playing. We played at clubs on bases in Korea and also played on Korean radio in front on the Korean YWCA. They could not speak English but could sing the songs in English. Rock and Roll is truly universal.

Chuck Renfro and Clyde Atkinson, 2011
Chuck Renfro and Clyde Atkinson, 2011
After the service I tried a few bands, but nothing was working,. the magic was gone, it wasn’t the Wild Ones. I miss those days and the band. When I tell people about the things we did, I am sure that they think I am making some of it up. Currently I have a business dealing with business software and systems design/implementation, I’m not currently playing drums or music.

From both of us: We have just recently re-established contact with each other and plan on staying in touch, it was absolutely delightful when we had lunch together recently and talked over old times. I think both of us would like to find Rick, Bill, and Jim or find out what has happened to them. Hmmmmm, pictures of the hearse, we’d really like to find some of them too.

Chuck (Rennie) Renfro – drummer for the Wild Ones
Clyde Atkinson – organist for the Wild Ones

Herb Zane – Big Daddy’s Twist Party

Herb Zane Big Daddy's Twist Party Regent LP

Herb Zane Regent LP Big Daddys Twist Party Last weekend I picked up a number of interesting LPs. None of them of the garage genre, but Big Daddy’s Twist Party sounds great. My copy of the LP has stickers on the front cover saying “Herb Zane”. Herb seems to have signed this copy on the top left of the back cover, which also lists him as producer.

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog discussed this record a couple years back. They kindly included soundclips of all the songs if you want to hear them.

Herb Zane’s real name was Herb Zukerberg. He lived in Patterson, New Jersey and his orchestra had a long stint at the Steak Pit in nearby Paramus. He died in 2009 at age 81; an obituary called him “the bar mitzvah king — a roly-poly force of nature”. The article continues:

November of 1964 found the Herb Zane Orchestra at the Short Hills Caterers for Jay Rosenbaum’s coming-of-age celebration.

“Before the party, he asked me what my theme song was going to be,” Rosenbaum said. “I told him I wanted ‘Blue Velvet’ by Bobby Vinton. I remember him looking at me and thinking, ‘Oy, kid, get a life!'”

Rosenbaum got his “Blue Velvet.” He also got rock-and-roll.

“Some of my relatives thought the band was way too loud and left,” Rosenbaum said. But the party went overtime and the bar mitzvah boy’s friends danced out the door.

Zane had a great 1955 single, “‘You Name It’ Mambo” on Eddie Heller’s Rainbow label out of New York, that included the line “Oh hot pastrami, hot pastrami mambo mambo”.

Zane followed this with two singles on what might have been his own label, Caravan, in 1957, and had at least six additional singles on various labels. He cut his first LP, Let’s Go Latin Cha Cha Cha, for Tico in 1960. Though a drummer and emcee with his orchestra, he’s credited with the vocal on the Rainbow single and on at least one of his De Luxe 45s.

Herb Zane Orchestra Caravan 45 ad in Billboard, June 30, 1956
Billboard, June 30, 1956

So Herb Zane must be Big Daddy, right? Here’s where it gets confusing, and thus, the reason for my post on this record.

There were at least a few artists using the “Big Daddy” moniker in the late ’50s and early ’60s. One was Frankie Brunson, who recorded as Big Daddy for the Gee and Wynne labels, among others, but he doesn’t seem to be involved with this album.

The two mentions of Big Daddy’s Twist Party on the internet attribute this album to “Big” Bob Kornegay (pronounced Carnegie, I believe), a prolific r&b vocalist and songwriter (see this detailed discography) who sometimes recorded as Big Daddy. However, I don’t believe Kornegay is actually singing on this record.

Big Bob Kornegay Herald 45 The Man In the Phone BoothIn February, 1957, Bob Kornegay cut a double-sided r&b novelty number “The Man in the Phone Booth”, first as “The Wanderer” on the Flair-X label and then a week later for the Herald Label as “Big Bob Kornegay, ‘The Happy Wanderer'”.

 Bob Kornegay 45 on Herald reviewed in Billboard, March 9, 1957
Billboard, March 9, 1957

Billboard sussed out the story behind these competing records with two items in the February 23, 1957 issue (see clippings at end of article). One describes how Kornegay was under contract to Herald when he recorded the Flair-X sides. Herald had Kornegay cut an identical version, using the same musicians and arrangement, and rushed it out to compete with the Flair-X release.

Herb Zane Deluxe 45 The Man In the Phone Booth and Big Daddy King 45 Bacon Fat, Billboard, March 2, 1957
Billboard, March 2, 1957

A separate article notes “Al Silver of Herald said he and Kappi Jordon – blonde chick who runs Flair-X – had decided not to sue each other. ‘We’ll fight it out record for record like gentlemen’ said Silver, ‘and let the best wax win.'” Billboard later discovered Kornegay was signed to several other labels as well, so no wonder he recorded under aliases.

As it turns out, Herb Zane co-wrote “The Man in the Phone Booth” with Lee Pines. Fred Mendelsohn of DeLuxe Records decided to have Zane cut his own version and rushed it into the marketplace in a matter of days, though in a review Billboard preferred Kornegay’s vocals.

Coincidently, an ad for DeLuxe, King and Federal records from March of ’57 (Syd Nathan owned all three labels at that time) includes Herb Zane’s “The Man With the Phone Booth” and also lists Kornegay (as Big Daddy) with “Bacon Fat” / “Bad Boy” on King 5013. Not only did Herb Zane and Bob Kornegay release the same song, but they simultaneously were also recording under the same umbrella of labels.

By 1961, Felix Mendelsohn had left Deluxe and started his own label, Regent, which he would later sell to Herman Lubinsky of Savoy. One of his first LPs on Regent is Big Daddy’s Twist Party, produced by his old friend from the DeLuxe days, Herb Zane.

Is Bob “Big Daddy” Kornegay singing on this LP? It’s possible, but I doubt it. The Music Maestros label released a 45 featuring the identical cut of “The Persians Twist” from this album with Herb Zane’s name on it, and no mention of any other vocalist. Considering he was characterized as ‘roly poly’, I am inclined to think that Herb Zane took the Big Daddy name for himself for this album.

There’s a secondhand reference on the ‘net that Kornegay had throat cancer and stopped singing in 1959, but see Robin’s comment below that he actually lived into the 1980s.

Herb Zane discography
(any help would be appreciated)

U.S. Singles:
Rainbow 289: “‘You Name It’ Mambo” / “Wedding Mambo” (1955)
Caravan 15605: “Double Talk Cha Cha Cha” / “Cuban Rangers Cha Cha Cha” (June 1956)
Caravan 15606: “Encanto Cubano” / “Itsfunto” (meringue)
DeLuxe 6099: “By You, By You” / “Let Me in Your Heart” (December 1956) (vocal by Herb Zane and Chorus)
DeLuxe 6118: “Man in the Phone Booth ‘Hello Baby'” / “Man in the Phone Booth ‘Hello Mama'” (February 1957)
Arrow 718: “Love, Love, Crazy Love” / “Y-Yi-O-U” (October 1957)
20th Century Fox 289: “Hokey Pokey Rock” / “Digga Digga Dum Dum Dum” (January 1962)
20th Century Fox 405: “Didn’t Want To Get Hitched” / “I Laughed Till I Cried” (1963)
Music Maestros Z6201: “The Persian Twist” [written by Zane and Gross (Felix Gross?)] / “Twistin’ At The Pit” (year?)
Music Maestros Z6202: “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” / ?

Unconfirmed singles:
Allegre 5560 – “Melancholy” / “Bye Bye” (may be demo acetate only)
Bond 605: “Double Talk Cha Cha” / ?

Foreign Singles:

Ronnex 1181 (Belgium) “Encanto Cubano” / “Itsfunto” meringue
Ronnex 1185 (Belgium) “’You Name It’” Mambo” / Alfredito: “His Majesty Cha Cha”
Regency 596 (Canada) “Man in the Phone Booth ‘Hello Baby’” / “Man in the Phone Booth ‘Hello Mama’”

LPs:
Tico LP 1073: Let’s Go Latin Cha Cha Cha (1960)
Regent MG-6106: Big Daddy’s Twist Party (1961 or early 1962)

Thank you to Tapio and Bob of Dead Wax for help with the discography.

 Recorded by Fred Mendelsohn with mastering at Medallion Studios, engineered by Paul Cady
Recorded by Fred Mendelsohn with mastering at Medallion Studios, engineered by Paul Cady
Billboard, Feb. 23, 1957
Billboard, Feb. 23, 1957
also in Billboard's Feb. 23, 1957 issue
also in Billboard’s Feb. 23, 1957 issue

The Kalan Five

Kurt Johnson of the Kalan Five
Kurt Johnson of the Kalan Five at the Hutchinson KS “Battle of the KOMA Bands”
The Kalan Five did not release a record but toured throughout the Mid-West and cut some demos at Ray Ruff’s Amarillo studio in 1965. Drummer Kurt Johnson wrote about the band’s 1965 sessions and summer tour:

I know the bands of that era well because I was the drummer for one of them, K-5/ Kalan Five. K-5 was made up of students all from Chadron State College, in Chadron, Nebraska. Our chief rivals were The Drivin’ Dynamics from Scottsbluff, Nebraska; this was then Randy Meisner was still their bass player before he ended up as a founding member of The Eagles.

We got connected to Ruff and Ruff Records, and tangentially Mid-Continent Entertainment (that managed a lot of summer tours), each of which had people on the road that summer, through our contacts in Hays, Kansas, which was the home of the Blue Things and a major music equipment outlet at the time (can’t remember their name but they built all our sound equipment). We met Ruff when he recruited us (by our regional reputation) to play in a big KOMA (Oklahoma City radio station) Battle of the Bands at the big Hutchinson, KS arena, which featured, all in one night, Ray Ruff and the Checkmates, The Fabulous Flippers, The Blue Things, Buddy Knox and the Rhythm Orchids and the Kalan Five (or K-5). This was in spring 1965.

K-5 had a huge instrumental sound (six Showman amps) and after that concert/dance Ruff invited us to Amarillo to talk to us about the summer tour with KOMA. I got to know Ruff’s drummer, Chico Apadocca, quite well (he was a great drummer!) after I used his drum set for a KOMA Battle of the Bands when there was not enuf time between sets for each band to set up their own. He also thought I was pretty good so we talked a lot – I was just college kid.

The bands that were on tour that summer (1965), and several of which are in your list of Ray Ruff discographies, all were in and out at his studio in Amarillo, and were in association with Ruff, and/or Mid-Continent Entertainment, and all advertising on KOMA.

These included a number of bands off of Nebraska and Kansas college campuses along with other, more purely professional bands, that had been on the road for some time. This list included Ray Ruff and the Checkmates, Buddy Knox and the Rhythm Orchids, The Fabulous Flippers, The Blue Things (formerly The Blue Boys), The Drivin’ Dynamics, the Kalan Five, the Knu Castles, Spider and The Crabs, The Red Dogs and the The Misfits.

K-5 was short for the Kalan Five. Ruff made our ads into “the Kruisin’ Kalan Five” for that summer. The Misfits’ 1965 KOMA ad was “get a fit with the Misfits”; Spider and the Crabs’ ad was “Spider and the Crabs, a very weird band (said in a creepy voice)”; The Red Dogs was “The Red Dogs, direct from the Red Dog Inn”, Knu Castles radio ad was the “Newwwwwww Castles”.

We all arrived in Amarillo to record demos shortly after “Pretty Thing Oh” by the Blue Things had been released by Ruff Records. Ruff was pleased that it was then at #5 regionally (I believe that was a rank listing from Shreveport, LA, if I remember correctly from his going on about it). Ruff came out of his office and played it for us all in his lobby. This means that some of the unknown cuts in your list around the time where you list “Pretty Thing Oh” for 1965 may be tracks from these other, lesser known, groups that recorded their that summer. If Ruff never went anywhere with these demos he may have just left them unlabeled.

Those days at Ruff’s studio were also memorable because the Isley Brothers were also there, visiting. The groups that cut demos in those few days were Ray Ruff and the Checkmates, K-5, and the Misfits (a group with a folk rock sound)—there may have been more during that week but these were the only sessions I heard or took part in; lots of bands were coming and going. Again I remember that well because of having to keep setting up and taking down drums in the studio with Chico. Note that, in your lists, tracks by the Drivin’ Dynamics and the Knu Castles are listed under the Sully label; I have a feeling they were all cut in Amarillo, perhaps, because we saw those bands often.

We all played the same places on alternate nights and all knew each other—same with most of the bands on the road that summer, and in ’64 and ’66. Most of the members of these bands knew each other, esp. those who played regularly in Kansas and Nebraska which included the Knu Castles, King Bees, Drivin’ Dynamics, Fabulous Flippers, Spider and the Crabs, and later, as this era closed out, a very talented band from North Platte, Nebr. known as The Showmen. They were managed by the brother of our manager, whose names I’ve forgotten. We also got to know bands we met while doing major regional shows—most memorably the Beau Brummels (who were nice guys) and The Castaways, whom we played a gig with in Minnesota.

The touring band of K-5 was myself, along with guitarist Rusty Cope who really got Kalan Five together, in 1964. The other 1965 Kalan Five members were guitarists Gary “Meke” McMeekin, Jim Gype, and Denny Sonnenfeld. Gype and Sonnenfeld were the lead singers for K-5/ Kalan Five from 1965 on and replaced two original members of Kalan Five, Ron Davis and Glen Mitchell, when the group needed better singers for that summer 1965 tour with Ruff as agent.

Cope and McMeekin were from Crawford, Nebraska; Gype and Sonnenfeld from Ainsworth, Nebraska. Before touring with the Kruisin’ Kalan Five 1965 summer tour they had played in another Nebr. band “Banana Cream Weather Balloon” also from Chadron State College. That information also explains our close regional relationship with the Drivin’ Dynamics (from Scottsbluff Nebr.– 120 miles down the road– at Hyrum Scott College). The Drivin’ Dynamics have an ongoing tribute website and are in the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame.

No singles from the Kalan Five – our demos all died somewhere between Ruff’s studio and whatever his deals were with Tower, Capitol etc. He was a bit of a disorganized person.

At least, re: songs, we weren’t like many other groups who had great songs “stolen” by others, who then made money off of them; there wasn’t much legal protection for anything is those days. But we made enuf money that the guys who wanted to drive fancy cars could drive them. I bought a camping van– that was more my style.

The attached photo is of me “in the tunnel” at the Hutchinson, KS Battle of the KOMA Bands taken on someone’s old polaroid. All of my memorabilia from the era no longer exists and this photo just happened to turn up awhile back.

The Kalan Five played into 1966 (with the members from the 1965 summer tour) and then got separated by people graduating from college and moving on with their lives. Rusty Cope was the only member who went professional if I’m not mistaken. Rusty was a great guitarist. Rusty went on to play for Randy Sharp and, after us, and before Sharp, I believe with another mid-American group called “Spider” which got great early 70’s PR in Billboard (May 27, 1972) but whose debut album Labyrinths did not do well. No one has kept in touch.

Believe it or not I went on to get a PhD and to a rather distinguished career in scientific research [Wikipedia at Kurt Johnson (Entomologist)].

Bobby and the Farraris

Bob Hughes and the Galaxies, from left: Ron Barrera, Pete Vanasse, Ricky Philbert, Don Facciano and Bob Hughes

Bobby and the Farraris Tuff-Nuff 45 In the MorningBobby & the Farrari’s cut this great 45 in 1967. “Farrari’s” is a misspelling for “Ferraris” as in Ferrari, the car.

“In the Morning” has the dense, moody sound New England is known for. It was the b-side to “Pretty” a song in a somewhat older style of pop balladry. Both songs were written by Carl Gastall, Jr., who later joined Phase IV who had their own 45 on Tuff-Nuff, “Plastic World”, written by D. Bourguet and “It’s You”.

Two later 45s on Tuff-Nuff are Ray Gambio & the Darkest Hour “I’ll Be There” / “The Mountain” and Charlie Quintal’s “It’s a Crazy World We Live In”.

When I first covered Bobby & the Farraris a few years ago, I listed the group as from Bangor, Maine, an error I repeated from a guide to New England bands published in the early ’90s. Bob Hughes tells me the group was based in Fall River and played primarily throughout southeastern Massachusetts and around Providence, Rhode Island.

Bob kindly answered many of my questions and provided photos and a detailed history of his career with the Farraris and his earlier group, Bobby & the Galaxies, along with a cool demo they cut at Metcalf Recording, one side a weeper, “I’m Tearing My Heart Out” and the flip a great upbeat novelty “Giggle Wiggle” with lyrics like “she’s got long black hair way down her back, too bad there ain’t none on her head”. As an aside, Metcalf was the studio for Masada’s “A Hundred Days and Nights”, released on Sadbird in 1968 and written by Paul Brissette.

Bob takes the story from here:

The Farraris were originally a four piece group, me on guitar and lead vocals, Rick Philbert (deceased) on bass and back up vocals, Danny ? on keyboards and Vinny ? on drums. We later added Lenny ?, a sax player from New Bedford, MA. He had the unique ability to play two saxophones at once, and in harmony. Very cool.

The name Farraris was a misspelling. The band was only together for two years. I formed the band because of the breakup or my other band, Bobby & The Galaxies.

 Bob Hughes
Bob Hughes
Carl Gastall was a friend of mine and a fellow local musician, and really good song writer. His [uncle] Tommy was a catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. Carl admired my work and approached me with these songs. He wanted us to record them and he would get the backer to finance everything. “Pretty” / “In the Morning” was recorded at Wye studios in Rhode Island. It was our only record. It achieved some local success in Providence.

It was the first release on the Tuff Nuff label which was created by a local business man Ritchie Martin, to promote our recording. Later Charlie Quintal and some other local musicians recorded on the label. Don Perry (aka Dino and Don DeCarlo) and Larry Santos also had record labels in Fall River: Honey Bee and Little Town Records. We only sold around 500 of them.

We played mostly in the bars in and around Fall River/Providence area. My day job caused me to transfer out of the area in April of ’69 and that ended the band. I don’t have any pictures of the group.

Ricky Philbert the bass player, and I had been together for quite some time. We first met at a talent show at Lincoln Park Amusement Park in Dartmouth MA. It was a big place and the main attraction in all of S.E. New England.

Ricky’s band and my band, Bobby & the Galaxies, were in the talent contest that was held every Sunday in the outdoor pavilion. My band won that week. Ricky approached me after about teaming up. Since I didn’t have a bass player, I agreed. He immediately joined my band and we went on to win the finals at the end of the summer. The park’s manager asked if we’d like to play in the park’s pub every Sunday and we agreed. We were a big hit in there.

After three weeks he approached us about playing in the large ballroom every Saturday night. We jumped at the chance. The place held 3500 people. He had Al Rainone’s 18 piece orchestra playing there, and drawing about 200 people. When they were fired and we were hired, Al, who was the head of the local Musicians union, threatened to close the park down since we weren’t union. Needless to say, we quickly joined the union. We played there every Saturday night to a packed house for at least five years.

Each week a different star artist or band would appear and do a 45 minute show. We played the rest of the time. We backed up most of the stars of the day. Jerry Lee Lewis, Freddy Cannon, Lou Christy, etc. We opened for The Kingsman, The Beau Brummels, The 4 Seasons, and many more. It was a great experience.

As an aside, I will tell you that after every Saturday gig, we would go to Dirty Nick’s hot dogs, in Fall River. A guy was working there who was at least 10 years older than us, and looked like a bum, and had horrible body odor. He seemed slightly retarded. His name was Joe Baker. Every week he used to beg me to let him sing with my band. He swore he sounded just like Elvis. Well after two years, I relented. He asked me if I could pick him up, since he didn’t have a car. I agreed. The next Saturday I picked him up and he had a bundle in his arms. I asked him what it was and he said it was his outfit. He opened it to show me. He had taken a suit and a pair of shoes and spray painted them gold and sprinkled on gold flecks. That night, he appeared with us, with no rehearsal and just a play list of Elvis songs in the original keys. I introduced him as Golden Joe Baker. So I named him. If you know of him, you know what a huge success he turned out to be (see goldenjoebaker.com. He was a big hit that night and not because he could sing like Elvis, but because he thought he could and went through all the motions and gyrations. He sang badly and the audience thought it was a put on and a hilarious one. But Joe was dead serious about being as good as Elvis. After that night I took Joe with us everywhere we went. He was a big hit at all the frat parties, etc. He ended up being a star of the longest running daytime show in Las Vegas history.

Besides Ricky and me, Bobby & the Galaxies also consisted of Pete Vanasse (Berklee School of Music) on sax, Don Facciano (New England Conservatory of Music) on Hammond organ, and Ron Kook Barrera on drums. Jerry Valle was the drummer for Bobby & the Galaxies for a few years. He ended up being the drummer/singer with the very successful Spi-Dells from Taunton.

Jonny Locks, backed by the Galaxies
Jonny Locks, backed by the Galaxies
We never released any records of our own, but we did back Johnny Locks on his local hit [“I Know You Want Me Baby” / “All I Want From You” from the second half of 1965], on the Locks label. Johnny was a local stock car driver at Seekonk Speedway. Our record would be played there every weekend. It also got some radio play.

Q. Someone on Youtube commented there may be a second 45 by Jonny Locks, “I Really Gotta Go” b/w “My Dead Girl”, and also a demo for “Long Hair and Mini Skirts”.

If Johnny Locks recorded other songs I am not aware of them, and they weren’t with my band.

Bobby & the Galaxies Metcalf Recording demo I'm Tearing My Heart Out

Other than that we only recorded songs that were never released. “Tearing My Heart Out” / “Giggle Wiggle” is the only record we ever made. This was a demo recorded at Metcalf studios in New Bedford, MA around 1958.

Bobby & the Galaxies Metcalf Recording demo Giggle WiggleThis is the first iteration of Bobby & the Galaxies. The group consisted of me on vocals and guitar, Rick Philbert on bass and backup vocals, Dave Ray on drums, Boh Kiriutowski on sax, and Johnny Pastel on organ. “Tearing My Heart Out” was written by Carl Gastall, and I wrote “Giggle Wiggle”. This record was never released. [There was] a live taping that was done by the later and better version of Bobby & the Galaxies.

We did have offers for record deals, but could not work out a satisfactory deal. We were approached at our Lincoln Park gig, by some producers who wanted to feature us on a weekly TV show, out of Boston. They were going to call it Jamboree, and film it at Lincoln Park, but on a Tuesday night, not at the Saturday gig. It was to be a half hour show with one or two featured guest stars, and my band would be the house band, We would open and close the show with the theme song, Bill Dogget’s “Hold It”, do one featured song a week, and back up the acts that needed back up. It was filmed live with the kids dancing. We signed the contract and filmed four episodes that aired on WBZ, if I remember right. Unfortunately we couldn’t draw a large enough crowd on Tuesdays to finance the producers expenses so they stopped.

I was also involved with Jimmy Crane who owned Ribbon Records, and was a great song writer. He had hits with Elvis, Eddie Fisher, Timi Yuro and Joe Stafford. I was recording demos for him at Wye Records. We also represented WPRO in Providence at the Annual March of Dimes telethon and concert. We appeared on TV and also on the same bill with the Elegants, The Scott Brothers, Anita Bryant, Ritchie Adams and the Fire flies, and other stars of the day.

The Galaxies had an offer to go on the USO tour, for a year, which I rejected, and that caused a lot of dissension in the band. It was the start of the band unraveling. I had finished college, met my wife to be, and had planned on leaving town to get my Masters degree at U. Mass, in Amherst. I had already decided I was not going to pursue a career in music. Of course that meant leaving the Lincoln Park gig too. BTW, at U Mass I hooked up with a bunch of guys from Boston who had a band called the Esquires. I joined them while I was at U Mass. We were a Beatles tribute groups and we worked lots of frat parties. We were one of the two top bands there. The other was Taj Mahal.

After graduation I went home and reformed the Galaxies. I was able to get all of the original members back together. This was ’64. We worked at local clubs and bars, and started to do some society work in Boston. We worked with the Herb Zane Orchestra, as the “rock band” who would play during the orchestra’s breaks, at Debutante parties and such. In ’67 we had a disagreement about the musical direction of the band. The drummer Ronny was pushing to get Ricky out of the group and bring in his friend Manny, who was very good and sang well too, but the reason was to play more soul type music. Ronny didn’t think Ricky had the chops for that. He was wrong. However Ricky got so mad, he quit. Manny joined the group, and the arguments over the material we would play worsened. Three months later I left the group and joined Ricky again, and we formed the Farraris.

When I left the area in ’69, I was transferred to northern New Jersey. There I worked with many fine musicians playing parties and weddings, etc. I got to play at Sardis and the Empire room at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

The music scene in Providence and So. E. Mass. was very rich with lots of talented people and groups. The Cowsills came out of Newport R.I. – I actually repossessed their Silvertone Amps when I worked for Sears. To my ears, The Fabulous Raiders were the best band in the area. A few that were outstanding that I remember were Cal Raye, The Spidells, Talk of The Town, Johnny & The Blue Jays, The Royal Coachman, Frankie James, Benny King & the Royal Jesters, Charlie Quintal, Paul Chaplin & Emeralds (Ct.), The Fabulous Raiders, The Blends, The Videls, Jim Scott & The Crusaders, Golden Joe Baker, and more. The only other Tuff Nuff artist I know was Charlie Quintal. Charlie was really good and played with Dicky Doo & the Don’t for a while. I was a member of Johnny & Blue Jays for about a year.

My old sax player Pete and keyboard player Don are still plying music today. Pete is with an oldies group at Foxwood Casino. Kings Row contains original members from several local groups and is also still active in the area.

You can also view my video on You Tube, Live at The House of Welsh w/ Ketron synthesizer.

Bob Hughes

The Esquires – The Singles … Plus (CD)

The Esquires – The Singles… Plus (2011, Pacemaker PACE 085)
Review by Rebecca Jansen

It’s been two dozen years now since a short b&w film clip of a well-groomed skinny-tied early ’60s instrumental combo began showing up on the Canadian music video channel. They played an original Shadowsesque toe-tapper on Fenders and a Gibson whilst a not too serious drummer paradiddled at a kit with a bass drum that read “The Esquires”. It was too perfect to be a hoax, and the song burrowed into my mind even more than the drum lettering.

About a dozen years ago a CD series was launched by EMI Music Canada called the “Northern Heritage Connoisseur Series,” and part of this series was the 1963 album Introducing The Esquires. Remembering the Shadowsesque group in the film clip and seeing the cover made up to look like the Shadows own famous first LP (right down to the guys’ sweaters) I knew this must be that Esquires. It was, and I would hit replay after the track “Man From Adano” so many times I risked wearing out that button! I don’t know if it’s the memory of the almost Devo-like vintage film clip appearing anachronistically among a lot of modern videos, or the interweaving of guitar and background aaaah-aaaah-aaah-aaahs, but I’d almost swear The Esquires were more the Shadows than the Shadows ever were for this sligthly under two minutes. Like Les Paul’s “Nola” or Link Wray’s “Rumble” before it, it’s one of those tunes that branded itself right onto my brain and will never go, and yet somehow with each relistening making the mark deeper it feels good there.

Now Pacemaker has collected up seemingly everything else by the Esquires of Ottawa and with a photo-festooned and informative book I can scratch this itch all over again. In the manner of England’s Fluer De Lys or Germany’s Rattles, the Esquires of the earliest demos included here are a totally different group of people than the ones who play on their final Columbia single some years further along. In between still other members came and went, like singer Don Norman who dominated vocally and lyrically for the third through fifth Capitol singles only and then went on to lead Don Norman & The Other Four. Norman’s style was very smooth mid-60s Cliff Richard, and his original songs are as satisfyingly hook-laden as anything by bigger names of the era, particularly “So Many Other Boys”.

Don Norman has become somewhat familar to me before this release, so the real revelation here are the final two Columbia singles from 1966. With new members Ted Gerow on keyboard (a future Staccato, see Pacemaker’s great two disc First Sparks collection), and John Cassidy on guitar the Esquires took a moddish r&b turn for the interesting. Still with second drummer Richard Patterson (destined for 3’s A Crowd), and lead vocals from Brian Lewicki, “It’s a Dirty Shame” is a solid garage-rocker that escaped my ears until now, and the follow-up “Love Hides A Multitude Of Sins” is a totally infectious dancable raver (reportedly Zombies inspired). My poor replay button! The flipsides of both are almost equally deserving of attention as well, and yet what with the lack of support in Canada for homegrown rock & roll this was to be the last heard from the Esquires until much later reunions.

This CD is however loaded with bonus tracks from unissued demos and TV appearances to quality live recordings. And now finally, wonder of wonders, that film clip that haunted me all this time itself is explained; “shot in 1963… (two clips, one I’ve yet to see) are considered the first-ever Canadian pop videos and were made when a local vending machine entrepreneur brought back some early video machines [Scopitones] from France. Having nothing but French pop stars on them, he decided to feature Canadian acts.” That 16mm film of “Man From Adano” stands as a peek into a different time and sound as iconically as the celebrated 1906 Market Street in San Francisco film, as only a few weeks later the Beatles began their invasion! In the footsteps of Lonnie Donegan, Cliff and the Shadows, the Beatles hit first in Canada (many later-famous U.S. musicians have noted how they first heard that group while in Canada), but for me ‘Man From Adano’ will always be the coolest piece of Canadian rock.

See the Pacemaker site for more information on this release.

Rebecca Jansen’s writing and artwork can be seen at Hippies stole my blog! *

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