The Vikings

The Vikings: Charles Nettles standing in the back and below, l-r: Gary Smith, Phil Whitley, Lee Lowery, Randy Carmichael, and Steve Vainrib
The Vikings: Charles Nettles standing in the back and below, l-r: Gary Smith, Phil Whitley, Lee Lowery, Randy Carmichael, and Steve Vainrib

The Vikings of Birmingham, Alabama recorded two quite different 45s. The first was produced by Ed Boutwell, at whose studio the Hard Times recorded their 45. Band members were Gary Smith, Phil Whitley, Lee Lowery, Randy Carmichael, Steve Vainrib and Charles Nettles.Vikings Viking 45 Come On and Love Me

“Come On and Love Me” is fantastic, an upbeat song with double-tracked vocals and a nice balance between Phil Whitley’s lead guitar and the strummed rhythm. As exciting a single as any released during the summer of 1966.

“I Will Never Go” is a ballad, and while not exceptional, it builds to a strong ending. Both sides were co-written by Charles Nettles and C. Putnam.

Over a year later they made a second record on the Lowery label, but the change in their sound is enormous. The a-side is another Charles Nettles original, “Cherish the Love You Feel”, with lavish orchestration and an arrangement influenced by English pop from the time. The flip is a cover of Tommy Roe’s “Golden Girl” – chosen probably because the Lowery booking agency was handling both bands.

Randy Carmichael became a studio musician for Neil Hemphill’s Sound of Birmingham studio in the Midfield section of the city, playing for Fredrick Knight and Bobby Womack among others. Phil Whitely went on to play with the Hard Times after their guitarist Ron Parr died in Vietnam.

Wayne Perkins joined as guitarist after the 45s were recorded. He wrote an extensive remembrance of his days in music. Of his time with the Vikings, he says this:

When I hit sixteen, I had enough of school and a string of teachers that didn’t like my long hair. They said I would “never get anywhere playing’ that guitar.” So I said, “Oh yeah? Well you just watch me!” At that point, I left school, left home and moved in with a fellow band member of the Vikings named Charles Nettles and his Mom. I sort of “kept house” to pay rent, ya know, cut the yard and that sort of thing.

In this time period Charlie was learning to, and teaching me how to write songs. He said his Mom was on a diet and was taking these little pills called “obadrine” or something, and if he took one it made him concentrate better and the songs turned out better. And I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. It also made me sing and play better…at least I thought I could. So I stayed with Charlie and his Mom, Dot (short for Dorothy) for about a year and a half until one of Charlie’s girlfriends took an interest in me and I just couldn’t help myself…

The last time I played with Charlie and the Vikings was in the Fall of ‘68 and when the gig was over, we came off stage only to run headlong into Stephanie Brown, Charlie’s future ex-girlfriend. She looked at Charlie and then looked at me. I looked at Charlie and said, “I can’t do this anymore.” Then I looked at Stephanie and said, “What’s it gonna be? You going with him or coming with me?”

She said, “I’m coming with you Baby.” As we walked off, Charlie looked at me and said, “You’ll never do anything without me in the business!” I said, “Oh yeah? Just watch me!” So we walked around the side of the stage and ran right into a drummer friend of mine by the name of Jasper Guarino, and he said, “Man, you are playing your ass off, I saw what just went down with Charlie…what the hell you gonna do?! I said, “Man, I don’t know.” And he said, “Well, if you’re interested, there’s an opening for a guitar player in a studio called “Quinvy’s” in Muscle Shoals. He said, “That’s where I’m working. The hours are easy, it’s from 10 a.m. to four or five depending on what’s going on and it pays $100.00 a week.” I said, “When are you going back?” He said, “Tonight, you got anything better to do?” I said, “Hell no. That’s the best idea I heard in a long time.” So I said to Stephanie, “I’ll see you later, I’m going to Muscle Shoals.” So Jasper and I swung by Charlie’s house, dumped all of my shit into a garbage bag, and got the hell out of Birmingham.

To see if he proved Charlie wrong, read more here.

Thanks to David Hill for the photos, and Mike Pair for his help on this story.

 Wayne Perkins and Eddie Hinton
Wayne Perkins (left) and Eddie Hinton

21 thoughts on “The Vikings”

  1. Cherish the Love You Feel… that is the Vikings and what I remember that was so beautiful in that time in Bham. Wayne is the greatest, I remember his band the Colours, too.

    1. Yes! I’ve been looking for this song since I was 10 years old & heard it just a few times on a radio station in Birmingham. JUST found this website & feel so relieved that I didn’t make up the whole thing. I can still hear the song in my head, remember the lyrics, etc.

      1. My wife Susan Mitchell has been saying the same thing to me for decades — she grew up in B’ham and knew the song but missed it for the last 50 years. I found a copy of the 45 and ripped it to mp3. I’ll send it to you if you want it.

    2. My husband found a 45 of Cherish the Love You Feel and ripped it to mp3 if you’re interested I can send it.

      1. Please send me a copy of the “Cherish The Love You Feel”. Almost all of my Viking photos and records were burned up when my house caught fire. Thanks in advance, Phil Whitley

    3. Just for the record, I am Phil Whitley, the original lead guitarist for the Vikings, and I was the lead guitar player on “Cherish the Love You Feel”. Wayne Perkins took my place when I left the Vikings.

  2. There was a band called Fable in Birmingham in the late 60’s and early 70’s composed of several members of bands on this site. Lee Lowery of the Vikings,
    Chuck Terpo of The Wild Vybrashons,Mike Gunnels of The Rites of Spring(for a short time),Steve Vainrib of The Vikings(for a short time)and when he was in town Wayne Perkins would sit in. Wayne’s little brother was the drummer.I played bass. Mike Lawley played lead guitar. There several 2nd guitar players over time. Would like to hear any comments or stories about the band.

  3. Wayne said Hey its Sam Sides from Sipsey.. LOL He said His Dad callled You that and said Hello ! Ill ask Dale about Fable Wayne said He remembered.

  4. Wasn’t there a guitarist for the Rites of Spring named Ron Parr? He was killed in Viet Nam. I remember Robert Alexander of the Distortions, was a good friend of his, and when he died, Robert organized a memorial concert at Avondale Park. He asked me to draw posters and put them around town to help advertise. I was a young kid. Larry Taylor, who was one of the greatest artists in town and went to Woodlawn HS, sold some of his work at the Sidewalk Art Show we had that day in the park, too. Robert was in a band called Train at that time, having recently left the Distortions. Ron had only been over htere for about 3 weeks when he was killed. It sent shock waves thru the music community. What a tragedy.

  5. Thats Randy singing Cherish according to Wayne Perkins and Trace Harrill. From what I hear they had everyone in the band try singing that song while recording in Atlanta and this was the version the producers selected.

  6. Just found the site, I was digging through the internet to see if an old neighbor was still alive “Lee Lowery” when I was a snot nosed brat he lived across the street with his Mother who was the next thing to me as a grandmother Miss Tracy Lowery, and her husband who was like an adoptive grandfather Mr. “OT” Arthur Lowery. They had a cool natural rock amphitheater in their backyard and the Vikings would practice their during the summers. brings back some good memories! If anyone has any info on Lee I would appreciate it! P.S. they did one of the best covers of Tommy James and Shondells “Crimson and Clover” Lee had a fantastic voice!

  7. Just as a footnote to the story of The Vikings and to tell what I know of Charles Nettles. He and I were raised in the same neighborhood a few houses apart. Charles and my older brother, Ron, were the same age and were classmates at Springdale School. The two of them actually won a school talent contest with a song Charles wrote called “Crazy Little Martian Man”. Charles, from that time on, was obsessed with writing music and playing guitar. And when I say obsessed I mean to the extreme. Nothing else mattered. That would define who he was till the day he died. And that would tragically happen in 1978 after his house caught fire and he was trapped inside and badly burned. He lived for 10 days and died at University Hospital. At his funeral we played a loop of hours of his original music on his reel to reel player. RIP

  8. Charles was my uncle. My daddy was Jim Nettles, his older brother. I just happened across this website after my sister found a recording of his music online. This is so interesting to me…. I was only 9 years old when he died. My grandmother Dottie talked about him some, so I knew some of this info, but not all of it. I don’t remember a lot about him, but I do remember him playing the guitar and singing to us when we visited my grandmother. I think he even wrote a children’s song for us. I’ve heard his music at my grandmother Dottie’s over the years.

  9. I’d very much like to know anything about Gary Smith who was an original Viking member. We grew up in the same neighborhood. I’ve forgotten what instruments he played, I’m old! I heard he moved to Florida,married and became a preacher. I’d really appreciate any info that I could get. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

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