Category Archives: Orange County

The Lady Birds “Sweets for My Sweet” / “Why Must I Be Lonely” on M.P.I.

The Lady Birds featured in the Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1964
The Lady Birds featured in the Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1964
The Lady Birds came from Fullerton in Orange County, CA. Members were:

Lois White – lead guitar
Marilyn Read – rhythm guitar
Sharon Acree – bass
Dede Bagby – drums

From a comment by Marilyn Read on my Wickwire discography, this is the same Lady Birds who made the 1964 single on Wickwire 45-13010, “A Girl Without a Boy” / “To Know Him Is to Love Him”.

Lady Birds M.P.I. 45 Sweets for My SweetThe Lady Birds cut this version of “Sweets for My Sweet” backed with an original by Marilynn Read [sic] “Why Must I Be Lonely”, released on M.P.I. 45-6501/45-6502 circa 1965. “H” stamped into the runout indicates a pressing from RCA’s Hollywood plant.

Ralph Hinds produced the record. Dodson – Heumann, two names I’m not familiar with, did the arrangements. Dorothy Music Publ. Co. published Marilyn Read’s original song.

The Los Angeles Times featured a photo and article on the group on December 13, 1964.

Lady Birds M.P.I. 45 Why Must I Be LonelyThe article quotes Miss Sybl Acree “adviser to the group” who wrote to Mrs. Lyndon Johnson asking permission to use the name Lady Bird for the group and received a reply from Bess Abell, social secretary for the White House.

“How flattered she (Mrs. Johnson) was to learn of the name you chose for your group. Mrs. Johnson’s name is in the public domain and for this reason you may name your group the Lady-Birds. The White House, however, does not officially grant this permission.

“Please know you have Mrs. Johnson’s best wishes for much success in your endeavor.”

The combo is made up of Lois White, 18, lead guitar, a graduate last June from Glendora High School; Marilyn Read, 17, rhythm guitar, senion at Fullerton Union Hight School; Sharon Acree, 14, bass, 8th grade student at Fullerton’s Nicolas Junior High School; and Dede Bagby, 18, drums, sophomore at Fullerton Junior College.

Vern Acree of Fullerton, father of Sharon, and Jim White of Azusa are co-managers of the foursome…

Their first album, “Come Fly With Us,” will be released soon, according to Acree.

Next date in the county for the quartet is Dec. 19 when they will perform for the Fullerton Teen Center’s annual Christmas event.

The group continued at least into 1966. On September 6, 1966, the Van Nuys News ran a photo of Sharon Acree with national guardsmen from Camp Roberts where the Lady Birds performed with Johnny Rivers, “who is private in Headquarters Company of Division’s 2nd Battalion.”

Sharon Acree would join her brother Dirk Acree in the Heathens, who backed John English III on his great single on Sabra (probably before Sharon was in the group).

Marilyn Read would join the Regents in 1966.

The great Hollywood a Go Go site has more photos of the Lady Birds.

This was not the Ladybirds trio from the UK who had a 1964 US 45 on Atco, “Lady Bird” / “Memories; and definitely NOT the Ladybirds from New Jersey that played topless at the Blue Bunny Club in Hollywood, and other locations.

The Lost and Found “Don’t Move Girl” / “To Catch the Sun”

Lost and Found Pins 45 Don't Move GirlThe Lost and Found originated in San Clemente, California as the Nuts & Bolts. Relocating to Phoenix Arizona, they became the Lost and Found and cut this single on the one-off Pins label. They were about 16 or 17 years old at the time of the session.

The band members were:

Jim Jeffers – lead guitar
Mike Ingram – rhythm guitar and vocals
Al Manfredi – bass and vocals
Mike Ryer – drums and vocals

Mike Ingram wrote the fast-paced “Don’t Move Girl”, while Al Mandredi wrote the introspective “To Catch the Sun”, both songs published by Debra, BMI.

The Library of Congress shows the songs registered on November 14, 1966, listing their full names, with their mothers’ names as publishers: John Michael Ingram and Ruby P. Ingram; and Albert T. Manfredi and Wanda Manfredi.

The single is a Wakefield Pressing with the code SJW-8937. It was recorded at Loy Clingman’s Viv Studio.

The group had a tragic streak, as Mike Ingram died soon after the group returned to California in early 1967. After a year’s hiatus, Al Manfredi reformed the group with drummer Mike Ryer, only to have tragedy strike again, as Ryer died of cancer. Certainly this was a talented group that deserved a better fate.

Al Manfredi gave music lessons while continuing to write and record demos of songs. In 1973 he brought a band into a studio to cut some of his original songs, and had a small number of copies pressed by Band ‘n Vocal Mobile Recording Service. Al passed away in 1995, but Now-Again Records has issued his album and other recordings as Blue Gold.
Lost and Found Pins 45 To Catch The Sun

The Rubber Maze

The Rubber Maze photo in Teen Screen
The Rubber Maze photo in Teen Screen

Rubber Maze Tower 45 Mrs. Griffith

The Rubber Maze released one excellent double-sided single on Tower 351 in July 1967, featuring two different styles. The A-side is “Mrs. Griffith”, typical of the soft psychedelia of the era, written by Marty Cooper, who co-produced the single with Ray Ruff.

Ray Ruff and Marty Cooper ran the Ruff and Sully labels, based out of Amarillo, Texas. Their publishing companies Little Darlin’ Music Co. and Checkmate Music BMI published both songs. I’ve read this single came out on the Ruff label but haven’t yet seen a copy.

I really dig the flip, a straight-up garage song “Won’t See Me Down”, written by Rubber Maze member Dennis Swinden.

Rubber Maze Tower 45 Won't See Me DownBassist Ronnie Verge commented on a video of “Mrs. Griffith”:

The Rubber Maze formed in 1965 in San Francisco and moved to Orange County, CA. They started up as The Young Men From Boston, shortly there after change to The Maze, and in 1967 changed to The Rubber Maze. They disbanded in late 1968.

Lead vocals and drums: Reggie Boyd
Vocals, lead guitar and keyboard: Dennis Swinden
Vocals, rhythm guitar: Brian Blanchard
Vocals, bass and cello: Ronnie Verge

Alternate Member on vocals and lead guitar: Chad Blanchard

The Rubber Maze toured a substantial part of the U.S. with the Yellow Payges as part of Happening ’67, a tour organized by Dick Clark. Each show had local acts in the opening slots, and received a fair amount of press. There were shows in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin during July and August 1967.

The clipping at the top comes from Mike Dugo of 60sgaragebands.com, part of a two-page write up on a Dick Clark tour with The Split Ends and Yellow Payges in 1968 in Teen Screen.

The Rubber Maze had no connection to the Maze who had the LP Armageddon on the MTA label.

Rubber Maze Tower PS
rare Tower picture sleeve for the Rubber Maze single
Rubber Maze on the first stop of the Happening ’67 tour in Tucson, July 15
The “Flower Child” of the Rubber Maze in Corpus Christi, TX on July 25, 1967

The Far End


The Far End in 1967. From left: Joe Costa, lead guitar; Tommy Broadfoot (wearing hat), drums; Frank Demascio, bass; John Berg (standing to right in foreground), lead singer & rhythm guitar

The Far End formed at La Habra High School in Orange County, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist John Berg is generously sharing a few songs they recorded at home.

“Don’t Invite Me Over” has a great, crude quality to its sound. The chords and verse put me in mind of Simply Saucer, and the solos have all the intense fury of the Velvet Underground. Their version of “Gloria” is solid, with Tommy Broadfoot’s steady drumming and nice guitar trills by Joe Costa, and John doesn’t hold back on the vocals. “Please Don’t Say” shows the versatility of the band, and the harmonica solo isn’t as bad as John makes it out to be.

Other songs on the tape include versions of the Beatles’ I Feel Fine, It’s Only Love and That Boy; Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth and the Dave Clark Five’s Because.

John writes about the band:

I was lead singer/rhythm guitarist in “The Far End” between 1966-’68, based in La Habra, California (Orange County, between Fullerton and Whittier.)

Our music started off strongly influenced by a weird mixture of Beatles, Stones, Dave Clark Five, Them, the Standells, and some surf and wedding party music our guitarist Joe Costa insisted we play. Gradually we became more “psychedelic” though our actual musical talent never quite matched the sounds we heard in our heads.

We were a 4 piece “living room band”, i.e. we rarely made it even out to the garage — though we did play the Hollywood Teen Fair two Springs in a row, the second time (’67) as the “demo band” at the Sunn Amplifiers booth. We played a few other local “gigs” including the opening of a pizza parlor on Whittier Blvd – performing outside in the parking lot to hardly anybody beyond family members — and a few other similar occasions.

Our real passion was writing songs — more than 50, of which we only managed to record a couple onto a Sony reel to reel machine in my living room in the spring of ’67. Actually, we also cut two originals to tape at the JBL booth at the ’67 Hollywood Teen Fair, but the girlfriend of our lead guitarist Joe “borrowed” the tape to play for some friends and promptly lost (or perhaps destroyed?) it, so I never even got to hear it.

I have a whole 3 ring notebook full of sheets of paper containing the lyrics for the songs that I and Joe Costa co-wrote, none of which ever got recorded other than these two originals, “Don’t Invite Me Over” and “Please Don’t Say” (wretched harmonica “solo” by yours truly) and of course our take on “Gloria” since Van was my #1 fave singer of the era.

We were heading more and more into the “psych zone” but girlfriends, college classes, jobs and sundry other things got in the way of our actually getting to record this music. I did write down the chords alongside the lyrics, but can only recall how a few of the songs actually went. One song, “Joy Ride”, was heavily influenced by The Doors (who I first saw in early June 1966 when they opened for Them at The Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood).

Please Don’t Say does indicate the part of our band persona that was pop/Beatles-influenced, whereas the other two songs show off our more blues/garage side. The unrecorded stuff covered all these veins and more, though certainly we were heading more in the “psych” direction — or at least as much as we were capable of in terms of “chops”. That photo is the only one that has survived the rages of 40 years.

I recently was able to reconnect with my old La Habra High School class of 1966 mate Mike Lewis, who was lead guitarist in the band The New Breed that has three tracks on the recent Big Beat label CD It Came From The Garage [including the great I Got Nothin’ To Say To You] .

Over the ensuing years I continued as a fan of all the musicians who played in the ranks of Them and was able to make contact with several of them, which led in the mid-1990s to me and my friend Neal Skok releasing a CD by the band “Truth” that compiled tracks cut in 1970 by three ex-Them members — same guys who were on the two “Them” albums on the Tower label that have more recently been reissued by Rev-Ola. The music of “Truth” is really much more well-realized than either of those two Tower albums — we only recently made the CD available in case you want to check it out.

The Far End – Don’t Invite Me Over
The Far End – Gloria
The Far End – Please Don’t Say