Category Archives: Music Mountain

Teachers Pet “Trying to Get Back to You” on B-Rod Records

Teachers Pet B-Rod 45 Trying To Get Back To YouThe obscure group Teachers Pet cut this one single on the equally obscure B-Rod Records. “Trying to Get Back to You” is crude swampy boogie. The A-side was the comparatively sleepy “Say You Love Me”. Both songs were originals by Larry Sims and Mike Zimmerman.

BMI lists Sims’ full name as Larry Clifton Sims, but it may be confusing him with the bassist and vocalist with the Sunshine Company and Loggins & Messina. BMI also lists two other original songs by the duo, “Seven Days a Week” and “Yes I Do”. I’m not sure either song was recorded.

Kingsbury-Wilson published the songs, now listed as Kingsbury-Wilson Enterprise of Louisville in BMI’s database. Mountain Music did the production. Released on B-Rod Records, without a catalog number on the label. The runout has “1269 – 1948”, I suspect the 1269 could mean December of 1969, but it’s just a guess.

I know of two other releases on B-Rod Records. Don Woolett’s “Rock to Kentucky” / “Ballad of Abraham Lincoln” is on a blue label similar to the Teachers Pet single, released in May, 1971.

A different red label design has Robin Kay Waggoner’s “We’ve Got to Try” / “Your Friend”, with “product of MMP in Lebanon Junction, KY”. Music Mountain Productions also recorded the Sound of the Zounds 45, covered previously on Garage Hangover.

Teachers Pet may have been from Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, or possibly Louisville, a half-hour’s drive north.

The Sound of the Zounds

Zounds Music Mountain 45 Me And My Girl

The Zounds released their only single in June of 1967. “Me and My Girl” is the more uptempo side, while the organ leads the melody for “Love Has Found Me”. Both have fine performances by the band and singer, though the lead guitar and rolling drums on “Me and My Girl” stand out. The horn sounds a little out of place on “Me and My Girl” but fits in better on the flip.

The group came from Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, about 25 miles south of Louisville.

Zounds Music Mountain 45 Love Has Found MeI’ve seen a photo of the group as a six-piece. I had an incomplete lineup listing until Roger Smith commented below. Members were:

David Berry – bass & vocal
Roger Smith – guitar
Wayne Hawkins – organ
Doug Hawkins – drums
Wayne Fernback – trumpet

Michael Giorgio – backing vocals
C.W. Warden – backing vocals

I’d read Thomas Troutman was a member but Roger did not recall him.

David Berry and Roger Smith wrote “Me and My Girl”; Doug Hawkins and W. Hawkins wrote “Love Has Found Me”. Both songs published through Falis City Music Co. BMI.

The Music Mountain labels list the band as The Sound of the Zounds. Music Mountain was a recording studio in Lebanon Junction run by Bill Masden with Grant Watson engineer. It was active into the 1970s. The U4KM-9950 shows this was a custom RCA pressing.

I looked for mention of the band in local newspapers and could only find one reference from the Louisville Courier-Journal on August 6, 1967. The discussion of the ‘combo contest’ lists a number of local groups, but limits coverage to the winner, the Frogs from Jeffersonville, Indiana, across the Ohio River from Louisville. The Frogs never recorded to my knowledge but their performance on WHAS is sometimes available on youtube.

‘Frogs’ Jump to Win ‘Crusade’ Combo Spot

If their Jeffersonville neighbors knew what 17 teen-age talent judges know, they’d be more tolerant when The Frogs roar into a practice session. This guitar-banging, organ-pounding, drum-beating quintet last night topped seven other finalists in the second annual WHAS Crusade for Children combo contest, combining the loud and the soft in today’s Mod music taste. The selection by the teen-age panel on an hour-long WHAS program makes them the best among more than 90 area combos which auditioned for a place among the eight finalists.

Popular as they may be among the younger set, the “Monkee-suited” group has its problems with the older generation. “It’s kind of tough to find a place to practice,” leader Douglas Decker, 18, of 608 Kewanna Drive, Jeffersonville, said. They’ve tried basements and backyards, but the sound of The Frogs isn’t always in tune with the neighbors. Right now they’re practicing in Doug’s basement. “The folks don’t mind, as long as we practice and don’t goof around,” Doug said. “Of course they bug out when we start to play.”

Other finalists were The Zounds, of Lebanon Junction; the Cavaliers, The Silhouettes, The Dynamic Imperials and The Dark Shadows, of Louisville; The Exotics, of Leitchfield; and… “I thought The Dark Shadows were going to win,” Decker, the base guitarist, said. But the other members of his group were convinced that The Dynamic Imperials were the combo to beat.

Other members of the winning Frogs are: Rhythm guitarist Rob Roby, 16, of Utica Pike, Jeffersonville; lead guitarist David Rowan, of 210 Spickert Knobs Road, New Albany; organist John Shaughnessy, 17, of 716 Roma Ave., Jeffersonville; and drummer Richard Wolfe, 17, of 401 Chippewa Drive, Jeffersonville. While they reluctantly admit- their zany outfits are patterned after the famed Monkees, The Frogs’ favorite big-name groups are The Beatles and The Young Rascals. They organized their group only six months ago, although most of them had played with other combos which drifted apart. Shaughnessy had been a member of the Centrics, last year’s winners, before that group competed in the 1966 Crusade combo contest. The Frogs will be one of the acts to perform on this year’s WHAS and WHAS-TV Crusade for Children program Sept. 23-24. Last year’s Crusade provided $415,592 in charity for handicapped children of Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

The Marquis from Louisville could be the Marquee Monsters who recorded “I Love The Beat” (B. Cason) b/w a favorite of mine, “Laws and Restrictions” (Mac Gayden and Bill Fennell) on Our Bag Records in Sept. 1966.