garage hangover - New York

Yesterday's Children

Chas Kit — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:10:16 -0400

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ronnie Eden's name only comes up in Billboard in conjunction with Ted Black. Together they sold masters by John Gary to Cameo/Parkway and were sued for it by RCA (Billboard, November 13, 1965).

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q. Did the band last long?

Probably three years...with various band members.

Q. How did you get the Pickwick contract?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Showcase discographies

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

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

9800 - Mat Matthews - Milk and Honey / Shalom
9801
9802 - Sonny Stevenson - Night Stroll (parts 1 and 2)
9803
9804
9805 - Beverly Ann - Great Pretender / We Got Trouble
9806 - Adam & Eve - The game of war
9807 - Johnnie Shepherd - Coming Home / Mr Weather Man
9808
9809 - The Parris Mitchell Voices featuring Chips Murphie - We Need a Little Christmas / Mame
9810 - Henry the IX - Don't Take Me Back, Oh Nooo! / Don't Take Me Back (part 2)
9811 - Lost In Sound - You Can Destroy My Mind / Stubborn Kind Of Fellow (August 1966)
9812 - Yesterday's Children - Feelings / Wanna Be With You (September 1966)
9813
9814 - Don Goldie - Popcorn / Summertime
 9901 - Maurice Bower - What's More American / America The Beautiful
9902 - Beechnuts - Nature’s Company / My Iconoclastic Life

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

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

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

Sources include: Beech-Nuts info from Beyond the Beat Generation. Special thanks to Mop Top Mike and Davie Gordon for help making sense of the Showcase release numbering, and to Rich and Ad Z. for their help.

Raunch

Chas Kit — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:34:29 -0500

Raunch live at the Cellar in Ossining, 1966. From left: Tommy Walker (on drums), Jay Manning, Sandy Katz (playing the Vox Mark VI "Teardrop") and Frank Taxiera on bass

Sandy Katz - rhythm guitar and vocals
Jay Manning - lead guitar
Frank Taxiera - bass
Tommy Walker - drums

Raunch were from Ossining with the exception of Sandy Katz, their lead vocalist and songwriter, who was from Briarcliff Manor. Raunch's great cover of Paul Revere & the Raiders' "Hungry" leads off the fabulous Ren-Vell Records Presents Battle of the Bands Vol. 1 LP. I had left it off my original post on the LP because my copy has a skip in that song, but I'll include that flawed transfer here.

Even better is a 45 they cut for Bazaar Records, "A Little While Back" / "I Say You're Wrong". The A-side is a great song featuring heavy fuzz guitar and a blistering solo by Jay Manning. Jay kindly provided the photos here, including the first I've seen of Ren-Vell's studio, and the story behind the band:

The Synners was the first band I had, while still in high school. It was myself (lead guitar) and my two best friends David Perugini (rhythm guitar) and Alan Raycraft (drums), and later another high school friend, Curt Mienel(bass guitar). We played at our high school a couple of times and parties. I don't think we ever got paid, but in those days the motivation was impressing girls, not financial rewards.

I have a recording from 1965 of us playing at an Ossining High School Spanish Club banquet. Dave's dad got a hold of an old Wollensak reel to reel and, unbeknownst to me, recorded three songs.

We graduated in 1965 and in the fall David went to college, in New Paltz, New York, so the band evolved. Alan and Curt stayed, I think we called ourselves the Invaders. I don't really remember all the iterations of the bands. I do remember that Alan was still playing drums when we met Sandy Katz. I don't remember how we found him, but he and I clicked. He had a great voice and wrote decent songs. His dad was in business for himself so was very savvy about copyright and publishing rights, so all of Sandy's songs were copyrighted.

Alan finally quit, we replaced him with another Sandy, whose last name I don't remember. Curt left and eventually we added Frank Taxiera as bass player. He couldn't play and didn't have equipment, he was just cool and he fit. He became a really good bassist and now plays some great blues lead, in Colorado, with some renowned bluesmen.

That's when Raunch was born. Sandy's dad wanted us to be The Four Seasons (clean cut, stylish), I had very long hair for 1966 and was not interested in being clean cut.

Raunch played all over Westchester County. Ossining, of course, Tarrytown, Yonkers, White Plains, Armonk, Briarcliffe Manor (that's where Sandy lived). "The Cellar", the Ossining Recreation Department's teen hangout had live music almost every weekend. I can't remember all the places we played, but it was a lot. Just about every weekend and some weeknights all over the place. I don't remember playing any bars at that point, but we did banquets and lots of dances and teen clubs.

We were very egocentric. We considered ourselves the best band in the area and thought of all the others as pretenders to the throne, at least I did.

There were a lot of "battle of the bands", at high schools. recreation departments, clubs, all over the place. We won most of the ones we were in, so didn't really pay attention to second place.

The two I remember not winning was one for all of Westchester County, NY in the summer of 1966, at the base of Kensico Dam, in Valhalla, NY, we came in 4th. Not really a "battle of the band" but a tryout to open for the Beach Boys, at Iona College in New Rochelle. The best bands in Westchester, New York City and from Connecticut were there. We lost out to a band called The Young Savages, really great band and they lost out, in a second round of tryouts, to a band called Chain Reaction. The lead singer was Steven Tallarico (later Steven Tyler - Aerosmith). I remember them playing "I'm Not Talking", by the Yardbirds.

Marty Katz, Sandy's dad, really got into it. He knew his kid was good, but he had never been in a really good band before that could showcase his music. Marty Katz owned a corporation already, so he just created a record label, Bazaar Records, he paid for everything. The actual name of the band was Raunch Inc. and we really were part of a small corporation.

We recorded everything at Ren-Vell. We were, I believe, Joe Renda's first project. I really don't remember the other bands on the album, there were so many bands at that time and so many places to play.

Sandy Katz wrote "A Little While Back", and on the record, sang the harmonies. I sang the harmony when we played it live.

Sandy is playing the Vox [in the photos], he also had the 12-string model. I had a Phantom, the odd, irregular hexagon shaped guitar, but it was a real pig. Thick neck, weak pickups, tinny sounding. Unfortunately that's what I played at the battle of the bands, because it was "cooler" than my Hagstom, which was a much better guitar.

I was a terrific guitarist, for the time, if I do say so myself. That was really all I lived for, that and girls of course. I learned everything by ear and watching better players, never had any lessons, still haven't and I still play quite a bit. Now it's classical and fingerstyle jazz.

Jay Manning

Raunch - A Little While Back
Raunch - I Say You're Wrong
Raunch - Hungry

Thanks to Jay for his help with this article. Scan of the Raunch 45 from David Perugini. Thanks to Patrick Lundborg for his help.

Anyone have a scan of the picture sleeve for the Bazaar 45?!

Recording at Ren-Vell

Found photos - Music on the streets of NY in the 1960's

Chas Kit — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:50:00 -0400

More of the photo negatives - these are various musicians on the streets of New York. If anyone can help identify any of the musicians in the photos below, I'd appreciate it. Please do not reproduce any of these without permission.

Moondog in front of the Underwriters Trust Company,
1340 - Sixth Ave?

Jimmy Nottingham on trumpet in Harlem, late 1960's

Unidentified group in front of Chock Full o' Nuts - 125th St?

Unidentified guitarist

Unidentified guitarist in Central Park

Unidentified musician in (I believe) Washington Square Park

Many thanks to all who have helped with IDs.

Found photos - Bud Powell's funeral procession

Chas Kit — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:23:00 -0400

More of the found photos - these are of Bud Powell's funeral procession on August 8, 1966. I've added a few more photos since I first put these on the site.

Dan Morgenstern reported on the funeral for Down Beat's September 22, 1966 issue:

In the lead was Harlem's own Jazzmobile, appropriately draped for the occasion, and carrying a jazz band ... the members were Benny Green, trombone; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Barry Harris, piano; Don Moore, bass; Billy Higgins, drums, and at the last moment, Lee Morgan, trumpet. First came "Now's the Time" and then, perhaps more appropriately, "'Round Midnight", followed by two Powell tunes, "Bud's Bubble" and "Dance of the Infidels".

The music stopped when the cortege reached the church. The pallbearers, including musicians Max Roach, Tony Scott, Eddie Bonnemere, Kenny Dorham, Willie Jones, Hayes Alvis and Claude Hopkins, brought Powell's coffin into the church where, many years before, he had been an altar boy.

If anyone can help identify anyone in the photos below, I'd appreciate it.

Bud Powell's funeral procession, August 8, 1966,
Which avenue is this?

Sam Price in tie walking next to cop car
- which street are they walking down? What theater in the background?

Which intersection is this?

Pallbearers: on right, back to front, Kenny Dorham, Willie Jones, unknown; on left, unknown, Tony Scott, unknown.

On the Jazzmobile: Benny Green trombone, Barry Harris on piano and Don Moore on bass. John Gilmore (face not seen) is on tenor.

From left: John Gilmore (with back to camera), unknown, Don Moore on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, unknown on right.

Detail from the above photo.

Bud Powell's funeral procession, August 1966
- Church of St. Charles Borromeo on W. 141 St. in Harlem

Much thanks to all who have helped with IDs.

Found photos - The Apollo Theater, NY in the 1960's

Chas Kit — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:35:40 -0400

OK, this isn't at all related to garage music, but I found a very interesting batch of photo negatives by an amateur photographer working in New York City in the 1960's and very early '70s. I don't know the photographer's name, unfortunately but I believe these are all unpublished. My negative scans aren't professional quality, but they'll do for checking these out.

Besides the ones below there are many others, especially of street scenes, and more at the Apollo - Ben E. King, Miriam Makeba, Cal Tjader, Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack and others, and also of Machito at Town Hall.

I've had help in identifying most of the musicians in these photos, but there are still a couple I don't have IDs for and I'd appreciate any help you can give. Please do not reproduce any of these without permission.

B.B. King at the Apollo, March 1963

The Shirelles at the Apollo, March 1963

The Cookies, with Earl Jean, the Apollo, March 1963.

Unknown singer or emcee at the Apollo, March 1963

Bobby Byrd and Anna King with James Brown's group at the Apollo, early-mid 1960s.

Leo Wright and Dizzy Gillespie at the Apollo, during the week of April 27- May 3, 1962.

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Larry Ridley, bass (probably subbing for Jymie Merritt),
Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Blakey on drums, same show as above

The Jazz Messengers with Larry Ridley on bass and Curtis Fuller, trombone, same show as above.

MC or speaker at the show with Gillespie and the Messengers

I was able to date the photos of the show with Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey to 1961 or 1962 by the overlap between Freddie Hubbard joining the Jazz Messengers in 1961 and Leo Wright's tenure with Gillespie ending in 1962. There are also photos of Cal Tjader from this show.

According to the Chronology of Art Blakey, the Messengers with Hubbard played at the Apollo for some dates in beginning September 14, 1961, as well as a benefit show on September 13, 1962.

Chris Sheridan informs me that Leo Wright only played with Gillespie at the Apollo during the week of April 27 - May 3, 1962. An ad in the Amsterdam News includes both Gillespie and the Messengers on the bill for this week of shows.

Freda Payne at the Apollo, date unknown

Unidentified singer/guitarist at the Apollo, sometime in 1971

Unidentified duo at the Apollo, sometime in 1971

Many thanks to all who have helped with IDs.

The Elegant Four

Chas Kit — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:23:54 -0400

Back row: Tom Cosgrove, Billy Dennis and Pete Santora. Front row: Dennis Sousa and John Tominny (sp?)

From the Bronx, the Elegant Four were also known as the Elegants. Tom Crosgrove was lead guitarist and vocalist, and wrote both songs on their only 45. Other members included Bill Dennis and Pete Santora.

The chanted vocals and echoing chords give "Time to Say Goodbye" a downcast mood, brightening momentarily during the chorus where the singer gives the boot to the girl holding out on him.

On the flip is the uptempo "I'm Tired", with more fine harmonies and a good guitar solo.

These songs were originally released on the Cousins label, produced by Mike Barbiero. It was picked up for a December '65 release on Mercury, but doesn't seem to have made much chart impact.

The Elegant Four - Time to Say Goodbye
The Elegant Four - I'm Tired

Sources: photo from Pete Santora's site. Thanks to Tom for clarifying the photo IDs.

A couple other photos are available on Tom Walsh's site Bronx Bands of the Past (warning: Angelfire sites like this one always have pop-up ads).

Westchester Rivals: The Reptiles, the End, and the Aliens

Chas Kit — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:46:23 -0500

The Reptiles, 1967, photo by Robin Leach

The Reptiles have one cut on the Ren-Vell Battle of the Bands LP, The Glass Toy. I hadn't originally included in my article on that LP, but in taking another listen, I can see what the group were trying to achieve. It could have been a fine pop single with more polish, but the Ren-Vell studio wasn't prepared to offer that kind of guidance or production quality.

The Reptiles - The Glass Toy

Steve Worthy related the story of the Reptiles recording of Glass Toy to Bassman Bobb Brown:

Ron Macera was the drummer, Paul Slavin on bass, Mark Worthy on rhythm guitar and high harmony vocal on the chorus (a reversal of how we usually worked-me high harmony, him low). I played upper register rhythm guitar, because if I was doing the singing I couldn't do any leads on guitar.

I wrote the song (probably my 3rd or 4th song ever written), full of teenage angst, and having to rhyme the works criticize, minimize and brutalize in the one bridge, shows my poetic and English major leanings. Subconsciously, I imitated my heroes the Beatles by doing something I heard said later about their songs - sad lyrics with happy music!

The only other recording session for the Reptiles was with a friend of my father named Bert Haber, who worked with Famous Music Publishing, and they were looking to get some young bands on one of their record company rosters. Bert gave us this song called "Come Take A Taste" to learn, and we so despised it, but really wanted to get in on the ground floor so we did it. I was so depressed learning it, that I wrote a song called "The Moustache Song" as a joke ("Please little girl with the moustache, blah blahh, Please don't shave your little moustache, You're only girl I kissed with one before"), which went on the 45 b-side. No one else had a song, so I had to sing that one as well.

Needless to say, their Broadway-type song was like a Spanky and Our Gang type tune, and our hearts weren't in it, so it went nowhere further. The chorus sounded like "Sunday Will Never Be The Same".

The Reptiles prided itself on always being true to the song and getting all the chords right! One of our pet peeves would be songs by bands who couldn’t get the bridge right- on “For Your Love” for example- the last two chords –they would do “A followed by Am” at the end of it, instead of C#m to B. Most bands were a little lazy that way. We used sharps and flats and major seventh chords because of our Beatle training. Me and my brother would listen to records over and over until every chord was perfect, especially with the Beatles stuff, which was our supreme role model. We even did Sgt. Pepper Stuff live like “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, “It’s Getting Better”, “A Day In The Life”, “Lovely Rita”.

Steve also wrote about the Reptiles' rival bands, The End and The Aliens:

“The End” had Allen Spink and guitar and lead vocals, Jimmy Indusi on Guitar, Timmy Smith on console organ-sounded almost like a Hammond, Rick Selby on left-handed drums, and Pat Giordano on bass guitar. They were the second most ferocious competitors to the Reptiles after "The Aliens". We made a comeback and beat them in a Battle of the Bands at St. Augustine’s High School finally, after a humiliating defeat at St. Ann’s when Spink stacked the deck with all of his friends. One reason the rivalry was so raw, even though personally I was great friends with the leader Allen Spink, was young testosterone when the nine of us were in a room together. We were like the Jets and the Sharks circling each other, I swear!

The Aliens were composed of Ray Marion on lead guitar and lead vocals (playing a Gibson cherry red ES335), Curt Meinel, bass (Hagstrom?), Glen Kane on drums, and a guy named Howie on Farfisa organ [Howie Pobner]. They were very popular because they could be counted on to play all the standard rock 'n' roll songs like Louie, Louie, Wipe Out, Bang Bang (Joe Cuba, not Sonny and Cher), and were not adventurous at all, which is why the Reptiles and Aliens were sworn mortal enemies. Ray would do this swagger like he was so cool and shake his ass, which drove us crazy, because our impression of music at the time did not include ass shaking! Maybe he thought he was Elvis, who I both appreciate and love now, but at the time he was kind of old news to us in 1967.

The Aliens - Louie Louie
The Aliens - Gloria

Thanks to Bassman Bobb Brown for forwarding me the comments of Steve Worthy, along with the photo and the scans and transfers of the Aliens 45.

P.B. & the Staunchmen

Chas Kit — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:33:14 -0500

P. B. and the Staunchmen cut this rare 45 on Lee, the same label as the Ascendors "I Won't Be Home" in 1966. The label was located out of Hornell, New York, 40 miles south of Rochester but I've read the band was from Dansville, another 20 miles south/southeast.

P.B. is Paul Beecher, credited along with the Staunchmen for writing both sides of the 45, but that's all I know about this group.

"Mean Willy" is a driving track with some wild guitar breaks and screams between repetitive lyrics and droning saxophone.

All the girls they can't sympathize,
They know that he goes around telling 'em lies,
When he looks into their big brown eyes.

Less engaging musically is the flip, "Lost Generation", which sounds like it has roots in "Eve of Destruction". The lyrics are defeatist and downright depressing, if I am reading them right:

This poor war is here to say,
There's nothing you can do to keep it away,
My brother's dead, there's no denying,
This lost generation has me cryin'.
'Cause it's lost, this generation, it's gone away,
It's lost no matter what you say.

The kids are turnin', their cards are burnin',
Trying to escape this war,
The game they've lost and now they've found,
It doesn't matter anymore.

P.B. & the Staunchmen - Mean Willy
P.B. & the Staunchmen - Lost Generation

Thanks to Don Cox for the lyric correction. If anyone has photos of the group, please contact me.

Stephen Hartley

Chas Kit — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:21:22 -0500

This 45 has great atmosphere and unusual production. It's the work of several talented people who were usually involved in much more commercial music.

Singer and songwriter Stephen Hartley is Stephen Hartley Dorff, a composer of songs and movie & TV soundtracks. The producer Walt Levinsky was an old-time swing clarinet player, composer and arranger who is most well known for writing theme songs for television, including the old CBS evening news theme. The arranger Steve Cagan worked for years with Melissa Manchester. MB Records is also the label that released Manchester's first record, again with Cagan and Levinsky's production.

"Have You Seen Her" did make the charts of WOR-FM in New York for a few weeks in July and August of 1967. I prefer "The Other Side" for the moodiness of the music and obsessive lyrics.

Stephen Hartley - The Other Side
Stephen Hartley - Have You Seen Her

The Brotherhood of Soul

Chas Kit — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:31:36 -0400

"Save Me" is a slow and intense psychedelic 45 featuring the anguished vocal of Richy Pecchio over the Brotherhood of Soul's repetitive vamp. The flip is a shorter instrumental version of "Save Me", retitled "The Morning After" with the bass guitar right up at the edge of the red on the meters.

Released on the Goldbug label, the RCA custom press number 'UK4M' indicates this was released in 1967. Both sides were written by Rich Pecchio and B. Sell. The 45 was produced by Ron Gittman, who was the agent that brought the Magnificent Men to Capitol Records.

This session was engineered by Abe Steinberg at Abtone Recording Studio. Abtone was located at 1733 Broadway in New York City, and in 1966 had been the site of some sessions featuring Lonnie Youngblood, Jimi Hendrix, Lee Moses and Herman Hitson, as well as other r&b artists like Ronnie Forte.

I couldn't find any further info on this record until Richard Pecchio contacted me himself:

I was recruited by an ex-DJ turned manager when he saw me singing at a nightclub. He was or still is the owner of a trucking company in Manhattan, New York, his name is Lonnie Kaufman. He eventually got me signed to a record label called Kip Records in '61. At that time I did not write songs, so we went with a cover for fast results: “Dream Lover” a cover of Bobby Darin’s hit record. The other side was a song called “Cherrie” by Bobby Rydell.

via YouTube:
Dream Lover
Cherrie

He also signed Nate Bouknight, also known as “Little Nat” from the Shells. Their hit song was “Baby Oh Baby” (late 50’s fame). Nate wrote a real good song called “Do This Do That,” that made some noise. Certainly I learned a lot from him.

I also went on a tour and performed on television programs, one called Boston Ballroom - the other guest was Brenda Lee. Being only 17, I was thrilled. Our make-up was put on in the same room. Lonnie Kaufman also managed Tony Darryl, who was on the Ed Sullivan show. It was a great start to my recording career.

[For the next] four years I was with various different genre bands trying to find a fit for what type of music I wanted to sing: City Magic - "Going Back to Florida" [b/w] a slow cover of the Loving Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic", and the Minutemen "A Little Too Much."

The Brotherhood of Soul was started by a Stan Summers, (real name of group: Stan Summers and the Unsual) who was in a group (don’t remember the name) that did the backups for Dion on “The Wanderer” and “Ruby Baby”.

I don't remember my group's last names, but I believe I remember their first names: another Richard: a B3 Hammond Organ player; Andre: bass & sax player, tenor vocals; Steve was the drummer; Stan just sang; finally, I played rhythm guitar, and sang lead and harmonies.

We played our first job on Long Island, NY, we only knew 13 songs at the start, needless to say, we played each song for a very long time. We progressed and the sax player’s father was a policeman who introduced the band to a club owner named Charlie Bates who owned clubs in Manhattan and Westhampton Bay, NY. The club owner liked our music and hired us in 1967 to play the total summer on the shore of Westhampton Bay.

He supplied the band with a large home to stay at, it was part of the package; it was called “Captain’s Lodge.” It was a sweet deal. The name of the club we played at was called “Charlie Bates”. The prior summer the Young Rascals came to fame at a club called The Barge. We played adjacent to a club called The Eye who was featuring the soon to be famous Leslie West. The crowds were enormous throughout the summer; needless to say it was a very successful summer and one to remember.

After that we went searching for “fame” and meet Ron Gitman, who produced the song ("Save Me") and managed the band. Our tours were great, of course it all went down-hill after that. I still sing & write every so often, here is a link of a song that is on Youtube, called: “The Mojito Song", also known as “Idle” www.youtube.com/user/rpecchio

PS: this was a long time ago, some of the facts might not be accurate.

Richard Pecchio

Sources: Info on Abtone Studios from Soul Source.