The Chancellors Ltd. were a Houston band with members David Singleton, Brian Evans, Clark Clem and Gary Bowen.
Somehow they connected with a local socialite, Dene Hofheinz Mann, who had written a book about her father Judge Roy Hofheinz titled You Be the Judge. Roy Hofheinz was a former mayor of Houston, Texas, owner of the Houston Colt 45s baseball team which became the Astros, and builder of the Astrodome.
Dene Hofheinz Mann wrote the song “You Be the Judge” and had the band record it for her own Dene label (dig the dome!) It was produced by Mann and Burchfield, and arranged by F. Beymer.
I’d say it was a tie-in to the book, except the lyrics are all centered on a love interest, not about politics (maybe indirectly – “who understands the rules that we live by!”)
In any case it’s a great moody rocker, catchy but completely uncommercial. The flip is a fine instrumental written by lead guitarist Clark Clem – its title, “From the Sublevels”, describes its sound perfectly.
Evans Music City, listed on the card, is still in business at a new address.
Clark Clem turns up in another bit of Houston music history, as the guitarist of the band Deuce Is Wild (or Deuces Wild).
Sources: Bio of Roy Hofheinz from the Handbook of Texas Online, interesting history of the Colt 45s at Everything2.
The Chancellors, Ltd were all teachers and salesmen at Evans Music City. Brian Evans, the son of owner Wes Evans, still owns and runs the store. We played for years in the greater Houston area for UH fraternity parties, Rice University parties and a large number of the local clubs. We were able to back the Evans Music Van to the store and take out of there virtually anything we needed. As a result we used the same original VOX amps that the Beetles used. Those were the days when everyone had their own amp and we had a group sound system to sing through. Frank Beemer worked at Evans at one point but I knew him from Lamar High School. Dene Hofheinz was also a classmate at Lamar High School in Houston. She went on to have a career in the music business. Rob Burchfield was a Lamar classmate and a great jazz piano player. We recorded a bunch of songs at the studio on Broadway – the one that later moved to Dripping Springs I think – cannot remember the name of the owner. Unfortunately the tape has been lost for years. There is a tape that Clark Clem still owns that was recorded live one night in Houston. The last time we played together as a group was for a gala at the Alley Theatre somewhere around 1974-5.
Hi, I’m Lewis Howard and I played drums for the THE CHANCELLORS, LTD. after their original drummer left. I got the gig after I gave a demonstration of my drumming skills at Wes Evan’s original music store on Rice Avenue where I used to hang out. We rehearsed in this store after closing and I remember people looking into the window watching us. We did backup band gigs for bands like The Kingsmen and Paul Revere and the Raiders back in the sixties besides the usual assortment of frat parties, etc.
It was in this band that I played my first frat party for the University of Houston in a warehouse. It was quite an adventure for me. I was still in high school and not quite dry between the ears. We played on the roof of a small office building inside the warehouse with chicken wire wrapped around just like in the “Blues Brothers”.
We recorded “You be the Judge” in the Rice university store.
I did some research and found the original recording online:
https://playtube.pk/watch?v=SmrPkYt1_dw
We thought it was fantastic when we recorded it in 1965 but listening to it now; really corny but great memories!
After college I became the bass player for Joe Tex for several years and that was an adventure being the only white guy in the band and playing venues like The Apollo theater. I worked in many other bands playing either bass or drums till the 1980’s when I moved to California.