The Balladeers were from Woonsockett, Rhode Island. In the summer of 1965 they traveled twenty miles north to Framingham, Massachusetts to record this 45 at Continental Recording Studios. It appears to have been the first record released on studio owner Tom Flynn’s Cori label.
“Words I Want to Hear” is an original by Robert Allen, who may have been in the group. The song starts with a subdued atmosphere of just acoustic guitar, percussion and solo voice. Bass and harmonies add momentum until the cathartic moment when the guitarist breaks into the chorded solo.
“High Flying Bird” is one of those songs that bridged the transition from folk to rock, like “House of the Rising Sun” and “Hey Joe”. Written by Billy Ed Wheeler and originally recorded by Judy Henske, it was covered by many groups, including We Five, the Jefferson Airplane and the Canadian band the Plague, who do a great psychedelicized version. The Balladeers take is as excellent as any of these.
Roland ‘Skip’ Boucher wrote to me about how he built Continental Recordings with Dan Flynn and his brother John Flynn. Skip also told me about a release I hadn’t known about – the Balladeers first 45 on the one-off E.P. Scroggs label, also recorded at Continental:
We built the studio in 1962. We were just out of high school and rented space on the second floor of a building in Framingham. We made the walls out of plywood and filled them with sand to soundproof them. In the picture you can see a door, which is also plywood and filled with sand and there is a small interlock and another plywood door leading to the control room.
The Balladeers first 45, also recorded at Continental
I met the Balladeers in the spring of 1964 and that’s when we recorded “Cape Cod Here We Come” and it was released in early summer of 1964.
They were a very good group. Really national level in their talent. “Cape Cod Here We Come” was not in their usual repertoire. They normally did pieces that were similar to the Kingston Trio. They were almost too polished for the ’60’s. If they had been a little rougher, I think they would have fit better with the times. Their style was more of a late ’50’s style.
They had a great sound though and it was great to work with them in the studio, because they were so good.
Dan, John and I worked at WBZ in the summer of 1963 and 1964. In the fall of 1964 I went to work full time for Channel 38 in Boston and that reduced the amount of time that I could spend at Continental. I signed up the Harvard Lampoon to do an album that parodied folk and rock groups. They arranged for musicians from the Berkley school of music and they funded the upgrade of an 8 track recorder for us [Continental].
I also worked on the electronics, building a power supply for the main mixer, because the original one had never worked properly and Dan had been running it from a pair of 12 volt batteries. I did a number of radio and television commercials at Continental with people I knew at Boston TV and radio stations.
I also designed and laid out several of the album covers, including the Rising Storm and others, but I was not involved in the recordings anymore and Dan brought in a new partner at some point in the late sixties. I think this partner’s focus was on bands, so he may have been involved with the groups you mentioned. Later, Dan became more involved with radio station jingle packages.
Dan still has what remains of Continental at his home. He has a small studio and recording equipment and has a large collection of old master tapes. However, I did go through them a couple of years ago and they didn’t seem to go back to the early days.
“Cape Cod Here We Come” was written by J. Martone. In March 1967, the Balladeers released one additional 45 on the Seven Seas label, “Used to Be” / “Goin’ Out of My Head”, which I haven’t heard, but is considered light vocal pop.
Thank you to Skip Boucher for his help.
26 thoughts on “The Balladeers”
I went to school with a member of the group. His name is Edward Scanlon, but I haven’t seen him for many years and no idea as to where he is today. He played guitar in the group. I once went to a concert in RI, and they played mostly folk music with a Kingston Trio style.
Does anyone have an MP3 of “Cape Cod Here We Come.” It was a song by the Balladeers that actually got local radio play one summer in the sixties. The members of the band rented a cottage that summer next to my family’s cottage on Monomoscoy Island. They hung around with us a lot particularly my older siter. They played their songs live for us including “Cape Cod……” many nights. One of them had a german shephard puppy named Belle that my family ended up adopting at summer’s end. It would be fantastic to hear that song again! Thanks in advance.
Robert Allen was known as Bobby Allen and had a gig on WPRO-AM in Providence as “British Bobby Allen”. Essentially, he’d man the phones and take calls from kids with requests for records. His function there was to be a British person any local kid could actually talk to. You have to understand that, back then, the likelihood of knowing somebody from England was rare and, seeing as how all of the best music at that time came from England, his presence on the phone and his availability to kids was highly unusual. I spoke with him a number of times and he was open and friendly to even the stupidest and brainless questions that any 14-year-old could ask.
“Words I Want To Hear” did very well on WPRO and made it into their Top 40. Back then, a local record could actually be played regularly on these stations and just about every station would have its own “flavor” in terms of what they’d play. Of course, all the big-time stuff (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, etc) was played, but room was made for these local up-and-comers, too – which was one of the cool things about local radio then and which is long, long gone now.
If my memory serves, there was a BIG show in Providence in the spring of 1966 when The Animals came through touring on their current hit “See See Rider” and the ‘Animalism’ LP they’d just released. Just about every local band who had anything going for them at the time were hired as opening acts and The Balladeers were one of them – along with Cal Reye (his big hit was called “Lovely Lies”), The Others, who are pretty well known now for “I Can’t Stand This Love, Goodbye” and who were the biggest Rhode Island band then, plus The Ascots and several others. It was a great show – jam-packed with both performers and audience attendance, too. Providence was something of a backwater town then but its radio stations were all, for the most part, top notch. All these mentioned local artists were well-represented on the airwaves – with particular attention given to The Others, who’d signed a deal with RCA (What? A local band got signed to a big-time label like RCA? Wow! Un-heard of! Unbelievable!)
That’s how it was then.
I don’t know whatever became of Bobby. Maybe he’s still playing … out there … somewhere …
I was 18 years old when Words I Want to Hear came out. British Bobby was a huge success at WPRO and the station pushed this song. If WPRO gave a group or singer its endorsement, it was a badge of honor and also a stepping stone to bigger things. At the time, The Balladeers seemed to be the chosen group for WPRO. Then, seemingly at the height of the Balladeers’ popularity, the station didn’t play the song any more. And, British Bobby had disappeared without fanfare. I was curious at the time about what happened, but didn’t give it much thought. Some time later, I read a small article in the Providence Journal that Robert Allen, formerly a radio personality, was deported from the US for possession of marijuana. I would speculate today that when he was busted, WPRO immediately took him off the air and gave no reason why so the station couldn’t be implicated by association with Allen.
I used to be a local d.j. for the “record hops” in New Bedford, MA from 1963 to 1966. I did a few gigs with Vic Armen, who was the afternoon dj at WPRO in Providence at the time. When Bristish Bobby was busted on marijuana possession WPRO covered it over saying that British Bobby had to return to England to serve in the military. Several months after his supposed departure I saw him at a gig in Providence.
I was one of the owners of Continental Recordings, along with Dan and John Flynn and I signed the Balladeers up for the original record, which was “Cape Cod Here We Come”. I had met them while they were performing on a show at WGBH-TV Channel 2 in Boston. I had completely forgotten about “Words I want to Hear” and “High Flying Bird”, until seeing them on this site.
I still have a copy of Cape Cod Here We Come. I’ll have to dig through my files to see if I can find Words I Want to Hear.
I was the drummer for the Balladers. I recorded with them at Continental Recordings and that is where we met “Brittish Bobby”. He joined our band and played bass. The Balladeers were from Barrington, RI, not Woonsocket. We were originally called The Barrington Balladeers. George Hickcox, the lead singer, has passed away. Ed Scanlon is retired from the Navy. Joe Martone is still around, as am I. And the last I heard about Bobby Allen was he was married and selling shoes in Las Vegas. I went on and formed Sunday’s Child with Chris Covell, also from Barrington.
I was George Hickox’s wife until his death in 2010. It is amazing that I found this site and reading all these posts about the Balladeers and George. I miss his voice and songs. Joe now lives in Acton, Mass and Ed Scanlon lives in TN. They both played at George’s celebration of life I had for him. I didn’t know George until 1980 but heard so many stories about the Balladeers.
My dad was the guitarist for Sunday’s Child and the Night Walkers. His name was Charles Carpenter, he was best friends with Chris Covell and “British Bobby”. The opened for the Rascals and also struck a deal with RCA, I have the digital version of their demo “Remember”. I still have newspaper clippings of articles about their performances and rising fame, I could post these if there’s any interest…
This is great! I was a member of the Ascots and we were all followers of Chris and your father. Thanks for posting.
Chuck, do you know what happened to “British Bobby” Allen? Was he really deported, or, as written above, managed to stay in the US, and moved to Vegas?
I used to go occasionally to the 7 Seas in Newport, Ri…..it was a great Beach club. There was a girl singer at the time with the Balladeers. What was her name. They were always playing at the 7 Seas.
Liz – I was living in Newport from 1964 to late 1967. I frequented 7 Seas also. As I remember, the girl singer was Judy Pulver. She sounded just like Grace Slick and The Balladeers did several covers of Jefferson Airplane songs including “White Rabbit”. I believe Judy migrated to the west coast and did some recording which you can find on YouTube – but failed to achieve an audience. I also remember the early days of the Cowsills when they played at the Munchinger King Hotel on Bellevue Ave. Dorian’s was also one of my haunts. Great memories – great days!
I was one of the original owners of Continental Recordings in Framingham, as was Dan Flynn and his brother John. I met the Balladeers at WGBH and talked with their manager about the possibility of recording. This was in our early days and the first song we released was Cape Cod Here We Come. Dan, John and I were also working at WBZ at the time and the record was getting some airplay there as well as in Providence.
Dan was involved in a number of other recordings with the Balladeers.
Another record that I was involved with, was an album produced by the Harvard Lampoon. I had contacted Chris and/or Jonathan Cerf at the Lampoon (I am not 100% sure on all of this. it is over 50 years ago.) to see if they would be interested in producing a parody album and coincidently, they had been thinking of doing something like that. So we bartered studio time in return for outfitting an 8 track recorder. The Lampoon called in students from the Boston Conservatory of Music and other performers and they did parodies of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Lovin Spoonful, etc. The album was released on Epic records.
My roommate Paul in College was friends with the Balladeers and he would play Cape Code Here we Come and after all the years It is still in my head and I remember every word! I would love to hear the song again an listen to them sing it again. This board is very enlightening as to where they went and how they are doing. Thank you for the memories.
I recently turned up another recording from Continental Recordings, this one on the Salem label (SR-005): “A Teenager in Love” / “He’s My Guy (And I Love Him So)” by Sherri-Ann. I assume this recording and the Salem label predate the labels above. Anyone have any additional info?
This is Kerri Scanlon Pleban, Ed Scanlon’s daughter. My dad is still playing these songs, now with my son, his grandson. If anyone would like to get in touch with him, just let me know.
Oh my goodness I was a friend of Eddie’s at URI back in the Sixties. How is he? I hope he’s still making music, and I’d love to hear from or about him. E Stratton
S’il vous plait, quelqu’un peut-il mettre “Cape Cod (Here We Come)”, “Land Of The Sea And Sun”, “Used To Be” et “Goin’ Out Of My Head”? J’ai vraiment envi de les ecouter. J’adore ce groupe et pourtant je suis qu’ un adolescent francais de 17 ans. Aidez moi please!
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The Balladeers were from Woonsockett, Rhode Island. In the summer of 1965 they traveled twenty miles north to Framingham, Massachusetts to record this 45 at Continental Recording Studios. It appears to have been the first record released on studio owner Tom Flynn’s Cori label.
I went to school with a member of the group. His name is Edward Scanlon, but I haven’t seen him for many years and no idea as to where he is today. He played guitar in the group. I once went to a concert in RI, and they played mostly folk music with a Kingston Trio style.
Does anyone have an MP3 of “Cape Cod Here We Come.” It was a song by the Balladeers that actually got local radio play one summer in the sixties. The members of the band rented a cottage that summer next to my family’s cottage on Monomoscoy Island. They hung around with us a lot particularly my older siter. They played their songs live for us including “Cape Cod……” many nights. One of them had a german shephard puppy named Belle that my family ended up adopting at summer’s end. It would be fantastic to hear that song again!
Thanks in advance.
Robert Allen was known as Bobby Allen and had a gig on WPRO-AM in Providence as “British Bobby Allen”. Essentially, he’d man the phones and take calls from kids with requests for records. His function there was to be a British person any local kid could actually talk to. You have to understand that, back then, the likelihood of knowing somebody from England was rare and, seeing as how all of the best music at that time came from England, his presence on the phone and his availability to kids was highly unusual. I spoke with him a number of times and he was open and friendly to even the stupidest and brainless questions that any 14-year-old could ask.
“Words I Want To Hear” did very well on WPRO and made it into their Top 40. Back then, a local record could actually be played regularly on these stations and just about every station would have its own “flavor” in terms of what they’d play. Of course, all the big-time stuff (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, etc) was played, but room was made for these local up-and-comers, too – which was one of the cool things about local radio then and which is long, long gone now.
If my memory serves, there was a BIG show in Providence in the spring of 1966 when The Animals came through touring on their current hit “See See Rider” and the ‘Animalism’ LP they’d just released. Just about every local band who had anything going for them at the time were hired as opening acts and The Balladeers were one of them – along with Cal Reye (his big hit was called “Lovely Lies”), The Others, who are pretty well known now for “I Can’t Stand This Love, Goodbye” and who were the biggest Rhode Island band then, plus The Ascots and several others. It was a great show – jam-packed with both performers and audience attendance, too. Providence was something of a backwater town then but its radio stations were all, for the most part, top notch. All these mentioned local artists were well-represented on the airwaves – with particular attention given to The Others, who’d signed a deal with RCA (What? A local band got signed to a big-time label like RCA? Wow! Un-heard of! Unbelievable!)
That’s how it was then.
I don’t know whatever became of Bobby. Maybe he’s still playing … out there … somewhere …
I was 18 years old when Words I Want to Hear came out. British Bobby was a huge success at WPRO and the station pushed this song. If WPRO gave a group or singer its endorsement, it was a badge of honor and also a stepping stone to bigger things. At the time, The Balladeers seemed to be the chosen group for WPRO. Then, seemingly at the height of the Balladeers’ popularity, the station didn’t play the song any more. And, British Bobby had disappeared without fanfare. I was curious at the time about what happened, but didn’t give it much thought. Some time later, I read a small article in the Providence Journal that Robert Allen, formerly a radio personality, was deported from the US for possession of marijuana. I would speculate today that when he was busted, WPRO immediately took him off the air and gave no reason why so the station couldn’t be implicated by association with Allen.
I used to be a local d.j. for the “record hops” in New Bedford, MA from 1963 to 1966. I did a few gigs with Vic Armen, who was the afternoon dj at WPRO in Providence at the time. When Bristish Bobby was busted on marijuana possession WPRO covered it over saying that British Bobby had to return to England to serve in the military. Several months after his supposed departure I saw him at a gig in Providence.
I was one of the owners of Continental Recordings, along with Dan and John Flynn and I signed the Balladeers up for the original record, which was “Cape Cod Here We Come”. I had met them while they were performing on a show at WGBH-TV Channel 2 in Boston. I had completely forgotten about “Words I want to Hear” and “High Flying Bird”, until seeing them on this site.
I still have a copy of Cape Cod Here We Come. I’ll have to dig through my files to see if I can find Words I Want to Hear.
I was the drummer for the Balladers. I recorded with them at Continental Recordings and that is where we met “Brittish Bobby”. He joined our band and played bass. The Balladeers were from Barrington, RI, not Woonsocket. We were originally called The Barrington Balladeers. George Hickcox, the lead singer, has passed away. Ed Scanlon is retired from the Navy. Joe Martone is still around, as am I. And the last I heard about Bobby Allen was he was married and selling shoes in Las Vegas. I went on and formed Sunday’s Child with Chris Covell, also from Barrington.
HI Steve,
I was George Hickox’s wife until his death in 2010. It is amazing that I found this site and reading all these posts about the Balladeers and George. I miss his voice and songs. Joe now lives in Acton, Mass and Ed Scanlon lives in TN. They both played at George’s celebration of life I had for him. I didn’t know George until 1980 but heard so many stories about the Balladeers.
My dad was the guitarist for Sunday’s Child and the Night Walkers. His name was Charles Carpenter, he was best friends with Chris Covell and “British Bobby”. The opened for the Rascals and also struck a deal with RCA, I have the digital version of their demo “Remember”. I still have newspaper clippings of articles about their performances and rising fame, I could post these if there’s any interest…
I’d like to hear the demo and see the clippings, Chuck.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k2X3ErG2tahYvKVcMUtCD2qbsMbWsTNl/view?usp=drivesdk
Enjoy!
This is great! I was a member of the Ascots and we were all followers of Chris and your father. Thanks for posting.
Chuck, do you know what happened to “British Bobby” Allen? Was he really deported, or, as written above, managed to stay in the US, and moved to Vegas?
I used to go occasionally to the 7 Seas in Newport, Ri…..it was a great Beach club. There was a girl singer at the time with the Balladeers. What was her name.
They were always playing at the 7 Seas.
Liz – I was living in Newport from 1964 to late 1967. I frequented 7 Seas also. As I remember, the girl singer was Judy Pulver. She sounded just like Grace Slick and The Balladeers did several covers of Jefferson Airplane songs including “White Rabbit”. I believe Judy migrated to the west coast and did some recording which you can find on YouTube – but failed to achieve an audience. I also remember the early days of the Cowsills when they played at the Munchinger King Hotel on Bellevue Ave. Dorian’s was also one of my haunts. Great memories – great days!
Bo
what instrument did Joe Martone play
what instrument did Joe Martone play?
I was one of the original owners of Continental Recordings in Framingham, as was Dan Flynn and his brother John. I met the Balladeers at WGBH and talked with their manager about the possibility of recording. This was in our early days and the first song we released was Cape Cod Here We Come. Dan, John and I were also working at WBZ at the time and the record was getting some airplay there as well as in Providence.
Dan was involved in a number of other recordings with the Balladeers.
Another record that I was involved with, was an album produced by the Harvard Lampoon. I had contacted Chris and/or Jonathan Cerf at the Lampoon (I am not 100% sure on all of this. it is over 50 years ago.) to see if they would be interested in producing a parody album and coincidently, they had been thinking of doing something like that. So we bartered studio time in return for outfitting an 8 track recorder. The Lampoon called in students from the Boston Conservatory of Music and other performers and they did parodies of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Lovin Spoonful, etc. The album was released on Epic records.
My roommate Paul in College was friends with the Balladeers and he would play Cape Code Here we Come and after all the years It is still in my head and I remember every word! I would love to hear the song again an listen to them sing it again. This board is very enlightening as to where they went and how they are doing. Thank you for the memories.
I recently turned up another recording from Continental Recordings, this one on the Salem label (SR-005): “A Teenager in Love” / “He’s My Guy (And I Love Him So)” by Sherri-Ann. I assume this recording and the Salem label predate the labels above. Anyone have any additional info?
Here’s the obituary of “British Bobby” Allen. It appears he was not deported, and moved in California, where he played music and raised a family.
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pe/obituary.aspx?n=bobby-allen&pid=2779539
This is Kerri Scanlon Pleban, Ed Scanlon’s daughter. My dad is still playing these songs, now with my son, his grandson. If anyone would like to get in touch with him, just let me know.
Hey Kerri: Tell your Dad I said hello. I played drums for the Balladeers.
Steve Couto. Sandy and I now live in Narragansett, RI/
Oh my goodness
I was a friend of Eddie’s at URI back in the Sixties.
How is he? I hope he’s still making music, and I’d love to hear from or about him. E Stratton
S’il vous plait, quelqu’un peut-il mettre “Cape Cod (Here We Come)”, “Land Of The Sea And Sun”, “Used To Be” et “Goin’ Out Of My Head”? J’ai vraiment envi de les ecouter. J’adore ce groupe et pourtant je suis qu’ un adolescent francais de 17 ans. Aidez moi please!