The Changing Tymes came from Philadelphia and cut a great single “You Make It Hard” / “Try a Whole Lot Harder” in 1966. I was struck by the similarity of the opening of the Changing Tyme’s “You Make It Hard” to the Quiet Jungle song “Everything”, but that seems to be a pure coincidence.

Thomas Shapiro and James Mahoney wrote both songs, released on the R.D. #1 label with Don White publishing registered in early December, 1966. It seems the group recorded two other songs at the same session, but these seem to be lost.

Ray Tilli commented below and in 2020 wrote to me with more info and the photos seen here:

My name is Ray Tilli and I was a founding member of “The Changing Tymes” from Philadelphia, PA. We started the band in 1965. The first iteration of the Changing Tymes were (as shown in the photos):

Tom Shapiro – lead vocals, guitar, bass (on live gigs)
Jimmy Mahoney – lead guitar, vocals
Ray Tilli – guitar, bass (on the record), vocals
Wayne Tort – drums (not shown)

The Changing Tymes were founded by myself and Jimmy Mahoney in 1965. We were fortunate to have come of age at a time when we saw and experienced the birth of Rock and Roll, and we were deeply influenced by the greats of that early era. Then in 1964, the Beatles and the subsequent great bands from England and America invaded our brains! Every week there was some new artist, song or album to get really excited about, and to pour ourselves into and absorb. It was a time of great creativity, inspiration, and expression, and it drove us to practice, practice and practice more!

Our record was recorded at Impact Studio, located in Northeast Philadelphia, on or about September-October 1966, and released in November 1966. I lost track of the other two recordings. I don’t think they were put on vinyl.

When Jimmy Mahoney began to play lead, he used his big hollow body Gibson ES-175 guitar with the new Fuzz Tone pedal. It caused a type of feedback they had never heard before – but it was controlled feedback. There was a shout from the control room: “What’s that noise!.” Unfortunately, Jimmy had to switch to his backup guitar to get the sound they wanted. The recording would have been wilder if we recorded it the way we wanted! 

The engineers in the recording booth were laughing so hard that they had trouble “slating” the tape for recording because they had to say the name of one of the tunes: “You Make It Hard”! We actually didn’t get the joke; talk about naive and clueless …

The meaning of the record label, R&D #1 Records: the “R” stands for Roy Howell who funded the production, and the “D” for Dave Wilson, our manager. We never heard of the band Quiet Jungle, nor did we ever hear their song “Everything”. The musical universe is huge, and once in a while, similar riffs or parts can occur.

We got pretty damn good, and quickly gained a reputation as being one of the best bands in the Tri-State area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware). Word got around and we were asked to appear on all the regional music TV shows. American Bandstand had just moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in 1965, so we missed that opportunity. The next most popular TV show was called “Summer Time at the Pier with Ed Hurst”. The “Pier” was the world famous Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ.

We appeared on the live broadcast of “Summer Time at the Pier with Ed Hurst” in the summer of 1966 along with Freddie and the Dreamers, and the Ramsey Lewis Trio. After playing the Pier gig, we drove about 20 minutes south to Margate, New Jersey to play our regular five-night-per-week gig at the White House – a club near the beach. During that summer we were the house band at the White House. All TVs in the club that day were showing our live appearance on Steel Pier, so when we arrived back at the club we were greeted with a rousing applause and back-slaps!

A similar occurrence happened when we played a live TV show in South Philadelphia, PA called “Aquarama”. The backdrop was a huge fish tank with hundreds of exotic species of marine life. After the show we had to immediately rush to our evening gig at Penn State University’s Ogontz Campus outside of Philly. The crowd was getting annoyed because we were late, but when we finally arrived we were greeted with cheers and applause! We made about a half dozen TV appearances on regional tri-state television that year.

A funny fact: our looks belied our music. Both Jimmy and I were in college at the time (I was also in the Army ROTC and Army Ranger ROTC training program), and the other guys had jobs that had dress and hair codes. We looked squeaky clean cut, but our sound was wild!

The first discotheque in Philadelphia was the “Underground Discotheque” in the basement of the (giant) Atlantic-Richfield building at Broad and Spruce Streets. It was the beginning of psychedelia – black lights, strobe lights, gel projections etc. We were playing that night with an excellent band called The Down Children. When both bands showed up for setup before the gig, we were thoroughly intimidated by the other band; they were older and looked like a bunch of Hell’s Angels – a look way ahead of any band we’d ever seen in 1966!

They looked like they could (and wanted to) kick our asses – they were scary! Fortunately, the setup went on without incident. When the gig started the Down Children [“I Can Tell” (Jimmy Rowland) / “Night Time Girl” on Philips] went on first. They were a really good band and looked badass tough and cool. When they finished they disappeared into the dressing room. Then it was our turn. Looking rather “preppy” the audience seemed to take little notice or interest when we took the stage. That was until we started playing. We won them over almost immediately – we played our hearts out! We couldn’t help but notice that the other band came out from their dressing room and watched us intently. We weren’t sure if that was good or bad – we wondered if they going to crush our heads after the gig!

After the first set (each band played 2 sets), a couple of the scary dudes from The Down Children came up to us and started asking questions: “Hey man, how did you get that tone?” “How did you get the sound on ….”, “You sounded EXACTLY like the record”! Man, were we relieved – they were impressed by us. Needless to say, we felt validated!

Another sticky situation was when our lead singer got arrested on stage during our stint at the White House. We were all too young to drink: 21 years of age was the minimum age in the tri-state area. We were 19 years old (and had to have special permits to play in the bars). Our lead singer, Tom, acquired a phony ID card to get into a different club the previous night to get some drinks. Somehow, the police were able to track him down to our club, and during our first set, a few cops arrived and came up on stage. They asked Tom his name, then put handcuffs on his wrists and hauled him off to jail.

So there we were, no lead singer who was also the bass player at the time, and the rest of the band still having to play 5 sets per night, 5 nights per week! His bail was set at $500 which neither he, nor any of us had. We improvised the best we could. Once we were finally paid, we took our full $500 cash pay to the courthouse and bailed him out.

There are too many stories of the Changing Tymes to relate here, like the time our cars crashed into each other on the way to a gig and we were 3 hours late! We played gigs at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Penn State, St. Joseph’s University and other various colleges and fraternities in the region. Also, many, many rock clubs and bars in the area.

I was fortunate to have had a relative in a high level executive position with RCA Records in New York City. After our record was released, and feeling a rush of confidence, we met in with my relative, John Rosica, head of promotions for RCA. He patiently and intently listened to our new record and said, “The best advice I can give you is to go back to collage and get a good education”!

We were shattered! He then said, you guys need to sound and play like full-time musicians – like these guys who we just signed, they’re called The Youngbloods. He put their new (yet unreleased) LP on the turntable and played “Grizzly Bear”. So we left NYC with our tails between our legs, demoralized, but not defeated.

The second iteration of The Changing Tymes were:

Ray Tilli – bass, vocals
Jimmy Mahoney – lead guitar, vocals 
Nicky Indelicato – lead vocals
Mike Laurence – guitar, vocals
various drummers
(unfortunately, no pictures)

This version of the Changing Tymes added more challenging songs to the repertoire. The nail in the coffin for the group breaking up was the successful recruitment of Nicky Indelicato to become the lead singer of a new group The American Dream. The group was the very first band to be produced by Todd Rundgren. They opened shows for The Doors, Hendrix and many others. They were an exceptional original band. We were sad to see him go, but happy for his success. Nicky passed away in March of 2020.

Jimmy Mahoney went on to do studio work and appeared on the Robert Palmer album, Double Fun. He also recorded at Sigma Sound for Philadelphia International Records. He played with band members from Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea and Larry Coryell. He was also a member of the band Medusa on Columbia records.

I also played with other bands including one with the former lead guitarist from the Bill Black Combo who had a few international hits. Later, I got into the business part of music as an agent, and then as a Manager/Road Manager with a band called Cats who were signed to Electra records. They toured and opened for Van Halen for the entire 1980 US summer tour.

After the Changing Tymes disbanded in 1968, most of us went on to other bands and careers. I became a Psychologist (now retired). Jimmy Mahoney passed away in January 2015. I miss him to this day. We remained close to the very end. He sent some of his memories to me about the band a few years back, and I have included some of them in this Changing Tymes history.

Ray Tilli

Note: this isn’t the same Changing Tymes as the Gate City, Virginia group who recorded cool songs like “Go Your Way” and “The Only Girl I Love” for the Moss label.