This 45 by Debbie Williams & the Unwritten Law is the best thing I’ve come across in a long while. Both sides feature Debbie’s gravely, country-inflected voice with excellent backing by the Unwritten Law.
Released on Highland 1184 in November 1967, Debbie was a young teen when she recorded this single. An article from the Long Beach Independent on September 19, 1967 gives her age as 13, and that she had been making demos since she was six. She had skated in Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice with her parents and brother Robbie since she was two.
Another news feature on Debbie from the Santa Cruz Sentinel from February 29, 1968 mentioned her current base in Napa County, and her previous skating in Chicago.
The A-side is “Love Seems So Hard to Find”, with the wild lyric “Today, today he shut me down, because I was trippin’ hard”!
The country feeling is even stronger on “Ask Me”. Highland Records released Debbie’s single as release # 1184. A rare picture sleeve with photos by Fred Endo is viewable on 45cat. Milt Rogers produced, with distribution by by Malynn Enterprises, Inc.
Publishing by Tiltal Music – J. Williams BMI. Tiltal has a number of other noteworthy copyrights, including the Phonetics “What Good (Am I Without You)” by Willie Hutchison on Trudel, and a few on Kerwood Records such as Jessie Hill’s “I’m Tellin’ You People” / “If I Am Lucky”, the Tormentors “Didn’t It Rain”, and Lonnie Russ “Say Girl” by Gerald Russ and Harold Williams.
The Unwritten Law
Jim Farrelly and Ken McCutcheon wrote both songs on the Debbie Williams single. Both were members of the Unwritten Law, a group from Burlingame whose lineup included at times:
Jerry Ellsworth
Jim Farrelly
Marty Eyestone (or Marty Gyestone according to one mention online)
Ken McCutcheon
Pat Patterson
Greg Raneri
Dan Ransford – drums
The Unwritten Law had their own single in 1967, “Actions Speak Louder” by Marty Eyestone b/w “This Whole World Is Blind” by Ken McCutcheon. This saw release on Strata Records, which I had thought was an East Coast label based on singles by the Deadbeats, the First Four and the Persianettes. Jerry Katz also produced the Deadbeats “No Second Chance” / “Why Did You”. How the Unwritten Law single came to be on Strata is a mystery to me.
Rob Farrelly helpfully clipped both of the articles on Debbie from online news sources, which helped me find them.