Last Exit came from western Ohio, perhaps Montgomery County, near Dayton. The only name I have is K.K. Petty, who wrote both sides.
“The Fast One” gives the lead guitarist plenty of time to solo. “The Slow One” is, as the title suggests, a ballad, with lines like “The best foundation for true love is simply a little trust / But the whole thing can be shattered, with a sudden burst of lust”!
The band cut their single at Wildwood Sound Productions in Brookville, where the Centrees, and Captain Crunch and the Crew also recorded.
Gene Turner’s Gene O Music published the songs but I cannot find registration for either. It is a Rite pressing, account # 1850, from 1967.
There were a number of groups called the Villagers around the country, but these Villagers came from Dayton and cut only one record, the endearing garage original “He’s Not the Same” b/w the melancholy “Sunshine My Way”. I’ve come to like both sides of the record, the songs are quite different from each other.
Released on Hamlet Records V-1000 in 1968, with authors J. Mills and M. Copp, publishing by Counterpart Music, BMI, the code 813L which was Counterpart Records account number with RCA custom pressings, and W4KM-6004/5 (indicating a RCA custom pressing from the first half of 1968).
The only clipping I can find was from the Dayton Daily News on January 20, 1968 and listed the band members names:
Two local groups caught more than passing attention recently. They’re both very sharp, play well and pack ’em in. The Villagers include Janis Miles, Brian Blacker, Mike Copp, Bob Fowle and Mike Wendling. Sounds Unlimited is the other … New group about to debut shortly: the Yellow Springs … Captain Crunch and the Crew have a pretty good sound with their new disc …
The Villagers were something a mystery until Brian Blacker wrote to me:
The original group was started by Janis Miles and myself, Brian Blacker. We we’re 13/14 years old. Janis taught me how to play guitar. I learned on a regular acoustic guitar. My Dad got me a Silvertone electric guitar solid body and small amp.
Janis had a Silvertone Hollow body Gretsch style guitar and a Fender Princeton amp. We had several others in the group in the beginning, originally calling ourselves the Neons, played at home parties. Gary Hanes, former sheriff of Montgomery county Ohio was in our group briefly when we we’re still so young.
At some point maybe 1964-65 we added Bob Fowle as drummer. He was good and his dad went out and bought a full set of Ludwig drums in red sparkle. We also added Lee Stansbury as the bass player. He was a local friend in the neighborhood. We all lived around Airway shopping center in Dayton, Ohio. Lee did not work out too well so we added Mike Wendling. He and I sang backup together.
My parents moved to Huber Heights when I was going into 10th grade. That is where I met Mike Copp. He became out lead singer and his parents bought him a PA system. The brand was called University and was supposed to be like the PA the Beatles used at the time.
Mike played the trumpet and played a few songs with it, but mostly was the lead singer and front man. He also started managing the band and started getting us bookings. He was a good showman.
We played as various parties, high schools, roller rinks, WING Island. And a few nightclubs: Sycamore club in Cincinnati, LT club in Dayton. Wright Patt Airmen’s club.
We played in Battle of the Bands at WING Island which was a venue downtown somewhere sponsored by W I N G radio and worked with DJ Steve Kirk.
That place looked like it had aluminum foil on the walls and had a lot of echo. We we’re featured on a Saturday radio show called the Coca Cola Noon… something or another. We played “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tommy James. We heard ourselves over the radio later on that program.
During 1968 we decided to make a record. Janis was the song writing talent and had written many songs and had them copyrighted. We saved our money from gigs and raised $1000, which is what it cost us to do a recording session at Queen City Recording Studio in Cincinnati Ohio. We had 1000 records pressed and Mike Copp sent 2 copies to 300 radio stations in the Tri-state area. The record did not get very far and we eventually broke up the group not too long after.
Bob Fowle and I started up another band with an organist whose name I can’t remember but nothing much came of it. Then I got engaged and that was it for me in the band, late 1969. I got married in Feb 1970 and started working for Ohio Bell Telephone Co., then I got drafted. My number came up 30 in the drawing. I knew I would be going so I joined the Air Force in Oct of 1970.
Was that the group’s only recording session?
Yes that was our only record.
Are there any photos of the group?
I don’t have any photos … I wish I did.
Library of Congress copyright records give one name, Janis R. Mills, who copyrighted “He’s Not the Same” on January 5, 1968, and “Sun, Shine My Way” (notice the different rendering of the title) on May 20, 1968. M. Copp is not in these copyright listings.
BMI’s database lists Janice Mills and Michael Copp. The spelling of her name as Janice certainly is a mistake on BMI’s part, as BMI attributes two recent country songs by Janice S. Mills from Alabama to the author of “He’s Not the Same”. It wouldn’t be unlike BMI to conflate two similar names.
Strangely, BMI lists “He’s Not the Same” and “Sunshine My Way” as registered to Piagneri Music in Astoria, NY, even though Counterpart Music is still active in Cincinnati.
It’s interesting how the labels and copyright list Janis’ name as Mills, but both Brian and the contemporary Daily News item spell it Miles.
Here’s a great single by the Skeptics, whom I’ve read were from Dayton, Ohio. The urgency and scuzzy burning distortion on the guitar on “Wondering” scream out 1968 to me, a date confirmed by the QCA # 80330, specifically March 1968. The flip is a slow recitative called “I’m Lonely Again” that I find less essential.
This band of Skeptics is not related to the Oklahoma group who cut “Apple Candy”, “Stripes”, and “Turn It On” among other classics.
There’s very little info on the label, even the publishing is limited to simply BMI. No trace seems to exist in BMI’s databases, but I found a Library of Congress copyright record listing Michael Downing (Michael Joseph Downing) and John Hoskins as co-composers of both songs, plus Donald Ray Parrett on “Wondering”, published by Lamar Music in May of 1968. Presumably Downing, Hoskins and Don Parrett were members of the band.
Spring Records was part of O’Brien’s Recording Service in Springfield, Ohio, 24 miles north east of Dayton. There were at least a few releases on the Spring label, but this may be the only one in a rock style. The 45s were pressed at Queen City Albums in Cincinnati.
O’Brien’s Recording Service did register copyrights for a few of song-poem composer Irene Dollar Heffner’s songs, including one, “Vietnam Sweetheart” that was sung by Rodd Keith (under the alias of John Dough). The flip of that was arranged by Jeanne O’Brien.
Despite the band members’ names on the label, this group is still something of a mystery. Members were Doug Dehart, Ron Riddle, Jim Frizell, Don Jones, and Ray Reade.
“You’re My Woman” has a murky, dirty sound to the rhythm guitar that flashes throughout the song. It has a dim, psychedelic aura from the last days of 1967. The flip side, “Our Love Was Strong” is a strange number alternating long harmony aahs with a plain, almost recited vocal.
The Buckeye Beat site states it was recorded at Commercial Recorders in Dayton, Ohio. This is a Rite pressing, with account # 1190 in the dead wax of both sides.
Tom Fortener, keyboard player for Tom and the Tempests sent me this incredible 45 and sleeve and a short bio on the group:
Tom and the Tempests were formed in 1963 by Tom Fortener. Original members were, Randy Debord, rhythm guitar and vocals, Frank Hall, lead guitar, Bill Muncy, drums, Fred Nagle, bass and Tom Fortener, piano, organ. The band was managed by Toms’ Dad, Ray Fortener.
They wrote and recorded “It’s Over Now” and “Play It Cool” in 1964. They sponsored Sunday afternoon dances at GBU hall in Dayton, Ohio. They hired disc jockeys from WING and WONE. A popular promotion there was the Battle of the Bands. In 1965, they played the New State Pavilion, New York World’s Fair in Flushing, New York. They played throughout Ohio and was considered by many the best band in the area.
Tom Fortener
This is a Rite pressing from 1964. Alco’s first two releases were by Sonny Flaharty and His Young Americans, so the Young American Productions credit on the labels of this indicate Flaharty’s involvement. Alco was owned by Arvey Webster on Springboro Ave in Dayton.
Update: I’m very sorry to report that Thomas Fortener passed away on Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Ohio, at the age of 76. All my condolences to his family and friends.
Here’s a group that went through several name changes over a few years, but kept the same lineup throughout:
Roger Sayre (guitar and vocals) Ray Bushbaum (keyboards and vocals) Jerry “Moon” Ditmer (or Jerry Dittmer) (bass) Jerry Thomas (drums and vocals – replaced by Bill “Fuzz” Weicht)
Prior to starting this band, Roger Sayre had been in 50’s rockabilly Chuck Sims’ group (Chuck also recorded as Charles Vanell). Ray Bushbaum had played with Sonny Flaharty’s Young Americans.
Based in Dayton, Ohio, they started as the Original Playboys in 1962 and cut a disc “I’ll Always Be On Your Side” / “Hey Little Willie in 1965 on Leisure Time records. “Hey Little Willie” has their sound down – grooving r&b with shouts, jokes and frat calls. “hold it – let’s do ‘Go Little Willie’, ‘DOTW'” (see comments below for explanation!). It was picked up for release on Smash Records with their name changed to the X-Cellents.
Another name change to the E-Cellents for their next 45 on Sure Play, the ballad “And I’m Cryin'” backed with one I haven’t heard yet, “The Slide”.
Reverting to the X-Cellents, they cut a cool double-sider 45 for Sure Play in 1966. “Hang It Up” treads similar ground to “Hey Little Willie” though a little less convincing, maybe ’cause it lacks that great bass drum beat. More insider jokes and calls here – “DFTW”, “77” – that I don’t know the meaning of.
“Little Wooden House” is a repetitive vamp lamenting settling down, just the same two chords over and over. “Little Wooden House” is a Roger Sayre composition, “Hang It Up” was written by Sayre-Bushbaum-Weicht-Dittmer.
Still the band progressed with the times, and contributed one of their best songs, Roger Sayre’s original Walk Slowly Away” to a sampler LP on Prism Records called “The Dayton Scene”. Acts were from the 1966 battle of the bands promoted by Dayton radio station WONE and the band is listed as the Xcellents. To my ears “Walk Slowly Away” bears a resemblance to the Beatles’ “I Need You” from the Help! soundtrack, though that may be a superficial comparison, as the lyrics and chorus are distinct.
They changed their name again for their last 45, as the Vacant Lot, or perhaps R. Sayre and the Vacant Lot, the LTD label gives both as artists. “This Little Feelin'” is one of their best numbers, soulful and rocking, as Ray’s keyboards again drive the sound behind Roger’s vocals. It was backed with their version of Huey ‘Piano’ Smith’s “Don’t You Just Know It”, a song that had probably been in their repertoire for years with the same sound and arrangement. Production by Bill Leasure.
The band seems to have gone separate ways after this last 45. Sayre had another group with John Spitler at some point, but I don’t know if that was before or after the X-Cellents
Sources: List of 45 releases Soulful Kinda Music, and sleeve scan from It’s Great Shakes.
Thanks to Joe Kimball for sending in the photo from the WONE LP.
Dayton, Ohio’s Sonny Flaharty had been recording since the late 50s. In 1965 he helped a local band called the Rich Kids produce a demo. He ran into them again calling themselves the Mark V “direct from Toronto, Canada”! They asked Sonny to join the band but according to Sonny, “the only problem we had was with my past. I was very well known in Dayton. The band didn’t want to be associated with ‘Old Time Rock and Roll'”!
They changed their names and tried to pass themselves off as English or at least Canadian. They didn’t fool anyone for long, but there was nothing ‘old time’ about their music. Shad O’Shea of Cincinnati’s Counterpart Records asked them to record Sonny’s original, “Hey Conductor”.
There was a nine-month delay between the recording and the release of “Hey Conductor”. In the meantime Mike Losecamp (aka Haywood Lovelace), who played the distinctive organ on the record left to join the Cyrkle.
Once released Hey Conductor was a sizeable hit, selling in the thousands and immediately picked up by Phillips for national distribution. The good times didn’t last long, as its lyrics hinting at drug experiences got it banned on radio before it could break nationally. The song’s frantic pace, strange fuzz guitar and syncopated organ make it an often-heard record at dj nights even today.
Sources include: a detailed interview with the Mark V’s drummer Doug Porter here, and the liner notes to Sonny’s retrospective LP on Dionysius.
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
I am dedicated to making this site a center for research about '60s music scenes. Please consider donating archival materials such as photos, records, news clippings, scrapbooks or other material from the '60s. Please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com if you can loan or donate original materials
Last Exit came from western Ohio, perhaps Montgomery County, near Dayton. The only name I have is K.K. Petty, who wrote both sides.
