Rewritten July, 2011 and again November, 2022

Dave Palmer (vocals)
Rick Philp (guitar)
Danny Mansolino (organ)
Charles Larkey (bass)
Michael “Myke” Rosa (drums)

The Myddle Class had three poorly-distributed 45s and little chart action, but there’s a lot more to their story.

They started as the King Bees in suburban New Jersey, in the Passaic Valley towns that border I-78 southwest of Summit. Dave Palmer and Rick Philp came from Warren Township, Myke Rosa from Berkeley Heights, Charles Larkey from Mountainside and Danny Mansolino from North Plainfield.

One account I’ve read says some of the group first got together as the Four Classics, with Danny Mansolino on vocals, Rick Philp on guitar, Myke Rosa on drums and Kurt Gabrook on bass. The band had one job at Hobby Hall, a formal dance school in Summit, where they played for classes until being fired for playing too many Rolling Stones songs.

Danny told me he played with Rick for some time before Dave Palmer joined, playing a Conn organ and doing many of the lead vocals. In any case, the King Bees had started by late 1964.

Dave Palmer and Rick Philp were students at Watchung Hills Regional High School. Danny Mansolino attended North Plainfield High School. He had started out on accordion, but joined the group because Rick wanted someone to play organ. At first Chris Irby played bass (Curt Gabrook, according to “Tales of the Myddle Class” by Todd Abramson), but when he decided to quit, drummer Myke Rosa brought in Charles Larkey, a friend of his from Governor Livingston Regional High School. Charles was only just learning the bass when he joined, but he had good stage presence and sharp clothes from his father’s store Larkey’s in Newark, which kept up on London fashions.

The King Bees live shows became legendary – one concert at Governor Livingston High in Berkeley Heights included versions of “Shout”, “She’s Not There” and an original, “It’s the Season”.

After a concert at the Berkeley Heights CYO in December of 1964 the band met New York Post columnist Al Aronowitz, who had heard about the band through his babysitter. Danny however recalls meeting Aronowitz at swim club in the New Providence area, with Bruce DeForrest.

Al became their manager, even though he hadn’t done any artist management work before. His home in Berkeley Heights became a base for the group.

Dan Mansolino:

It was my custom to record most rehearsals which took place at my home in North Plainfield. This is where the heavy organ was, first a Conn model and later a Hammond B3. The Conn organ is what you hear on “Gates of Eden,” “I Happen to Love You,” “Free As The Wind” and “It’s The Season.” Very few rehearsals occurred at the Aronowitz residence.

Aronowitz introduced them to Carole King and Gerry Goffin, the husband-and-wife song writing team who were then living in West Orange, New Jersey. Goffin and King agreed to write songs and produce the group.

Danny Mansolino told me that Barbara Rubin did film some of the Myddle Class performances, possibly at Cafe Bizarre & Night Owl, as well as taking photos during rehearsals, in a New Jersey swamp, and at a Fire Island cottage. Barbara Rubin had already made Christmas on Earth and would soon be collaborating with Andy Warhol, Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at about this time. Al Aronowitz wrote the film with the Myddle Class was titled The Suburbs of Heaven. It may not have been completed. I can’t find any mention of The Suburbs of Heaven or her filming the Myddle Class in accounts of Rubin’s career. However, many of her works haven’t been cataloged or made public yet.

A rumor of the King Bees or Myddle Class recording an album titled Soul in White Suburbia seems to be unfounded.

In the fall of ’65 the King Bees changed their name to the Myddle Class to distinguish themselves from Danny Kortchmar’s King Bees who just had a release on RCA Victor. In October, Goffin and King signed a production deal for their new label, Tomorrow, with Atlantic-Atco, expressly to release their first single with the Myddle Class.

Billboard reviewed “Free as the Wind” in December 1965: “New label, new group and new Goffin-King material has smash hit possibilities. Folk rocker is a powerhouse!” Rick Philp and Dave Palmer share writing credit with Goffin and King. Despite the promising review, I can only find evidence of the single hitting the radio charts in Albany, New York in early ’66.

The flip is a moody garage version of Dylan’s “Gates of Eden” that I think is among the best covers of Dylan ever done.

Early on the Myddle Class used Talent Masters Studio in New York.

On December 11, 1965, the Myddle Class headlined a legendary concert at the Summit High School Auditorium with opening acts the Forty Fingers and the Velvet Underground. Al Aronowitz produced the show and booked the Velvets. In fact, it was the first time Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison billed themselves as the Velvet Underground and was also their first live show with Maureen Tucker on drums!

I’ve seen it written that Aronowitz was helping the Velvets out after they had been fired from the Cafe Wha?, but they had played at that venue much earlier in ’65. After the Summit High concert, Aronowitz did acquire a residency for the Velvets at Cafe Bizarre. He would get the Myddle Class into the Cafe Bizarre in 1966, along with the Night Owl Cafe and the Cafe Au Go Go (but not the Cafe Wha? according to Danny). Aronowitz claimed he was taping the Summit show, but someone from the Velvet Underground stole his new Wollensack tape recorder. The live tape has never surfaced, which is a shame, though all accounts say the Velvets received a very mixed reaction from the audience.

The Myddle Class’s second single, “Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long” was a #2 hit on WPTR in Albany during the summer of ’66. The success of the single led to a couple week-long gigs at Lake George that summer. They played shows with the All Night Walkers and the Barbarians and met Lloyd Baskin, who would later sing & play piano on some Myddle Class recordings in Boston. One of their set highlights was a version of the Jimmy Hughes single, “Neighbor, Neighbor”.

“I Happen to Love You” is a driving slice of cool teenage angst: in my opinion, their best recording. It may have been one of the songs Goffin and King intended for the Monkees, but the Monkees never recorded it. A revamped version of Them without Van Morrison did an effective cover of it in late 1967.

Despite the band receiving song writing credit on the label, “Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long” was likely taken from the Blues Project’s “Wake Me, Shake Me”, a staple of that group’s live sets throughout 1966. The song derives from traditional spirituals going back to the early 20th Century or earlier. The Blues Project may have adapted the song from the version by the Golden Chords on the Columbia LP Introducing The Sweet Chariot, released in 1963, or from earlier versions such as the Coasters. The Blues Project recorded a demo in January ’66 and then a finished version in August that was used for their album Projections, released in November 1966. The Myddle Class beat them to first release by rushing their 45 out in June, ’66!

Al Kooper stated to Lyn Nuttal, “The Blues Project let The Myddle Class open for them as a favor and in return, they stole their closing song! Nobody really even heard The Myddle Class theft in the US outside of New York City. The Blues Project’s version of “Wake Me, Shake Me” was the big version in the US and influenced a lot of young bands.” True, but for many teenagers who heard the record that summer, the Myddle Class recording will always remain THE version of the song. When this Myddle Class 45 was reissued on the Buddah label, “Al Kooper and the Blues Project” were credited for the arrangement.

The deal Goffin and King had struck with Atco to distribute Tomorrow fell apart after only three releases (two by the Myddle Class and one by Carole King, “A Road to Nowhere” / “Some of Your Lovin'”).

Goffin and King moved their distribution deal for Tomorrow to Cameo-Parkway, and their first release on a redesigned Tomorrow label was by the Bach’s Lunch, a girl group (with singer Darlene McCrea of the Cookies and the Raelettes – I don’t know the other members), with some of the Myddle Class providing the instrumental backing (Dan Mansolino told me his is not playing on either song). The A-side was a remake of Goffin and King’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, but the real gem is an excellent Rick Philp and Dave Palmer song “You Go On”. Scott at Crud Crud wrote up a fine appreciation of the Bach’s Lunch record which I recommend reading.

The band had some regional successes, including good receptions in Montreal and Boston, a short residency at Ungano’s on the upper West Side of Manhattan, and a show in Smithtown, Long Island promoted by DJ Scott Ross that attracted over 3,000 people. However, a number of discouraging developments hurt the band around this time. They had a good audition with Tom Wilson, but supposedly Al Aronowitz didn’t allow the deal to go through. Dan recalls the audition as being for Columbia Records, not MGM. In February of ’67 they opened a show for the Animals, but their set was interrupted by problems with the microphones, and it seems the band worried this performance hurt their reputation with the press.

In April of 1967 the Myddle Class signed to Cameo-Parkway and released one last 45. The A-side “Don’t Look Back” was a cover of Temptations and, uniquely, produced solely by the group themselves. On the flip was the superb “Wind Chime Laughter”, with song writing listed by P. Palmer (actually Philp and Palmer) for Merlin Music, BMI, and production credited jointly to the Myddle Class and Goffin. Unfortunately Allen Klein took over Cameo-Parkway in August and ousted the band’s reps at the label, including Neil Bogart, leaving their new single without any promotion.

Some of the Myddle Class appeared anonymously as models in ads photographed by Richard Avedon. One of Avedon’s photos of Charles Larkey was used for the cover of Esquire in September ’67. Larkey joined the Fugs in late ’67 with rival King Bee Dan “Kootch” Kortchmar for a series of shows at the Players Theater.

With some members away at college and pursuing other musical opportunities, the band was rarely performing live by this time. They did some recording sessions, usually at Dick Charles Recording Service, including demos for Goffin and King songs which would be placed with other artists. I’ve read that they helped recorded and helped arrange demos of “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Porpoise Song” for the Monkees but that may be only a rumor. Nor have I heard a version of “Snow Queen” that they may have cut.

Myddle Class demos of Goffin-King songs that do exist include “Goin’ Back” (a single for the Byrds in October ’67), “I Can’t Make It Alone” (which Dusty Springfield would record for Dusty in Memphis) and a couple others: “An Angel Walks Beside Me” and “Who Does He Love”. The 1967 Myddle Class demo of “Fun and Games” turned up on a Regent Sound Studio lacquer acetate, and is excellent.

Dan recalls the group (except Dave) recording music for a 45-minute Fred Mogubgub film, and Dave and Dan doing a version of “I Can’t Make it Alone” for a Jules Dassin project.

Dave Palmer and Rick Philp signed a publishing with Screen Gems-Columbia, the same publishers representing Goffin and King songs from this period. They received some income from this deal, but a promise from Don Kirshner to sign the group to Colgems never materialized, nor did he place any of their songs with artists. The band recorded demos of some of these Palmer & Philp songs, like “Man on the Bridge”.

A Bell Sound Studios 12″ lacquer includes five of their released songs, a version of “Visions of Johanna” that has never been released, a short snippet of Rick playing during a live show, and six other demos.

Lovin’ Season
Visions of Johanna
Goin’ Back
Man on a Bridge
Can’t Make it Alone

Don’t Look Back
Gates of Eden
Wind Chime Laughter
Free as the Wind
Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long
I Shall Be Released
Saint James Prelude

Dan wrote to me:

“Saint James Prelude” … was the intro Rick played for our cover of “Saint James Infirmary”, performed during a live set at the Bitter End Cafe.

I recorded this on my Wollensak stereo tape recorder. I lent the tape to Aronowitz and that was the last I heard of it.

Palmer and Philp’s original “I’ve Come Too Far” turned up on the b-side of a single by the Coven on SGC 15074 in 1968. This was produced by Gerry Goffin and engineered by Chris Hinshaw, indicating a west coast recording. Interestingly, the A-side, a cover of “I Shall Be Released” features a different female vocalist (and no David Palmer vocal) over the exact music track (pedal steel guitar and all) as it appears on the tape Al Aronowitz sold. It makes me wonder if “I’ve Come Too Far” also features members of the Myddle Class. This is not the same Coven from Indiana who recorded for Mercury, MGM, WB and Buddah.

I’ve seen two other titles but I don’t have confirmation that either was recorded or published: “There’s No Easy Way Down” and “Paper Walls of Innocence” (an early song the band stopped playing after their Ungano’s residency in the summer of ’66, according to Danny).

Goffin and King divorced and relocated (separately) to California in early 1968, by which time the Myddle Class were effectively on hiatus. Rick Philp and Charles Larkey spent the summer of ’68 in Los Angeles working up arrangements with Carole King for songs that would appear on Now That Everything’s Been Said, the album by King’s group the City. Danny Kortchmar replicated Rick’s guitar parts for the final album, released in 1969. Charles Larkey and Carole had been seeing each other since before she left the east coast, and they eventually married in September 1970.

In the fall of ’68 Philp was playing guitar with Van Morrison, including material that would become Astral Weeks. There is a photo of Rick playing guitar next to Morrison on the Boston Common, in a group that included bassist Tom Kielbania. Rick also joined Van Morrison for a live show on public TV channel WGBH with Charlie Mariano (see interview of Tom Kielbania by Richie Unterberger), and also possibly played shows with Van at the Ark.

Danny Mansolino and Dave Palmer were living in Boston at approximately the same time as Philp, and together they collaborated on songs with pianist and vocalist Lloyd Baskin. In March of 1969 they recorded a number of songs in a Boston studio:

“Mr. Charlie” (a new Goffin and King composition)
“Keys to the Kingdom” (written by Palmer and Philp)
“Redbeard” (another Palmer and Philp composition, Red Beard being their nickname for Al Aronowitz)
“Emmaretta Marx” (named for the Blues Project vocalist)
“No Easy Way Down”

and an untitled song with refrain: “let me hide my face within / the shelter of your hair / I traveled far, way down in sin / to find salvation there”

Dan tells me Emmaretta Marx” and “No Easy Way Down” have Lloyd Baskin on lead vocals on the Boston tape, and there is also a version of “Emmaretta Marx” recorded in New York without Lloyd.

Rick, Dave and Danny and Lloyd Baskin planned to have Myke Rosa and Charles Larkey meet them at Gerry Goffin’s new Larabee studio in Los Angeles for album sessions in the summer of 1969. Tragically, any future chances were lost when guitarist Rick Philp was murdered by his former roommate in Boston on May 24, 1969.

All the remaining members of the Myddle Class have had some involvement with music since. Danny Mansolino and Myke Rosa joined Jake and the Family Jewels for two albums on Polydor in 1969 and ’70. They added Dave Palmer as vocalist for a 1971 album on Elektra as the Quinames Band, including Ken Pine (who had played with Charlie Larkey in the Fugs) and Jerry Burnham. Dave Palmer may have had the biggest success as an early vocalist with Steely Dan and with his own group, Wha-Koo.

Neil Bogart , after leaving Cameo-Parkway and joining Buddah Records, reissued “Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long” / “I Happen to Love You” on 45 in mid-1969, with little impact. “Lovin’ Season”, an unreleased song from circa 1968, showed up on a sampler LP “Rock And Roll With Buddah” given away only at the N.E.C. (National Entertainment Conference) in Memphis in February, 1970. These releases were possibly a tribute to Rick Philp. “Lovin’ Season” is a great rocker with a repetitive organ riff and harmonica solo, and definitely sounds like it was cut at the beginning of the Myddle Class’s career.

Before Al Aronowitz passed away on August 1, 2005, he was offering a cassette copy of a collection or recordings by the Myddle Class called One Time Only through his website. The track list is below in the comments, below. It was not the Myddle Class’s rumored unreleased “album” as it includes recordings spanning their entire career, including their singles, the Bach’s Lunch songs and some of the demos mentioned here.

The version of “I Can’t Make it Alone” is excellent but marred by a glitch in the tape. Dan Mansolino told me Lloyd Baskin’s piano was overdubbed on this cut. Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers would release a single of “I Can’t Make it Alone” on MGM in 1968.

The only other track on it that I haven’t mentioned so far is one titled “Unknown Instrumental” that is a home or live recording of a minute of Rick playing guitar in a jazz style. Dan Mansolino told me Rick played this as the intro to “St. James Infirmary” at Myddle Class live shows.

Supposedly a legitimate release of their material is languishing because of legal troubles. It’s a shame, as I can’t think of another band that deserves a retrospective more than these guys.

I hear that Michael Rosa passed away on January 13, 2012.

Update: Be sure to check out the scans I’ve added to this site of business cards, two fan newsletters and other ephemera sent to me by Dan Mansolino.

Sources:

Kathy West’s A Song For You is a an excellent source of first hand information on the band and Kathy’s relationship with Rick Philp. See my review for more information.

Al Aronowitz wrote an extremely funny and interesting account of trying to break the band into the charts. I recommend it highly, but currently only an excerpt is available online.

Lyn Nuttal provides an exhaustive history of “Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long” / “Wake Me Shake Me” on his fascinating Pop Archives site.

“I Was a Velveteen” by Rob Norris in Kicks #1 (1979)

“Tales of the Myddle Class” by Todd Abramson in Breakthrough #1 (1984) was one of the first appreciations of the Myddle Class.

Info on the Velvet Underground’s early gigs here. A review of the concert used to be online but has since vanished.

Thank you to Susan Palmer De Leon, who sent in two photos of the Myddle Class that I had never seen before. Thanks also to Brian Kirschenbaum and Jeff Lemlich for excellent 45s scans, to Steve for the tip about the Coven single, and to Mike Dugo for alerting me to “Fun & Games” on youtube.