In April of 1967 a band called The Colony released their only single, the wild “All I Want” b/w a great song called “Things On My Mind” on Platter Records P-105. The two make for an interesting contrast: one is hard-edged r&b with a desperate-sounding vocal, the other a much more polished production that includes string arrangements but keeps its drive.

Both songs were written by Mike Foley and Bill Eucker for Worlday-Jenks BMI.

Platter Records: a redundant name wouldn’t you say? Platter was located at 34 San Clemente St, in Ventura, California.

The Platter Records discography looks like this (any additions would be appreciated):

Platter 1001: Homer Lee – “Pedernales River” (Bert Peck) / “I’ve Got Some Crying To Do” (June 1966)
Platter 1002: The Cobras featuring Warren Patience – “It’s a Lie” (Michael Walker) Worlday-Jenks BMI / “Thoughts of You (Are Wrecking Me)” Sept. 1966
Platter 1003: Morrie Hamilton “Wimoweh” / “Pickin’ and Grin’in” (Morrie Hamilton – Chas. Wright for Worlday-Proctor BMI) (produced by Joe Bill D’Angelo)
Platter 1004: The Two of Us (Bill & Dorice) “You’ll Love Me” (Richie Carpenter, Lightup Music BMI.) / “Piki Teepee” (no artist listed)
Platter 1005 – The Colony – “All I Want” / “Things On My Mind” (Mike Foley and Bill Eucker) April 1967

The Cobras came from Kingston, Pennsylvania, west of Scranton. I have no idea how they came to be on Platter Records, but their 45 is a rare and classic garage single. The label for the Cobras reads “featuring Warren Patience” but an ad I found in a central PA newspaper puts his name as Warren Patients.

Homer Lee worked with a song writer out of Dallas, Texas. Morrie Hamilton worked in various locations including Denver. The Two of Us (Bill McClure and Dorice Vance) worked around Anaheim and Santa Ana in Orange County.

With the widespread origins of these artists, the Colony may have been the only act on the label actually from the Ventura area.

Bill Eucker produced and arranged both sides of the Colony single. His full name is William Herschel Eucker. I have no other clue as to who performed on the Colony single, or if they were even a real band outside the session for these two songs. Bill Eucker’s name connects Platter Records with an earlier label from the Oxnard area, Break Out Records.

One odd thing about this discography is the B-side to the Two of Us single, credited only by its title “Piki Teepee”. This instrumental had original release two years earlier as the flip to the Sundancers’ Break Out Records single, “Devil Surf”. Who were the Sundancers? They were Chiyo & the Crescents by another name.

Chiyo & the Crescents and Break Out Records

The best info on Chiyo comes from the article and comments section of Office Naps’ post Everybody Wipe Out Now, which I’ll summarize here, though I can’t attest to the veracity of all this information.

Chiyo was supposedly of Hopi Indian descent, originally named Chizomana. In the 1940s Chiyo went to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln to study music. She married an engineer by the name of Fred Ishii who worked at Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station in Oxnard. She began giving lessons in various instruments at her home, but by the early ’60s she opened up her shop, Chiyo’s Guitars and Drums, on Saviers Road in Oxnard where she continued teaching, notably flamenco-style guitar.

Around 1962 or 1963, Chiyo formed a band called the Crescents:

Chiyo Ishii – lead guitar
Thom Bresh – rhythm guitar
Tom Mitchell – bass
Ray Reed – sax
Bob Ross – drums

Thom Bresh is Merle Travis’s son. He would have been about 15 or 16 at the time of these recordings. Bresh was taking lessons at Ernie Ball’s store in Thousand Oaks, where Bill Eucker was teaching. Eucker wrote an instrumental he called “Pink Dominos”, which would become the first of three singles by the Crescents on Break Out Records. Oddly each of the three releases has a different artist name, even though all are by Chiyo & the Crescents.

The only single on Breakout not by Chiyo and the Crescents was by the Dar Vons: “Hot Pepperoni” (obviously trying to cash in on the Dartells “Hot Pastrami”) b/w “Bowling Alley Baby”. The Dar Vons or Darvons included Dave Bowers and previously were known as the Surftones – but I don’t believe this is the same Surftones that backed Dave Myers, that band included Johnny Curtis, Ed Quarry, Dennis Merritt, Seaton Blanco, and Bob Colwell.

Break Out Records discography

Break Out BBM-3/4 – Chiyo & the Crescents – “Pink Dominos” (Bill Eucker) / “Devil Surf” (Chiyo) (Sept. or October 1963)
Break Out 105-A/106-B – Kresents – “Purple Checkers” (Bill Eucker, Dimondaire Music BMI) / “Maple Syrup” (Chiyo) (February, 1964)
Break Out 107-AA/108 – Dar Vons – “Hot Pepperoni” (Steve Middleton, B. Peeler) / “Bowling Alley Baby” (Waldemar Mennigen – Jerry Jaye) produced by Moraga- B. Moon
Break Out 111 – The Sundancers – “Devil Surf” / “Piki Teepee” (both by Chiyo)

I could use good scans of the Sundancers single if anyone has it. Also would definitely like to hear the Dar Vons, and would like to purchase a copy of any of the Break Out singles.

Break Out was at least partly owned by Harold Moraga. Moraga also owned part of Dimondaire Music BMI, which published all the songs on Break Out.

Kim Fowley bought the master for “Pink Dominos” and placed it with Era Records for a wider release, reaching  #95 in Billboard on December 28, 1963 and reportedly climbing as high as #69 in early 1964. I read Ghoulardi used it on his show so it became an in-demand in the Cleveland, Ohio area.

Fowley controlled half the publishing for both sides through Room Seven Music, BMI. The flip side “Breakout” is credited to Moon and Moraga and even though Chiyo’s name is on the label, this sounds like a different group using a cheap organ sound.

Despite the success of the single, the two follow ups on Break Out were recorded under different band names. The Kresents single features a song Bill Eucker wrote called “Purple Checkers”, while the band remade “Devil Surf” with saxophone under a new title, “Maple Syrup”. As the Sundancers, they do yet another version of “Devil Surf” with “Pink Teepee” on the flip. BMI shows he wrote a song called “Torment” during this period, which seems to have gone unrecorded.

I wonder what Bill Eucker was doing in the two or three years between writing for the Crescents and recording the Colony single. It’s also a mystery how “Pink Teepee” shows up on the flip to the Two of Us single, as there doesn’t seem to be any overlap in publishing or production between the Break Out and Platter labels.

I find no more credits for Bill Eucker until 1972, when he turns up playing guitar on the John Henry Kurtz LP Reunion on ABC Records. That record that contains the original version of “Drift Away”, a later version of which continues to be heard in supermarkets across the country.

Thank you to Dick Blackburn for adding the Dar Vons to the Break Out discography. Thank you to Chuck Keever for the scans of the Kresents single and suggestions about the order of release.