Blue Wood has the third release on the Jet Set label of Santa Barbara, California, though this time the label features a detailed logo. I don’t know anything about the group yet.
The A-side has a somewhat rural psychedelic sound (harmonies and no fuzz) on “Turn Around” by Rich Geiger. The flip is a hokey country-rock song, “Happy Jack Mine” by Ralph C. Multon and Lance Rose. Both songs published through Jet Set Publishing ASCAP, as were all the other original songs on the Jet Set label.
Produced by Tom Lubin, with Doug McGuire, the owner of the label, listed as executive producer.
As far as I can tell there were four releases on Jet Set:
JSR-45-2: Planned Obsolescense – “Exit Sticky Icky” / “Still in Love With You Baby” (Sept. 1967) JSR-45-3: The Calliope – “I’ll Take It Back” / “Ryan 5” (eng. by Frank Kajmar, February 1968) JSR-45-4: Blue Wood – “Turn Around” / “Happy Jack Mine” (1968) JSR-45-5: Don Robertson – “Yesterday’s Rain” / “California”. Executive Producer Doug McGuire, Produced by Tom Lubin
Don Robertson also had the only album on Jet Set, titled Yesterday’s Rain.
Jet Set was located at 4296-A Modoc Road, Santa Barbara.
For more on Planned Obsolescense, see the post I wrote last year.
This is not the same Jet Set label that released singles by Jimmy Armstrong, Barbara Long, Jimmy Castor, Eldrige Holmes and others.
The Ninth Street Bridge released one 45 on Cecile in August, 1968, featuring two originals by Tommy Bourque (misspelled on the label as Tommy Bourgue). “Wild Illusions” has a simple riff and beat with overdriven lead guitar and a vocal delivery very much in a Texas garage style. “Hey Boy” is as good as the flip, with the same saturated guitar sound and heavy drumming.
I don’t know anything about the band other than a Houston location and that Sonny Richards produced the single. I did find an ad for the 9th Street Bridge and the Moving Sidewalks for a show on March 15, 1969 at the Safari in Baytown.
I’m not aware of any other 45s on Cecile.
The 9th Street Bridge and the Moving Sidewalks at the Safari in Baytown, March 15, 1969
The Nervous System had two 45s on the Jambee label circa 1967, though one side, “Make Love, Not War” was used for both releases. The band seems to have been from the Chicago area, though I don’t have confirmation of that.
Their first 45, on Jambee 1001/1002 included the song “Bones”, with a first line that really hooked me: “I like the way she’s wrapped around her bones, the way she talks and how she smiles at me…”
The tense performance, the atmospheric production and the melancholy nature of the song makes “Bones” stand out for me, compared to the intricate but low-key “Make Love, Not War”. Both songs were written by J. Miller for Yuggoth BMI, and produced by J. & M. Miller. A 10″ acetate from Universal Recording Corp. on E. Walton includes “Make Love, Not War” plus a decent try at “Foxy Lady”.
The Nervous System’s second release included “Oh!” written by J. & M. Miller and produced by J. Miller and P. Serrano. It shows up on another Universal Recording acetate backed with a pop song, “Hello Sun” and a bluesy public service announcement, “Keep Chicago Beautiful”.
The only other release on the Jambee label that I know of is Circus, “I’ll Always Love You” by W. Stevenson and I. Turner, b/w “Away From This World” by Kevin Murphy, which is Jambee 1007/1008, so I suppose there’s a Jambee 1005/1006 out there somewhere but haven’t seen it yet if it exists. The producers for the Circus record were Jordan Miller, Morrie Parker, at least giving us a clue who J. Miller was.
Presumably the same Jordan Miller wrote “The Great Train Robbery” for the Little Boy Blues on Ronko.
Much more is known about Circus, who seem to have included Rick Panzer on piano, Kevin Murphy on Hammond organ, Jimmy Stella on vocals, Larry McCabe on trombone/trumpet, Bill Mickelburg, Vern Pilder and Phil Michilson on guitar, and Ross Salomone on drums. They had a much more brash sound, something like Sly & the Family Stone, featuring heavy funk and a full horn section. After the Jambee 45 they had a release on Columbia, also produced by Morrie Parker, “Where Are You At” / “Read All About It” in 1969. Eventually those three members joined with guys from the American Breed to form Rufus.
Universal Recording demo of “Foxy Lady”, flip side is “Make Love Not War”Universal Recording demo with two songs “Hello Sun” and “Keep Chicago Beautiful”, flip had the version of “Oh” released on their second single
The Vy-Countz released this great 45 single “Goodbye” / “Giant Killer” on Salesmaker Productions 6501/6502 in October, 1965.
The top side is a minor-key lament with the singer wailing downer lyrics, eerily shadowed by a deeper voice. The drummer keeps a good beat with plenty of tambourine on top, and there’s a simple guitar break. Crude, yes, but the band goes for it and comes out with an effective performance.
The flip is a simple instrumental with a Batman riff on blues changes. There were a number of bands called the Vy Counts around the country, but I have no info on the band at all other than a likely Oak Park, Illinois location – what’s the scoop?
The Torques of Farmington, New Mexico from left: Skip Batchelor, Bob Amerman, Dwight Babcock and Fender TuckerFender Tucker
Fender Tucker wrote this history of his band the Torques from Farmington, New Mexico. The Torques lasted from 1963 to 1965 and had one single on the Delta label: a cover of the Chartbusters’ “She’s the One” along with an original by Skip Batchelor, “She’s With Him”.
The germ that infected the gentle souls who later became Torques appeared in 1963 when Fender Tucker, the sole constant in the group, got together with Dwight Babcock and Geno Jaramillo for some guitar picking at his house. They soon saw that they needed a drummer real bad, and heard that Louis Pope, a classmate of Dwight’s, had just bought some drums. Fender, Geno and Dwight all played guitar but Dwight kept on the big strings and simulated a bass.
Geno JaramilloDwight BabcockLouis Pope
The four got together at Louis’ house for a few practices and it was time to play a dance at the Farmington high school cafeteria. But they needed a name. At the time there was a cute commercial on TV with an animated character pushing Burgomeister beer, and so they called themselves The Burgie Boys. The dance went over fairly well and another was slated.
But they tired of their name and Fender came up with The Napa 4. He had read a book about California surfing and apparently he thought “Napa” was a word that meant “cool” or “hip”. Later on, in the 70s, Fender married a woman who had lived in the northern California area and when she heard the band was called The Napa 4 she guffawed. To people of the Sacramento area, Napa was the town where the insane asylum was and anyone saying they were from Napa was certifiably nuts.
The Napa 4 only lasted for one dance and then Fender came up with “The Torques”. He noticed a weird wrench that Dwight was using on a rebuilt engine in his back yard and asked what it was called. “A torque wrench.” He liked the sound of it so much he painted a logo on a sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves. It was an armed and legged torque wrench (a long tool with a circular dial at the “head” end) riding a surf board with “Fender des Torques” underneath. Apparently he was taking French in high school that year. The other guys in the band made similar sweatshirts with their names “des Torques” on them and that was the genesis of The Torques.
Andy Sandoval
Graduation in 1963 caused Dwight and Louis to leave the band and their places on drums and bass were taken by Andy Sandoval and Bill Smart. They were pretty good on their instruments, but mainly they had cars. Finding a way to get to dances was always a problem for Fender and Geno.
Bill SmartHarry “Skip” Batchelor
Everybody got better in 1964 and then the band split up and Fender joined the biggest band in town, Cecil Irvin’s The Invaders. That lasted for one dance at McGee Park that signaled the end of dances put on by bands. After expenses the band barely broke even.
Barry Dunkeson
But then late in 1964 Dwight Babcock came back from college and he and Fender teamed up with a guitar player from Bloomfield named Harry Batchelor. They added Barry Dunkeson, a guitar player from another group, but he played drums plenty well enough for The Torques.
The four Torques played at dances in Farmington and then booked several weekend jobs at a 3.2 beer bar in Durango CO, Poor Boys. The unexpurgated story of what happened to Fender and Harry at the Central Hotel on Main Street in Durango on a chilly autumn night in 1964 is told in Fender’s 2007 book, The Compleat Calhoon.
But Barry left to go to college (where he joined the Beckett Quintet, a band featured here on Garage Hangover) and The Torques picked up young Bobby Amerman, an excellent drummer a year behind Fender at Farmington High School.
It was the spring of 1965 that The Torques, Fender, Dwight, Harry and Bob, drove down to Albuquerque and recorded a song that Harry had written, “She’s With Him”. The B-side was a song by The Chartbusters called “She’s the One”. They were recorded at John Wagner’s studio and it was released as Delta R-2078A and R-2078-B.
300 copies were pressed and bought by the guys and a few were sold at Torques dances in Farmington. Most were given away and the rest were lost. In 2010 a collector from southern California found a copy and sent me transfers of the songs and scans of the labels.
Soon after they had made the record, they got a call from Albuquerque from their fan club. What? They didn’t even know they had a fan club. They were told that if they could come back to Albuquerque The Torques would be featured on “Johnny’s Record Party” a TV show that was the Albuquerque equivalent of American Bandstand. So the four Torques drove to Albuquerque and were interviewed on air by a local DJ in a studio above the Kimo Theater on Central Avenue. The DJ kept trying to build up The Torques as a huge phenomenon but Fender kept bringing him back to earth with reality. Listeners said they could hear Harry cackling in the background.
Then they went to the TV studio to tape “Johnny’s Record Party”. They were to do their hit song, “She’s with Him” and the original idea was to mike the live-playing band. But something (probably the band) didn’t sound right and at the last minute the director said, “Just lipsync the song.” The only problem was that there were no monitors and the band couldn’t hear anything. The director pointed at the band and apparently the band started at the right moment, but did they play the same tempo and arrangement as the record? Hell no. They fumbled around mindlessly until they were told to stop “playing”.
The next day at Harry’s grandparents’ house The Torques watched themselves on TV. It was as bad as they feared. If there is a tape of the show, it should be a shoe-in for America’s Stupidest Videos, but I’m afraid that there probably is no record of the debacle left. Go figure; the Torques’ only TV appearance is lost forever.
Jon Kottke
The Torques had a chance to be heard by a lot of different people when they played the Farmington Senior Prom in early 1965. It was sort of an experiment to have a local band play for the prom so we had to learn a bunch of old fogey songs like “Stranger on the Shore” that of course we couldn’t sing, so we hired a sophomore named Jon Kottke to play sax. It was probably the best The Torques ever sounded.
The end of the summer of 1965 came and that was the end of The Torques. Dwight and Fender left for college in Las Cruces. Harry became “Skip” and went into the Navy. Bob Amerman went to school in Albuquerque but within a year he developed a rare form of cancer and died. He was 19 years old.
All of the members of The Torques were in it for the fun. It was a blast playing dances at the Boys’ Club, the high school, the parks and private dances, and we knew it was a lark. Unlike John, Paul, George and Ringo, who wanted to be the absolute best in the world, The Torques just wanted to have fun, drink some beers, play some songs, and most importantly, to NOT have to wake up for a day job. They were eminently successful at it until the draft (or the alternative to the draft, college) split up the group permanently.
Here are some songs recorded by The Torques at the Farmington Boys’ Club on an October night in 1965. They recorded it by placing a microphone in front of a crummy speaker that was attached to the PA. Surely the sound out in front of the band was better than these recordings? Surely? I hope so.
The East Side Kids at the Sea Witch, 1966 From left, back row: Danny Belsky, Joe Madrid, Jimmy Greenspoon, Dennis Lambert front row: Dave Doud and Mike DoudEastside Kids on Philips – almost certainly a different group, possibly related to the Secrets of “Twin Exhaust” on Swan
First let me discuss a couple red herrings.
A single on Philips as the Eastside Kids likely had no connection to the East Side Kids I will be discussing in this article. Philips 40295 from June of 1965 has a great bluesy instrumental “Sunday Stranger” written by Billy Strange and almost certainly he’s playing the lead guitar too.
Another studio production probably unrelated to the East Side Kids I’ll be discussing below, despite the identical band name
The other side was also an instrumental, “Subway Train” written by Billy Carl, Ron Gentile, and Richard Moehrle. Hear both at Left and to the Back blog, from which I took the label scan seen here.
Billy Carl (aka Billy Carlucci) co-wrote “(We’ll Meet in the) Yellow Forest” for Jay and the Americans, “Goody Goody Gumdrops” for the 1910 Fruitgum Company, and many other songs.
Ron Gentile and Richard Moehrle (aka Rick Morley) were in the Secrets. They wrote a classic instrumental called “Twin Exhaust”, released on Swan in 1962. As Crystal Mansion they had a 1968 single and LP on Capitol.
In May of 1966 there’s a single by the East Side Kids “Chocolate Matzos”/”Night Mist Blue” on Warner Bros. 5821. Like the Philips single, this sounds like a studio production, but is more exotica than rock ‘n roll, and I doubt the East Side Kids I’ll be discussing below were a part of this. Both sides written by C.B. Jerry for Phenomenal Music BMI, and produced by Dick Glasser.
So now let’s get on with the actual Sunset Strip group the East Side Kids and their initial incarnation as the Sound of the Seventh Son.
Sound of the Seventh Son: “Shaggy Singers” from left, front row: Danny Belsky, Joe Madrid, David Doud, back: Jimmy Greenspoon and Michael Doud
In September of 1965, the Sound of the Seventh Son released their single on Tower 169. “I Told a Lie” is a good, crude garage rock. It was written by James Greenspoone (aka Jimmy Greenspoon) and Ed Fontaine. On the flip was the Byrds-like “I’ll Be On My Way”, written by Dollarhide, Greenspoone, Fontaine. Both songs published by Chemistry Music BMI, produced by Al Hazan for S.O.S. Productions.
The Sound of the Seventh Son also recorded a one-sided demo “She Lost Me” which I haven’t heard – anyone have a copy of that?
One of the first venues we performed at was called Stratford on Sunset. The owner was Jerry Lambert and his nephew’s group, The East Side Kids, was the house band. At that time, they had another name, something like The Sound of the Seventh Son, I think. They were older, very professional and served as mentors to us … Stratford was great while it lasted … and it was Jerry Lambert again who got me the audition for The Yellow Payges a year later.
Members of the Sound of the Seventh Son were:
Joe Madrid – vocals David Doud – lead guitar Michael Doud – bass guitar Jimmy Greenspoon – piano Danny Belsky – drums
Greenspoon and Danny Belsky had been playing together since the very early ’60s with the New Dimensions with Michael Lloyd, Craig Nuttycombe and Art Guy. David Doud had joined when the band became the Alley Kats.
Sound of the Seventh Son in the news, September 3, 1965Sound of the Seventh Son in the news, September 3, 1965
The band received press when they went to court on September 2, 1965 to get their contracts with Tower Records and SOS Productions approved and Judge A.A. Scott exclaimed “They look like freaks! … I don’t know whether they are girls or boys … God help them if they get to some real men”. The band were all between the ages of 18 and 21. Coverage was so thorough, and photographs so timely, that I have to wonder if this was a publicity stunt to coincide with their Tower single release.
The band also appears in the background of a fashion photo shoot for the LA Times magazine taken at the Crescendo Club, though only Madrid, Belsky and Greenspoon are visible in the photos.
Danny Belsky at the Hullabaloo, 1966
Around the time Stratford on Sunset closed in December 1965, the Sound of the Seventh Son became the East Side Kids. Although the Warner Bros. single came in May of 1966, there may be no connection between that production and this group. Dominic Priore, in Riot on the Sunset Strip says that the East Side Kids “took up a residency at a club called Wild Thing near Hollywood and Vine before moving on to the Hullabaloo, leaving their original house band spot to the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.”
There’s a great photo (at top of page) of the band at the Sea Witch on Sunset Blvd with guitarist Denis Lambert, who would sit in with the group and later form Lambert and Nuttycombe with Craig Nuttycombe of the New Dimensions.
In January of 1967 the East Side Kids release their single “Take A Look In The Mirror” /”Close Your Mind” on Orange Empire Records OE-500. “Take A Look In The Mirror” has a good guitar break while “Close Your Mind” has more drama in the performance. Someone, probably Danny Belsky, is playing the flute on both sides.
The songs were written by Bernie Schwartz and M. Cavett, but the A-side was published by World Showplace Music, Inc, BMI while the flip by Egap BMI.
Bernie Schwartz has an interesting history, releasing two 45s on the Tide label as Don Atello, including “Questions I Can’t Answer” which you may remember from Boulders vol. 7. He then released “Her Name Is Melody” / “I Go to Sleep” as Adrian Pride on Warner Bros 5867. After writing for the East Side Kids, the Yellow Payges and Power, he formed the Comfortable Chair who had the excellent single “Be Me” plus and LP on Ode, and his own LP The Wheel on CoBurt.
Jimmy Greenspoon seems to have left the group at some point in 1967. In June, he released a 45 as Boystown “Hello Mr. Sun” / “End of the Line” with Michael Lloyd who had just left the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Around this time he moved to Denver for close to a year before returning and forming Three Dog Night.
I’m not sure if Jimmy Greenspoon was still with the group in October, 1967 when they put out their next single on Valhalla 672, which features Jimmy’s original “Listen to the Wise Man” plus a song by Doud and Madrid “Little Bird”. Both sides feature strings and pop production by Larry Tamblyn of the Standells. Publishing by Kim Fowley Music and Padua Music, BMI.
Valhalla also released 45s by the Sunday Funnies (“A Pindaric Ode” / “Whatcha Gonna Do”) and the Vikings (“Boo-Hoo-Hoo” / “Lonely Prisoner”).
Danny Belsky also seems to have left in 1967, being replaced by David Potter from the Bushmen and Euphoria.
East Side Kids news clipping from the time of their Valhalla release, January 5, 1968
By January, 1968, according to one article I found, the members were:
Joe Madrid – lead vocals David Doud – guitar Mike Doud – bass David Potter – drums
This group recorded their LP The Tiger And The Lamb on Uni 73032 in 1968. Buzz Clifford and Dan Moore, both formerly of Hamilton Streetcar, produced the album. Clifford and Moore also contributed songs, along with John Fleck of the Standells and Wesley Watt of Euphoria. Dave Potter and David Doud each contributed one original composition. One single was taken from the album, David Doud’s “Taking The Time” backed with Fleck’s “Is My Love Strong” for UNI 55105 in early 1969.
Gladstone
Around October of 1968 a 45 turns up under the name Gladstone, “Pitter Patter” / “Gone By Day” on Kirk Record Co KR-5002. Under the artist name is “Tracks by EAST SIDE KIDS” and D.F. Potter (David Potter) is one of the producers along with Gregory and Gladstone. Both sides were written by Gladstone but published by different companies, Song & Dance Music BMI and Rockliffe Music BMI.
I cannot determine if Gladstone was a particular person or only an alias for the East Side Kids, but “Gone By Day” ranks among the best performances the East Side Kids were ever involved in.
In May of 1969 a Gladstone single appears on A&M Records 1061, the beautiful “What a Day” backed with the hard-rockin’ “Upsome”, both originals by Al Graham.
Alex Palao wrote to me: “The Gladstone on Kirk was an LA-based singer named Gary Gladstone, [who] cut an earlier(?), way better version of Gone By Day at Original Sound, along with other stuff. Not the same as the A&M / San Jose group of Otherside/Bogus Thunder lineage.”
I wouldn’t necessarily link this single to the East Side Kids except for the producer, Lee Michaels, whose album Carnival of Life included Wesley Watt and David Potter. However, one source lists this Gladstone band as from San Jose, CA, with members Alan Graham (vocals, bass), Ned Torney (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Ken Matthew (drums, vocals) and Jim Sawyers (guitar). Torney, Matthew and Sawyers had been in the Other Side, who had one fine single on Brent in Nov. 1965, “Streetcar” / “Walking Down the Road”. By 1969 they had been playing with Al Graham as Bogus Thunder (possibly with Wayne Paulsen on guitar instead of Jim Sawyers – sources differ).
No connection to the early ’70s band called Gladstone from Tyler, Texas that recorded on ABC and Probe.
I don’t know how the band ended, or what most of the group did afterwards. David Potter joined Endle St. Cloud, with whom he formed Potter St. Cloud. He was also a session drummer. He passed away in 2011. I believe the Doud brothers are both gone too.
“I’ve Wasted My Time” by Jerry and the Remnants is a single I’ve been looking for and finally found last month. The song has tough rhythm guitar, sharp drumming and bass playing, swirling organ fills and very fluid transitions from verse to chorus and back. The production is not as distinct as one might like, but the performance overcomes that deficiency.
Members of Jerry and the Remnants were:
Jerry York – lead guitar and lead vocals David Donahoe – rhythm guitar and lead vocals Frank Larsen- bass and vocals Jerry Solberg – keyboards and vocals Buzz Minson – drums
60sgaragebands.com has a history of the Remnants by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist David Donahoe: how the band had formed out of the Plaidsmen and Vectors, and how members of these three bands eventually formed the Todes, who I’ve covered on this site before.
The Remnants cut their 45 at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles in the summer of ’66. It was the swan song of the band, who broke up immediately after as members went their separate ways. David Donahoe immediately joined the Todes, who cut their 45 in Los Angeles just a week after the Remnants, though in a different studio.
The 45 was released as Jerry & the Remnants (at live shows they were simply the Remnants) on Gini 103 in October, 1966.
Jerry York wrote “I’ve Wasted My Time” as well as the ballad flip, “If I Love You”. It was produced by Glen Law, the songs published by Glenart Music BMI. Glen Law was from Utah but had been writing songs and producing music in Los Angeles since at least 1959, when he released the first record by C. Carson Parks (Van Dyke Parks’ older brother) and Bernie Armstrong as the Steeltown Two “Wolves” / “Tarrytown” on Gini 1001. I don’t know of any other releases on Gini.
July, 1966: bands shut down for playing too loud. Unfortunately the article doesn’t list the groups.
Mike Kelly of the Renegades, David Hayes of the Pawns, Rod Crosby of the Intruders and Anita Moskal for the Chapparals receiving trophies for the Bassett Center 2nd Annual Battle of the Bands, August 1964
The Pawns had two releases on Bobby Fuller’s Exeter label. First was Exeter 125, featurin, two good surf type instrumentals, “South Bay” / “The Pawn”, released about August, 1964.
Just a month later they released their next 45 on Exeter 127. The top side has David Hayes, the leader and vocalist with the Pawns, listed as the artist, with his original “Meet Me Here (In New Orleans)”. The Pawns are listed on the flip for the sleepy instrumental “Lonely”.
Interestingly, both sides were re-released as the first record on the Coronado label, but given the same release number, 127, as the Exeter 45. Credits are the same, including “A Fuller Production”, Todd Music BMI, and the RCA custom master code RK4M-3630/1. Since 127 was the last of seven 45 releases on Exeter, I assume Fuller gave up the label when he moved to California and let the Pawns take record and/or contract to Coronado.
David Hayes and the Pawns were one of only three 45 rpm artists on Exeter, the others being Bill Taylor & the Sherwoods and Bobby Fuller himself. Exeter also had an LP by Los Paisanos.
original release on Exeterre-release on Coronado
original release on Exeterre-release on Coronado
Their last 45 came out as David Hayes and the Pawns and featured two vocals, a cover of Charlie Rich’s “Lonely Weekends” backed with a strange original by Hayes, “What Do the Voices Say”. Produced by Calvin Bowls, it saw release sometime in 1965 on Coronado 132.
I know David Hayes was in the group, but the other members are unclear. Songwriting credits on “The Pawn” and “South Bay” are Doize’, Paz and Hayes. Since these are instrumentals and Hayes was definitely part of the group, I assume Doize’ and Paz were the other two members of the group.
However a post by Patrick Lundborg from 2012 on the Acid Archives Updates states “Jack Duncan (bass) and Gary Davis (drums) [I think this should be Barry Davis] learned their chops … in surf-band the Pawns. The leader of this group was one David Hayes, who presumably took on vocal duties on the later 45s, at least he receives separate billing. The two would-be Dragonflies Duncan and Davis did not contribute any songwriting from what I can tell, but were definitely present for the Pawns’ 1964 debut 45 … Duncan and Davis left the Pawns to join a more experienced musician friend in a band called Lords Of London, based in Durango, Colorado. After some time they recruited their old El Paso friend Randy Russ who left the Infants Of Soul to join them, and the band also changed its name to Legend around this time (1967).” Legend had three 45s and two LPs on the Megaphone label, the second and better of the two as Dragonfly.
Ronnie and the Crowns formed as early as 1962 at Westdale Junior High in Baton Rouge. Members on the single may include:
Ronnie Sherlock – vocals Jimmy Rogers – lead guitar Cal Arnold – bass A.J. Miceli – drums
Although not audible on the single, the band also included a full horn section at some point:
Charlie Spinoza – trumpet Ivan Bergeron – trumpet Tommy Berthelo – tenor saxophone Richard Sherlock – baritone saxophone
In 1966 they recorded their one excellent single on Stephanie Records of Baton Rouge #MX-957. One side is “Love You So” written by James M. Rogers, lead guitarist in the group and featuring his super-trebley and reverbed guitar. The flip is a cover of Lenny Capello’s New Orleans classic “Cotton Candy” (“I know my Candy is always handy”).
Ronnie Sherlock produced the Ronnie & the Crowns single. My copy is pretty rough, but it’s inscribed “from Richard & Ronnie” on the “Cotton Candy” label.
I don’t know much about Stephanie Records, other than seeing a list of 10 or so singles released on the label. Sam Montel (S.J. Montalbano) must have owned the label as two early releases have his name as producer. Also, the MX- prefix is present on all releases on the label, and shows up on many releases on the Montel and Michelle labels, as does the Red Stick Music publishing, used for “Love You So”.
The Runaways came from Baytown, across the San Jacinto River and about 25 miles east of Houston. The band formed in June of ’65; most of them were students at Ross Sterling High School. They cut one fine 45, notable for the rockin’ harmony cut “Love”, released in May, 1966.
Robert Campbell – lead vocals and guitar John Govro – lead and rhythm guitar, vocals Ray Hayden – lead guitar Eddie Norris – bass Glenn Dew – drums
An article in the Baytown Sun from August 14, 1966 mentions their 45 on Hitt, stating that “What’s Happening Baby” (good vocal harmony pop, written by Robert Campbell) reached #21 on KEYS in Corpus Christi and #29 on KOLE in Port Arthur, and “Love” (written by John Govro) made #24 on KLVI in Beaumont.
Jack Sims managed the group and produced the single. Bobby Bon was equipment manager with Jack Conway and Steve Shrier.
There was another Texas group called the Runaways, from San Antonio, with the legendary single on Alamo Audio, “18th Floor Girl” / “Your Foolish Ways”.
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
Blue Wood has the third release on the Jet Set label of Santa Barbara, California, though this time the label features a detailed logo. I don’t know anything about the group yet.
