The Stairway to the Stars came from the Pittsburgh area, but cut this 45 for the Brite-Star label out of Newberry, Ohio, near Cleveland. Newberry is only a couple hours from Pittsburgh, but the labels indicate a Nashville base.

One side has a moody, echoing vocal, “Cry”, written by Tom Sellosi and Dave Benard. The intensity grows for the short recitation at the end.

On the flip is “Dry Run” a great instrumental featuring a lot of tremolo on the guitar, a strong three note riff that sounds like a keyboard more than guitar, and a long and dissonant middle section for the lead break. Phil Dirt pointed out the similarity of the opening melody to the Vistas “No Return” on Tuff, but the Stairway to the Stars really expand on that theme in the rest of the song.

The Rite account number is 728 and the release numbers are 17909 (“Dry Run”) / 17910 (“Cry”), released in September or October 1966. The Library of Congress has a registration for “Cry” from September 12, 1966, to David Benard and Thomas Sollosi. The “Dry Run” label lists T.R. Sollosi, but this song wasn’t registered.

Members on the record included:

Tom Sollosi – lead guitar
Dave Benard – lead vocals
Paul Geary – tenor sax
Ray Niccolai – rhythm guitar and bass

Paul Geary provided the photos and wrote to me:

We all lived in the Monongahela, Pa. area south of Pittsburgh. Tom Solossi knew I played tenor sax in the jazz band in high school and he was trying to get a little band together. He had already recruited Ray Niccolli for rhythm guitar. Tom himself played lead guitar and also taught guitar at a local music shop. Dave Benard who worked at a furniture store in Mon City was our vocalist.

The band did a lot of weddings, teen dances, and social clubs. We were all in high school at the time and appreciated the extra money we made playing music.

Tom knew a local DJ in Charleroi, Pa. His name was Johnny Barbero and he wanted us to come to the radio station WESA for a recording session. I played sax on the recording but was drowned out by the heavy guitars.

We made a demo and paid Brite-Star Records to make some records to distribute. It played on a few local radio stations, but never took off.

Q. Do you remember who played drums on the record?

We were between drummers at the time but I’m pretty sure it was George Tirpack.

We stayed together for about a year and then everyone started applying for colleges and that ended the group.

Teen Beat Mayhem indicates this 45 came with a picture sleeve, which I’ve never seen. Paul tells me there was never anything but a plain sleeve for the single.

Dave Bernard (now known as Dave Justice) wrote to me:

I was lead singer and rhythm guitar player for “Stairway To The Stars”. We really didn’t have a bass player — but I bought one and only used it one time. The tune DRY RUN was a tribute to Dry Run Road in Monongahela. Tom told me he wanted to hear a semi roaring up Dry Run Road, but that never happened.

I did not work at a furniture store. My father was manager of a Monongahela furniture store. I was a reporter with The Monongahela Times, my summer job before going back to college.

There was never a picture sleeve. We did record another original song “Hideaway” at Gateway Recording Studios in Pittsburgh, but never had it pressed.

I went on to a career in radio and TV broadcasting and also owned and operated my own recording studio until my retirement.

Info on Brite-Star came from the 45rpm Records site.