Category Archives: El Paso

Categories: Coronado, El Paso, Exeter, Texas

David Hayes and the Pawns

February 12, 2015 Chris Bishop 6 Comments

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.

David Hayes Exeter 45 Meet Me Here — original release on Exeter

David Hayes Coronado 45 Meet Me Here — re-release on Coronado

The Pawns Exeter 45 Lonely — original release on Exeter

The Pawns Coronado 45 Lonely — re-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.

Info on Legend from Klemen’s interview with Randy Russ. Exeter discography info from the Bobby Fuller – Never to Be Forgotten site.

Thank you to Sam Stephenson for scans of the Coronado 45s and Exeter 127.

Categories: Bandera, El Paso, Elpa Records, Texas, US

The Solid State “Wait and See” / “The Lynching” on Elpa

April 22, 2012 Chris Bishop 4 Comments

I haven’t seen any concrete info on the Solid State. I’ve read the band was from Bandera, Texas, but the Elpa label was located at 5214 Beautonne in El Paso. El Paso is close to eight hours’ drive from Bandera, while San Antonio is within an hour, Austin two hours drive, and even Dallas is closer.

The A-side is the very moody “Wait and See”, written by Jerry Walker and Sam Lott.

The flip is “The Lynching”, a fascinating original by Jerry Walker with an upbeat rhythm and a catchy six-note guitar line, plus good soloing on the outro. The harmonies are cheery, but the words are most definitely not!

What is the matter in the street,
I hear the clattering of feet,
Here comes an angry bunch,
They’ve had a little too much,
You’d better not get in their way.
I hear a bandit’s on the loose,
They meant to fit him with a noose,
They are looking for a man,
He has gotten out of hand,
And they are going to string him up.
Looks like it’s lynching time again,
And there’s no mercy to be shown,
You’d better hide your head from the electric wind, (?)
Destruction marks where where it has blown,
Sundown has set the scene for hate,
Come ’round let’s all participate,
Don’t be late for a party tonight,
Celebrate for a triumph of right,
The lynching mob knows where it’s at.
Look out, here they come your way,
Watch out, you may hear them say,
We are looking for a man,
He has gotten out of hand,
This man we’re looking for is you!
Looks like it’s lynching time again,
And there’s no mercy to be shown,
You’d better hide your head from the electric wind, (?)
Destruction marks where where it has blown.

I have to wonder what inspired this song – perhaps the photos of lynchings that took place in the 40s and 50s where the crowd looks ebullient.

Both songs were published by Linjo Music. BMI’s database lists the song as one of Jerry Jeff Walker’s compositions, but it’s unlikely, as his usual publisher is Grouper Music, and by the time the Solid State released their 45 in October, 1968 Jerry Jeff was part of Circus Maximus and hadn’t made a name for himself as a songwriter yet. Though from upstate New York, Jerry Jeff busked through Texas in the mid-60s, so it is possible he was a member of this group or gave some songs to them.

Categories: El Paso, Frogdeath, New Mexico, Texas, University Park

The Imposters

January 4, 2011 Chris Bishop Leave a comment

Writing about Danny and the Counts has brought in a lot of information about the Coronado and Frogdeathlabels, so I’ll feature some more artists from these companies, starting with the Imposters.

The A-side is “Wipe In”, their take on the surf standard “Wipe Out” of course, with plenty of reverb and a deranged introduction. It was written by E. Teleheny, published by Conte Music. The flip is a standard blues, “Tulsa”, written by L. Miller.

I can’t find any info or photos of the band, if anyone has one, please let me know.

Although a DJ in El Paso, Steve Crosno’s Frogdeath label was based in University Park, New Mexico. At least some records were cut at his house. He usually put a witty quip on the label, this one has “Produced by Shteve [sic] Crosno”.

Thanks to Sam Stephenson for the scans and transfers of this 45.

Categories: Coronado, El Paso, Frogdeath, Texas

Danny and the Counts

November 19, 2010 Chris Bishop 31 Comments

Danny Parra – guitar and lead vocals
Javier Valenzuela – lead guitar and vocals
Eric Huereque – bass and vocals
Joe Huereque – drums
Joe Martinez – tambourine and vocals

Danny and the Counts “You Need Love” is a signature tune of the mid-60s, with its unforgetable buzzing guitar riff and opening “Oh, yeah!”. Not to mention the cool bending lick after the chorus, or the lyrics about seducing a rich girl. The b-side “Ode to the Wind” is slower and moody, again with good fuzz guitar.This was their second single, from 1966, on the Coronado label. Danny Parra wrote both songs. Chiyo Music BMI published many of Coronado’s releases at this time.

Their first 45 was more sedate. “For Your Love” is the Ed Townsend ballad, not the Yardbirds song, and on the flip is another mellow one, “It’s All All Over”. KELP DJ Steve Crosno’s Frogdeath label released this single.

The band consisted of Danny Parra, the song writer and lead vocalist, plus the Huereque brothers and (I believe) their cousin, Javier Valenzuela, along with Joe Martinez on tambourine and backing vocals. They were from the Clardy neighborhood in the east side of El Paso, along Delta Drive. The article by Susie Dominguez in the the KELPaper states that the band formed two years before “You Need Love”, though I’ve also read that the band formed as early as 1960, originally performing soul and Tejano music. The article also says that both Javier Valenzuela and Danny Parra played lead guitar.

After these records, Danny Parra went into the Navy and Ken Prichard joined on lead guitar. I’ve also seen two other members listed, but don’t know the accuracy of these: Javier Venisula – organ (same person as Javier Valenzuela?) and Irene Porras – vocals.

Ken Prichard later joined Brand X. Danny Parra moved to California. Eric Huereque passed away in 2003 at the age of 56.

Since first posting this I’ve heard from “Danny”, front man Danny Parra:

Although I was indeed interested in R&B type music back in the day, it was an absolute nightmare to put together and organize a large (8-12) R&B band in El Paso that could ever hope to compete with the likes of The Night Dreamers, The Valiants, The Premiers, etc. which were all fantastic bands in that genre of music in El Paso. One summer after a dismal year of trying to pull together R&B bandmates for rehearsals and even actual gigs to perform I’d pretty much gave up the quest for a large band with a powerhouse brass section.
My interests and my best friend Eric Huereque started to notice the music trends going on in England via the Beatles and Stones, etc. Not only was their music cool and different but their groups were usually only four or five guys! Much more attainable we thought ….. so we one summer Eric and I were jamming on guitars and we noticed Eric’s little brother Joe drumming in the corner of the room with a couple of yellow lead pencils …. and keeping pretty good time at that. We eventually enlisted (after much persuasion) him to try learning some basic beats for our jam sessions. Took a while but we encouraged him.
Spurred on by by his potential and the knowledge that at least we could count on him showing up for practice we realized Eric’s cousin Javier Valenzuela was also an aspiring guitar player and that we might be able to recruit him if an audition proved him viable. Note that at this time the big draw of the eventual band’s members was that most keys guys were Eric’s family and therefore more dependable in contrast to the people we had been trying to recruit and pull together as a viable band from all walks of life and all parts of sprawling El Paso!
Somehow, after countless hours of practice (weeks, months, lifetimes it seemed sometimes) and many horrible and worse experimental gigs we started to focus more on the “English sound” and less on R&B. To make a name for ourselves with this new image and music direction was a herculean task in El Paso because we were all latinos. If you were a band with latinos it was expected that you played only R&B style music back in those days.
Up to this time we had a first record under our belt which was recorded on Steve Crosno’s Frog Death label. We recorded “For Your Love” / “It’s All Over” in a single live take in Steve’s home without a drummer! Unbelievable! The recordings were meant to be a dry run but Crosno decided to put them on vinyl since he could promote them on KELP airwaves where he pretty much reigned as the biggest disc jockey around in those days.
Interestingly, our “For Your Love” was released at the same time the Righteous Brothers released the same song nationwide and the two records were being played back-to-back on KELP. In short order, both records made it up to number ten on KELP’s top 20. KELP published a brochure listing of popular records and music events found all over town that I wish I’d kept a copy of!
Although we got some modest notoriety because of his help on KELP and numerous appearance on his TV “Crosno’s Hop” show, we ultimately made it clear to him [Crosno] that we wanted to pursue the English music trends as a group and abandon R&B. He wasn’t happy about this because his whole market niche was R&B …. so we had an eventual parting of the ways. We produced and recorded our next record “You Need Love” / “Ode to the Wind” using the Coronado label and our own funds.
I’ve seen many comments & references of people who liked our music but were not impressed by the “production” and/or “sound quality” of the tunes. Guess what? These have been very accurate statements since the songs were recorded as live single takes in a dumpy downtown El Paso recording studio for the princely sum of $75.00 (included master tape). The fee was for an hour of recording studio time with a very bored, spectacled, bald geezer that was truly bored out of his gourd during our session. Did he kick up our audio or segregate the instruments and vocals for a sweeter mix? Hell no! What you hear on those tracks was raw, one take, wham-bam-thank-you-maam sounds. We didn’t know any better and the audio engineer simply didn’t care squat or know any more than we did! He might’ve even been the janitor for all we knew.
Q. Is that you playing the lead guitar line on “You Need Love” or Javier?
It was Javier. Many have assumed over the years that the sound was a sitar but I can assure you that we didn’t even know what a sitar was in those days. I recollect that he used either a small glass bottle or lipstick cover on his finger as a “slide” to get that sitar-sound you hear. The fuzztone sound was one of the few guitar effects available back then … made trendy by the Rolling Stones on “Satisfaction”.
Our tape was sent through Steve Crosno’s contacts. He was a bit reluctant to help at first because we weren’t following his R&B recommendation on his FrogDeath label, but he was still cool enough to get it pressed for us with Coronado.
Ironically, I am astounded and flattered that our music seems to somehow endured through other band’s interpretations on their albums and through some compilation albums that you can still buy today that showcased much of the music happening in those days in Texas. There have even been some interesting video efforts (YouTube) made to fit our music. Hmmm, wonder where that audio engineer dude ended up after all these years?
I was drafted in late 1966 (Vietnam) and ended up serving eight years serving my country (Navy) all over the world …. including London, England. Moved with family to California, worked for years as an electronics engineer. Due to a layoff (1985) re-invented and established myself as a much published fashion and beauty photographer in L.A. and authored a book “Model Mystique Unraveled” in 1995-96.
I regret that I lost touch with the band after going in the service after 1966. But I heard that Eric (bass/manager) perpetuated the band for years in spite that I was obviously missing as the frontman!

Article scan from Rick Kern’s El Paso Musicians site, used with permission. Photos of the Frogdeath single courtesy of Danny Parra. A special thank you to Oktay for the scans and help with this article, and to Sam Stephenson for letting me hear “For Your Love” and “It’s All All Over”.

Categories: Coronado, El Paso, Texas

Coronado discography

November 19, 2010 Chris Bishop 15 Comments

Coronado discography of El Paso, Texas
(possibly incomplete, any help would be appreciated):

The first release on the maroon Coronado label seems to be the Pawns / David Hayes 45 which was given the same release number, 127, as the original issue on Exeter 127. See my article for more on David Hayes and the Pawns.

Maroon label:

127 – The Pawns – “Lonely” (J. Watkins) / David Hayes – “Meet Me Here (in New Orleans)”
128
129
130
131 – The Beach Nuts – “The Last Ride” / “Surf Beat ’65” (with picture sleeve)
132 – David Hayes and the Pawns – “Lonely Weekends” / “What Do the Voices Say” (1965, produced by Calvin Bowls)
133 – Celtics – “Man That’s Gone Mad” (Chesshire, Gordon, Daniel) / “Wondering Why”
134
135 – The Starving Cats Combo – “I’m Hungry” (Jess Diamond) / “Mi Amor Se Fue”
136 – Danny & The Counts – “You Need Love” / “Ode To The Wind” (1966)
137
138
139 – Gene Willis & the Aggregation – “We Got It” / “Shing-A-Ling’s The Thing” (produced by E. Benevidas and Barney Krupp)
140 – El Paso Drifters – “Could This Be Love” / “For Your Love”

Yellow label with conquistador heads:

141 – The Motivaters – “Ode to Loneliness” (Doyle Young) / “Heart of Blue” (1968, produced by Charlie Russell)
142 – Doug Adams with Early Morning Traffic – “I Can’t Wait to See You” / “Hontusharaya”
143 – The El Paso Drifters – “All In My Mind” / “In The Midnight Hour”
144
145 – Mitch ‘n Gary – “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” (Mitch Mosley) / “My Juarez Rita” (R. Sims) 1969, prod. asst. Kurt Roehm, guitar arr. Aquiles Valdéz
146 – Donald Ray & the El Paso Chessmen – “Shake” / “I Love You” (both arranged by Donald Ray and Danny Padilla, engineer Kennety Smith)
147 – Donald Ray & the El Paso Chessmen – “Can’t You See That I Love You” / “Cry Like A Baby” (arranged by Donald Ray & Larry Serrano, 1968)
148 – Charlie Russell & the Jones Hatband – “Love Gone Bad” / “Sometimes I Wonder” (both by A.L. Baker, Chiyo Music BMI, producer Johnny Dollar)
149
150 – Larry & The Knightsmen – “Selva” / “A New Acquaintance”

Charlie Russell & the Jones Hatband labels list Ron Martin bass, Conrad Morales drums, Allan Harvey steel guitar.

Beach Nuts and leader Tommy Elliot mentioned in the Herald Post in May, 1966

Leon Jones of the El Paso Drifters, August 1969

El Paso Drifters, Nite Dreamers, Preludes, El Paso Coliseum, August 31, 1963

El Paso Drifters opening for Sunny Ozuna & the Sunliners December 25, 1970

The El Paso Drifters are listed as appearing at a show with the Nite Dreamers and the Preludes at the El Paso Coliseum in 1963. They also appear on the Steve Crosno Day LP recorded on July 9, 1967 doing an upbeat version of the Five Keys’ “Close Your Eyes”. From 1969 until the late ’70s, the El Paso Herald Post lists them many times for live appearances, but only one article mentions a member of the band, Leon Jones. Other members were Carlos Flores, Martha Sifuentes (vocalist on “All In My Mind” and Danny Padilla, who also arranged the first Donald Ray & the El Paso Chessmen single on Coronado.

The Motivators 45 is interesting psychedelia. The group had an earlier 45 on Lin Jo Records, “Hold It” / “Soft Wind” as D-Y and the Motivators. D.Y. stood for Doyle Young, who wrote both instrumentals on the Lin Jo single and “Ode to Loneliness” for the Motivators on Coronado. Another member of the Motivators was drummer Gene Bailey. Doyle Young would have a third single as Doyle Young and Friends on Suemi Records, “The Middle of Love” / “Sunshine Love”

There was another, unrelated Coronado label from Odessa, Texas with a couple releases on a blue Coronado label, and connected to the Coronodo label:

111 – Jan Lessard – “I Just Met You” (J. Lessard, J. Wilson) / “Faithful Fool” (McNew Prod, 1964)
112 – Eddie Williams & the Sheiks – “You Left Your Happiness (Here in My Room)” (Eddie Williams) / “I Just Can’t Help Myself” (C. Gibson, Monte Mead) (McNew Prod, 1964)

Coronodo 001 – Johnny Wilson – “Twi-light Zone” / “Little Miss Fortune” (Expoloring in Sound, Coronado Recording Studios … Heart of the Hills Publishing).

Thank you to Westex, Laurent Bigot, Ken Prichard, Sam Stephenson and Michael Robinson for help on this discography.

Categories: California, El Paso, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Mustang, Show Town, Texas

Randy Fuller

April 10, 2009 Nick Warburton 18 Comments

When Texan rock legend Bobby Fuller was found dead in his car on 18 July 1966 in suspicious circumstances, those nearest and dearest were devastated, not least his younger brother Randy, who had also been bass player in the aptly named, Bobby Fuller Four. From the early 1960s up until his brother’s untimely, and yet to be solved, death, Randy Fuller was Bobby’s closest collaborator and during those frenetic years of recording and touring witness to his brother’s extensive talents as a singer/songwriter, guitarist and skilled engineer and producer.

In the first few months following his brother’s death, Randy Fuller came close to jacking in the music career he had so cherished when Bobby was alive. “I came home to El Paso with no idea what I was going to do with my life,” says Fuller. “I felt like I was going to go insane because my mother was having such a hard time over Bobby.”

Later that autumn, however, Randy received a phone call from Bobby Fuller Four member DeWayne Bryant (aka Quirico) and Bob Keane, who ran Del-Fi studios, to return to Hollywood and form a new group with some musicians that Quirico had been playing gigs with in the intervening months. “Keane said that if I came back he could get us back in PJ’s nightclub,” remembers Fuller.

To stimulate some local interest in the new group, prior to it playing live, Keane financed some studio time to record a handful of tracks in late 1966. For these recordings, the studio band consisted of Randy Fuller on bass, rhythm guitar and lead vocals; DeWayne Quirico on drums; Howard Steele on bass; and Mike Ciccarelli on lead guitar and vocals.

“The musicians on all the songs were from El Paso, Texas but [they] never stayed together long enough to promote them [the singles],” explains Fuller, who points out the recordings were all laid down in the final days of the studio’s existence.

The first single to be released (under Randy’s name only on the obscure Mustang label) was the catchy “It’s Love, Come What May”. “[That] is the original track from Bobby Fuller Four recorded at Del-Fi,” says Fuller. “Bob Keane and I recorded my voice on a separate track and remixed it a little louder than Bobby’s in the final mix.”

An infectious folk-rocker, “It’s Love, Come What May” should have been a smash hit but mysteriously did not attract many sales. Unperturbed, Keane prepared a second single coupling Randy Fuller and Johnny Daniel’s “The Things You Do” with another collaboration “Now She’s Gone” but it appears the Mustang release never hit the shops.

Interestingly, Randy Fuller reveals that two of soul music’s heavy weights had a hand in the creative process. “[On] ‘The Things You Do’, Barry White and Dionne Warwick threw in a line or two.”

Events meanwhile were about to take a dark turn. When Del-Fi was forced to close in early 1967, Keane, unbeknown to Fuller, began to issue the recordings through the Show Town and President labels. “Del-Fi went under and Bob kept the masters in a vault,” explains Fuller. “I [later] found out he had been selling these [singles] over in the UK for years!”

Perhaps the most fascinating of these releases are the trippy, Buffalo Springfield-influenced, “1,000 Miles Into Space”, which features some tasty lead guitar work and superb lead vocal by Randy, and “Revelation”.

While Keane was busy releasing the tracks on the sly, Fuller and Quirico began working back at PJ’s joined by guitarists Jim Fonseca and Jimmy Smith. The line up played at the club for nearly two years and according to Fuller, “We probably would have had a hit or two, but as usual ego destroyed the band.”

Left without a band, Randy hooked up with Dewey Martin’s New Buffalo Springfield in February 1969 and toured with this group for the best part of the year, before it morphed into Blue Mountain Eagle. Fuller’s new band recorded an excellent album for Atco Records in 1970 with the bass player’s “Sweet Mama” providing one of the highlights.

Unlike Blue Mountain Eagle’s album, which has been released on CD, very few of The Randy Fuller Four recordings have reached a wider audience via compilation CDs. Perhaps now is the time to rediscover the magic of this material, especially “It’s Love, Come What May” and “1,000 Miles In Space”.

Blue Mountain Eagle, December 1969, Randy Fuller second from left.

Solo releases:

It’s Love, Come What May (actually Bobby Fuller Four with Randy’s overdubbed vocals) c/w Wolfman (Mustang 3020) 1966 US (credited to Randy Fuller)
The Things You Do c/w Now She’s Gone (Mustang 3023) 1966 US (credited to Randy Fuller Four but not released)
It’s Love, Come What May c/w Revelation (Show Town 466) 1967 US (credited to Randy Fuller)
It’s Love, Come What May c/w The Things You Do (President PT 111) 1967 UK (credited to Randy Fuller)
1,000 Miles In Space c/w 1,000 Miles In Space (Show Town 482) 1967 US (credited to Randy Fuller)

Many thanks to Randy Fuller for his invaluable input into this story.

Transfer and scan of “1,000 Miles in Space” courtesy of Colin (Expo67), transfer of “Revelation” courtesy of Bård H., scan courtesy of Freddy Fortune. “Wolfman” scan and transfer courtesy of JP Coumans.

Visit: www.nickwarburton.com

The great b-side "Wolfman", a Bobby Fuller Four recording originally released as by the Shindigs on the flip of "Thunder Reef", Mustang 3003 and used again on Randy Fuller's first 45. — The great b-side “Wolfman”, a Bobby Fuller Four recording originally released as by the Shindigs on the flip of “Thunder Reef”, Mustang 3003 and used again on Randy Fuller’s first 45.

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