The Proverbial Knee Hi’s were Charles Smith guitar, Dale Pate electric piano and organ, Butch Powell bass and Eddie Hall drums. They had a vocalist, Willie T., who was out of the band by the time they recorded their only 45.
They group started in 1966, and played the chain of Beachcomber clubs along the east coast which were owned by their manager, Buddy Eisen. They even had a fan club based in New Jersey.
The band went into D’Arcy Sound Studios in Norfolk and recorded two original songs, released on Eisen’s Beachcomber label in the fall of 1967.
“Watchout” is a great upbeat number with some garbled singing. There’s a neat instrumental break before a short recited verse. Eddie Hall really pounds the drums, and I like how Dale Pate moves between Wurlitzer and electric piano.
“Crying For Her” is an epic ballad, really dramatic, but I dig both the intro and the closing moments of the song.
The 45 was produced by Warren Miller and arranged by Wayne Butler. D’Arcy Studio also was where The Regents featuring Mel Gaines recorded their great 45 on M.A.D. “What’cha Gonna Do” / “I Tried With Her”.
The Apollos: front and center Wayne Groves, middle row (left-right): Tommy Vorhauer and Jim Price, back row from left: Dave Harney, John Parisi , and Don Harney. This is the original Apollos band established in early 1964 by Jim Price and Dave Harney.
Updated Jan. 2, 2012
From McLean, Virginia, the Apollos went through several personnel changes while leaving behind demos, live tapes and two 45s as their legacy. I’ve read conflicting accounts of who was in the band when, but with feedback from Jim Price and Tommy Vorhauer, this seems to be correct:
The original band consisted of brothers Dave and Don Harney on guitar, Jim Price on bass, and Dave Elliot on drums. Jan Sylvester soon replaced Elliot on drums was himself replaced by Wayne Groves, and Jon Parisi came in on keyboards. The band’s repertoire leant heavily on surf numbers until they added Tommy Vorhauer on vocals. This is the group in the photo at top.
A win at a local battle of the bands gave them studio time at Edgewood Recording Studio in D.C., and they cut several sides, including early versions of “That’s the Breaks” and “Country Boy”. They re-recorded these two for their own Delta label in 1965.
“Country Boy” is a fine surf instrumental written by Don Harney. Surprisingly it has never been comped before. “That’s the Breaks” has great drumming and nice fluid guitar work with a strong vocal by Vorhauer. I’m not sure who’s playing the organ on this 45.
Tom Vorhauer clarified some points about the band in a comment below that I’ll reproduce here:
Jon Parisi played keyboard and wrote the music for “That’s the Breaks”. I wrote the words and sang lead vocal. I also sang lead vocals on “Target Love” and “It’s a Monster”. We were playing on M street in Washington DC at Mack’s Pipe and Drum and were approached by two gentlemen who were scouts for Paramount Artists. They were interested in signing the Apollos to a record contract but on one condition, they wanted to replace our manager Bill Moser, we refused and never signed.
By late 1966 Vorhauer, Groves and Parisi had left to be replaced by Doug Collins on vocals, Dwight James on keyboards and Wayne Goubilee on drums. Their second 45, “Target Love” b/w “It’s a Monster” on the Montgomery label is a great double-sided 45. I hope to feature it in the future, but it seems to be rarer than the Delta one.
There’s also a live tape of the band, with good versions of “Dirty Water” and “I’m Crying”. At some point they were turned down by MGM, and that seems to be the end of their story.
In December, 2011 Jim Price contacted me and gave some background on the group:
We were from McLean, Virginia, not Falls Church. Dave, Don and I all lived in Woodside Estates, McLean. That’s where it all started in 1963. I was playing my guitar on our front porch and Dave and Don came wandering up and introduced them selves and said they played as well. I was playing lead guitar, Dave rhythm and Don played bass.We switched up as time went on and everyone found their niche.
We did our demo cut of 4 songs at Edgewood:
1. “That’s The Breaks” words by Tommy Vorhauer and music by the band. 2. “Country Boy” by Don Harney 3. “Dance Dance Dance” (Beach Boys) sung by Wayne Groves 4. “Mr. Lonely”, a remake of the original, sung by Tommy Vorhauer
“Mr. Lonely” was to be our front side of the first 45 but we decided to go with two original songs instead. They were both hits but “Mr. Lonely” would have been a hit as well. It would today.
I created “Delta Music Company” with the help of our agent Bill Moser, thus Delta on the label. We outsourced the art work for the label. Since Edgewood had recorded the songs we contracted through them to have the records pressed and the labels put on them. The records would then be made and sent to us and Bill and I would take them out to the stores and put them on the shelves. In those days you could put your records in stores on consignment. It was all we could do to keep up.
MGM did offer to buy the rights to “That’s The Breaks” but we turned them down. Paramount contacted our agent Bill Mosser three times trying to get us to sign a contract with them but we would lose $ on each record that was sold so we turned them down. Within 3 weeks of the last turndown, our records were not being played on any radio station in the nation. Paramount told Bill that “the boys will be sorry they did;nt sign with them.” The stores even started refusing to slot them any more. “Target Love” and “It’s A Monster” only made it to #10 before it vanished from the airways.
Through this phase the band members were: Don Harney, Dave Harney, Wayne Groves, John Parisi (now John Ian), Jim Price and Tommy Vorhauer. Some time after that John Parisi left the band and we added Dwight James.
The summer of 1966 we recorded “It’s A Monster” and “Target Love” on the Montgomery Label. I can’t remember the name of the studio. Shortly after that Tommy and I left the band and went to Boston to college. Dave and Don Harney continued to run the band with a new drummer who was the singer as well. When I was home on break, I would go and sing with them down in Georgetown, lots of fun.
The band stayed together for a while longer then everyone seemed to go their own way. Tommy is now in Denver, Dave is in Dayton Ohio, Don is in Seattle, Wayne is in Great Falls VA, John Ian DC, Dwight Fairfax VA and I am in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
My oldest son Jason Price does production work in his spare time in the northern VA area – take a look at www.squadcar37.com.
With a name like Chaos Incorporated, you’d expect sinister psychedelic sounds, but instead what we have here are two exploitative r&b tracks.
“Daktari Ooo-Ah” is in the tradition of Kip Tyler’s “Jungle Hop” and other jungle and monkey records. On the flip is “Spanish Cooking”, a take off on another genre: soul food records.
“Spanish Cooking” was writen by Frank Guida and Gary Anderson aka Gary “U.S.” Bonds. The way the band plays, it sounds like it could be a throwaway from one of Bonds’ sessions.
Guida was the man behind the S.P.Q.R. and LeGrand labels. He recorded some fantastic music by the Swinging Machine and Lenis Guess around this time that I recommend over this one. Frank Guida passed away on May 19 of 2007, just a week shy of his 85th birthday.Thank you to Marty for the 45.
After the Flys: the Third Row. From left: Gary (surname? – original drummer), Tom Smith, Steve Widmeyer, Bill Lyons, Dave Reemsnyder, and Don Ransom
The Flys:
Steve Widmeyer – lead vocals, rhythm & lead guitar Dave Reemsnyder – bass Bill Lyons – keyboard, vocals Randy Dunham – guitar, vocals Jim (surname ?) – drums
The Flys were students at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, close to the Ohio border. I had no information about the band until Steve Widmeyer left a comment (see below).
In 1966 they traveled over 200 miles to McLean, VA, near Washington DC, where they settled for the summer and cut their two 45s for Myskatonic, perhaps their own label.
Their first 45 is “Reality Composition #1”, written by John Elvin and Stephen Widmeyer, backed by a fine version of the Stones’ “Got to Get Away” and released with a green label.
Then came the fantastic “Be What You Is”, one of Mort Shuman’s more obscure songwriting efforts. Shuman co-wrote it with occasional collaborator Leslie MacFarland (J. Leslie McFarland, who also co-wrote “Stuck On You” for Elvis with Aaron Schroeder). An anonymous commenter below (“The Fly”) says the band outbid the Rascals for the right to record the song.
On the flip is “The Way Things Are”, an original by Steve Widmeyer. I’ve seen both white and orange labels for this one. The records are credited as F.G.I. (Four Guys) Productions.
The band evolved into the Third Row – that band’s drummer Thomas Smith has sent the photo of that band seen above. Steve Widmeyer, Bill Lyons and Dave Reemsnyder remained from the Flys, the others were new members.
Link Wray passed away earlier this month and word is only now getting out. As I look at it, garage has two main sources: Bo Diddley and Link Wray. Without them it probably wouldn’t exist.
I feel lucky to have seen Link in April in New Orleans. He didn’t shortchange us on the distortion or feedback that night – it was fantastically loud and chaotic.
Dennis and the Times of Norfolk, Virginia were three brothers on guitars and vocals, along with a couple friends playing bass and drums. The Burlage brothers’ father helped them record and release two 45s on the Trend label.
Denis Burlage – vocals Guy Burlage – lead guitar Dean Burlage – rhythm guitar Skip Watts – bass Paris Aiken – drums
The first from November of 1967 included their psychedelic masterpiece “Flight Patterns”. The song was certainly inspired by “Eight Miles High”, though I also hear some of “Have You Seen Her Face” in it as well.
The flip, “Just If She’s There” also owes a debt to the Byrds.
They found a harder sound for their second single, “Denis Dupree From Danville”, from 1969, released as Denis & the Times with only one ‘n’ in Denis. The b-side is a good ballad, “Whenever You Want Me”.
Denis and the Times
James Mrdutt sent in the photos of drummer Paris Aiken seen here, and other photos of Paris with an earlier group, the Mustangs, that I’ve posted to a separate page here. James reported that Paris passed away on December 24, 2009. He also informed me that Paris Aiken played drums on the recording of Billy Joe Royal’s “Down in the Boondocks”.
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
The Flys:
Their first 45 is “Reality Composition #1”, written by John Elvin and Stephen Widmeyer, backed by a fine version of the Stones’ “Got to Get Away” and released with a green label.
Link Wray passed away earlier this month and word is only now getting out. As I look at it, garage has two main sources: Bo Diddley and Link Wray. Without them it probably wouldn’t exist.
Dennis and the Times of Norfolk, Virginia were three brothers on guitars and vocals, along with a couple friends playing bass and drums. The Burlage brothers’ father helped them record and release two 45s on the Trend label.
