Guitarist Gary Dennis sent in the photo of the Jack Rafters above. Like the Five Coachmen and the Marquees, the Jack Rafters were from Sherman, Texas, and like those bands, the Rafters never released a 45. The only band from Sherman to release a record was the Passions, who have the great “Lively One” / “You’ve Got Me Hurtin'” on Pic 1, who I’ll cover soon.

This picture was taken at the Bells, Texas high school Sr. Prom in the Municipal Building, Sherman, Texas May 1965. The Jack Rafters are right-to-left: Mike Hallett, Bobby Kincaid, Jerry Tucker, Gary Dennis.

Bill Galleon and the Passions were playing gigs and we decided that we could too. The Rafters were a hardcore party band. We rented local venues, advertised by word of mouth and sold cokes. Our parties mostly ended in drunken events that were parents worst nightmares. Years later our ex-sheriff told me that he loved our parties because he could just park outside and keep tabs on all the trouble makers. After seeing our success, several other bands came along that you mention on your website. We made money and had a great time. Our music was pretty bad, but nobody cared.

One of our friends, Ben Mandeville, had some state-of-the-art recording equipment and he recorded all our performances. Sadly this was before digital tech and I doubt that anything survived.

Gary Dennis