John Does is an appropriate name for this group because nothing was known about them until Ron Domilici sent in a scan of the promo sheet seen at top. The band does one of the very best versions of “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”.
I don’t know where the John Does learned their version of the song, it was done by many artists in the early ’60s. The alternate title “One Kind Favor” was used by Peter, Paul and Mary on their live album in ’64, and this may have been their source.
On the flip is “I’ll Never Take You Back”, an original by Roy R. Fernandez. The instrumentation is the same, but it lacks the mood, production quality and intensity of “One Kind Favor”. Strangely this side has a much different RCA master number, T4KM 8798 comparted to T4KM 2383, though both seem to be from the second half of 1966.
The promo sheet lists the group name as The John Doe, and the members of the group as:
Roy Fernandez – guitar
Bill White – bass
John Farion – harmonica and organ
Ken Everts – drums
Ernie Statton – manager
Dave Fox – producer
It also lists the record label as Insight instead of INsite, and seems to suggest they recorded “Diddley Daddy”.
Publishing for both sides was through Davenbar Music BMI. Fernandez copyrighted this and one other original, “Leavin’ that Girl Behind” in July of 1966. Not a bad title for a song, but I can’t find a release with that title by any artist.
Released as Insite 45-1001, Insite Records a division of Metro Productions Inc. but I don’t know of any other releases on Insite. The label typography is cool, though the small “s” in Does may have caused more confusion than anything else.
This is an early credit for the engineer Milan Bogdan, who would soon engineer singles by the Rationals, the Scot Richard Case, SRC, the MC5, Funkadelic and many, many others. I’m not sure which studio the John Does.
Dave Fox produced the record. David Fox and Davenbar Music publishing coincide on one soul single from 1964, the Dynamics “And That’s a Natural Fact” / “I Wanna Know” on Big Top 516, both songs written by Joseph W. McArthur. and co-published with Noma Music.
Special thank you to Ron Domilici for sending in the promo flyer.
Hey! I’ve just found out about this band, and really wanted to know more about them, but this is as far as I’ve managed to go. It’s pretty much impossible to find more information online.
Do you happen to know anything else, or have any tips for my search?
Thanks!
My dad is John Farion. What a weird story I have about this. I didn’t know until after he died about him being in a band. I linked this page, picture, and YouTube on my social … come to find out, a friend of mine said Ken was her (step) dad, and her mom was friends with all of these guys – but didn’t know my dad. I had just gone through a bunch of correspondences between the two of them and didn’t think much of it. The Detroit crossover is weird. It’s small town but big city. My boyfriend was able to track down the 45 for me in perfect condition. I wouldn’t have known about this if I didn’t come across this. Thank you.