Category Archives: Fan Jr.

Categories: Fan Jr., Madison, Night Owl, Wisconsin

The Cannons “Day to Day” on Night Owl

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from left: Peter Loeb, Jim Perkins, Mike Turk and Mike Keilhofer, with Lee Larsen kneeling in front.The Cannons came from Madison, Wisconsin, releasing singles in 1966 and 1967. Members were:

Lee Larsen – lead vocals
Mike Keilhofer – lead guitar
Peter Loeb – sax and rhythm guitar
Jim Perkins – bass
Mike Turk – drums

Gary E. Myers’ book Do You Hear That Beat has Jerry Cratzenberg on bass.

Their first single was “Sweet Georgia Brown” / “Lonesome” on Fan Jr. 5504, produced by Skip Nelson.

Cannons Night Owl 45 Day To DayIn January 1967 they made their masterpiece, “Day to Day”, backed with “‘Love,’ Little Girl”.

No writing credits are listed for either song on the Night Owl 45, or for “Lonesome” on the earlier Fan, Jr 45, but a Capital Times profile stated “‘Day to Day'” and “‘Love Girl'” … both songs were written by ‘The Cannons.'”

“Day to Day” was reissued on Highs in the Mid Sixties Vol. 15 retitled “Days Go By”, and wrongly listing the band’s origin as Milwaukee.

The Capital Times ran a profile of the group by Gary Rettgen on February 6, 1967:

‘The Cannons,’ Local Rock ‘n’ Roll Group, Discovered by Chicago Agency

A musical group of young Madison men has been “discovered” by Chicago’s Williard Alexander booking agency … but the “discoveries” already are well known to Madison rock ‘n’ roll fans.

The local Upstairs at the Gun Club, Cottage Grove Rd., bills them as “Madison’s Number One Band.” Recently the group were first place winners in the March of Dime benefit band contest at the Capitol Theatre.

Familiar, too, is the face of its long-haired, bearded leader, Peter Loeb, 21, who wields a “wicked” sax and wild second guitar … Peter will enter graduate school in social work after June graduation.

Mike Keilhofer, 20, on lead guitar is a student at the Wisconsin School of Electronics.

The bass player is 20-year-old Jim Perkins, who by day attends Madison Business College.

Mike Turk, 20, the drummer, is a U. of Wisconsin sophomore.

Singing with “The Cannons” is Lee Larsen, 19, a printer’s apprentice by day at Webcrafts. The only married man in the group, he has a daughter…

A young brother, Greg Loeb, 18, a U. of Wisconsin freshman, has formed a group of his own. Their name: “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Categories: Coulee, Fan Jr., Iowa, Jerden, Milwaukee, Oskaloosa, Wisconsin

The Dynastys on Fan Jr., Coulee and Jerden

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Dynastys Coulee 45 Go GorillaOK, it’s not as heavy as the Shandells, but I can’t believe no one ever mentions this version of “Go Gorilla”. The original of the song was done by Chicago r&b group the Ideals in 1963, who had a #3 regional hit with it on KQV in Pittsburgh.

The Dynastys version come out of Wisconsin in September of ’64, followed by the Shandells a few months later. The instrumental flip, “Birmingham”, shows how accomplished a band they were as it really swings. Neither song has been comped before to my knowledge.

The Coulee label was out of La Crosse, Wisconsin, owned by Bill Grafft, who also ran the Boom, Knight and Transaction labels. The Dynasty’s 45 (Coulee 108) comes just before Dee Jay and the Runaways’ “Love Bug Crawl” / “The Pickup” (Coulee 109).

The Dynasty’s definitely honed their skills pre-British Invasion, with large helpings of rockabilly, r&b and even surf and folk music in their sound. They originally came from Oskaloosa, Iowa. Their first 45 came out on the Fan, Jr label in 1964, a cover of the Eldorados’ “I’ll Be Forever Loving You” backed with another cover, Harold Dorman’s “Mountain of Love”, which Johnny Rivers made a hit not long after the Dynasty’s version came out. Production by Orlie Breunig.

As Gary Myers wrote in a comment below, the band came from Milwaukee. Band members were George Shaput (guitar), Duane Schallitz (guitar), Mark Ladish (organ), Dave Maciolek (bass), Jim Serrano (lead guitar) and Kenny Arnold (drums).

Dynastys Jerden 45 Forever and a DayAt the band’s request to play on the West Coast, their manager Lindy Shannon booked them into the Longhorn in Portland, Oregon. Jerry Dennon of Jerden Records saw them there and heard their demos, leading to their final 45 in 1966, “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” / “Forever and a Day”.

On “Forever and a Day” the band manages to create a memorable harmony pop ballad without sacrificing their strong rhythm and drumming.

Not long after this release George Shaput joined the Shades of Blue and then played with Conway Twitty. The band reunited at a La Crosse show to honor Lindy Shannon in 1994.

Anyone have a photo of the group?

Categories: Fan Jr., Hollywood, Madison, Wisconsin

Robin and the Three Hoods “I Wanna Do It”

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Originally issued as by Marrell’s Marauders, the band printed labels with the new name and used the same stampers to make this second issue

Robin and the Three Hoods released this spirited and crude cover of Bobby Comstock’s “I Want To Do It” four times. First in 1964, it was issued as Marrell’s Marauders on the yellow Fan Jr. label out of Madison, Wisconsin, titled “I Wanta Do It” backed with a fine surf instrumental with a good drum break, “The Marauder”. With the name of the band changed to Robin and the Three Hoods, they issued it again on Fan Jr., with the same label number, FJ-1003, using the same pressing plates.

That’s Tuff, the B-side of the third issue of “I Wanna Do It”

Robin And The Three Hoods Fan Jr 45 A Day You'll Never ForgetTwo years later, the band reissued “I Wanto Do It” on the green Fan Jr. label with the b-side changed to “That’s Tuff”, a neat tune by one Rob Bernhagen. New stampers were made for this release, T4KM-5680/1.

Released at the same time was another single, very rare today, “A Day You’ll Never Forget” (an original by Bernhagen and Jim Schwartz) b/w “We The Living” (Bernhagen), with RCA custom pressing number T4KM-5678/9.

4th issue of “I Wanna Do It” for national release
Finally on December 31, 1966, Billboard reported that Hollywood Records had picked up “I Wannna Do It” / “That’s Tuff” for national distribution, changing the A-side title slightly, and pressing out of Columbia’s plant in Nashville.

Skip Nelson is credited with production on each release. The Hollywood pressing is of relatively poor quality.

Rob Bernhagen played bass, keyboards and sang lead vocals as ‘Robin’. He wrote to me about the band:

The Marauders, with Mike Warner on drums, all graduated from Madison East High in 1963. We had joined the Musicians Union that April and had played school gigs and a few actual paying gigs around Madison.

We borrowed “I Wanna Do It” from Bobby Comstock and recorded it in Dec. of 1963. Our manager, Frederick Arthur Nelson, aka Skip, did own a music store and produce all our records. We started playing around Wisconsin and Northern Illinois and found many “Marauder” bands so we changed our name and the label on the records … same recording. I found a paperback book about Merrill’s Marauders from WWII and plagiarized the name….and changed the spelling. As the leader of the band, I became “Bobby Marrell”.

I played bass and keyboards and was the lead vocalist. Dave Reed played lead guitar and Jim Schwartz played rhythm guitar. Bruce Benson was our drummer, he lives in Northern California. The only personnel change from the Marauders was at drums, Mike Warner was our first drummer and he played on the first version with “The Marauder” on the flip side.

We were all in college and playing part time within a couple of hundred miles of Madison. Mike Warner decided to drop out of college and try music full time so Bruce Benson joined us and we borrowed the costume idea from Paul Revere and the Raiders and came up with “The Hoods”. Once again, as leader and vocalist, I became Robin Hood. We all wore Robin Hood outfits….and tights…

We played the entire state of Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, and border towns in Northern Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota. Went as far south as Springfield, Il. We broke-up the band 1/31/69 when Jim and I graduated from college.

We got limited airplay because of the suggestive title which is why everyone loved the song to begin with. We got a “pick to click” from Billboard and a review in Cashbox which is why Starday got involved. They were to handle national distribution… which never happened. We stayed on Wisconsin statewide charts for over a year.

Funny story behind “The Marauder”… we went in the studio to record “I Wanna Do It” and when that was finished, we started to pack up. The engineer asked about the flip side to our 45 RPM and we were dumbfounded. In our youthful ignorance, we hadn’t even considered a flip side. Faced with the problem we jammed “The Marauder” from an instrumental “break song” that we were using during shows. One take and it was done. We never played the entire song on any gig … just enough of it to announce a break.

I’m the only member who continued to play professionally….I’m in an oldies band today, the Tom Tayback Band. Jim quit altogether, Bruce plays a little on the side, and Dave is deceased. I’m not in contact with Mike so I’m not sure about him.

We did produce a couple of other records but had nothing to do with the “green bean” thing.

Thanks to Kim D. for sending in the photo card with signatures above. Kim wrote to me “I saved this card for years which Robin and the Three Hoods signed and gave to me in the 60’s at a place they performed at called “The Illusions” in Neenah, Wisconsin. We had alot of bands frequent that place. You had to be 16 years old to enter, but I always looked older, so they let me in. Good times!”