Andy Mark came from St. Davids, Pennsylvania, a small community close to Wayne, about 15 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

A promotional sleeve created at the time of his first single reproduces a number of news articles, programs and letters. Andy was part of a folk group referred to variously as the Suburan Three or the Suburban Four.

These St. Davids lads are: Andy Mark, 13, guitarist; Jim Schnaars, 13, second guitarist and lead vocalist; Dan Gladish 14, Irish bass player; all students at Radnor Junior High, and Bob Schnaars, 15, blue-grass banjoist, who attends Mercersburg Academy.

Another Hootenany program omits Bob Schnaars and lists Jaccy Schnaars instead of Jim. Debbie DuPont managed his bookings, and Ed Cotlar produced his first single. Ed Cotlar had worked for Cameo-Parkway and Goodway Records, and in 1968 would join Diamond.

Billboard published two mentions about this release in the April 20 and 27, 1968 issues.

Ed Cotlar is reactivating his free-lance record promotion service, E-jay Enterprises – House of Ideas. His first accounts are “Girl Watcher,” by the O’Kaysions on North State Records and “Part Time Hippie,” by Andy Mark on Hilaire Records.

The second news item is about Deborah Eldredge duPont forming Hilaire Records headquartered in St. Davids, PA. Unfortunately the item spells the A-side as “Oartime Hippie”.

Hilaire H-100 has two originals by Andy Mark, “Partime Hippie” and “Take a Good Look”. Both songs’ lyrics seem to question fads of the time.

“Partime Hippie”

Not all of us can make it (?),
So we’ll just have to fake it,
Unless we want to stand up to the world.

??
But in some peoples’ eyes,
You can’t be a man till you grow a beard.

It’s a new generation,
Of a new revelation,
It’s a turn-on, tune-in and drop out.

[music freaks out]

I know what you’re thinking
That I’m supervising (?)
But you don’t know how wrong that you are.

Not all of us can make it,
So we’ll just have to fake it,
Unless we want to stand up to the world.

“Take a Good Look”

The time has come when I must run and leave you to your games,
It’s been a year, the time is here to forget our names.

Take a good look and tell me what you see,
Take a good look and tell me what you’ll be.

You say that truth is meaningless and you live for today
I say that truth is valuable, who’s to say?

I regret I must disagree,
That in this world, one cannot be entirely free.

Take a good look and tell me what you see,
Take a good look and tell me what you’ll be.

I regret I must disagree,
That in this world, one cannot be entirely free.

Until you see my reasoning I must be sure of just one thing,
That when you change and come back home, you’ll know that I am here (?)

Take a good look and tell me what you see
Take a good look and tell me what you’ll be.

Bissel Music is listed as publisher, but I can find no copyright record for these songs.

Interestingly, the promotional packet that accompanied  the “Partime Hippie” single does not mention either song from that single or provide the lyrics.

The Philadelphia Inquirer had a full article on Andy on June 9, 1968, with a photo and the headline “‘Rich Fairy Godmother’ Aids Young Rock Star”. Unfortunately I do not currently have an online newspaper archive subscription so I can’t access the photo or full text but I did glimpse some excerpts:

“Dave Hardt on bass guitar and John Fuchs on drums. Andy and Dave were just graduated from Radnor Senior High School, while John is entering his senior year.”

Andy “picked up pointers on the instrument from his older brother. Andy cannot read music and must tape all his original songs and have a friend transcribe them. Andy and his friends have appeared on several television shows …”

There is also a mention of Andy’s music being conservative in political outlook, and that he would be studying law in the future.

A second single saw release as Andy’s Tool Box, also on Hilaire but with a different label design and numbering (527 this time).

“Well of Your Love” is a swift-moving rocker with organ and bass in the fore of the mix, backed with the piano-led ballad “Breadcrumbs” that livens up with harmonies in the chorus. This time the lyrics are concerned with relationships and unrequited love. Andy Mark wrote “Well of Your Love” and co-wrote “Breadcrumbs” with J. Peirce.

This single came with a picture sleeve that shows Andy with photos of an unnamed drummer and bassist.

H. Kaplan produced, with distribution by Melrose Records, and publishing by Hera BMI (though once again I find no registration with the Library of Congress).

According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in 1972, Andy Mark went into commercial jingles for radio and TV, starting several companies including Philadelphia Music Works, Broadcast Results Group, and the Canary Collection. He passed away in February, 2009 at the age of 58.

Thank you to John Pitts for research help with this article, and to Dave Peirce for the high quality scans of the photos he took of Andy.