Category Archives: Label

Beau Hannon on Dionysian

Beau Hannon Dionysian 45 Who's Got The Right Of Way“Who’s Got the Right of Way” is the snotty, upbeat B-side to the light “Rosie, Rosie”. This Los Angeles production on Dionysian from late 1967 comes roughly in the middle of Beau Hannon’s recording career.

I had read that Beau Hannon was a Canadian singer from Niagara Falls, Ontario, but  Mellow’s Log Cabin website says that the group was from Arkansas and started as Beau-Hannon and the Mint Juleps.

They cut a good rockin’ teen single “It’s All Over” / “Brainstorm” on the Hot Springs, Arkansas label United Southern Artists, Inc in 1961. The song writing credits for “It’s All Over” reveals his actual name, Jim Bohannon; “Brainstorm” is credited to Larry Fite who played bass. Other members of the group included Buddy Dodd lead guitar,and Ken Martin on drums.

After touring the east coast, the band did a months-long engagement in Montreal at the Black Orchid club. The band broke up due to the draft and other reasons, but Hannon stayed in Canada & New England and continued his career.

His second single “Stop Me From Falling In Love” on Eskee was picked up for release in Canada, Belgium and Germany.  Later he had an LP of lighter pop, Most Requested on Birchmont.

“Who’s Got the Right of Way” was the first of two releases on Dionysian Records, DP-101 / DP-102. Arnold Rosenthal wrote both songs, published by Appolonian (BMI), and Georgie Dee and Rick Centman produced both sides. Δ-69230 in the deadwax indicates a December 1967 pressing. It was almost certainly cut in Los Angeles.

The only other release I know of is Dionysian DP-103 A/B, Richard Williams singing I’m a Free Man” with a similar arrangement of “Who’s Got the Right of Way” on the flip. Notable on this release is Jesse Edwin Davis credited with arrangement, and a co-writing credit on “I’m a Free Man” to Davis and Bramlett (published by Appolonian / Lawana).

A white label promotional copy of Dionysian DP-103 has the artist credited as “Beyond Good And Evil”. On the label photo I’ve seen, this artist name is crossed out and Richard Williams’ name is written at top.

One source notes Richard Williams was Dick Anthony Williams who had a career as an actor, but I can’t confirm this.

Arnold Rosenthal has many song-writing and occasional production credits, but he doesn’t seem to have held a position at any label or company for long. He seems to have been most active from ’69 to ’72, when he wrote much of Gary Lewis’s ‎”I’m On The Right Road Now” album, and played bass on Jesse Ed Davis’s version of “White Line Fever” and on a couple tracks from Ben Sidran’s Feel Your Groove LP.

The Duprays on Prism Records

The Duprays came from Washington Court House, Ohio, which lies about 40 miles southwest of Columbus and a little further from Dayton.

Duprays Prism 45 You Make MeMembers were:

Bruce Daulton – lead vocals
Ray Joslin – guitar
Mike Burnette – guitar
Dennis Minshall – keyboards
Don Miller – bass
Carl Mullen – drums

Guitarist Ray Joslin wrote the excellent top side, “You Make Me”, which starts with what is supposed to be his girl’s wailing, with some unusual echoed drumming. The wailing continues through the guitar break and short recitation.

The band shares composition credit on the bizarre B-side, “The Frog (Froggy)”.

Released on Prism Records PR-1929, the RCA custom pressing code SK4M-1497/8 dates it to late 1965.

B-W Music, Inc and WWMG Pub. published “You Make Me”, while WelDee Music and WWMG Pub. published “The Frog (Froggy)”, though I couldn’t find Library of Congress registrations for either song.

Unlike many Ohio bands of the era, the Duprays did not seem to get any local press coverage, perhaps because they were young teenagers.

Does anyone have a photo of the group?

More info is at Buckeye Beat.

Duprays Prism 45 The Frog

The Incrowd “Set Me Free” on Prism

Incrowd Prism 45 Set Me Free

The Incrowd came from Hillsboro, Ohio, close to 60 miles east of Cincinnati. Members were:

Larry Zuggs – vocals
Randy Applegate – guitar
Paul “Bud” Long – guitar
Charles Murphy – organ
Mike Waddell – bass
Jay Cooper – drums

Circa 1965 they traveled to Dayton’s Mega Sound Studio (distinct from Mega-City Studio) to record their only single, featuring an intensely wrought soul ballad “Keep It” on the A-side. On the flip is the frantic and distorted “Set Me Free”. Both songs were supposedly written at the recording session!

Instead of release on Mega Sound’s standard Prism label, they were given the plain b&w Prism package plan for their pressing of 500 copies. Other bands on this 3000 custom series included the Senators and the Warbucks.

Anyone have a photo of the band?

Info from Buckeye Beat, with help from Matthew Baker in distinguishing Mega Sound and Mega-City studios.

Incrowd Prism 45 Keep It

The Breakaway Five “Jivin” on Bullet

Breakaway Five Bullet 45 JivinThe Breakaway Five cut the great instrumental “Jivin” for Red Wortham’s revived Bullet label, featuring pounding drums in the intro and great guitar work, including a quote from Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On”. The flip “I’m Gonna Walk” is a country song by F.L. Parrish, livened up by the echo on the guitar lines.

Members of the Breakaway Five included Norman Davis, Larry Davis, Larry Morgan, and possibly Ronnie Morgan. According to a comment on youtube, the band may have started as the Rivieras from Dickson, Tennessee, just west of Nashville.

Sur-Speed Music ASCAP is listed as publisher on both songs, though “Jivin” does not have any writing credit.

I’m not sure of the release date on this, but I would guess late ’50s or early ’60s. The label credits do not match the Villains 45s or any other Bullet 45 releases of the 1960s. The release number 241 is closer to Bullet’s early 78 rpm releases by Cecil Gant and Wynonie Harris. No other Bullet 45s have similar mastering codes (869-1165/6 in this case), a production credit to Wortham, or (in most cases) lack of an address.

The Cordials “Tell Me Please”

Cordials Bundy 45 Tell Me Please

The Cordials recorded for the Bundy label of Freeport, New York. They may have been a local group, but Freeport is not far from Brooklyn, so the group could have been from anywhere in the New York metro area.

The Cordials cut a fine version of “Misery”, originally done by the the Dynamics on their 1963 single on Big Top. I prefer the flip, “Tell Me Please”, a moody original with great harmonies, written by Rick Stevens and published by M.C. Music Pub. BMI.

Cordials Bundy 45 MiseryAn article in Cash Box from August 7, 1965 gives an approximate date for the Cordials release and some background on Bundy:

“Bundy-Fonic Expands”

Mickey Carr, top man at The Bundy-Fonic Corp., is in the process of expanding the firm’s activities, and has appointed Bob Spina to veep and Clarence Finnell as A&R boss.

The diskery, with Dee Dee Records as a subsidiary line, will be offering two new releases, the first tagged “Misery” b/w “Tell Me Please” by the Cordials, and another by the Diablos, the titles on which will be announced at a later date. Both disks will be on Bundy Records. The address of the firm is 22 Pine St., Freeport, L.I.

Although Bundy had a 1962 release by Ray Artis, “Dear Liz” / “Wella-Wella” (Bundy BU-222), I haven’t found the Diablos single or anything else on Bundy. There were several record companies called Dee Dee, and I’m not sure if the one mentioned in the Cash Box article actually released anything.

The Cordials is a styrene 45, released on Bundy BU7711, Mickey Carr gets credit for arranging and producing both sides, and Bundy is listed as a subsidiary of Bundy Phonic Ent. Corp.

The Stairway to the Stars “Cry” / “Dry Run” on Brite-Star

Stairway to the Stars, 1967, from left: T.r. Sollosi, Dave Benard, P.J. Geary, and Ray Niccolai. Photo courtesy of Paul Geary
Stairway To The Stars Brite-Star 45 Dry Run

The Stairway to the Stars came from the Pittsburgh area, but cut this 45 for the Brite-Star label out of Newberry, Ohio, near Cleveland. Newberry is only a couple hours from Pittsburgh, but the labels indicate a Nashville base.

One side has a moody, echoing vocal, “Cry”, written by Tom Sellosi and Dave Benard. The intensity grows for the short recitation at the end.

On the flip is “Dry Run” a great instrumental featuring a lot of tremolo on the guitar, a strong three note riff that sounds like a keyboard more than guitar, and a long and dissonant middle section for the lead break. Phil Dirt pointed out the similarity of the opening melody to the Vistas “No Return” on Tuff, but the Stairway to the Stars really expand on that theme in the rest of the song.

The Rite account number is 728 and the release numbers are 17909 (“Dry Run”) / 17910 (“Cry”), released in September or October 1966.

Members on the record included:

Tom Sollosi – lead guitar
Dave Benard – lead vocals
Paul Geary – tenor sax
Ray Niccolai – rhythm guitar and bass

Paul Geary provided the photos and wrote to me:

We all lived in the Monongahela, Pa. area south of Pittsburgh. Tom Solossi knew I played tenor sax in the jazz band in high school and he was trying to get a little band together. He had already recruited Ray Niccolli for rhythm guitar. Tom himself played lead guitar and also taught guitar at a local music shop. Dave Benard who worked at a furniture store in Mon City was our vocalist.

The band did a lot of weddings, teen dances, and social clubs. We were all in high school at the time and appreciated the extra money we made playing music.

Tom knew a local DJ in Charleroi, Pa. His name was Johnny Barbero and he wanted us to come to the radio station WESA for a recording session. I played sax on the recording but was drowned out by the heavy guitars.

We made a demo and paid Brite-Star Records to make some records to distribute. It played on a few local radio stations, but never took off.

Q. Do you remember who played drums on the record?

We were between drummers at the time but I’m pretty sure it was George Tirpack.

We stayed together for about a year and then everyone started applying for colleges and that ended the group.

The Library of Congress has a registration for “Cry” from September 12, 1966, to David Benard and Thomas Sollosi. The “Dry Run” label lists T.R. Sollosi, but this song wasn’t registered.

Teen Beat Mayhem indicates this 45 came with a picture sleeve, which I’ve never seen. Paul tells me there was never anything but a plain sleeve for the single.

The Blue Knights, precursor to Stairway to the Stars, from left: Frank Champ, accordion and keyboard; Tom Sollosi, lead guitar; Bill Garrison, drums; Paul Geary, sax; Ray Niccoli, rhythm guitar. Photo courtesy of Paul Geary.

Info on Brite-Star came from the 45rpm Records site.

Stairway To The Stars Brite-Star 45 Cry

The Children on Atwell

Along a scenic mountain parkway stretch of I-65 heading south, past Bowling Green and just north of the Tennessee border, in a tiny Kentucky town called Mundfordville, in Hart County, tucked on the hill above the moving Green River, a group of teenage boys formed a band in the winter of ’65.

Hearing the happening mid-sixties sounds of the Byrds, the Animals, the Beatles and the Stones, these boys got stars in their eyes and took up instruments, calling themselves December’s Children, named after the cold season upon them.

The members were:

  • Mike ‘Hoot’ Gibson / guitar, vox (Gibson ES 330)
  • Sam Goodman / lead guitar, fuzz ( Fender Telecaster)
  • Clint Nickols / bass (Fender)
  • Mike Rife / drums, vox

Honing their skills and gaining local popularity in Munfordville at the town’s teen club called ‘The Nightmare’ – the group of high school boys shortened their name to ‘The Children’ and  went on to play Hart County ‘courthouse fairs’, gigs in nearby Glasgow and also competed in the State Fair in Louisville about an hour north.

With a solid high school fan base and local support, the community was pushing them to make a record. By 1968, the members were all seniors and would graduate that following summer- all except Sam who was already a few years older and had his own wheels. The band had about 50 cover songs in the pocket, mostly dialed in on current rock radio hits of the day.

Children Atwell PS I Long To See Her

Disappearing to the parent’s basement, Mike and Sam penned two original songs that year and a recording session was appointed at Atwell Studio about an hour and a half’s drive south in Lafayette, Tennessee. The band loaded their gear in Sam’s car and excitedly roared down the road. The resulting session yielded two amazing tracks, done in one take that summer of ’68.


“I Long To See Her” b/w “Lost Soul Seeker In the Rain” was released later that year on the Atwell label and was issued with a simple picture sleeve of the band with a portrait that was made in a small photography studio along the way in Glasgow. It is not known how many copies of the record were pressed. Sources say that Lorne Atwell would often only have 100 run pressings done of the secular groups that came through the door, as Atwell was mostly a gospel/country label. The group never had any other draft or sketch of another original song, but stayed active as the Children until around ’72. Nonetheless, the two sides made for Atwell that summer have forever set them in garage punk unknown history stone.

The Children from the 1969 Hart County High School yearbook
The Children in December 1968, from the 1969 Hart County High School yearbook

Mike Gibson still lives in Mundfordville and continues to write and perform contemporary christian music. Many thanks to him for sharing his memories of the band from which this article was produced and for the photo from the class of ’69 Hart Co. High School yearbook that shows the band in action (Christmas of ’68).

Mike Rife died in Mundfordville in 2011.

The other band members are still residing in Kentucky, and were unable to be contacted for this article.

Extra special thanks to John Freeman, mayor of Mundforville for sharing his memories, sourcing the record and arranging the interview with Hoot.

Lee Bryant and Mike 'Hoot' Gibson

The Continentals and Tortoise Records

Continentals Tortoise 45 Rufus RastasThe Continentals cut two fratty originals, “Rufus Rastas” / “Donna” on Tortoise Records. I found a copy with an inscription on the “Rufus Rastas” label “First copy to Jim McKee, Oct. 12, 1965 … Joe Doll, President, Tortoise Records”.

I wrote to Mr. Doll and he while he didn’t recall Jim McKee, he replied,

I was president (and janitor, too!) of Tortoise Records. I began college at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio in 1963, then transferred to U. of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1966 to complete my Electrical Engineering degree.

I most likely met the Continentals when they were entertaining at one of the numerous fraternity/sorority parties in Delaware. Too bad, I have no recollection or documentation of the band members. I do remember the general parameters of the recording session with The Continentals, at the WSLN studios in Delaware, OH, north of Columbus. I also remember thinking at the time that their “Rufus Rastas” made a pretty good side. I don’t think we did a test pressing, so what you found was probably the top copy in the shipment from the pressing factory.

When it was over, they departed with their box of pressings and we had no further contact.

Tortoise Records was named for the very first band on the label, the Turtles, with their “Pungfoo Watusi” from 1964:

“Pungfoo Watusi” was the not-very-carefully-conceived B side of “Pungfoo”. It was the first record I produced.
 
“Pungfoo” originated with me and some fraternity brothers fooling around with a piano, sax, and drum set in the parlor of our fraternity house. We whimsically called ourselves Tuggy and the Turtles. The original title and lyric was “Fungu”. It was a made-up word, but someone thought that meant something bad in another language. One unreleased recording is “Fungu” recorded on cheap equipment in the fraternity house.
 
The record was taped at Fortune Studios in Detroit. I played piano, whistled, and hollered into some sort of trash can. Jim Guiness played saxophone. Our usual drummer, “Tuggy,” could not make it, so we picked up a drummer in Detroit. That’s why the group name is just The Turtles. A couple others assisted with clapping, which I believe we overdubbed. 

I had done some work for the [Fortune] studio the previous summer, and they allowed me to use it without charge. I didn’t do a lot of work there, just came in to help them adjust and maintain their equipment from time to time.
  
Frank Uhle, who took on the project to do a 50th Anniversary re-release of the Beau Biens record, at one time contemplated a vinyl album that would contain some unreleased material. I have about a half hour of covers recorded by the Mark V, a pretty good rock band that played fraternity/sorority parties at Ohio Wesleyan.  I recorded them in the WSLN studios, like the Continentals. There was an outfit called the Crystal Set Radio Band for whom I taped several tunes, originals I believe, in the WCBN studios. Ken Phillips, a U of M student, recorded with a small group a couple of tunes he had written and had them pressed as a demo record.

Joe Doll would become a DJ at WCBN at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he would record the Aftermath for Tortoise, and the Beau Biens for Malibu Records. For more info please look at Joe’s website.

Tortoise Records discography:

Tortoise T 64001 – Turtles “Pungfoo” / “Pungfoo Watusi” (both by Joe Doll)

Tortoise T-65001 – Continentals – “Rufus Rastas” / “Donna”

Tortoise T-66003 – Aftermath – “Messing With the Kid” / “Bury My Body” (Campbell, Connelly)

Malibu MB-67001 – Beaubiens (aka Beau Biens) – “Times Passed” (arr. by Salvo & Palazzolo) / “A Man Who’s Lost” (both by Kleene & Tapert, Linnoah Music BMI, produced by Joe Doll). The Beau Biens were Tom Kleene, Don Tapert. Tom Hartkop, Jim Masouras and Rick Fine.

A special thank you to Joe Doll for his help answering my questions and allowing me to quote him.

Continentals Tortoise 45 Donna

The Penetrators from Crown Point, NY

Penetrators Penstar 45 Guitar BoogieThe Penetrators came from Crown Point, NY, on the west shore of Lake Champlain above Ticonderoga.

Members included Dan Rabideau and Larry Rabideau, Kim Joiner and Joe Dugan on bass. John Hoffman seems to have been a later member of the group.

There is a single by the Penetrators on Penstar Records 1146, “Guitar Boogie” / “Coming Home Baby”, both instrumentals. I’m not yet positive this is the same as the Crown Point group.

Penetrators Ferus 45 I'll Make You MineIn March of 1968 they made what I believe to be their second record, the cool garage original “I’ll Make You Mine” by Dan Rabideau and Kim Joiner, backed with a good instrumental, “Splitter Splatter” by Dan Rabideau and Larry Rabideau.

The 45 came out on Ferus Records FR 4958. Ferus had an address of 64-12 60th Pl., Brooklyn 27, New York. Tommy Wilde produced the single, I’m not sure how the band came to find Ferus.

Danny and the Penetrators Ticonderoga Sentinel 1971
1971 Battle of the Bands
This is a styrene 45 with the Columbia custom pressing code ZTSP 124958/9. Both songs published by Ferus Music BMI.

As Danny and the Country Penetrators they put out a single that I haven’t heard, “She’s My Mother-In-Law” / “I’ll Be Waiting” on Delta Records in June of 1968.

The band was well known locally as as Danny and the Penetrators. They appeared on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and continued with local bookings into the 1970s.

From a 1971 news item, it appears the Rabideau’s mother Doris managed the band.

Info on the band from a Port Henry forum. Thank you to Anthony M. for the original 45.

Anyone have a photo of the group?

Penetrators Ferus 45 Splitter Splatter

The Ugly Z on Rondo

Ugly Z Rondo 45 Down To My Very Last Tear

The Ugly Z are a mystery band to me. There are plenty of names on the labels, but it may be that none of them belong to the band’s members.

“Down to My Very Last Tear” has a cool twelve-string guitar opening and a good band performance full of harmony singing. It was credited to the Ugly Z and Steve Fazio Jr.

Chris Crocket wrote “Kathy’s Back” which is similar to the flip in sound and almost as catchy.

Rick Lawrence, Stuart Richard produced the record, with Richard also arranging both sides.

It was released on Rondo 9158 in June, 1965, as shown from the Alco delta numbers: ∆57098 / ∆57098-X. Rondo had its address at 15101 Magnolia Blvd in Sherman Oaks, CA, and also published the songs through Rondo BMI.

Steve Fazio would show up about a year later as a talent scout for Valiant Records and producer Al Kavelin. Steve Fazio, Jr. also wrote “All Because Of You” recorded by Guiseppi Apollo with the Revels & the Mapes Sisters on Impact 12-IMX, published by Anthony Music.

Info on Steve Fazio’s connection with the West Coast Branch from the West Coast Fog site.

Ugly Z Rondo 45 Kathy's Back