The Roaches came from Springfield, Virginia in Fairfax County. The band’s members were:

Leon Norton, Jr. – vocals
Tony Taylor – vocals
Craig Mossman – lead guitar
Johnny Holiday – rhythm guitar
Tom Kelly – bass guitar
Perry Hoisington – drums

The Roaches made one single in 1964 with the fine vocal “Someone With a Heart” backed with an instrumental, “Night Life”.

Bassist Tom Kelly wrote “Night Life”.

Oru Braymer is on the label as writing “Someone With a Heart”, but he was not a band member. The picture sleeve for the single has the credit “Produced by Braymer Music”. The Library of Congress shows an April, 1964 copyright registration for “Someone With a Heart” by Orville S. Braymer. From what I could find, he lived in Alexandria and was a piano technician, born 1928 and died 1993.

Released on Springfield Records RI 1664, the RI indicates this was pressed by Recordings Incoporated in Baltimore. George Graves took the photo on the picture sleeve.

In 1965, photographer Charles Parry documented the Roaches and other groups at an American Legion hall in Springfield, VA. From the notations on the 3.5″ x 3.5″ color prints, there were 28 photos of the Roaches in his files, but I am missing six of them.

American Legion and Pi Alpha Gamma banners appear behind the group. Photos of the Londoners and Beau Havens also have the Pi Alpha Gamma banner, so those bands may have shared the billing that night.

One photo from possibly a different show has a Sigma Tau Delta honor society banner behind drummer Perry Hoisington Holiday, along with the American Legion banner.

The order of the photos suggests WPGC DJ “Tiger” Bob Raleigh (real name Paul Carmen) was at this show. Two other photos show WEAM DJ Terry Knight at the American Legion, possibly at this show. However, I don’t believe this is the Michigan DJ and singer Terry Knight. For one thing, it doesn’t look like him. For another, WROV DJ Jack Fisher wrote about how he was asked to call himself Terry Knight when he was at WEAM. Like WPGC, WEAM seems to have had house DJ names that could be impersonated by any jockey.

Several other DJs from WPGC and Arlington’s WEAM appear in photos with bands from other evenings.

I would like to post other group photos from this collection of Charles Parry but have not yet been able to locate him or his family.

Thank you to Craig Mossman for noting the location of the American Legion hall in his comment below.