The Del Counts, photo courtesy of Dan ShearenThis is the same Del Counts of Minneapolis who had a couple 45s on Soma, “Bird Dog” / “Let the Good Times Roll” and “What is the Reason” / “With Another Guy”. They also recorded a full album at Dove Studios that was never released.
Charlie Schoen, bass player and vocalist, wrote both songs on this 45, produced by their manager, Marsh Edelstein. I really dig “Ain’t Got the Time” with its whining guitar bends, fast beat and drum break. The flip is the less convincing “Don’t Ever Leave”.
The Del Counts had a long career playing at the Marigold Ballroom and around the Minneapolis area. They continued into the early 70’s, releasing a final 45, “Who Cares” / “Don’t Let the Green Grass”, in 1972, and were still playing live in recent years.
Charles Schoen contacted me about the band recently:
Members were Steve Miller on guitar, Bob Phalen on bass, Kelly Vincent on drums, myself on keys and vocals. “What Is the Reason” sold over 20,000 in the first two weeks it was out because the District Manager of Musicland Records told me that we had a four star pick in Record World magazine with a bullet. That was just Minneapolis and St. Paul MN.
Sources include: Birdland Revisited article in City Pages. From left: Charles Schoen and Steve Miller. Photo courtesy of Dan Shearen
Los Soñadores (the Dreamers) were from, I believe, Seville. Their first 45 has an excellent original “Sin saber por que” and a song I haven’t heard, “Judy con disfraz”. If I can find a copy I’ll post it.
José Luis Garrido wrote both songs on their 45, including “Vete,” a short, upbeat number with elements of Knock on Wood and Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag. The a-side is a pop ballad “Lo sé por mi.” This is one of the discs I found in Valencia with the help of Borja.
After Los Sońadores, José formed a group called Flamenco, opened recording studios and worked as musical producer on films.
The Shadows, from left: Frank Cannon, Curtis Goodman, Donnie Walker, Stanley Fowler, Jack Bigham and Roger YoungPhotos from Facebook
Here’s a great 45 by the Shadows, a group from Northport, Alabama, across the Black Warrior River from Tuscaloosa.
I recently spoke to guitarist and lead singer Mike Thornton, who helped me straighten out the history of the band. He was only 14 when he joined and the other members were just a little older, mostly students at Tuscaloosa County High School. I believe he replaced their original singer Curtis Goodman.
Along with Mike, Frank Cannon and Jack Bigham played guitars, Stan Fowler played bass and Donnie Walker the drums. Roger Young played keyboards, but he wasn’t present at the recording session so Mike Thornton filled in that day.
The band played semi-professionally for about three years, playing on weekends and when school was out. A rival band was the Misfits from Tuscaloosa, featuring Chuck Leavell and Ronnie Brown.
“If You Love Me” is classic garage with a good performance all around, notable for the repeated distorted guitar riffs and a fine solo, excellent drumming, and good vocals. It was written by Jack Bigham and Mike Thornton.
“The Big Mess” is a sharp take on Watermelon Man, credited to the whole group. Mike Thornton moved from organ to piano for this song.
Does anyone have better-quality photos of the group?
Roger YoungAfter the Shadows, Mike Thornton joined The Omen and Their Luv with Bruce Hopper, Billy McLain, Tommy Stuart, Gary Barry and others. That band had a great 45 on David Keller’s Daisy label, “Maybe Later” / “Need Some Sunshine” (both songs written by Tommy Stewart). David Keller himself was in the Preachers. The Omen and Their Luv with Thornton later became Tommy Stuart and the Rubber Band.
For a long time it was believed the band was from Tennessee or northern Alabama, as the Woodrich label was based in the northern Alabama towns of Rogersville then Lexington, both near Huntsville and Decatur. Mike isn’t sure why the band went so far to record when there were studios nearby in Birmingham, but thinks one of their managers set the deal up.
I had also heard that most of the Woodrich label’s recordings were made in Nashville, about 120 miles away, but K.S. in a comment below, says that owner Woody Richardson did most of the recording in his home studio. Woodrich released mainly pop sides by Buddy Hughey, Patsy Penn, the Campbell Trio, the Light House Gospel Singers, the Rocks, and Aaron & Sue Wilburn.
I usually find something enjoyable in 60s Indonesian girl-singers’ records, although some are bit too twee even for me. I had thought that was probably true of Andriani (it says Andraini on the cover, but I am sure this is a typo), who judging from her picture was very young at the time she made this record.
I had actually seen a full album of Andriani’s with the same cover as this EP, as well as one other EP before I finally grabbed this one. When I got the record onto the turntable and dropped the needle into track one I heard a more than reasonable pop song coming out of the speakers, so I was fairly happy.
But Bandel (Stubborn), the second track? I almost didn’t believe it; a wailing garage guitar intro and a driving distorted lead-in. It calms down a bit after that, but the distorted guitar makes another appearance about half way through and the whole song moves along at a nice pace. The other side of the EP is another two okay pop-tunes.
This EP was put out by Istana Stereo, which I am fairly sure was a pirate record label based in either Singapore or Malaysia. It was a common practise for these pirate labels to take an album and turn it into a number of EPs, usually with the same cover, but often numbered volume 1, 2, etc.
My copy has absolutely no information about Andriani or her backing band, but I bet the album that this was ripped off from has at least one other garage-fuelled track lurking in there somewhere.
The Group – l-r: Noel Odom, Sonny Williams, Bob Fell and Fred Engelke “circa 1965 – rear of Walker & Rodie Music in downtown Shreveport”
I don’t own any of Noel Odom and the Group’s three 45s – not for lack of trying, but they’re in high demand since “Come on Down to Earth” became a staple of 60’s music nights around the world.
You might assume an artist on Tower and its subsidiary Uptown would be based in California, but the Group was actually from Louisiana. Their songs were licensed by Tower, but without any push from the label or band presence on the L.A. scene, the 45s undeservedly dropped out of sight. Noel recently took the time to answer some of my questions of his time in music:
I played in “The Group” 1964-1969 – later “Noel Odom and the Group.” Bob Fell and I started the band, and as a unit also Fred Engelke- drums and Sonny Williams- bass. Later added Ron DiIulio on keys- great player – still is!!
We played live in Shreveport and Bossier at high school dances at Airline High and Bossier High. Several teen clubs like Southland Park and the Teenclub at Barksdale AFB. Also at that time “the Strip” in Bossier city was famous with numerous clubs along Highway 80 East. The most famous being “Saks Whisky-a-Go-Go” with the “Boom Boom Room.” Also “The Shindig” where we played all through a full quarter of college. All four of us went to Louisiana Tech together. We usually played somewhere every weekend.
We backed Dickie Lee at a show in Shreveport and he took us to Memphis to record in 1968. We recorded five songs in Memphis at Sam Phillips Recording studio with Stan Kessler as engineer: 1: “Pardon My Complete Objection,” 2: “I Can’t See Nobody,” 3: “Midnight Hour,” 4: instrumental that Ron DiIulio wrote, “Love Too” I think, and finally as an afterthought “Come on Down to Earth.” Picked up and signed by Tower Records, division of Capitol. Naturally the company came back and liked Come on Down, so horns were added and it was released – never went anywhere.
The record was on American Bandstand’s “Rate a Record” and we beat the other song “Leavin on a Jet Plane” and I believe it was John Denver’s version before Peter, Paul & Mary recorded it and made #1. Dickie Lee was our producer and Allen Reynolds was our A&R man.
Our other sessions were done in Sun Recording studios, which was just redone. The J. Reid was John Reid and he wrote a concept album about “Flower Children” and it included a lot of narrative. “Hey Yesterday Where’s My Mind” and “Come on Rain” came from that work. It was a cool idea and we had some forward thinking effects like feedback guitar on one track. It was never released in full, but there was some good work on that album.
Thanks for asking the questions- it really taxes my memory, but those were good days in my memory.
I am still playing in the Shreveport area in “The Convertibles” together for 21 years, playing old r&r.
Drummer Fred Engelke filled in some details on the band:
During high school Ron DiIulio and I formed a band called “The Class Cutters” and we competed with Noel and Bob’s group “The Group”. Ron went to college at North Texas State University and I went a year at Texas A & M. After my freshman year, I came back to Louisiana to go to school and joined up with Noel and Bob. We then recruited Sonny Williams for bass and formed the new version of “The Group”. Later, after Ron came back from NTSU, we got him in the band and created the final version of “The Group”.
The producers said there was already a band called “The Group” so we renamed ourselves “Noel Odom and the Group” because of Noel’s unusual first name. When we released the last record they decided that the name “Noel” would distinctive and we used it.
As Noel said, “Come on Down to Earth” was really a throwaway song to be used as a “B” side to one for the other recordings. It turned out well and we recorded “Love Too” as sort of a “C” side. It was made up on the spot by Ron DiIulio. Ron (not pictured in the photo you have) was a member if the group during all sessions.
By the way, when you hear Noel say ‘Come in Ron!’ he was referring to the solo that Ron did on organ. However, they decided later to use a guitar solo by Bob instead. Also, there were no drumsticks in the studio and I forgot to bring any and there were no music stores nearby that were open, so I played the entire session using the stick part of timpani mallets.
The last record, “Hey Yesterday Where’s My Mind,” under the group name “Noel” was released shortly before Noel enlisted in the Navy. He did this because he didn’t want to stay in college and, because it was during the height of the Vietnam War, he knew he would get drafted. He figured if he enlisted he could choose what he would do and he figured the Navy would be less likely to send him to Nam.
Was Ron the same person who played with the Chessmen in Dallas?
Yep, that’s the same person. He was not originally from Dallas but he formed the Chessmen while attending North Texas State University. We stole him from the Chessmen to be in the group. He’s back in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, playing with his current group “Crawfish”. He would love to bring Noel with his voice into the group he now has. Noel’s voice has matured and Ron has assembled a super group of musicians. The last time I saw Noel sing with Ron’s band, I was totally blown away! I haven’t seen either for two or three years now.
On a side note, Susan Christie recorded a nine-minute version titled “Yesterday, Where’s My Mind” after meeting Blackwood Music songwriter John Reid in Memphis. Hear it on B-Music’s CD – Susan Christie – Paint a Lady.
The Group continued after Noel’s departure, eventually becoming the second of two versions of the Bad Habits who recorded for the Paula label.
Thank you to Noel Odom for his comments and the photo of the Group, and to Fred Engelke for his comments and 45 scans.
Noel Odom & the Group 45 releases:
Noel Odom & the Group – Come on Down to Earth / Love Too (Tower 441, 1968) The Noel Odom Group – I Can’t See Nobody / Pardon My Complete Objection (Uptown 763, 1969) Noel – Hey Yesterday Where’s My Mind / Come on Rain (Tower 505, 1969)
Both the singer and the band are presumably from Singapore, where this EP was recorded. I have seen a few other records by M. Rahmat, again with backing by The Teruna, but with songs also by female singer Asmah Attan.
All the songs on this EP are good, but the stand-out one for me is Mula Bertemu (First Meeting), with some strong guitar and a driving sound. M. Rahmat has a strong, deep voice; a fact that may have inspired another song on the EP; his cover version of Indonesian baritone Alfian’s Semalam di Cianjur. On that song The Teruna provide a swinging, cha cha backing. The other songs are Elly and Peristiwa di Pantai (Episode at the Beach), and all accept Cianjur are credited to M. Rahmat.
The Hazards “Hey Joe”, Groove 45-502Here’s one of the all-time great versions of “Hey Joe”, cut by a group of high-schoolers in Richmond, Virginia.
Band members were Andy Hrabovsky vocals, Sonny Salisbury lead guitar, Alan Sidenburg guitar, Greg Ellison bass, Stanley Bernstein organ, and David Moore on drums.
Andy Hrabovsky added some specifics about the band members in a comment below:
David Moore and Stanley Bernstein went to Thomas Jefferson High, Greg Ellison and Alan Sidenburg went to Douglas Freeman, and Sonny Salsbury and myself went to John Randolph Tucker High.
Stanley left the band not long after the release of “Hey Joe”, and was replaced by Steve Bassett from Freeman, who has gone on to some degree of notoriety. He and Robbin Thompson [of the Tasmanians] did “Sweet Virginia Breeze”.
Sonny Salisbury really distinguishes their take on “Hey Joe” by alternating staccato picking high up on the frets with fuzz riffs on the bass strings. Hrabovsky delivers some of the best shouting on vinyl and the rest of the band is solid as well.
The flip is the milder “Will You Be My Girl” by Stan Bernstein and Andy Hrabovsky. The record was produced by Martin Gary.
My copy seems to be from a radio station, dated June of ’67, and though both sides have “keep in regular play” written on them, “Hey Joe” is also marked to be played only after 6 PM!
The Groove label was owned by Marty Gary. Radio play on local WLEE led to a second pressing on a blue label. I’ve seen the band referred to as the Hazzards, with two ‘z’s, but on the label it’s just Hazards.
Kelly Park was lead guitarist for the Romans, a band based in Columbia, Missouri. He writes about the group:
This band was formed in Columbia, Missouri in 1964. I was lead guitar in that band from the start until the spring of 1965. Like many other bands, we were heavily influenced by the British invasion, including the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five and others. We played songs by the Ventures, the Thunderbirds (we had a sax player), the Beach Boys, and others I have long forgot.
The band was formed by Jimmy Jay (the lead singer) out of Clarksville, Arkansas. All of us were University of Missouri students at the time. I have no pictures or recordings of the band, we did not make any records while I was there. Our saxophone player’s first name was Paul, from Kansas City, Missouri. I have long since forgotten Paul’s last name as well as our drummer’s and bass guitarist’s. We stayed very busy playing for college fraternity gigs at the University and nearby Westminster College in Fulton.
I’d dropped out of school shortly after my father died in February 1965. I lost touch with the band and know nothing about what happened to them after that. I read about the Arkansas band called the Romans that were obviously formed after us to did not recognize anyone in it. As a side note, I grew up across the street in Springfield, MO from Steve Cash of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
l-r: Tom Minga, Dale Roark, Ronny Williamson, Ron Gorden and Bennie Kisner.
The Escapades were among the dozens of working teen bands in Memphis in the mid-’60s. Vocalist Tommy Minga had been part of the Jesters, who cut “Cadillac Man” for Sun Records. Though Minga was the primary songwriter for the Jesters and is given songwriting credit for “Cadillac Man”, the song was actually written by Jesters guitarist Teddy Paige. Paige disliked Minga’s vocal arrangement on an early take of the song and forced Minga out of the band soon after the session. Jim Dickinson was brought in to play piano and sing on the released version.
Within a couple months of leaving the Jesters in late 1965, Minga formed a new version of the Escapades with Bennie Kisner guitar, Ron Gorden keyboards, Dale Roark (not Rourke as has been listed before) bass and Ronny Williamson drums.
They released their first 45, “I Tell No Lies”, on the local Arbet label in January of 1966. The band moves seamlessly from verse to chorus, with swirling organ playing from Gorden and solid bass playing from Roark propelling the rhythm for Tom Minga’s strong vocal. Bennie Kisner provides a neat sitar-like solo on his Rickenbacker.
“She’s the Kind” is a little slower in tempo, and reminds me of the Zombies, Minga at times sounding very much like Colin Blunstone. Ronnie Gorden and Ron Williamson wrote “I Tell No Lies”, while Minga, Gorden and Roark wrote “She’s the Kind”.
This record was picked up by the XL label, but it’s unfortunate that Verve didn’t re-release it when they signed the band soon after its release, as “I Tell No Lies” should have had some chance at chart action.
Despite Kisner’s hard riffing fuzz sound, their second 45 doesn’t quite capture the magic of the first. Released on Verve in May of 1966, it failed to ignite the charts and the band was dropped.
The flip, “I Try So Hard” may be the band’s most ordinary composition, but Bennie Kisner’s interesting guitar picking is a highlight, and sounds great with headphones. Both sides are credited to the entire band, and produced by Stan Kesler.
The draft broke up the group in 1967. Ron Gorden joined the Bar-Kays and later worked as an artist for Stax.
Keyboard player Ron Gorden contacted me with the photos you see here and his story about the band:
Our first release “I Tell No Lies” was on a small independent label in Memphis. As it had success regionally, we were signed by Verve Records, a subsidiary of MGM Records, through Phillips Recording Studio (Sam Phillips of Sun Records/Elvis, Jerry Lee, etc. fame) with Stan Kessler producing us. For some reason the decision was made to not release I Tell No Lies nationally on Verve, but to record another song. So “Mad, Mad, Mad” was the result. I agree with you that it is unfortunate that “I Tell No Lies” did not have a chance to go further. I see it sell on E-Bay these days for as much as $350 for a 45rpm. I wish I had stashed a case of them!
The band wasn’t actually dropped by the label. We split up due to the draft, as you said on your site. Williamson, Roark, and Minga all entered the service. I continued in music for several years, ending with the Bar-Kays (1968-1970) before going to work for Stax Records where I eventually became Advertising Manager. During my tenure there, I was directly responsible for coordinating the development of more than 130 album covers and the trade and consumer advertising that accompanied those products. We did great work and won numerous awards including a “Grammy Award” nomination for package design (“Isaac Hayes Live at Sahara Tahoe”).
Benny Kisner died sometime in the late Seventies. Tom Minga died in approximately 2000. Williamson now lives in North Mississippi and does not play drums anymore. I am in Northwest Arkansas, where I own an insurance agency. I do not play professionally any more, but sometimes play in church.
Thank you to Ron Gorden for the photos and story on the band. The Ace/Big Beat CD Cadillac Men: the Sun Masters includes Minga’s vocal take of the Jesters’ “Cadillac Man” along with some great Minga originals and an unreleased Escapades track, “What You Know About Love”. I highly recommended it.
Caesar & His Romans, from left: Dan Cook, Bill Burt, Chuck Vicario (seated), David Burt and Karl Durant.
Caeser & His Romans were from Buffalo, recording two 45s on the GJM label in late ’67 and 1968 before signing to Scepter for two more singles. I hadn’t been able to find much about the group but some emails and comments have helped.
Vocalist Chuck Vicario stayed with the group throughout its career. Bassist John Sia co-founded the band with Chuck in 1964, and left for college in ’67. Joe Hesse replaced John and then Vinny Parker replaced Hesse. Joe DeSantis was the original drummer with the group. Other members of the group included Joe Hesse’s brother Jim Hesse on keyboards, Bill Burt and David Burt, and Dan Cook on lead guitar.
Both songs on their first 45 were written by Charles Vicario and J. Hesse, recording supervised by Jerry Meyers and Rich Sargent.
Rich Sargent wrote to me about his work with the band:
Jerry owned GJM Records, I worked for him, we used a few different studios. I produced “Leavin’ My Past Behind” at Audio Recording in Cleveland, the same studio wher Jerry produced the Joe Jeffries gold single “My Pledge Of Love” … great studio in downtown Cleveland. I am a long time friend of Chuck (Caesar/Big Wheelie) and his late manager Fred Caserta. We met in ’64 … my band and Chucks finished 1 & 2 in a number of “battle of the bands” back then.
I haven’t heard “When Will I Get Over You” in about 15 years… my favorite may have been “Leavin’ My Past Behind” (sure wish I could remix it) and “Baby Let’s Wait”. That one came close to breaking, but the Royal Guardsmen put out a version and we were done.
There was a core of players that was consistent but also a number who left, came back, left again. Dan Cook was the guitar player through all of the incarnations of Caesar and Big Wheelie. The keyboard player on “Green Grass…” was Jimmy Hesse who left to join The Road and was part of that band when they had a mid chart dingle on Kama Sutra with a cover of the Zombies “She’s Not There” which was produced by Joey Reynolds (now doing late night talk radio on WOR 710 NYC and also carried on over 200 stations).
Caesar & His Romans became Caesar & THE Romans, [then] evolved into Friendship Train which was a successful club & lounge act. During one set each night as part of the act they became Big Wheelie & The Hubcaps. This became so successful that Friendship Train was dropped in favor of a full night of Big Wheelie. Their final album was released on Amherst Records in 1976. Chuck stlll performs as Big Wheelie about 10-12 times per year. He was brilliantly managed by the late Fred Caserta who went on to found Kingdom Bound which is one of the largest concert events in the Christian Music field.
“Green Grass Makes It Better” is one of their catchiest numbers, and sure seems like a drug reference to me: the world is “going psycho” but “good green grass makes it better.” “Why Make a Fool of Me” on the flip is denser but excellent as well.
Their second record is one I haven’t yet heard, “Baby, Let’s Wait”, backed by the great “Black Lantern”, a bass-driven lament written by Vicario and Hesse. The A-side has the credit “Arr. by Beaver”, while the flip says “Arr. by Breezy” and “(from the movie ‘The Atomic Grandmother’)” – a real production or another joke?
Instead of publishing through GJM Music like the first single, Darshen Music published “Black Lantern”.
Moving towards a much more commercial direction, they signed to Scepter Records as Caesar and the Romans, releasing two 45s in 1969, both minor hits in the Buffalo area. “Baby Love” uses some fuzz guitar and heavy beats on the Supremes song, but I prefer the upbeat flip, “When Will I Get Over You”, written by C. Vicario, Jr.
The A-side of their next Scepter 45, “Leavin’ My Past Behind” / “Jailhouse Rock” continues their pop sound. Mike Dugo sent me photos of two more Scepter recordings by the band, “Come Little Girl” and “Come Live With Me” that were never released to my knowledge. Both are funky soul numbers.
Thank you to Diane Burt for the photo of the group at top and additional info, to Mike Dugo for the Scepter acetate photos, the promotional flyers and ads, and to Ryan Lalande for the scan of “Black Lantern”. Thank you to Mary Durant for help with identifying Karl in the photo; Karl Durant played drums with the group.
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
I am dedicated to making this site a center for research about '60s music scenes. Please consider donating archival materials such as photos, records, news clippings, scrapbooks or other material from the '60s. Please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com if you can loan or donate original materials
Both the singer and the band are presumably from Singapore, where this EP was recorded. I have seen a few other records by M. Rahmat, again with backing by The Teruna, but with songs also by female singer Asmah Attan.
