Steve Purdy and the Studs

February 26, 2016 Chris Bishop 1 Comment

“The Weed” is the first single cut by Steve Purdy & the Studs, a group from the Homewood and Vestavia Hills suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. A tribute to tobacco with a sound like “Money”, its title and lyrics like “I need a pack of weeds that costs 15 cents” and “I wish somebody would give me a seed, that would grow me an instant weed, an instant weed would be mighty fine … give me a weed” made it into a cult favorite.

Steve Purdy and Vic Rumore share the lead vocals on “The Weed”, Rumore may have been related to Joe Rumore, a popular DJ on WVOK and owner of Rumore’s Record Rack; and his brother Angelo “Duke” Rumore, Birmingham DJ and impressario.

The flip of “The Weed” is “Hyannis Port Twist” which helps date this single to 1963 or earlier, along with the Southern Plastics code of SO 1292. The label was Vesta Records 200, located was 3106 Roxbury Road in Birmingham.

Besides Purdy and Rumore, the Studs included:

Jimmy Sullivan – lead guitar
Brooke Temple – rhythm guitar
Norman Hamm – bass
Billy McConnell or Steve Davis – drums

For their second 45, they cut two more Purdy originals, “I Cried (The Night You Said Goodbye)” with a sound close to rockabilly and “Johnny’s Steady”, more of a teen side but with an interesting Leslie effect on the brief guitar solo.

Does anyone have a photo of the group?

Purdy wrote all four of the songs, publishing through Vestavia Publishing Co. BMI. As far as I know these were the only two releases on the Birmingham Vesta label. There was another Vesta Records from Syracuse, NY with doo-wop releases by the Rhythm Cadets and the Eldoras.

Southern Plastics in Nashville pressed both singles, “The Weed” has SO 1292/3 while “I Cried” is SO 1398/9, which should help give exact release dates if anyone has compiled those codes.

Sources: the Alabama Record Collectors Association has a short post on Facebook about Steve Purdy and the Studs. Info about Joe Rumore from JoeRumore.net.

Categories: Clearwater, Florida, Paris Tower

The Inner Thoughts

February 25, 2016 Chris Bishop 2 Comments

Inner Thoughts Paris Tower Card — The Inner Thoughts, with Mike Burgess standing on roof

The Inner Thoughts came from Clearwater, Florida, west of Tampa. There’s not a lot of info about them available, but the Inner Thoughts had one of the best and earliest releases on the Paris Tower label, “Smokestack Lightning” b/w a band original, “1,000 Miles (Cheating on Me)”, released in March, 1967.

Paris Tower included a postcard with some copies of the single, featuring the cool photo of the band with this great description on the other side:

Shaaa-Zam!!! THE INNER THOUGHTS are ready to capture your city with their first Paris Tower release, which is a far out, fuzz-toned, revamped arrangement of “Smokestack Lightning.”
Rumbling into high gear; this Clearwater, Florida group has made a name for itself among the cool set on Florida’s West Coast.
Give a close listen to the flip side, “1,000 Miles (Cheating on Me).” This is a surprisingly original number with a wild “MOD” mood featuring tonal transitions indescribable in print. THE INNER THOUGHTS will be around for a long time!!!

Members of the Inner Thoughts were:

Bob Baskin – vocals
Ray Carpenter – lead guitar
Mark Burgess – bass
Sonny (surname?) – guitar
Jeff Covert – drums

Mark Burgess was formerly the lead guitarist for J. R. and the Newtrons, a Dunedin group that didn’t record but whose members included David Muse, later of Firefall; John Roedel, who joined Those Five; Bill Harrill; Buddy Waterman; and Rick Roberts of the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Publishing for “1,000 Miles (Cheating on Me)” was through Redrah Music, BMI. The Inner Thoughts recorded at H&H Productions in Tampa, the pressing through RCA, U4KM-2558.

Sources include the Limestone Lounge and Tampa Bay Garage Bands.

Categories: Charleston, Marianna, South Carolina

The Allusions featuring Lou Martucci

February 24, 2016 Chris Bishop 5 Comments

Here’s a very good and obscure single by the Allusions featuring Lou Martucci. “Where Have All the Good Times Gone” is an original song with fuzz guitar, not the Kinks tune, the flip is “Burnin’ For Your Lovin'”. Roger Hopkins wrote both songs, released on the Marianna label in October, 1967.

The Allusions label reads “Produced by the Preludes”. The year before, in August 1966, the Preludes featuring Lou Martucci released a single on Hopkins’ Little Nashville label, based out of 1610 Poinsettia Rd. in Charleston, South Carolina. The songs are another original by Hopkins, “On My Lovin” b/w an original by Martucci, “Would You Believe”.

Lou Martucci wrote to the That’s All Rite site with a lot of info about the group. Members were:

Lou Martucci – lead vocals
Joe Opatsky – lead guitar
Al Knox – rhythm guitar
Butch Chevalier – bass
Al Moreno – drums

I assume the Preludes and the Allusions were more or less the same group. The Preludes is a Rite pressing, while the Allusions 45 deadwax reads “NRC 1914 Marianna 593A 20389”.

As Lou Martucci noted on That’s All Rite, drummer Al Moreno passed away in Vietnam, Roger Hopkins in a car accident in the ’60s.

Hopkins was the Preludes’ manager, his associate Boyd Cobb published the songs for both singles with Cobb BMI. Hopkins had his own single with the Chevelles on Little Country LN-0779, “Ronda Road Runner” (Tommy Nation) / “I Made Her That Way”, musical backing by the Centuries. He also had a country single on the related Evergreen label, “Crawling Back to You” / “Ask the Man Who Owns One”.

Categories: Caddo, Louisiana, Oil City, Recording Service Studios (Pasadena)

The Chancellors on Caddo

February 23, 2016 Chris Bishop 2 Comments

The Chancellors came from Oil City, Louisiana, about 30 miles from Shreveport along Caddo Lake.

Members of the band were:

John “Rusty” Shafer – guitar
Howard Lee – guitar
Mike Dunahoo – bass
Tommy Valliera – drums

According to the liner notes of Big Beat release Don’t Be Bad, Rusty Shafer and Howard Lee were part of a folk quartet called the New River Four at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Lee and Shafer found a rhythm section in Mike Dunahoo and Tommy Valliera, and renamed the group the Chancellors.

They drove over four hours to cut two 45s at Recording Service Studios, Inc., 227 E. Sterling, Pasadena, releasing them on the Caddo label in 1965. The first was
“It’s Too Late” / “Can It Be Love” (Caddo 101, LH-2023/4), followed by “Don’t Tell Me” / “I Don’t Know Where I’m Going” in November, 1965, (Caddo 102, LH-2055/6).

“Don’t Tell Me” is available on the CDDon’t Be Bad, 60s Punk Recorded in Texas. I like “It’s Too Late” from the first single:

All songs were originals by Rusty Shafer and Howard Lee, published by Crazy Cajun BMI. Shafer and Lee registered five more songs with the Library of Congress that year, including “Gone Away, Lost in Sorrow”, “Impossible Dream”, “The Love We Share”, “Never, Never Say You Love Me”, “Tired of Laughing”. I don’t know if they recorded any of those songs.

Categories: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, Rene

The Prisoner’s Dream

February 14, 2016 Chris Bishop 1 Comment

The Prisoner’s Dream came from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, just southwest of Pittsburgh, on the way to Wheeling, WV. I don’t know who was in the band. Canonsburg is notable as the hometown of Bobby Vinton and Perry Como.

The Prisoner’s Dream had one single, the melancholy “Autumn Days” / “You’re the One I Really Love” on Rene R 1008 in November, 1967. John Bruno produced the session. The band’s name seems to be misspelled as the Prisners Dream on the labels, which also give an incorrect spelling of the song writer’s name.

The A-side has the melancholy sound some garage fans may like:

The Rene labels list both songs as written by Zaranoff and published by Ride On Music BMI, but copyright notices give his name as Peter Zaharoff. One listing from July of 1967 says Zaharoff also wrote under the pseudonym of Bryan Garret.

BMI’s database lists another song of his, “Get Away” published by Sheri Glen Publications. Library of Congress copyright notices give several more, “Curtain of Green”, “One Night”, “Place Where Lovers Go”, “Woman Who’s Never There” and “Look What You’ve Done to Me”, published in November and December 1966.

Chuck Edwards founded the Rene label, its related label Punch and Ride On Music. He had his own releases on the labels, including “Downtown Soulville” which Mr. Finewine has made into his theme song, and produced a handful of others. Most of the pressing were done by Rite.

Chuck Edwards went on to form a family musical group called the The Edwards Generation. Chuck passed away in 2001. There’s an article I can recommend on Chuck and his labels on That’s All Rite Mama.

This is not the same Rene Records as the one from Tennessee that released the Creepers’ “Jammin’ Granny”.

Categories: Dearborn, Dearborn, Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit Riots

February 12, 2016 Chris Bishop 6 Comments

The Detroit Riots are an obscure group with one of my favorite singles on the Dearborn Records label. The A-side “Pebble Stone” has a commercial music track but buries the lead vocal. I prefer the flip, “A Fast Way to Die” for the contrast between the rhythm and lead guitar and a set of lyrics that fits the vocalist’s style.

Harry Wallace wrote both songs, copyrighted May, 1969 and published by ChetKay Music BMI.

Tome Webber arranged “Pebble Stone” and Elmer Wallace produced “A Fast Way to Die”.

According to a comment on a youtube video, the bass player was Paul Strothers. I don’t know the names of any other members.

Like the Chomps single I posted yesterday, Dearborn Records was a product of M.S.K Productions, and both singles share publishing by ChetKay. It’s also a Columbia custom press, ZTSC-142387/8.

Categories: Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Kool Kat, Michigan

The Chomps “Lookout World” / “Kiss My Lips” on Kool Kat

February 11, 2016 Chris Bishop 2 Comments

The Chomps released one pop side, “Kiss My Lips (One More Time)” (Kaplan, Rabinowitz for Chetkay, BMI and Floss, BMI) b/w a nifty, tongue-in-cheek biker tribute, “Lookout World” (Wilkins, Kaplan for Chetkay, BMI) on Kool Kat KK-1002 in 1968.

I thought the Chomps were likely a studio concoction, but a commenter below describes them as an actual group, possibly from the Ann Arbor area.

Copyright records show the names on the labels as Steve Rabinowitz and Eddy Marvin Kaplan, a songwriting team who sometimes used the aliases Steve Robins and Eddy Kay. Eddy Kaplan produced and arranged the Chomps single, and produced other area singles, like the Trademarks “If I Was Gone”. I’m not sure who Wilkins refers to.

Kool Kat is otherwise a soul label, run by M.S.K. Productions, Detroit, Michigan. The Chomps was a Columbia custom pressing, ZTSC 127041/2

Kool Kat 1001 – Joe Matthews – “(You Better) Check Yourself)” (C. McMurray, W. Hampton) / “Ain’t Nothin’ You Can Do”
Kool Kat 1003 – Hindal Butts – “Giggin” (Butts, Hicks, Block, instrumental, ZTSC 107007) / “Happiness (Is So Far Away)”
Kool Kat 1004 – Virgil Murray’s Tomorrow’s Yesterday – “I Still Care” (Huff, Murray, McGuire) / “Summer Dreamin'” (also released on Airtown A-015)

The Soul Source site gives some background on these names:

MSK stands for Martin, Schneider and Kajeski, who owned M-S records, Detroit. Chester J Kajeski owned the music publisher Chetkay, that published the Silky Hargraves tracks (DBA CHETKAY Music Pub, 15401 Tirman, DEARBORN, MI) Kool Kat records were a division of MSK productions, Detroit. Martin & Schneider also owned Marquee records, distributed by MSK productions. Marquee & Dearborn were run out of the same building in Dearborn.

Marquee put out the Free’s “Decision For Lost Soul Blue”. Dearborn is a cool label that had some in-demand soul singles, as well as rock stuff by Tino & the Revlons, the Undecided, H.T. & the Green Flames, the Jammers, Me & Dem Guys, and the Detroit Riots.

Categories: Jackson, Key, Michigan, Rite Record Productions custom pressings

The Beech Resorts

February 11, 2016 Chris Bishop 2 Comments

The Beech Resorts give us two sides of teen anguish, pining for a girlfriend left behind in the maudlin “Springtime” while wondering why he’s in a relationship in the crude rocker “Distortion Don’t Know”. Why is “Distortion” part of the title? I don’t know.

According to Teen Beat Mayhem, the Beech Resorts came from Jackson, Michigan, a town 36 miles west of Ann Arbor and 66 miles east of Kalamazoo.

I can’t find any publishing info, but D. Williams wrote “Distortion Don’t Know” while “Springtime” is credited to T. Resor (anagram of Resort – a band composition)?

1609 Miles Ave, Kalamazoo was the home of Key Records. Key Records had at least 15 releases during the ’60s, mainly religious or country in nature, but with one other rock single, the Counts “All Night” / “Sittin Here Wonderin'” released in 1965 with a picture sleeve.

This is a Rite pressing from March 1967, 18829/30. Like other Key releases it lists “Raebet’s Productions” on the label.

Categories: Florida, Jacksonville, Sandal Wood

Mike Ogilvie and the Blues of Purple

February 11, 2016 Chris Bishop 3 Comments

Mike Ogilvie And The Blues Uv Purple Photo — Can anyone confirm this is Mike Ogilvie and the Blues Uv Purple?

Mike Ogilvie and the Blues of Purple released this one single “Miss Dove” / “Story Book Plays” on the Sandal Wood label in 1969. Tippy Smith was the vocalist and wrote both songs.

“Miss Dove” has buzzing guitar over a very English sounding track and vocal. The flip is gentler with the piano more prominent than the guitars.

Although the label has an address at 100 Ardmore Ave, on Staten Island, NY, I’ve also read the band was from Jacksonville, Florida. Some copies have a sticker changing the artist name to Blues Uv Purple, vocal Tippy Smith. Confusingly, a CD compilation listed the band as the Powers Uv Purple, I’m not sure where they got that name.

The only other member of the group I know of besides Mike Ogilvie and Tippy Smith is Patrick Ogilvie who played organ. The photo at top is supposed to be the band but I need confirmation of that. Thank you to Ken Friedman for sending it in.

This seems to be the only release on the Sandal Wood Records label. Sandalwood Music BMI published the songs and the pressing was done by Sound of Nashville, SoN 63051.

Categories: Open, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

The Myst

February 10, 2016 Chris Bishop 2 Comments

The Myst came from Philadelphia PA and cut this one single for release on Open Records 1252 in September, 1969. The A-side was a Gary Usher- Roger Val Christian song, “Coney Island Wild Child” which had been cut by Billy Harner for Lawn back in 1964. It could sound dated but the singer has a rushed, off-hand attitude that suits the song.

I don’t know much about the Myst other than that Frank Leonetti played lead guitar and sang lead vocals on these two songs.

“I’m Crying” is a heavy guitar and Hammond rocker, with a good lead vocal and sustained guitar running continuously throughout the song. The song was written by Joe Siderio, who may have been a member of the group, published by Caldwell Music, BMI.

Following the Myst single, Open Records released three singles and an LP by Billy Harner, and I believe the Myst was backing Harner in live appearances at this time.

Open Records, later shortened to OR, was located at 3126 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, most of their records have “A Call-Bill Production” on the label.

Garage Hangover