The Passions came from Sherman, Texas, a town northeast of Dallas that had several bands including the Jack Rafters, the Five Coachmen and the Marquees.
Unlike those other bands, the Passions made a record, cutting the excellent “Lively One” / “You’ve Got Me Hurtin'” for Huey Meaux’s Pic 1 label, released in June 1965.
One person I spoke to referred to the band as Bill Galleon & the Passions. I thought Donald R. Mask may have been a member, as he wrote “You’ve Got Me Hurtin'” (his name is listed simply as Don Mask on the demo).
However, Alec Palao tells me the members were Gordon Eatherly, Bill Galyon, Larry Jannash, Roger Burkitt, Bill Shearin and Jerry Mullins, and that Eatherly was likely the leader of the band.
Besides the two songs on the single, the band recorded two cover songs that Big Beat will include on a compilation of bands on Meaux’s labels to be released Spring, 2013.
Does anyone have a photo of the group?
Mark Taylor supplied the scans seen here. Of the Sellers demo cut, he says “‘Lively One’ has an extra 40 seconds of harp wailing with an extra chorus, and ‘You Got Me Hurtin” has about 20 seconds extra of ‘yeah yeah yeah'” compared to the Pic 1 versions.
I nearly fell over when I saw this! Bill Galyon was the leader of THE PASSIONS and yes,Jerry Mullins did play in the band,he was my brother and he was playing the harmonica. They use to play at the Armory in Sherman and a few other places as well.I would love to be able to get a copy of the record because mine got lost and Jerry is deceased but his children would be sooo thrilled.
Jerry Mullins was my dad. I have a photo of the group.
I’m the daughter of Jerry mullins! 🙂 I have a photo of the band.Thank you for this. I can’t even explain how excited I am to hear it.
I was married to Gordon Eatherly for 31 years, he passed away in 2007. My son is a musician and is needing as much info on the band as he can get and pictures. He is going to record Lively One. He has an interview and wants to learn as much as he can about his father’s band and is hoping to find pictures of them. I am pretty sure I have a couple of boxes of 45’s around here and would be happy to share them. My name is Sherrill Eatherly, My son, John, Eatherly, is touring with his band, Public Access TV in the UK right now and records in London. Thank you!
Im Jerry Mullins sister and his kids av some pics and we woul love to have some of the records. Jerry passed a few yrs. ago and it would mean so much to have some, mine I had got destroyed. That is so great that yalls son is doing this,I remember Gordan well he was always so nice .
It’s so awesome to hear this, I’m Jerry Mullins grandson, it’s really cool to think of him playing back in the day.
I was a member of the Five Coachmen. We admired the Passions and enjoyed listening to them. I agree that Bill Gaylon was the leader, or so it seemed.
Don Mask deserves a mention. Don offered a song or two to us, The Five Coachmen, as well and I knew Don. He was a janitor at Sherman High School. Don was a black man and had a musical talent. He always told me that he particularly enjoyed listening to white boys play black music. The British Invasion brought back to the US the black R&B, which we started playing, without a full appreciation of its origins.
Does anyone from Sherman remember a band called something like Wildberry Twist from possibly the 60s? Was looking for any info on a band that my dad Don Phelps and Gordon Eatherly were in together around that time. Thanks a bunch for any nuggets of info you might be able to pass along.