The Barracudas came from Bunkie, Louisiana, a small town south of Alexandria.
Members were:
John Haas – vocals
Terry Fontanille – lead guitar
Tommy McNabb – bass
Alex Haas – drums
The photo above shows a quintet, so I’m not sure who the additional guitarist was.
According to Mark Prellberg’s article in Brown Paper Sack, the band started out as the Pickles and appeared on a Saturday morning TV show broadcast from Alexandria. After a show at a Chevy dealership, KDBX DJs Gene McDaniels and Larry Jorgensen signed them to a management deal. They cut one single in April 1965 at the KDBX studio for release on their managers’ Zundak label.
One side is “Baby Get Lost”, an original by Haas and Fontanille. Guitarist Terry Fontanille provides several excellent hooks with his picking, there’s plenty of background shouting and chirping of the chorus, and even a short drum break.
Clocking in at 1:43, the recording has been called ludicrously sped up, but I’ve played it at various speeds and believe that the pressing is only 1% or 2% fast, which wouldn’t be unusual for the time. One version online pitched down to 2:05 sounded too lethargic and off-key to me. The video below is close to what I feel is the correct speed. Singer John Haas was 15 at the time of recording, which could account for the high-pitched vocals.
The flip is a decent version of Jimmy Reed’s “Honest I Do” though the short guitar and drum break after the harmonica solo is hilarious.
After Alex Haas left for college, John Haas and Tommy McNabb formed Nobody’s Children, with no recordings that I know of. Billy Powell of Jimmy & the Offbeats from Baton Rouge recruited John Haas as vocalist for his new group, John Eric & the Isoceles Popsicles, making one single each for USA and Verve.
As John Eric and the Isosceles Popcicles, they had two pop singles circa 1968, “I’m Not Nice” / “Like Him” on USA Records 913 and “Gonna Change My Mind” (Haas, Amarosa, McRee) / “I Been Trying” on Verve VK-10589.
Zundak Records
The Barracudas was the second release on the Zundak label, Zundak 45-101, with “Baby Get Lost” published by Zundak Publ. Co. BMI and production by Zundak Music Enterprises, Alexandria, Louisiana.
The only other composition I can find published by Zundak is “A Soldier’s Christmas in Viet Nam” by Charles England, copyrighted by Zundak Pub. Co. in October 1966.
Besides the Barracudas, Zundak released an album:
102 – Catahoula Country Time (Ruble Wright)
And six other singles that I know of:
100 – Terry & the Pirates – “Someone Care For Me” / “Stackel-Teez” Feb’65
102 – Rhythm Kings – “Memphis” / “Runaway”
103 – Little Caesar & the Romans – “Don’t Cry No More” / “Night Train”
104 – Jimmy Ingram and Jimmy Williams and the Down Beaters – “I Need You” / “She’s Gone” (both by O.A. Raby)
105 – Betty Simpson – “Weeping Willow” / “What Is Love”
106 – The X-L’s – “Protest Against Protest” / “Blue Blue Feeling” (July 1966)
The X-L’s is a crude kind of garage record, while the Jimmy Ingram is gospel-style soul and the Betty Simpson is pop, with a good soul feeling on the b-side.
Some of the records were recorded at La Louisianne studios in Lafayette, about 90 miles to the southeast of Alexandria in central Louisiana.
Thank you to Max Waller and Teen Beat Mayhem for help with the Zundak discography.
They were based in the town of Bunkie, which is situated on route 71, northwest of Baton Rouge. There is a photo of the group with a short blurb about them that was published in the great and highly recommended ‘zine, ‘Brown Paper Sack’.
Hi there, this is Elizabeth McNabb – Tommy McNabb’s (Barracuda’s bassist) youngest daughter. This is so cool to read about! Thanks for the great article. Lot of history with this group. Just gonna add a bit of info my pop enlightened me with.
In the first photograph (brown paper sack) from left to right . . .
Terry, Alex, Johnny, Freddie Daigrepont, and Harold Ducote.
Harold left the Pickles soon after the TV performance. Tommy was a Pickle for awhile until the band changed the name to the Barracudas.
Nowadays my dad still rocks on the bass. My whole family plays music, so this is really fun to read. Johnny is also still groovin in Baton Rouge with a band called the Elements. They’ve got some excellent records! More of a reggae/ska sound, which makes sense considering Johnny’s Cuban background. We all called his mother ‘mamacita’. Johnny plays congas and sings.
Anyway, I may add more later if I can pull anything more out of my dad – I know they made some records in Houston. Edwin Edwards would fly them back and forth. Lots of good stories. In the meantime, I’m hoping someone will upload the flip side of “Baby Get Lost”. I’d love to hear that Jimmy Reed cover.
blessings!
Cool page. No other website out there seems to have any information on this band. I discovered this band thanks to the Back From the Grave compilation albums.
Master-Trak went to Arlington often… there was a pressing plant in Arlington (still is?
I saw The Barracudas at Bunkie High School. I knew Johnny was the son of David Hayes, and Tommy McNabb’s mother was my typing instructor at Bayou Chicot High School. Ferdy Guidry of the Popsicles had The Fret Shop in Baton Rouge and did some guitar work for me. I’m glad to hear they are still rocking it. Hope you have heard some of our music. We are The CayJays. We still have quite a few songs out on You Tube and other sites. Either a Dusty Ray Vaughn or The CayJays search will yield results. Happy listening. I’ll try and upload the Honest I Do side if I can.
Dusty
The correct name for the radio station should be KDBS also known as “K Dixie”. It was the only real rock / top 40 station in the area. Listened to it quite a lot growing up in Alexandria in the 60s and 70s…sadly now it is a talk radio station
The Saturday morning TV show they were on would have been broadcast from KALB TV Channel 5, which was Alexandria’s only TV station until the 1980s.