The Happy Return came from St. Louis, Missouri, releasing two very different 45s in the space of a couple years.
Members at the time of the Cadet single were:
Steve Noack – vocals, lead guitar
Tom Noack – rhythm guitar
Jim Cunningham – organ
Jimmy Albright – bass
Rich Carrell – drums
In November 1967 the Happy Return released a very good Steve Noack original in the Beatles style, “Longed For”, backed with another original “Maybe”, and issued Steve’s own Stack Records TS-XM510. The publisher, Country Stream Music BMI mainly handled country and gospel songs.
In July of 1968 Steve Noack had a light pop single as Steve Lee on the R.S.S.P. Inc label featuring his original “She’s Afraid to Answer” as the b-side to “Baby” (by G. Tomsco, B. Tomsco).
Missouri Music BMI published “She’s Afraid to Answer”. Missouri Music’s biggest copyrights seem to be on the Norman label, including “Rockin’ Little Egypt” by the Egyptian Combo and “Jerkin’ Time” by Bob Kuban with vocalist Little Walter.
The Happy Return next appear in June 1969 on the Cadet label with a great double-sided single featuring two more Steve Noack originals with great production by Norman Petty at his Clovis, NM studio. The plug side at the time was “I Thought I Loved Her”, a gentle ballad with keyboards making harpsichord and flute sounds. The Library of Congress registration for “I Thought I Loved Her” in April 1969 shows words by Rich Carrell and music by Steve Noack.
The flip is the very different and hard-rockin’ “To Give Your Lovin’”, full of crunching guitar and heavy drumming. Both songs list Steve Noack as writer and Heavy Music, Friedman-Collins Music BMI as publisher.
“I Thought I Loved Her” showed up as a “hitbound sound” in a weekly chart of Saint Charles, Missouri’s KIRL 1460 AM that August, but otherwise seems to have missed all radio charts despite being on Cadet. The band broke up the following year.
On the Cadet labels, the band’s manager Stan Friedman is listed as producer of the single. He was a booking agent in St. Louis with a University City address.
Info from Alec Palao’s notes to Get Ready to Fly: Pop-Psych from the Norman Petty Vaults on Big Beat Records, which also have two small photos of the group.
The Stack 45 was recorded at Technisonic Studios, which also ran a custom label and pressing plant, per the piece I did on my Facebook “blog” a while back (can be found in the LabelsNtoZ photo album on that account). I did an earlier piece on Happy Return too, back in 2013.
Thank you for this article. My name is Rick Carrell, I was the drummer for Happy Return. We had great times in that band. I haven’t seen Jimmy Albright or Tom knoack for decades. We were like brother back then but time changes everything. We all moved on.
In your article my name in the list of players was spelled ‘Carroll’ I get that a lot. It’s really spelled ‘Carrell’. You got it right later in the credits for ‘I thought I loved her ‘, which is another reason I’d like to thank you. Keep up the good work.
Hi Rick, I run a St. Louis local historic bands website and I need some photos for Happy Return page. Feel free to take a look: http://www.stlmusicyesterdays.com
Hello, Rick Carrell!
Why was the name Happy Return chosen? I play “To Give You(r) Lovin'” when I have a DJ night.
Hi
This is Steve’s wife, Lesley,
Steve died February 1,2010. He was 59.
Jimmie Albright died last May, 2018.
I just ran across this garage band website. It surprised me😊
Lesley,
This is Rick Carrell, I’m sorry to hear about Steve and Jimmie. We were all close back then. I’ve thought about them and Tom a lot. Wish I had stayed in touch.
I hope you’re doing alright. Thank you for letting me know.
Tom Noack gigs with Everyday People out of St Louis, MO.
Why was “I thought I loved her ” removed from your list?
Hey Rick if you see this, do you know where Steve is today? Would love to get in touch, this is Tom Hartman from The Aerovons, and Steve and I worked together briefly in the early 70s……thx!
Hi Tom
Just came across you post. This is Steve’s wife Lesley. Steve had mentioned you over the years. Steve died February 1,2010. It’s left quite avoid . Too bad you can’t will your talent to someone😊 .hope you are keeping well.