The Innkeepers came from Rosedale in Queens, New York (not Bayside as previously thought). Rosedale is close to JFK airport, along the eastern edge of Queens, bordering Nassau County.

Members were:

Gary Matson – vocals and percussion
Mike Vendetti – Gibson guitar
Vito Turso – Hammond organ and vocals
Mike Lucente – Fender bass
Steve Saltzman – drums

The Innkeepers had one excellent single in late 1966, “Never Should Have Done It” b/w “Wanted” on Galiko 895. Leon Salem wrote both songs, he was in a jazz group at Queens College with Mike Lucente.

“Never Should Have Done It” jumps into a tense mood, with a neat sliding guitar riff throughout the song and the line “life’s not worth living now, ever since the day, oh-o-o, you left me.” The drummer keeps a strong pace, and the bassist pushes the mood as each line of the lyrics crescends and crashes. The organ player compliments the repeating guitar and takes an extended solo after a brief guitar break.

The band comes up with a tight arrangement and good harmonies to back the lead vocalist on “Wanted”.

One of the Innkeeper’s most notable shows was at the Action House in Island Park, NJ, on December 4, 1966.

Ads for the show (viewable on the Mind Smoke Records site) promise an incredible lineup, including: The Mothers of Invention, the Velvet Underground, the Fugs, the Godz, the Vagrants, the Left Banke, the Wild Ones, and the Bit a Sweet.

Also, the Seventh Sons, the Fantasy Machines, the Ronettes, the Shangri-La’s, Lenny Welch, Monti Rock III, Joey Greco and the In Crowd, the Crests, the Shaggy Boys, Terry Knight and the Pack and Brian Hyland.

Besides the Action House, the Innkeepers played at Danny Mazur’s My House in Plainview NY, the Malibu Beach Club in Lido Beach, the Bull Shed in Huntington, Cinderella in Greenwich Villlage, the Shindig Lounge in Lynbrook, and regularly at The Busted Buzzard in Baldwin, NY.

The group was sometimes billed as the Inkeepers (one “n”) and the band name appears that way in one promo photo.

Salem copyrighted “Wanted” with the Library of Congress in August 1966, following it up with “Never Should Have Done It” in October, both with publishing by Leona Music Pub. Co., but on the Galiko single both list Aurora Music Pub. BMI.

The Library of Congress index shows Leon Salem copyrighting six additional titles before the end of 1966, “What Do You Find?”, “All the Time”, “Venetian Gondola”, “Reasons”, “The Truth”, “Come Back, My Baby”, though only the first of these also had the Leona Music Pub. Co. credit.

With such an accomplished group of musicians, I hope there are some unreleased Innkeepers recordings out there, yet to be heard.

Galiko had a number of other releases, most notably the U.S. Stamps, who had two singles on the label in 1967, “Come On” / “Go and Dry Your Tears” and “Pull the Wool” / “We’ll Find a Way” (by Ed Landis). I don’t know anything about that band either.

There is a Leon Salem who has a number of credits: arranger and conductor on Nanette Natal’s 1969 album Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow , “sweetening” on the Tokens “I Like to Throw My Head Back and Sing (That Good Ole Rock and Roll)”, vibes and orchestration on the Brother to Brother ‎LP Shades In Creation, and in 2018, production and writing of “Apollo Rising” by Tommy LaBella. I’m not sure if this is the same person, however.

Thank you to the members of the Innkeepers for help with this post: Gary Matson for sending the photos, and Mike Lucente and Vito Turso for information about the group.

This Innkeepers should not be confused with the band from Lewiston, Maine, whose demo “Traella (Hey Babe)” surfaced years back.