The Wanted released eight songs on six different singles, four on The Detroit Sound and two national releases on A&M.
The names of the band are well-known: they put them on the labels of their 45s. Other information is not easy to come by and I don’t find them mentioned in any detail in my usual sources.
Arnie DeClark – rhythm guitar
Dave Fermstrum – organ
Bill Montgomery – bass
Tim Shea – lead
Chip Steiner – drums
All their releases have excellent songs. “Here to Stay” is an amazingly mature ballad, with a great nasal lead vocal, written by Tim Shea and Chip Steiner. The flip “Teen World” is their most basic song, sounding much like “California Sun” with new lyrics, but it’s a fine party song of the mid-60s and probably their rarest release. It was written by C. Shermetaro.
The Detroit Sound Recording Co. was located at 12730 E. Warren. I’ve read that Chip Steiner’s father Irv Steiner owned the Detroit Sound label, which usually featured soul acts.
The label changed the graphics and re-released “Here to Stay”, backed with a good version of “In the Midnight Hour” that reached #1 on WKNR in Detroit & Dearborn in March of ’67, and #3 on CKLW in Windsor, Ontario. They appeared on Robin Seymour’s TV show Swingin’ Time, probably several times. I don’t know which song was originally featured in the clip below as the audio is dubbed in.
A&M picked this up for national release in April, 1967 and bought a full page ad in Billboard for it with a neat watch graphic. As far as I can tell, the furthest it reached in the national charts was “bubbling under” at #128, with Michael & the Messengers’ version of the song on the U.S.A. label at #121. Too many competing versions kept these from breaking out nationally, although each has a distinct style.
They had one further release on A&M, a fine pop number with horns called “Big Town Girl” backed with “Don’t Worry Baby”. Despite being a Detroit Sound production I believe this single was only released on A&M.
Their next single was the tough “Lots More Where You Came From”, with the lyric “girl I’m picking up on your bad vibrations”! It was written and produced by Dugg Brown (aka Doug Brown of the Omens and producer of Bob Seger, Del Shannon, Southwind, etc), backed with a version of “Knock on Wood”. Their last on the Detroit Sound label was a good take on Bob Seger’s “East Side Story” backed “Sad Situation”, which is simply “Lots More Where You Came From” with a different title.
An email from a friend of the band was the inspiration for this post:
My name is Michael Surarez Thompson. In the 60’s I was a close friend of the Detroit garage band The Wanted. The guys all came from the Grosse Point area. Chip Steiner’s dad Irvin bought an old Detroit city bus and had it converted to a motor home if you will. The bus took us to gigs in and around Detroit and came with a chauffeur I believe his name was Walker.
I was a bit older then the boys and I left to serve in the Marine Corps. Through the years we lost contact. I have been searching for my former friends but they seem to have vanished from face of earth. I am from Port Huron, Michigan, retired Marriott executive chef living in Eugene, Oregon.
45 releases:
The Detroit Sound 222 (plain red label) – Here to Stay (Shea – Steiner) / Teen World (C. Shermetaro)
The Detroit Sound 222A/223A (red and blue label with instrument graphics) – Here to Stay / In the Midnight Hour (February, 1967)
The Detroit Sound 230 – Lots More Where You Came From (Dugg Brown) / Knock On Wood
The Detroit Sound 232 – East Side Story / Sad Situation
A&M 844 – Here to Stay / Midnight Hour (March, 1967)
A&M 856 – Big Town Girl (Dugg Brown) / Don’t Worry Baby (produced by Doug Brown) (May, 1967)
Source: WKNR chart info from ARSA. Thank you to Jim Heddle for the clean scan of the chart.
Sorry to report that there never was an LP. Everything The Wanted recorded and released is on the singles described in the article, which is extremely accurate.
Is this post actually from Dave Fernstrum ? If so I have been looking for you since the 60’s Michael Suarez Port Huron Sea Scouts. Please contact me 541 255-7441
Are you the david Fernstrum I have been looking for since 1966. David please contact me Michael Suarez 541-255-7441
Big fan of The Wanted’s Midnight Hour. I am also from Port Huron. Did you ever have any luck locating the band members?
on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IPI7w_v6mM teen whiner perfection, wonderful record
Hi, I checked every page of your blog : it’s a FANTASTIC WORK for garage fans .
THANK YOU VERY MUCH , garagebros.
jeff
I own my second copy of “In The Midnight Hour”/Here To Stay on A&M 45rpm vinyl record.I had a buddy of mine burn iy on a CD.(He has to stuff to do it and clean it up a bit).Does anyone out there know if an LP exists?I believe I saw one on Amazon but cannot find it.Does anyone know the name of the LP.There’s another group using there name now.Don’t know anything about them except that their from another country.Anybody?
hi no lp was made, only 8 singles on 45 record. they were from grosse pointe Michigan. close to Detroit. I wish they could have recorded more songs. what a shame.
Mike,
If you see my other posts I was and hope I still am a friend of dave Fenstrum
from the 60’s I lost track cant find a trace of them any ideas? And I traveled with them on weekends for awhile before military service. I can almost be positive that there was never an album that I was aware of. If you say you saw one. I would question that.
Michael,
I knew Bill Montgomery thru his sister Lynne, whom I dated and lived with for about 4 or 5 years. The last I knew, quite a while ago, was that Lynne was living in Watertown, Massachusetts and working for City Planning Dept. That trail is probably ice cold now, but maybe worth a try to locate Bill, as Lynne was very close to him. Good luck.
Bob Millard
I was in love with Lynn Montgomery! I used to walk by their house everyday to go to Austin. I am so jealous that you know her and lived with her!
are their any pictures of the 1960s detroit group the wanted. thank you
does anybody have a 45 record of the wanted for sale. east side story or teen world, thank you
“An email from a friend of the band was the inspiration for this post:
My name is Michael Surarez Thompson.”…..
Did you keep an e-address etc.. for M.S.Tompson?
I think I found Chip Steiner playing with “Oedipus Dick” In or around 2006
There is a photo of Chip Steiner, Tim Green, and Hank Marr in a studio.
at : http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/oedipus-rising/Content?oid=1185735
how come the wanted recorded only 8 songs. they should have recorded 10 or 20 more. the 8 are pretty good. they sound great together. what happened. paul
man I can remember when midnight hour was a hit in the Detroit area.Best version anywhere .Just raw energy
the eight songs were really good. don’t know why they stopped at 8. should have made a couple more albums. they sounded great together.
I saw The Wanted (along with the Jagged Edge) at Kimball High School in Royal Oak, Michigan. I went specifically to hear ‘In the Midnight Hour’.
How wild to hear a couple of my favs played a show together. It blows my mind if that I maybe could have heard “Here to Stay” and “How She’s Hurting Me” live by the original artists on the same bill.
When I was at WSU, I worked PT for Irv Steiner in the late 70s as publicist at the Alger Theater. Dont think I ever net Chip, though.
I’m looking for Chip Steiner. We dated in the late 60’s. I spent time with him with Irv in Grosse Pointe. Chip contacted me in the late 70’s. I was diagnosed with post-polio, not long after that call. I had decided then to become a teacher, as i could roll from desk to desk on my roller chair. (which I still have and rely on today!)
I think there must be 2 Chip Steiners. The Chip I was in a band with is in his mid 50’s & did (maybe still does) play with Oedipus Dick. I stumbled on to this thread looking for that Chip Steiner.