It was wonderful this weekend, in the low to mid 70's. Took the dogs for some nice walks. Bently, our 110 pound Chocolate Lab turned 3 years old yesterday. And some of the grass seed that I put down is starting to sprout. Soon it will be time to start the garden. I've got one area in the back that I plan to have an extended garden this year. Lots of peppers and tomatoes. Well, back to my weekly Monday Night Surf music exploration. This week is an interesting promo that I picked up last summer. There is not a lot of information on this group and the nice fake British accent just adds to the mystery. Surf music and British bands were hot stuff in 1965 so I guess it made sense to someone to meld the two. It appears that this group was from Tucsan Arizona and this song is on a Tucsan compilation put out by Dionysus records. I found a website that has speculated that Harry Nilsson was a member of this band. I could not find anything official in any Harry Nilsson biography regarding his membership in the Ric A Shays but it does make sense. In 1963, Harry Nilsson started writing songs with John Marascalco, who was a well known song writer and a producer. I found a reference in the June 5, 1965 Billboard Magazine issue that identified that Atlantic Records had signed a long term deal that John's label Lola would be distributed by Atlantic and the first release would be "Turn On" by the "Ric A Shays". And finally Rockin Records by Jerry Osborne lists Harry Nilsson as a member. Regardless if true or not, this is a nice slice of Surf music so Turn On Govner.
Ric -A- Shays- Turn On
5 comments:
Hi.
The Ric-A-Shays on Lola 002 are Ron Story and the Travelers. Maracalco re-named them for the release on Lola and they are not identic with Rick & the Ric-A-Shays on Lola 101.
Harry Nilsson was not member of Ron Story's band, but it's his voice which you can hear with some spoken words. They were overdubbed by him and his old mentor Marascalco.
Ron Story told me this via email last year.
Greetings
Andi
Thanks for the info. Would love to hear more on this label. Are there any compilations out there?
Hi.
No, there are no compilations. Lola issued 10 singles between 1962 and 1965 and one very obscure in 1968. The music ranges between late Doo-Wop, Rock'n'Roll, LA Chicano Rock and this kind of british-influenced garage-surf as you describe it very well. Check out the site, which I linked behind my first blog, it's in German, but perhaps you will find the discography and the scans helpful. (scroll down, the site became longer and longer since I started collecting Lola.)
Andi
Cool and thanks again. Keep an eye on my blog. I love obscure 60s records and have plenty to share.
There are more details about the record and Nilsson's involvement at this fan site.
http://fortheloveofharrynilsson.blogspot.com/2011/01/the-ric-shays-with-harry-nilsson-on-1965.html
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