Outdoor dancing was an important part of Michigan’s summertime rock and roll scene during the 1960s. The Music Box located at the eastern end of Houghton Lake in Prudenville, Michigan, was one of Northern Michigan’s most popular teenage gathering places. During the summer months, teens from all over the state would travel to the Music Box to dance to the latest Top 40 sounds played from the venue’s DJ tower with its state-of-the-art sound system.
The club was opened by Lee and Shirley Kelly in 1946 following Lee’s discharge from the Army Air Corps in World War II. Its heyday, however, was during the rock and roll era of the 1950s and 60s when its open-air dance floor was packed with teens during the summer.
Bay City also developed a very important open-air music venue when WKNX DJs, Bob Dyer and Dick Fabian, convinced the owners of the Roll-Air skating rink to start hosting weekly Battles of the Bands on Tuesday nights during the summer. The competitions were very popular, and upwards to two thousand teens would attend to watch the competition between bands, both local and from around the state.
The Bossmen played at Roll-Air numerous times. The band released several singles that got a lot of radio play on WKNX and other local stations and quickly became one of the most popular groups in Mid-Michigan.
Most of the groups that competed in the Battle of the Bands at Roll-Air are long forgotten, but one that went on to be successful was ? and The Mysterians. The band was originally formed in Saginaw as an instrumental trio by bassist Larry Borjas, drummer Robert Martinez, and guitarist Bobby Balderrama.
The British Invasion put a premium on vocals so the group added Robert’s older brother, Rudy Martinez, as lead singer. The band took its name from a Japanese science fiction movie called The Mysterians in which the earth was invaded by aliens from the planet Mysteroid. The alien invaders wore helmets and dark glasses and planned to destroy earth and abduct its women.
The Mysterians’ first manager wanted the original three instrumentalists to call themselves x, y, and z, with Rudy Martinez as ?. Rudy was the only one who could keep up the charade, and the group soon became known as ? (Question Mark) and The Mysterians. They soon added young Frankie Rodriguez from Bay City on keyboards and the lineup was complete.
? and The Mysterians competed in the 1965 Battle of the Bands at Roll-Air. They won a preliminary round to qualify for the finals but they finished 3rd at the end of summer’s final round behind a Bay City band called The Mustangs and the winning group from Detroit, The Motor City Bonnevilles.
In early 1966, the band recorded the two songs that they thought was going to be their debut single in small studio in Detroit. Unfortunately, the studio owner was murdered after the session, and the master tapes were lost for years. Shortly thereafter, Larry Borjas and Robert Martinez enlisted in the Army. They were replaced by Eddie Serrato on drums and, later, Frank Lugo on bass.
The band’s new manager, Lilli Gonzales, booked a recording session at the Schiell Recording Studio in Bay City in April, and the band recorded two original songs, “Midnight Hour” and “96 Tears”. The session was produced by Lilli Gonzales’ brother-in-law, band leader Rudy “Tee Gonzales, and the bass was played by a musician from his band.
500 copies of the record were pressed and released on the small Pa Go-Go label out of San Antonio that was partly owned by Gonzales’ husband. “96 Tears” began its journey to becoming a national hit after it was played on the radio by Saginaw stations WKNX and WSAM. It eventually spread to WTAC in Flint and then to Detroit stations, where it reached # 1 on CKLW – Windsor, Canada’s 50,000 watt AM giant.
The demand was more than the small Pa Go-Go label could handle, so the single was leased to Cameo-Parkway Records for national distribution. During the week of October 29, 1966, “96 Tears” hit # 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100. ? and The Mysterians went from playing Michigan teen clubs to appearing on American Bandstand and on Dick Clark’s Where The Action Is.
Dick Clark interviewed the group on Bandstand, and Question Mark gave the impression that it was recorded in an ordinary living room. The truth was that Art Schiell was an audiophile and his little studio, located in what was used as a living room when he wasn’t recording, had a control booth and was well-equipped for recording. Schiell recorded all kinds of music, including polka bands, gospel music, Mexican conjunto artists, and even singer Meat Loaf’s first recordings as a member of a Michigan band called the Popcorn Blizzard.
“96 Tears” was a gigantic hit. It spent 15 weeks in the Hot 100, more than every other single released in 1966 except “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas. While their hit was still on the charts, Cameo brought the band to New York to record enough songs for the “96 Tears” album that included the two songs done with Art Schiell in his Bay City studio.
“I Need Somebody,” the lead track on the album, was released as the follow-up single, and it reached # 22 late in 1966. In the meantime, ? and The Mysterians appeared on Swingin’ Time with Robin Seymour to perform “96 Tears” and began touring with national acts like the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, the Mamas and the Papas, and Jay & The Americans.
Cameo-Parkway brought the band “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” for their third single in early 1967, and they insisted that Frankie Rodriguez play an organ part almost identical to that on “96 Tears”. The band did not want to repeat themselves but they did what they were told. “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” was only a minor hit, however, reaching # 56 on the Hot 100 in early 1967.
Three months later, they were back in the studio to record “Girl (You Captivate Me)” which just barely scraped into the Hot 100 at # 98. The record did not get a great deal of airplay because Question Mark substituted the word masturbate into the lyrics (“Girl you masturbate me”) Both songs appeared on the band’s 2nd album, “Action”, released in late 1967.
The band’s final single on Cameo, “Do Something To Me”, looked like a good bet to get them back into the Top 40, but the Cameo-Parkway label was shut down four weeks after the single was released. “Do Something To Me” stalled at # 110, suffering a fate similar to Bob Seger’s “Heavy Music” single.
Things went downhill for ? and The Mysterians from that point on. They signed with Capitol Records in 1968, but their “Make You Mine” single failed to chart. In April of 1968, Question Mark and two others were arrested by the Michigan State Police in a parked vehicle near Saginaw and charged with glue sniffing. The incident resulted in some very negative publicity for the band, and they were dropped from Capitol after just the one single.
After drummer Eddie Serrato was seriously injured in a car accident, bassist Frank Lugo quit the band to spend more time with his new wife. The band then signed with Ray Charles’ label, Tangerine Records. ? and The Mysterians only released one single on Tangerine, but after Bobby Balderrama and Frank Rodriguez left, Question Mark was the only remaining member from the original lineup that had recorded the hits. In 1969, he signed on with Delta Promotions in Bay City and continued to tour with an ever-changing cast of Mysterians.
Saginaw’s Daniel’s Den was Mid-Michigan’s premier teen club during the 1960s. Established in 1964 in the building that once housed the Daniel Theater, owner Frank Patrick booked national recording acts including Sonny & Cher, the Yardbirds, the Shangri-Las, Gary Lewis and The Playboys, and the Kingsmen.
Daniel’s Den also booked all the top Michigan bands as well as a host of local groups like The Del Raes, The Cherry Slush, and The Paupers. Frank Patrick got a great deal of free publicity for his teen club because all of its weekend events were covered by two enterprising teens, Jo Hintze and Deb Harden. The two girls from St. Andrew’s High School in Saginaw reported all the activities at Daniel’s Den and the Y-A-Go-Go in their weekly Deb & Jo column in the Saginaw News from 1965 to 1968.
One of Michigan’s most popular bands during this teen club period was Terry Knight and The Pack. The group appeared at Daniel’s Den numerous times, and they placed five songs on the Billboard charts in 1966 and 1967.
Terry Knight was born Richard Terrance Knapp in 1943 in Lapeer. He was a very successful DJ at WTAC in Flint, WJBK in Detroit, and CKLW in Windsor, Canada, before he started singing. In early 1965, Knight met a young Swartz Creek band called the Jazzmasters and recruited them as his backing band.
Renamed ‘The Pack’ after the recent Shangri-Las’ hit, Knight and the band released their debut single on Wingate Records, a Detroit R&B label. Knight had met the Rolling Stones on their first U.S. tour in 1965 and fashioned his band in their image.
Knight wrote both sides of the band’s second single, released on the Lucky Eleven label in Flint. “How Much More (Have I Got To Give)” not only sounded like the recent Stones’ hit “Get Off My Cloud” but it even mentioned Mick Jagger’s name in the lyrics.
Terry Knight and The Pack opened for the Rolling Stones at Cobo Hall in 1965 and also for the Yardbirds at Flint’s I.M.A. It was at the Yardbirds’ show that Knight heard them play an album cut called “Mister You’re A Better Man Than I”. Knight loved the song, and he rushed the Pack into the studio to record a cover of it with the shortened title, “Better Man Than I”. It was a big Michigan hit reaching # 1 on radio stations in Flint and Detroit. It also reached # 125 on Billboard’s chart. Mark Farner had recently been added to the band, and it was his first recording with the Pack.
Because of his contacts in the music industry, Knight managed to get an advance copy of the Rolling Stones’ new single in the spring of 1966. Without getting permission, Knight and the Pack covered one of the songs, “Lady Jane.” Michigan radio stations made a big deal about Terry Knight and The Pack recording a new Jagger-Richards song, but the Stones weren’t happy with what Knight had done, and the Pack’s version of “Lady Jane” had to be pulled off the market.
In the fall of 1966, Terry Knight and The Pack recorded what was to become their biggest hit, a cover of the Ben E. King ballad “I (Who Have Nothing)”. It would eventually reach # 46 on the Hot 100, and to take advantage of the momentum from their hit, the band released its first album. The self-titled album contained their hit plus early singles, including their version of “Lady Jane”. Mark Farner was not on the album cover because he was unhappy with Knight’s total control of the band left the group shortly after the recording.
Terry Knight and The Pack recorded two more singles and a second album titled “Reflections” before Knight parted ways with the band to pursue a solo career. He auditioned with Paul McCartney in England for Apple Records but was not signed. Afterwards, he wrote and recorded a tribute song about McCartney. Titled “St. Paul”, it was released in the spring of 1969 and contained some segments of the Beatles’ songs. It is thought that Knight’s recording might have helped start the ‘Paul Is Dead’ rumor that began in Michigan in the fall and ultimately spread all over the world.
Bay City’s Band Canyon was unique in that it may have been the only venue in Michigan that was originally constructed to be a teen club. It opened on July 2, 1965, with shows starring Freddy Cannon.
The club booked mostly local bands through Delta Promotions which was owned by Willard Kehoe, one of the Band Canyon’s investors, but several national acts also performed at Band Canyon during its first two years. These included The Byrds first performance in Michigan on July 22nd, and later shows that featured Bobby Goldsboro, Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs, Brian Hyland, and Del Shannon.
By 1968, however, the era of the teen clubs was drawing to a close. Rock and roll had become a bigger business, and the days when a venue could book a band like the Byrds for somewhere between $550 and $850 and still make a profit were over.
Musical tastes were changing as well. Psychedelic music was now the rage, and the drug era made it more difficult to keep substances out of the clubs. In addition, albums were outselling singles, playing original music was taking precedence over doing covers, and it was now considered cool to sit and listen to a band rather than get up and dance.
Band Canyon was sold to two young men backed by an undisclosed investor in 1968, and its name was changed to ‘The Lady’. By the end of the decade, the building was only sporadically presenting rock bands and was often rented out on weekends for receptions and other private events.
The Blue Light was Midland’s first important teen club. It was the brainchild of local DJ and Dow Chemical engineer Hersh Goodwald. He and several investors purchased a two-story building that was the former home of the Knights of Columbus and transformed it into a teen nightclub.
The Midland club’s operation was similar to teen clubs around the state. It presented mostly Michigan bands each week, staging battles of the bands featuring local groups, and periodically presented national recording artists like the Animals, Shadows Of Knight, the Kingsmen, and the New Colony Six.
The Blue Light officially opened on March 25, 1966 with The Bossmen as the headliners. The Bossmen had emerged in 1964 as the most popular band in the Tri-Cities area. Led by singer-songwriter-guitarist Dick Wagner, the band had written, recorded, and released a number of catchy, radio-friendly singles on a variety of independent record labels that helped make the Bossmen mid-Michigan’s answer to the Beatles.
Dick Wagner was born in Iowa in 1942. He moved to southeast Michigan with his family and started playing in bands there. In 1964, he and keyboardist Warren Keith moved to Saginaw and formed the band that became the Bossmen with drummer Pete Woodman and bassist Lanny Roenicke.
Hearing the Beatles on the radio changed Dick Wagner’s musical direction, and he began writing catchy songs that fit right in with the current hits of the Beatles and other British bands. Wagner developed a do-it-yourself approach to not only recording but also promoting the Bossmen’s singles. He established good relationships with the area’s DJ’s, playing at their dances and doing radio promotions, that resulted in a good deal of airplay on influential radio stations like WSAM in Saginaw and WTAC in Flint. Wagner also had a very close friendship with WKNX DJs Dick Fabian and Bob Dyer, and the Bossmen appeared at many of their shows at Roll-Air in Bay City and the Y A-Go-Go in Saginaw.
Although they did not have the distribution to take their singles outside of Michigan, Dick Wagner and the Bossmen were a major influence to the many young Michigan bands who saw them or played at the same venues. Wagner produced songs that he had written for several of these Michigan bands including the Cherry Slush, the Pack, the Bells of Rhymny, Count & The Colony, the Sand, and Tonto & The Renegades.
In 1966, with new member Mark Farner in the band, the Bossmen released their biggest Michigan hit, a song called “Baby Boy,” that was produced by Terry Knight and released on Lucky Eleven Records out of Flint. The Bossmen broke up in early 1967, however, following what was a scandal at the time involving drummer Pete Woodman being busted for marijuana possession.
Wagner went on to form a new band with a group from Alpena called The Chevelles, who had recently been the house band at Daniel’s Den. They started out calling themselves the New Bossmen but soon changed it to Dick Wagner & The Frost, and eventually to just Frost. The Frost embraced a heavier rock sound than the Bossmen, but Wagner’s new songs still had the hooks that made them very listenable and radio friendly.
The Frost quickly became one of the top attractions at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. The band signed a contract with Date Records and released two fine singles before signing with Vanguard Records in 1969. The Frost’s self-titled debut album seemed like a sure thing when it was released and quickly became the # 1 album in Michigan and selling over 50,000 copies in the state in a manner of months.
Vanguard Records was basically a folk music label, however, and wasn’t up to the task of adequately promoting and distributing a rock record across the country. The distribution problem also hurt the band’s second album, a combination of studio recordings and live performances from the Grande Ballroom titled “Rock and Roll Music”. Released near the end of 1969, its great title cut, “Rock and Roll Music,” did manage to become the Frost’s only charting single, peaking at # 105 on the Billboard chart in December.
The Frost recorded its final album, “Through The Eyes Of Love” in 1970, and the group performed before a crowd of over 200,00 fans at Goose Lake in the summer before breaking up later in the year. Dick Wagner would go on to acclaim in the 1970s appearing as a guitarist on albums by KISS, Aerosmith, and Lou Reed, and as the songwriting partner of Alice Cooper on many of Cooper’s biggest hits.
