Small independent Michigan record labels were crucial to many of the state's great bands
“96 Tears” was not the first garage rock single to reach # 1, In fact it was not even the first garage rock single from Michigan to be a # 1 hit. That honor goes to “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James & The Shondells who reached the top of the Hot 100 for two weeks in July of 1966, three months before “96 Tears” achieved the feat.
James was born Tom Jackson in Dayton, Ohio, but his family moved to Niles, Michigan, when he was eleven and that is where he formed The Tornados, his first band. After recording a single on a small regional label as Tommy and The Tornadoes, the band signed with Snap Records and changed their name to The Shondells.
Their second single for Snap was “Hanky Panky”, a rocking version of the B-side of a record by The Raindrops, a studio group made up of Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Recorded at the WNIL radio station studio in Niles, it was a regional hit in West Michigan in 1964; but Snap did not have national distribution and the record was soon forgotten.
By 1965, the Shondells had broken up, and by the end of the year, James was playing a regular gig with another band called the Koachmen in South Bend, Indiana, while trying to support his wife and young child. He was thinking about quitting music when he got a phone call that changed his life.
A club DJ in Pittsburgh had found a used copy of “Hanky Panky” and the crowds at his dances went wild whenever he played it. He then made bootleg copies of the record, and it was currently the # 1 song in Pittsburgh. He was invited to come to Pittsburgh, but James could not get any of the members of the Shondells or the Koachmen to come with him. As a result, James recruited some young musicians from South Bend, Indiana, to pose as the Shondells for the weekend.
Needing a permanent band, James found a talented quartet from Pittsburgh called The Raconteurs who agreed to become the new Shondells. James then brought the original master recording of “Hanky Panky” to New York and sold it to Morris Levy, the mob-connected head of Roulette Records. It became a # 1 hit in the summer of 1966 and “Hanky Panky” would be the first of 17 singles by Tommy James & The Shondells to chart on the Hot 100 during the 1960s.
The group’s next big smash was 1967’s # 4 hit, “I Think We’re Alone Now.” The song was written and produced by Ritchie Cordell and Bo Gentry who would go on to team with James on several of his biggest recordimgs. Tommy James & The Shondells were a constant presence on the Top 40 for the rest of the decade, scoring Top Ten hits with “Mirage”, “Mony Mony”, “Crimson And Clover”, “Sweet Cherry Wine”, and “Crystal Blue Persuasion”.
In 1968, Tommy James and The Shondells traveled with Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign. After performing at several campaign stops, James and the band decided to start producing their own records. The “Crimson And Clover” and “Cellophane Symphony” albums displayed a more progressive and psychedelic side of the band, but they missed their chance to cement their ties to the emerging counterculture by declining an invitation to play Woodstock.
Tommy James and The Shondells’ “She”, released in late 1969, would be the group’s final top 40 hit. The band took a vacation shortly after that ended up turning into a friendly, but permanent, break up.
After a short break, James came back as a solo artist and continued his recording career throughout the 1970s. In 2010, he published a highly entertaining memoir of his fascinating career and interactions with the notorious Morris Levy called Me, The Mob, And Music.
The Great Lakes Recording Studio and its Fenton Records label was Southwest Michigan’s most interesting independent business during the 1960s. Founded by musician and electronics buff Dave Kalmbach, his recording facility was located in the Sparta Theatre in the small town of Sparta, Michigan, located 15 miles north of Grand Rapids.
Kalmbach’s Fenton business model was pay-as-you-go, with his company providing recording and mastering services for a fee. His business catered to young bands who wanted to record a pair of songs and press enough 45s to sell off the bandstand at teen clubs, to give to potential employers, and possibly get played on a local radio station. The records were pressed at American Record Pressing in Owosso, which also pressed records for Motown.
During his years of operation, Kalmbach would record over one hundred 45s from garage bands mainly from the Grand Rapids and Lansing areas, but also from Traverse City to the north and the Tri-Cities to the east. The list of bands included the Quests and the JuJus from Grand Rapids, Tonto & The Renegades from Grand Ledge, the Cherry Slush from Saginaw, the Plagues from Lansing, and the Blues Company from Bay City to name just a few.
Bands were given the choice of releasing their singles on Kalmbach’s Fenton label or they could use their own customized imprint. None of the songs from these singles charted beyond local radio station surveys, and the only one of the bands to ever place a single on the Hot 100 during their career was a Lansing area band called The Woolies. The band recorded a cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” in 1966 with Kalmbach after hearing about his studio while playing gigs around the state. They also recorded several other songs at the Sparta Theatre with the idea of putting out an album, but fate intervened instead.
The Woolies won a Band Of The Land competition at the State Fairgrounds in Detroit during the summer of 1966. Their victory earned them new band equipment from Vox and a trip to California for a record deal. The record deal from the contest didn’t pan out, but the Woolies used the recordings made with Kalmbach to get signed to Dunhill Records, a label founded by legendary producer Lou Adler who was having great success with The Mamas and The Papas.
The Woolies re-recorded “Who Do You Love” on Dunhill, and it became a monster hit in Michigan. It also reached # 95 on the Hot 100 in early 1967, making them the only band that recorded with Dave Kalmbach to make the Billboard chart.
The Ones, a Lansing band featuring the vocals of Danny Hernandez, also recorded at Kalmbach’s studio. The band’s great ballad, “You Haven’t Seen My Love,” was produced by Bob Baldori of the Woolies. The record was released on both Kalmbach’s Fenton label and the Woolies’ Spirit label. After it reached # 1 on Lansing radio stations, the record was then picked up by Motown for national distribution. “You Haven’t Seen My Love” did not chart nationally, but it was the first single the company ever issued by a non-Motown produced artist, and it gave Baldori the distinction of becoming the first independent producer ever used by the storied Detroit label.
West Michigan had a thriving music scene during the 1960s. Some other bands from the area that recorded singles included the Kingtones and Lyn and The Invaders from Grand Rapids, Me & Dem Guys from Jackson, the Blue Echoes from Lansing, Band X from Manistee, the Sixth Generation from Niles, the Five Emprees from Benton Harbor, and the Chentelles from Fennville.
Hugh “Jeep” Holland operated his A-Square record label out of the college town of Ann Arbor. He thrived during the era of small clubs that catered to teens. From 1965 to 1970, Holland’s bands on his A-Square label were among the top groups in Michigan’s suburban rock scene.
The first big act on A-Square was The Rationals. Inspired by the sounds of Motown along with the Beatles and other British Invasion bands, the Rationals formed while they were still in high school in Ann Arbor. Looking to make a record, they met Jeep Holland, who was working at Discount Records in Ann Arbor, and asked for his help. Holland started managing the Rationals and formed A-Square Productions to book the band.
Holland arranged for the Rationals to record some demos at WCBN, the U of M campus radio station, and that gave him the idea of starting his own record label. Lead singer Scott Morgan co-wrote “Gave My Love” with guitarist Steve Correll, and Morgan wrote the flipside, “Look What You’re Doing (To Me Baby),” on his own. Both sides of their debut single were big local hits, each reaching # 1 on radio station WHRV in Ann Arbor.
The band’s second single, “Feelin’ Lost”, didn’t get a lot of air play on Detroit radio because several stations felt it sounded too much like the Beatles. The Rationals, which also included drummer Bill Figg and bassist Terry Trabandt, had already become local celebrities, however, and they made their first of 30 appearances on the Swingin’ Time TV show. The band also played regularly at the Mt. Holly dances sponsored by Bob Dell of popular Flint station WTAC.
Jeep Holland personally selected a cover of Eddie Holland’s “Leavin’ Here” for the third Rationals’ single. A cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect” was chosen for the flipside. Although “Leavin’ Here” was designated as the A-side, DJs began playing “Respect” instead, and it became a big regional hit in Michigan.
Cameo-Parkway’s Neil Bogart, who had recently signed ? and The Mysterians, Bob Seger, and Terry Knight & The Pack to the label, also signed the Rationals. “Respect” by the Rationals was issued nationally, and it reached # 92 on the Hot 100 in November of 1966, six months before Aretha Franklin had her # 1 hit with her version of “Respect” in the spring of 1967. The band’s momentum was stalled, however, when their follow-up single, a cover of Sam Hawkins’ “Hold On Baby”, was denied radio play because programmers felt the lyric ‘get up and do the thing with me baby’ was too suggestive.
After Cameo-Parkway went out of business, Holland got the Rationals a deal for a single with Capitol Records. The band’s cover of Chuck Jackson’s ballad “I Need You” was a big hit in Michigan; and it would even quiet the rowdy rock and roll crowds at the Grande Ballroom when the Rationals performed it at the Detroit venue.
Sadly, “I Need You” did nothing nationally, and when Capitol declined to release another record, the band blamed Holland. The band members were now out of high school, and they bristled at Holland’s need to control everything.
After recording another great single called “Guitar Army” on the local Genesis label, the Rationals left Jeep Holland and got a residency at the famous Scene music club in New York City. It was there that Scott Morgan was offered the chance to audition for Al Kooper’s recently vacated place in Blood, Sweat & Tears. Morgan stayed loyal to the Rationals and declined the offer.
The Rationals went on to sign with Bob Crewe’s new Crewe label, and they released their self-titled album in 1970. The album did not sell outside of Michigan, and hat summer, with the band’s finances in disarray and band members arguing over their musical direction, the Rationals came to an end.
The other significant band that came out of Jeep Holland’s A-Square operation was the Scot Richard Case, later known as SRC. They were the most classically mod of all the Michigan bands, heavy on showmanship and flash but with a strong musical backbone.
Inspired by progressive British bands such as the Move, the Pretty Things, Procol Harum, and the Who, the group was a combination of the Fugitives from Dave Leone’s Hideout label and another band called the Chosen Few. The band’s tight sound and the strong visual appeal of lead singer Scott Richardson, who had a stage jacket fitted with electric flowers that he could light at will, made the Scot Richard Case an instant hit on the teen club circuit.
Jeep Holland had already recorded the band’s first single, set for release in the spring of 1967, when he heard Cream’s “I’m So Glad” from their debut album. Holland insisted that the Scot Richard Case cover it for the A-side of their debut, and “I’m So Glad” quickly became a big hit in Michigan, reaching # 1 on WTAC’s “Wee-Tac Top 40” survey.
The band, which also included brothers Gary and Glenn Quackenbush on lead guitar and keyboards along with Steve Lyman on rhythm guitar, Robin Dale on bass, and E.G. Clawson on drums, was a powerhouse unit. The band resisted Holland’s continued attempts to exert artistic control, however, and they parted ways with A-Square.
They began working with producer John Rhys, whose publishing connections helped get the band signed to Capitol Records in 1968. Now billing themselves as simply SRC, the band recorded their self-titled debut album at the Tera Shirma studios in Detroit. Containing all original songs, the psychedelic “SRC” album was a big hit in Michigan and even managed to reach # 147 on the Billboard album chart. Capitol issued “Black Sheep” from the album as a single. Although it was very popular in Michigan, it failed to chart nationally.
By the time SRC began recording their second album, they had used the advance money from Capitol to build their own studio in Ann Arbor called the Morgan Sound Theatre. Their second album, “Milestones,” was recorded there with production credits to both John Rhys and SRC. Containing ten original songs, the album presented SRC at the top of their game.
Several of the album’s songs, including “Up All Night”, “Checkmate” and the instrumental medley of “In The Hall of The Mountain King” and “Beck’s Bolero,” got significant radio play in Michigan but none of the songs charted nationally. “Milestones” was SRC’s most successful album, however, spending nine weeks on the Billboard chart and peaking at # 134.
By 1969 the teen club scene had almost completely disappeared, replaced by larger venues and rock festivals. SRC hit as many festivals as possible while promoting the “Milestones” album, playing before large crowds at pop festivals in Wisconsin, Detroit, Toronto, and Saugatuck. But they also had a very disappointing run of shows on the West Coast at the Fillmore West and the Avalon Ballroom. The laid-back audiences there had little or no appreciation of Detroit rock and roll bands, and SRC was poorly received in a very important market. This led to arguments among band members regarding the band’s musical direction.
Gary Quackenbush, whose lead guitar was an important element of SRC’s sound, left the band shortly before they recorded their third album. “Traveler’s Tale” presented a different sound for the band, but it sold poorly when released in early 1970. The band was then dropped by Capitol Records.
SRC played at the enormous Goose Lake Festival in August of 1970. Looking for a new lease on life, they briefly changed their name to the Blue Scepter and recorded a single for Motown’s Rare Earth label in 1971. When it didn’t chart, Motown declined to issue an album and the band went back to using their SRC name. Discouraged and deep in debt, SRC played its final gig in January of 1973.
