Troy Shondell - Head Man

Fuzzy & funky slow cookin' country fried sleazy rocker from one time 50's / 60's rockabilly teen idle Troy Shondell. Whew....!

Troy's Wiki:

Troy Shondell (born Gary Shelton,[1] May 14, 1940,[2] Fort Wayne, Indiana[1]) is an American vocalist, who achieved a modicum of fame and recognition in the early 1960s. He became a transatlantic one-hit wonder, by releasing a single that made the record charts in both the US and the UK.[3][4] The song, "This Time" (or sometimes billed as "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)" sold over one million records, earning gold disc status.[5] In a single year, sales were over three million copies.[1]

Biography[edit]
Shondell was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and educated at Valparaiso and Indiana universities. He wrote his first song at age 14, which was recorded by Little Anthony & The Imperials. Shondell also learned to play five musical instruments.[5] His professional music career started as a teenager. Mercury Records released his first single, "My Hero", from The Chocolate Soldier, which he recorded in 1958 under his real name, Gary Shelton.[1]

He followed the next year with "Kissin' at the Drive-In", a rockabilly song that went on to become a drive-in theater standard. Shondell was on his way, at least in the Midwest. Chicago's Brass Rail, a major nightclub that usually hosted jazz and blues acts, brought him in for its first foray into rock and roll. The successful gig stretched to 16 weeks.[1] In 1959, Mark Records released "The Trance" and "Goodbye Little Darlin'". These sold well in the Midwest and a few other areas, but neither made it into the Top 40 of the national Billboard record chart. The singer cited his father as a major influence, among others. A song Shondell wrote about his father's death in 1960 from a heart attack, "Still Loving You", became a country hit when it was recorded by Bob Luman. Shondell's father's demise caused his career to falter, and he briefly returned to help run the family business.[1]

In April 1961, he recorded "This Time". The record was released during the last week in June on the tiny Gaye label and picked up by the small Los Angeles Goldcrest label, selling ten thousand copies during the first week. Six weeks after being released and played in Chicago, Shondell flew to Los Angeles and signed with Liberty Records. It finally hit the Billboard charts the first week of September, and landed in the Top 10 four weeks later, peaking at number six and staying in the charts for a total of sixteen weeks.[1][3] The track reached no. 22 in the UK Singles Chart at the end of that year.[4]

"Tears From An Angel" was his follow-up recording, released in March 1962. No further chart action was forthcoming, and Shondell quietly slipped away from the music industry the following year, despite his third single "Na-Ne-No", being produced by Phil Spector. However, in 1963, Tommy Jackson changed the name of his high school band from "Tom and the Tornados" to "The Shondells" in honor of Shondell (one of his musical idols).[1] Jackson became "Tommy James" and international fame followed for the act. Chicago band The Ides of March originally named themselves The Shon-dells, also in tribute to Troy. Shortly before their debut single, "You Wouldn't Listen" was released, the label found out that James had been using the name first, so they were forced to change it. In 1968, Shondell became a songwriter for Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville, Tennessee, and the first recording artist for TRX Records, a branch of Hickory Records, for whom Shondell recorded some gramophone record discs until 1969, when he went into the music publishing field. In October 1969, Shondell was appointed as Assistant Regional Director for ASCAP's Southern Regional Office in Nashville.[5]

In 2001, Shondell still performed at shows and other events. Along with Jimmy Clanton, Ronnie Dove, and Ray Peterson, Shondell was a member of the Masters of Rock 'n' Roll.[1] On October 2, 2007, Shondell traveled to Collins, Mississippi, to deliver a musical tribute to his fallen rock and roll colleague Dale Houston, who, with musical partner Grace Broussard, had reached no. 1 in 1963 with "I'm Leaving It Up to You" as the musical duo Dale & Grace.


Troy Shondell - Head Man

Sidney Jennings Keffer (1906 - 1995)

Occasionally while digging for records you find other cool stuff. I'm not a big book buyer but when i thumbed through this old copy of William Shakespeare i noticed all these neat little drawing inside. It belonged to a Jennings Keffer who was a sophomore @ Middlepoert High School (Virginia ?) in 1922. How could i not buy this? So cool and a really neat little time piece. Jenngings was quite the little doodler and seems like a swell guy buy the doodles of his friends on the back pages of the book. What little info i could find was that he was born in 1906 making him around 16 when he doodled in this book and that he died in 1995. Anyway, as with some of the odd records i find collecting of personal recordings, this is like an archeology dig through time and i felt the need to share it even if it is not music related. I added what little info i could find below. If anyone reading this has anymore info i'd love to find out more about Mr. Keffer. Maybe someday a family member will google his name and find this..... 92 years later your not forgotten Jennings.

Sidney Jennings Keffer (1906 - 1995)

Born in West Virginia, USA on 1906 to Inri Hamilton Keffer and Minora Mabel Starling. Sidney Jennings married Frances Mary Daniels. He passed away on 8 Jan 1995 in Franklin, Ohio, USA.


Athens Messenger April 22, 1930

MIDDLEPORT MENTION

Misses FANALE and Mae VARDEMAN, Olive GERMAN, of the Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music. Glen BAKER, Cincinnati, and Jennings KEFFER,
Dunbar, W. Va., were Easter guests of Miss Frances DANIELS.

Yellow Payges - Jezebel

I don't know why this band doesn't get more love....? i don't own all the singles but i have a few and the full length lp and everything is really solid. Oh well.... Here is a great organ based garage rocker w/ cool guitar work from 1967 on the Showplace records label. File under; "Almost".....

Here is the Yellow Payges wiki info:

The Yellow Payges were an American rock band, led by singer Dan Hortter, who were formed in Los Angeles, California in 1966. Although their commercial success was limited, they toured widely and recorded ten singles and an LP before splitting up in 1970.

The band was formed by singer Dan Hortter in Los Angeles in April 1966. Hortter had been a member of a Torrance-based surf rock band, the Driftones, who had just split up. At a performance by his friends in another band, the Palace Guard (whose drummer was Emitt Rhodes), at the Hullabaloo club in Hollywood, he joined the group onstage to play harmonica and sing "I'm a Man". His performance so impressed club owner Gary Bookasta that he invited Hortter to bring his own band to support The Newbeats two weeks later. Hortter recruited guitarists John Knox and Larry Tyre, bassist Herby Ratzloff, and drummer Terry Rae (formerly of the Driftones) to play the gig. Rae was then replaced by Dan Gorman, and the group changed its name to become The Yellow Payges.

They began playing regularly at the Hullabaloo, and Bookasta became their manager. There were further personnel changes. Knox and Tyre left and were replaced by Bob Norsoph and Randy Carlisle; and Mike Rummans replaced Ratzloff. When Norsoph and Carlisle themselves left, Rummans moved to guitar and Jim Lanham came in on bass; he was soon replaced in turn by Teddy Rooney, the son of actor Mickey Rooney. In 1967, the group released their debut single, "Never See the Good in Me" on the Showplace label, a subsidiary of Cameo-Parkway Records. Its local success, together with that of follow-up "Jezebel", resulted in the band signing with Uni Records. They released the single "Our Time Is Running Out", and the group toured the US as part of Dick Clark's Happening '67 package tour of 45 cities in 45 days.

Rummans and Rooney left the band in mid-1968, and were replaced by Bill Ham and Bob Barnes, both from Fort Worth, Texas. Rummans formed a new group, Salt and Pepper, with Rick James, Greg Reeves, and others. The Yellow Payges - now comprising Hortter (lead vocals, harmonica), Ham (lead guitar), Barnes (bass) and Gorman (drums) - continued to release singles, and played the Hollywood Bowl as support to Eric Burdon and the Animals, the Rascals and Tommy James and the Shondells. They also toured for several months as support for The Animals before undertaking a similar role opening for The Beach Boys. Other bands with whom the group shared a stage included Buffalo Springfield, the Doors, Pink Floyd, the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane. The Yellow Payges recorded the LP Vol. 1, released by UNI in mid-1969, and issued several singles including one of their best remembered songs, "Vanilla on My Mind", and a remake of "I'm a Man" which narrowly failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100. They also appeared on numerous regional television shows across the US, and on American Bandstand. Donnie Dacus briefly replaced Ham on lead guitar in 1969.

T he group were then hired to appear in a series of commercials for AT&T's Yellow Pages, which, according to writer Jason Ankeny at Allmusic, "effectively destroy[ed] their credibility and their momentum". According to Hortter, "We were put in these hideous yellow satin ruffled shirts with black velvet pants, and did these ridiculous commercials. It pretty much destroyed everything we worked so hard to accomplish." The group broke up in late 1970, during the recording of their second LP.

Yellow Payges - Jezebel

The Squares - Davey's Drag

Sax rocker with a guitar break from the squares on the Bristol records label. This is sort of a doo-wop rocker and a bit of a garage/surf rocker. Maybe caught in between? The year i found on the web is 1959. I don't know.... I got nothing. I've been sick and tired and i'm bored so i pulled this out while cataloging some records and decided to download. Maybe someone has some info? If not enjoy anyway.

The Squares - Davey's Drag

Brass Monkey - Bang Bang

Just another version of Bang Bang. I'm trying to obtain as many versions as i can. Anyone holding let me know.

Brass Monkey - Bang Bang

Young Holt Unlimited ‎- Wah Wah Man

Funky & fuzzy wah wah and talk box jam from 1971. Right up my alley. Not rare or anything just a great tune i dig a bunch... I'm sure a million people have heard it but if you haven't dig in, it's groovy baby. I'm not extremely well versed in Young Holt Unlimited's catalog so if anyone has more recommendations along these lines feel free to let me know what to search out. They have a pretty vast catalog.... I've said this before and i'll say this again, i do NOT claim to be an expert on music ( i know a few things... ) and i do this blog for fun and for me to search out info on records i come across and have collected. I'm not trying to post rare or unheard gems because I'm a bottom feeder when it comes to collecting really... And almost everything is out there already. I just like music and collecting records is fun and helps keep me out of trouble.... I do appreciate the few people that swing by every so often and leave comments. Please do so more often!

That being said, here's the wiki lowdown on Young Holt Unlimited:

Young-Holt Unlimited (also known as Young-Holt Trio), were an U.S. soul and jazz instrumental musical ensemble from Chicago, Illinois.
Drummer Isaac "Red" Holt and bassist Eldee Young, formerly members of Ramsey Lewis' jazz trio, formed a new outfit called the Young-Holt Trio with pianist Don Walker in 1966. They met with modest success, including the minor hit with "Wack-Wack", which charted at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 1968, the group renamed itself Young-Holt Unlimited, and replaced Walker with Ken Chaney. Under their new name, the group scored a number three Hot 100 hit with "Soulful Strut," the backing instrumental track from Barbara Acklin's "Am I the Same Girl." "Soulful Strut" sold a million copies with the gold record awarded by the RIAA in January 1969, less than 3 months after the track's release.[1] Unfortunately, follow-up releases failed to match "Soulful Strut"'s commercial success, and the group had disbanded by 1974, with Young and Holt continuing to play in Chicago small bands.
Young died of a heart attack on February 12, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand, at the age of 71.

Holt was believed still to be active as of early July 2011

Young Holt Unlimited - Wah Wah Man