The Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels | |
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Vogue Schallplatten | |
Past members | Sal Valentino Ron Elliott Ron Meagher Declan Mulligan John Petersen Don Irving |
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino (lead vocals), Ron Elliott (lead guitar), Ron Meagher (bass guitar), Declan Mulligan (rhythm guitar, bass, harmonica), and John Petersen (drums).[1] They were discovered by local disc jockeys who were looking to sign acts to their new label, Autumn Records, where Sylvester Stewart—later known as Sly Stone—produced the group's early recording sessions. Initially, the band's musical style blended beat music and folk music and typically drew comparisons to the Beatles, while their later work incorporated other music genres such as psychedelic rock and country rock.
The Beau Brummels broke into the mainstream with their debut single, "
The band underwent several personnel changes, beginning with Mulligan's departure in 1965. Guitarist
History
Formation (1964)
Sal Valentino grew up in the North Beach section of San Francisco.[3] In early 1964, following a string of appearances as a singer on local television, Valentino received an offer to play a regular gig at El Cid, a San Francisco club.[4] Needing a band, he called childhood friend and songwriter/guitarist Ron Elliott, who recruited drummer John Petersen, rhythm guitarist/singer Declan Mulligan, and bassist Ron Meagher.[4] Victor Savant, later to achieve fame in Europe as musical director for schlager singer Roberto Blanco, was in the band for a brief period as a pianist, but never recorded with the band. The gig led to a more lucrative deal at the Morocco Room, a club in nearby San Mateo, California.[5] Meanwhile, San Francisco disc jockeys Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were looking for new acts to bring to their fledgling Autumn Records label.[5] Donahue and Mitchell wanted to capitalize on the Beatlemania craze that originated the previous year in the UK and was spreading across the U.S. by this time.[5] Rich Romanello, owner of the Morocco Room and the Brummels' first manager, asked Donahue and Mitchell to see the band perform at the club. Romanello recalled, "There were maybe four people in the place, and they set up and started playing, and that old hair on my arm goes up. And when the hair on your arm goes up, you got something. It was a big change, to go from saxophones and black singers to a white guitar sound, but I hired 'em."[6] The Beau Brummels signed with Autumn, where house producer Sylvester Stewart—later known as Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone fame—produced the group's early recording sessions.[7]
The Beau Brummels took their name from the Regency era English dandy Beau Brummell.[8] The group liked having a British-sounding name, and the legend has been, since it so closely followed The Beatles in the alphabet, the group also knew their records would likely be placed immediately behind those of The Beatles in record-store bins.[9] Valentino dismissed this notion in a 2008 interview with Goldmine magazine. "That's a total myth", he said. "We just needed a name, and that sounded good. We didn't even know how to spell it. Everybody now has a notion of what people were thinking back then, but we never thought of those kinds of things."[10] Al Hazan, who produced the band's demo recording, noted, "I never thought of the Brummels in terms of the Beatles—it was Ron Elliott's talent as a songwriter that caused me to want to produce them."[5]
Introducing the Beau Brummels and The Beau Brummels, Volume 2 (1965)
The band's debut single, "Laugh, Laugh" entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January 1965,[11] making them the first successful San Francisco rock band of the 1960s.[12] As the song climbed the charts, many listeners assumed The Beau Brummels were British, due to the band's name and musical style, which recalled such bands as The Beatles and The Zombies.[13]
The comparisons were bolstered by Donahue and Mitchell, who had the band dress in Beatlesque suits and spread rumors that the band was indeed British.[5]
"Laugh, Laugh" peaked at number 15 in February,[14]
but Donahue believed the single would have gone to number one if the band was on a label with stronger distribution.
When recording began for the band's second album, 1965's The Beau Brummels, Volume 2, Mulligan was no longer a member of the group.[20] In 1966 Mulligan filed an unsuccessful lawsuit, claiming he was wrongfully dismissed from the group.[21] "You Tell Me Why", the album's lead single, was the band's third and final U.S. top 40 hit, peaking at number 38 in August 1965.[14] Another single, "Don't Talk to Strangers", reached number 52 in November.[14] While Stone is credited as the album's producer, his involvement, according to Sal Valentino and Ron Elliott, had diminished to the point that the band does not recall any producer being in charge.[20] By the end of the year, Elliott began to suffer seizures from his diabetic condition that left him unable to perform.[22] Don Irving became Elliott's stand-in on guitar when the group performed live, and also recorded with them.[22]
Beau Brummels '66, Triangle and Bradley's Barn (1966–68)
The Beau Brummels made a musical guest appearance performing "Just Wait and See" in
The band resumed writing original material for their fourth album, Triangle, produced by Lenny Waronker.[3] Session musicians, such as Van Dyke Parks, who played harpsichord on "Magic Hollow", contributed to the album.[28] Released in July 1967, Triangle only reached number 197 on the Billboard 200 albums chart,[17] but it was praised by critics, including Australian journalist and author Lillian Roxon in her 1969 Rock Encyclopedia.[29][30] In 1968, Meagher was drafted for military service, leaving the Beau Brummels as a duo consisting of Valentino and Elliott.[31] The duo went to Tennessee to record their fifth album, and worked with prominent Nashville session musicians such as Kenny Buttrey, a drummer on Bob Dylan's albums from 1966 to 1969, and guitarist Jerry Reed.[32] The Beau Brummels were so pleased with the results at the studio that they named the album Bradley's Barn, after the studio in which it was recorded.[33] Shortly following the album's release in October 1968, the Beau Brummels split up.[3]
Solo works, other projects and reformation (1969–2013)
Following a stint in 1969 recording solo singles for
In February 1974, Billboard magazine reported that the Beau Brummels had reformed in San Francisco.[36] The band resumed touring, and a 1974 performance recorded in Fair Oaks Village near Sacramento, California was released in 2000 as the Live! album.[37] In April 1975, the band released a self-titled studio album, which reached number 180 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.[17] One of the band's previous singles, 1965's "You Tell Me Why", was re-recorded for the album.[38]
Although the band split up again soon after the album's release, the Beau Brummels continued to work in various incarnations from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, including shows with The Smithereens, and often appeared in tandem with Dinosaurs, the psychedelic-era "supergroup".[39] The band also performed at shows such as the Baypop 2000 Festival[40] and the 2002 Summer of Love Festival, both in San Francisco.[41] In 2006, Valentino released Dreamin' Man, the first solo album of his 50-year career.[42] Another album, Come Out Tonight, followed later that year, and his third solo album, Every Now and Then, was released in 2008.[43] John Petersen died of a heart attack on November 11, 2007.[44]
The remaining original band members reunited to record a studio album, Continuum, released in March 2013 on Bay Sound Records. The album features drum tracks that were recorded in 1965 by Petersen and contains 15 songs written by Elliott, along with re-recordings of "Just a Little", "Don't Talk to Strangers", and "Laugh, Laugh".[45]
Musical style
Combining beat music and folk rock,[46] the Beau Brummels were most often compared, especially early in their career, to British bands such as the Beatles and the Zombies.[13] The Beau Brummels were fans of these acts as well as The Rolling Stones and The Searchers, and originally patterned their overall style after the British Invasion sound.[47] The melancholy, minor keys of debut single "Laugh, Laugh" led many listeners mistakenly to believe that the band were indeed British.[48] As the band evolved, they incorporated different music genres into their works, ranging from hard rock to country and western to rhythm and blues.[49] The Triangle album exhibited the band's growing interest in country music along with elements of psychedelic pop, including the use of strings, brass, woodwinds, harpsichord, and various types of unique percussion.[5] Ron Elliott said the album was "sort of a mood swing into the world that was around us at the time. It was sort of dissolving into this drug culture. So the music became very ethereal, mystic, and mysterious."[50] The band's country rock fusion was most evident on their 1968 album Bradley's Barn, which Elliott said was similar stylistically to Triangle, but with more country accents.[51]
The band members have been hesitant to categorize their music, preferring to call it a combination of styles, according to Elliott.[52] "We don't play anything really different—we play melodically and rhythmically", he said in a 1965 interview.[52] "I think that's why the [Rolling] Stones have made it. They don't do anything really fantastic but they have good taste, and good taste is more important than speed."[52] Sal Valentino praised Elliott's vocal style, saying that "Ron had a great low register. He knew how to write in the best keys for me." Valentino added, "From the time I started singing in bands, I didn't really sing too many other people's songs other than Ron's. Being able to sing just one person's writing, who was a pretty able writer with ability to adjust to what he's working with, had a lot to do with the way I sang."[50] Valentino also credited Sly Stone's input for the band's early success. "He had a lot to do with making our music relatable and anticipating how our records would sound on the radio, particularly on the bottom, rhythm end. Sly was very motivated to make a lot of money, and he was awfully talented."[10]
Legacy
The Beau Brummels are considered the first band from a burgeoning San Francisco music scene[40][42] to achieve widespread success in response to the British Invasion, standing out among such bands as The Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, We Five, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Country Joe and the Fish.[3] At the height of the band's popularity, the Beau Brummels were regarded as teen idols, appearing on several television music variety shows including American Bandstand, Shindig! and Hullabaloo, as well as the teen films Village of the Giants and Wild Wild Winter.[5] The band also appeared as the Beau Brummelstones in a 1965 episode of the animated television sitcom The Flintstones.[19] The band pioneered blending beat music with folk rock, as "Laugh, Laugh" was recorded before The Byrds recorded "Mr. Tambourine Man".[5][46] The group's Triangle (1967) and Bradley's Barn (1968) albums are considered early examples in the country rock music genre.[53]
"Laugh, Laugh" was included on the 1998 reissue of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968, a compilation double album of American garage rock singles that helped influence the development of 1970s punk rock.[54][55][56] The song was also featured during a scene in the 1989
Band members
Original line-up
- Sal Valentino – lead vocals, tambourine (1964–1969, 1974–1975)
- Ron Elliott – lead guitar, backing vocals, occasional lead (1964–1969, 1974–1975)
- Ron Meagher – bass, backing vocals, occasional lead (1964–1967, 1974)
- Declan Mulligan – rhythm guitar, harmonica, backing vocals, occasional lead (1964–1965, 1974–1975; died 2021)
- John Petersen – drums, occasional lead vocal (1964–1966, 1974–1975; died 2007)
Subsequent members
- Don Irving – guitars, backing vocals (1965–1966)
- Dan Levitt – banjo, guitars (1974–1975)
- Peter Tepp – drums (completed 1975 tour)
Timeline
- Note: The Beau Brummels were inactive during the 1969–1974 period.
Discography
- 1965: Introducing the Beau Brummels
- 1965: The Beau Brummels, Volume 2
- 1966: Beau Brummels '66
- 1967: Triangle
- 1968: Bradley's Barn
- 1975: The Beau Brummels
- 2013: Continuum
See also
Notes
- ^ Whiting, By Sam (November 11, 2021). "Original Beau Brummels member Declan Mulligan, who helped shape San Francisco sound, dies at 83". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
- ^ "Experience The Music: One Hit Wonders and The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rockhall.com. April 15, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
- ^ a b c d
March, Jeff; Childs, Marti (1999). Echoes of the Sixties. New York: ISBN 978-0-8230-8316-9.
- ^ a b c Eder, Bruce; Kergan, Wade. "Sal Valentino – Biography". AllMusic (TiVo Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Farrar, Justin F. (March 1, 2006). "Oh, Pioneers". SF Weekly (New Times Media). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-87930-934-3.
- ^
Gulla, Bob (2007). Icons of R&B and Soul: An Encyclopedia of the Artists Who Revolutionized Rhythm, Volume 2. Westport, Conn: ISBN 978-0-313-34046-8.
- ^ "Trivial Pursuit: The Test of Dandy Knowledge". Dandyism.net. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
- ^
Kelly, Michael Bryan (1991). The Beatle Myth : The British Invasion of American Popular Music, 1956–1969. Jefferson, N.C: ISBN 0-89950-579-1.
- ^ a b Cohen, Elliot Stephen (April 24, 2008). "Beau Brummels Look to Rewrite History with Greatest-Hits Package". Goldmine (F+W Media). Retrieved September 29, 2010.
- ^ "Billboard Hot 100". Billboard. Vol. 77, no. 1. January 2, 1965. p. 10. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ISBN 978-1-4408-3514-8.
- ^ a b Unterberger (2000) p. 174.
- ^ a b c d e
Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8th ed.). New York: ISBN 978-0-8230-7499-0.
- ^
Selvin, Joel (May 19, 1996). "Searchin' for The Dock of the Bay". Hearst Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ "RPM 100". RPM. 2 (25). RPM Music Publications Ltd. February 15, 1965. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b c "The Beau Brummels – Charts & Awards – Billboard Albums". AllMusic (TiVo Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^
Renzi, Thomas C. (2004). H.G. Wells: Six Scientific Romances Adapted for Film (2nd ed.). Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-8108-4989-1.
- ^ a b This marked the first time a celebrity was on an episode of the Flintstones.
Childs, T. Mike (2004). The Rocklopedia Fakebandica. New York: ISBN 978-0-312-32944-0.
The Rocklopedia Fakebandica.
- ^ a b Unterberger (2000) p. 177.
- ^ he sued the band for $1.25 million in damages, "Beau Brummels Deny Charges". Billboard. Vol. 78, no. 8. June 4, 1966. p. 10. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Eder, Bruce. "Ron Elliott – Biography". AllMusic (TiVo Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ Unterberger (2000) pp. 177–8.
- ^ a b c d e Unterberger (2000) p. 178.
- ^ Unterberger (2000) pp. 178–9.
- ^ a b "Rolling Stone – The Beau Brummels – Biography". Rolling Stone (Wenner Media). Retrieved September 29, 2009.[dead link]
- ^ a b Eder, Bruce. "Don Irving – Biography". AllMusic (TiVo Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^
Montfichet, Stansted. "Triangle – Overview". Rovi Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^
Roxon, Lillian (1969). Rock Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: ISBN 978-0-448-00255-2.
- ^ "Buried Treasure - Beau Brummels' Triangle". Electric Roulette (Modculture Media). October 4, 2007. Archived from the original on February 24, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b
Unterberger, Richie. "Ron Meagher – Biography". Rovi Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b Unterberger (2000) p. 181.
- ^
Otfinoski, Steven (1997). The Golden Age of Rock Instrumentals. New York: ISBN 978-0-8230-7639-0.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Ron. "Hog Farm's Wayward Bus". The Village Voice (Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC.). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b
Unterberger, Richie. "John Petersen – Biography". Rovi Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ "Inside Track". Billboard. Vol. 86, no. 6. February 9, 1974. p. 62. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^
Eder, Bruce. "Live! – Overview". Rovi Corporation). Retrieved August 26, 2009.
- ^
Greenwald, Matthew. "'You Tell Me Why' – Song Review". Rovi Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- Crawdaddy!. Archived from the originalon April 4, 2009. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b Sullivan, Denise (August 4, 2000). "Baypop Festival Flashes Back to Sixties San Francisco". Rolling Stone (Wenner Media). Archived from the original on May 12, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ Dullum, Daniel (October 22, 2002). "Beau Brummels' Singer Sal Valentino Still Rocking, Ready For Band Reunion". Spectrum Online (Metropolitan News Company). Archived from the original on October 16, 2002. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ a b
Selvin, Joel (February 22, 2006). "Decades in obscurity, Beau Brummels front man surfaces to remind us what the fuss was all about". Hearst Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- Rovi Corporation). Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ "Artists - Harpers Bizarre - Biography". NME. Retrieved September 29, 2009.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "The Beau Brummels – 'Continuum'". Bay Sound Records. Archived from the original on July 25, 2013. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
- ^ a b
Tahsler, Bruce (2007). Garage Bands From the Sixties, Then and Now (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Teens 'N Twenties Publications. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-4243-1813-1.
- ^ "Beau Brummels Zoom Toward Top". KRLA Beat. Beat Publications, Inc.: 2 March 17, 1965.
- Rovi Corporation). Retrieved September 30, 2009.
- ^ Criscione, Louise (April 23, 1966). "Beau Brummels – 'That's the Way We Want It". KRLA Beat. Beat Publications, Inc.: 7.
- ^ a b Unterberger (2000) p. 180.
- ^ Unterberger (2000) pp. 180–1.
- ^ a b c Criscione, Louise (November 27, 1965). "Beau Brummels Blackballed?". KRLA Beat. Beat Publications, Inc.: 15.
- ^ Unterberger (2000) p. 183.
- ^ "Rolling Stone – Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968". Rolling Stone (Wenner Media). August 1, 2003. Archived from the original on June 19, 2007. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
- ^
Savage, Jon (2002). England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond (Revised ed.). New York: ISBN 978-0-312-28822-8.
- ^
Gray, Marcus (2004). The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town (2nd ed.). Milwaukee, Wis.: ISBN 978-0-634-08240-5.
- IMDb.com, Inc.Retrieved September 29, 2009.
- ^ "500 Songs That Shaped Rock". The Denver Post. September 3, 1995. p. A-10. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
- ^ "100 Greatest Psychedelic Classics". Mojo. June 1997.
- ^
Moon, Tom (2008). 1,001 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List. New York: ISBN 978-0-7611-3963-8.
References
- Unterberger, Richie (2000). Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators and Eccentric Visionaries of '60s Rock. San Francisco: ISBN 978-0-87930-616-8.
- March, Jeff; Childs, Marti (1999). Echoes of the Sixties. New York: ISBN 978-0-8230-8316-9.
External links
- Official Sal Valentino site
- The Beau Brummels discography at Discogs
- The Beau Brummels at IMDb