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| He wrote songs for the talent on top of this... |
The Hit
“Keep on Dancing,” a garage-inspired tune with a “recorded-in-a-box” sound with a notable structure: “The second half of the song, after the false fade, beginning with Wall's drum fill, is the same as the first.” There’s more than one way to get to two minutes fifty…
Inspired by what they’d heard from the UK, The Gentrys wanted to record more songs with that sound. They recorded “Keep on Dancing” for a local label – Youngstown Records, I think – but, sadly, when MGM signed them to sell that hit and whatever came after it, they connected them to the wrong producer. At least that’s how guitarist/lead singer, Larry Strawberry, saw it and that name…a blessing, I tell you.
The Rest of the Story
The Gentrys formed as a group of friends at Memphis, Tennessee’s Treadwell High. To go through the rest of the members, they were: Pat Neal on bass guitar, Larry Butler on keyboards, the drummer Larry Wall (and later Rob Straube), Bobby Fisher on sax and keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on trumpet and, finally, Bruce Bowles and Jimmy Hart as back-up vocals…and hold onto the last name in that list.
They started the band as juniors and, to put some meat on what Strawberry called “our little rise to fame,” they went from playing dances and killing every Battle of the Bands they came across, to getting Youngstown to put out the single “Sometimes,” to steadily touring the mid-South (with chaperones! rock 'n' roll, MFs!), to doing a (possible dodgy) triple on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, to recording “Keep on Dancing,” to playing on shows like Hullabaloo Shindig! and Where the Action Is (i.e., shows featuring rockers for the teenyboppers). MGM called somewhere in there and, next thing you know they’re touring on Dick Clark caravan tours and playing with The Beach Boys (damn!) and Sonny and Cher (huh).
To skip to the end, after doing the math on what Dick Clark paid and seeing the solid support from family members and girlfriends get a little more complicated, the band’s members played out their careers on, as Strawberry named it, “the red-dirt circuit.” They made, like, 1.5 to four times per show doing that than what Dick Clark paid them, but they also lost the national exposure.
“Keep on Dancing,” a garage-inspired tune with a “recorded-in-a-box” sound with a notable structure: “The second half of the song, after the false fade, beginning with Wall's drum fill, is the same as the first.” There’s more than one way to get to two minutes fifty…
Inspired by what they’d heard from the UK, The Gentrys wanted to record more songs with that sound. They recorded “Keep on Dancing” for a local label – Youngstown Records, I think – but, sadly, when MGM signed them to sell that hit and whatever came after it, they connected them to the wrong producer. At least that’s how guitarist/lead singer, Larry Strawberry, saw it and that name…a blessing, I tell you.
The Rest of the Story
The Gentrys formed as a group of friends at Memphis, Tennessee’s Treadwell High. To go through the rest of the members, they were: Pat Neal on bass guitar, Larry Butler on keyboards, the drummer Larry Wall (and later Rob Straube), Bobby Fisher on sax and keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on trumpet and, finally, Bruce Bowles and Jimmy Hart as back-up vocals…and hold onto the last name in that list.
They started the band as juniors and, to put some meat on what Strawberry called “our little rise to fame,” they went from playing dances and killing every Battle of the Bands they came across, to getting Youngstown to put out the single “Sometimes,” to steadily touring the mid-South (with chaperones! rock 'n' roll, MFs!), to doing a (possible dodgy) triple on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, to recording “Keep on Dancing,” to playing on shows like Hullabaloo Shindig! and Where the Action Is (i.e., shows featuring rockers for the teenyboppers). MGM called somewhere in there and, next thing you know they’re touring on Dick Clark caravan tours and playing with The Beach Boys (damn!) and Sonny and Cher (huh).
To skip to the end, after doing the math on what Dick Clark paid and seeing the solid support from family members and girlfriends get a little more complicated, the band’s members played out their careers on, as Strawberry named it, “the red-dirt circuit.” They made, like, 1.5 to four times per show doing that than what Dick Clark paid them, but they also lost the national exposure.
