THE WONDER OF YOU - THE SANDPIPERS
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THE WONDER OF YOU - THE SANDPIPERS
| SIDE 1 LET GO THAT NIGHT WAVE YELLOW DAYS LO MUCHO QUE TE QUIERO PRETTY FLAMINGO |
SIDE 2 THE WONDER OF YOU TEMPTATION THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND IF I WERE THE MAN KUMBAYA |
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LET GO | ||
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THAT NIGHT | ||
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WAVE | ||
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YELLOW DAYS | ||
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LO MUCHO QUE TE QUIERO | ||
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PRETTY FLAMINGO | ||
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THE WONDER OF YOU | ||
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TEMPTATION | ||
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THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND | ||
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IF I WERE THE MAN | ||
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KUMBAYA | ||
| HOW THE SANDPIPERS GRADUATED AND DROPPED
INTO PLACE By Derek Taylor . When Pete Seeger recorded "Guantanamera" at Carnegie Hall he gave the Sandpipers a hit, all right. Tommy Li Puma found it for them and they'd been in the Mitchell Boys Choir, which meant they could sing it, or anything, with some skill and charm and ease. The song is very old but it stands up well, which is more than you can say for the Cuban hero originally illuminated in the poem set to the music of "Guantanamera". He died in the nineteenth century and the freedom he sought for his country is still a dream. Back to the Sandpipers, of whom these notes are intent on being biographical. They are three and they are young: They are Jim Brady, born August 24, 1944; Mike Piano, October 26 in the same, year; Richard'kShoff, born April 30, also 1944. At the time of writing their are, thus, 25. The trio group met in the Mitchell Choir and though Mike Rossi of Allen and Rossi was also a Mitchell Boy, and though Letterman Tony Butala was likewise trained, they are only here dropped as illuminating names because this is the story of the Sandpipers and of musical depth and a hit and the patience and courage which deserves rewards like "Guantanamera" (and the confidence of Herb Alpert, which the Sandpipers also enjoy, by the way). This is how it was. Mitchell Boys, very disciplined and churchgoing, the Sandpipers knew each other as children and sang together very hard in front of severe Mitchell Boy-type audiences who were satisfied with little less than the very best until, one day or one three-days, they found the boy sopranos classic, unanswerable ecsape from the rigors of choral work. Their voices broke. Their friendship, however, didn't. And when Richard's voice was re-lined, it led him not only into the men's choir at St. Anne's Church who sing entirely in Greek, but it led him also into a search for commercial success with a writer who had done reasonably well with a hymn called "Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me Of You" in A.D. time, sung by a B.C. group called Caesar and the Romans: |
| The man who wrote the song
had other music in his head which he was anxious to unload and thus
entered Richard Shoff to join with the man and form the Four Seasons,
who aren't them. The answer is that there were two others with the man
and Richard called Mike Piano and Jim Brady, of whom, yes, you've heard
because they're the Sandpipers. As for the Four Seasons a* a name, they didn't keep it long because of the other group of the same denomination, but they kept it long enough to make a record which failed. This was a pity for the group but it was not the fault of the foursome, who were liked for themselves though not for the song. This was a pity, too, for the writer left the group because of being annoyed about his song not being dug. And there were three then and there are three now. Meanwhile, which is a good word-way of denoting the passage of time, the three — Richard, Mike and James —kept working in calmer seas outside the boiling tides of show business. Mike was a machinist and timekeeper for ready, unskilled cash, but to protect his brain he was also at college and later pursued a career in accounting, beginning as a stockbroker's clerk. And ending as one, too, for when musical success crooked its professional finger, he leaped out of the safety boat never to return, he believes. (What a name, while we're talking of Michael, is Piano. His own and real.) Richard worked at a peaceful desk, comforting himself with air-conditioned insurance-clerking, and James, elsewhere, similarly earned respectably money-making sure that when people died, their relatives could, at least, afford to work. Meanwhile, musically between 1962 and 1965 the three young men performed contemporary harmonic songs for women's clubs in the Los Angeles area . . and this, like their Mitchell training, was a phase of great strictness which prepared them for what, they trusted, lay ahead. And what did? Rock'n'roll. In every sense of , that contemporary and most collective of all adjectival nouns. In 1964 they played their first rock'n'roll date at a graduation party in Palm Springs. Applying the discipline of their childhood, they mode themselves learn rock'n'roll songs and they employed musicians for backing. This was at the height of the Beatles' triumphs in America and it seemed clear to everyone but the Daughters of the American Revolution that rock'n'roll was here, if not to stay, then for a prolonged visitation. The Grads, as the group hod been collectively and-` inaptly named, started to learn how to play instruments, and in December, 1964, they played a March of Dimes benefit in Burbank, contributing hard-core rock'n'roll and liking it, too. Earlier, they had stepped outside convention at a Hootenanny and distinguished themselves by being the only performers not to sing folk music. Richard knew a girl who knew a man who knew a Lake called Tahoe and Tahoe wanted a rock'n'roll group and it was the Grads who were auditioned . • . not by Tahoe, but by the man . . . and they won. A major choreographer arranged an act which featured the Grads and some girl dancers and with a soul singer . . . also female. . . which made it a very pleasurable gig to work and watch. The act worked three shows a night for two weeks and was immediately re-booked for a further three weeks. This was at Harrah's (where else?) and it switched then . . . because it was becoming well known . . to Reno for five weeks, also at Harrah's. This, said the Grads to themselves, is WORK. Real work. Marvellous. From Reno to San Jose. Two weeks' run this time. And then . . . to Las Vegas, where you can presume they believed they had it, made, and in a way they did, for they played the Sands for a month rind many people saw |
they played the Sands for a
month rind many people saw them and were pleased. None of these dates were easy; club audiences talk and eat and drink and laugh and 'argue and fight and write messages and take, phone calls and) generally, do most things except listen. But beneath the hubbub, a club audience is picking up vibrations and they know if an act is good or bad, even if they don't appear to have heard a word or a note of music. The Grads' club stints took them towards the end of 1965 when a clarion .. . if not, trumpet . . call came from Herbie Alpert. They were asked to audition for him and they did. He said, in essence: "You're good and I like you. But we're a small operation and there's nothing open yet, so come back in a few months". They came back, in fact, in January, 1966, when genial Tommy Li Puma brought his talented ear to A. & M. Records for a good fee. Tommy auditioned the group, saw they had instant appeal, rapport, musicianship and maybe a number of other things besides. Sufficient, at least, to inspire Tommy Li Puma to seek material for them as a matter of urgency. Inspiration like this, in a jaded industry, must be the fruit of substance. Inadequate performers don't give off that sort of aura. A. & M. signed them in the early spring of 1966 and after a brief spell with a less-than-satisfactory first release ("Everything In The Garden") the Grads went out of town to the Silver Nugget in Vegas for five weeks. Maybe, in that threatened, fearful, insecure way artists hove, they were becoming disenchanted with their recording endeavours but if this were the case, then the Grads didn't show it. With optimistic faces they returned to A. & M. for a second attempt and this time Tommy Li Puma, after exhausting, almost painful exploration of a truckload of albums, hod discovered . . .. . . "Guantanamera". The Grads became the Sandpipers and recorded the song and it became a hit. They did numerous television appearances to promote the record but there are those who say there was no need for promotion at all, for there, in the grooves, lay the success of the song. There are hits, good hits, great hits and those that cannot miss. "Guantanamera" was all of these and Tommy Li Puma, in that pessimistic way of the producer who looks only into tomorrow, wondered where the follow-up might come from. Thus the Sandpipers in general. In particular . . . looking far back now . . . Jim has been on two world tours with the Mitchell Boys Choir and has appeared before both Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII at St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. The tours included concerts in the Orient, the Philippines and most of Europe, and the Choir also did a special concert for Princess Grace of Monaco. For a little background on Mike we should contemplate his mother; who, when young, sang with a choral group and with an orchestra in Cleveland, under the direction of conductor Angelo Vitale. Mike's Sicilian grandfather and his seven brothers all played musical instruments by ear and when Mike was 10 he began playing piano. Richard intended to be a child actor but music interested him more and he was choir boy at St. James' Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles when he joined the Mitchell Singers. I think this is the Sandpipers today and I hope you are pleased with them. Producer: Allen Stanton / Arranger: Nick
DeCaro / Engineer: Dick Bogert / Art Direction: 2 om Wilkes /
Photography (Cover) : Tom Wilkes. |
