by Charly Mann

On March 23, 1968 I had the pleasure to see Steve Gillette, a phenomenal Southern California singer-songwriter, perform at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In spite of not yet releasing his first album Gillette was already a legend in my circle of friends. In 1965 his now classic song Darcy Farrow had appeared on Ian and Sylvia's monumental Early Morning Rain album, and several of his compositions were already staples around campfires and in the sets of several other great folk singers including Gordon Lightfoot. His fame was further cemented in 1967 when he dueted and played guitar with Linda Ronstadt on his song Back on the Street Again. In 1968 it seemed like everyone was covering his songs and Back on the Street Again was a national hit by a group called The Sunshine Company. I, along with most of the crowd around me, was awed by his performance that evening. He proved to be as a good a showman and singer as he was a songwriter. I had always admired a good song no matter what the genre, but to see a composer with such a great voice effortlessly ease through a set of his own songs with good humor made the show a transcendant experience. At the end of his performance the applause seemed to go on forever.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Steve Gillette performing in 1968

Since that day in Chapel Hill Gillette has gone on to become one of America's most consummate songwriters. He has released a steady stream of great albums, and written multi-platinum songs for artists as diverse as John Denver, Waylon Jennings, Jennifer Warnes, Kenny Rogers, Nanci Griffith, Tammy Wynette, Anne Murray, and Garth Brooks. He has also continued to improve as a singer and musician as he creates wonderful music that resonates with all generations.

Steve Gillette's most recent album The Man (2010) is rooted in the music of the 1920s & '30s and intertwines a fascinating narrative with great songs of that era as well as several stunning new original songs. This was an exciting and innovative time for American music and culture known as the Jazz Age, and through an ingenious blend of song and storytelling Gillette recreates the flavor of the time as he takes the listener on an enlightening musical journey. You may have thought that the days of the Great American Songbook ended in the 1950s, but this album shows that Gillette has turned the page and another great chapter has been written. Gillette is one of the few great songwriters who have consistently gotten better with age.

Cindy Mangsen and Steve Gillette with my daughter Kathryn (in the center) at her home in November 2011

Today Gillette performs throughout the world with his wife, Cindy Mangsen, an accomplished singer and musician in her own right, who especially shines on the concertina. Gillette has also written a great book for aspiring songwriters called Songwriting and the Creative Process. Next year he is inviting fans to join him and Cindy on a seven day cruise that includes private performances from Amsterdam around the coast of Norway. The dates of this adventure are August 10-17, 2012.

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by Charly Mann

Bland Simpson is a Chapel Hillian with an absurd diversity of talents. He is a composer of highly regarded musicals, an author, teacher, sometime member of the renowned eclectic string band The Red Clay Ramblers, and a skilled house painter. In the late 1960s and early 70s it seemed like Bland was destined to become a singer-songwriter superstar like his friend James Taylor and mentor Bob Dylan.

Simpson album cover: left to right Rob Stoner (Rothstein) - bass and organ, Bland Simpson - piano, David Olney - guitar and harmonica, Steve Merola - drums

Simpson graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 1966 (the same class James Taylor would have been in if he had stayed in town), and entered UNC with the intent of eventually becoming a lawyer. As a student he had a room in the University Methodist Church on Franklin Street where he spent a lot of his free time perfecting his musical skills on several of the pianos housed in the church. He had always loved music and especially admired the work of Bob Dylan. In 1968 Dylan released John Wesley Harding, an acoustic album that was in sharp contract to his two previous groundbreaking rock n roll albums Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. That album and its country sound had a profound influence on Simpson.

By the end of 1968 Simpson had become so obsessed with Dylan and his music that he got a ride from Chapel Hill to Woodstock, New York, the then home of Bob Dylan, with the hope of meeting his idol. Through both luck and determination Bland found his idol's secluded home. He knocked at the door, which was answered by Dylan's wife Sara. Bland asked her if he could speak to Bob. A few minutes later a friendly Bob Dylan came out to the front porch and spoke to Bland for almost an hour. They talked about songwriting, Simpson's unusual first name, Dylan’s just completed new album, Nashville Skyline (which would be released three months later), and Bland’s friend James Taylor’s recently released first album, which Dylan told Bland that George Harrison had brought over and played for him.

Bob Dylan in front yard of his Woodstock home in December 1969, about the time Bland Simpson came to visit him there

Soon after meeting with Dylan Simpson left Chapel Hill for New York City intent on becoming a professional singer-songwriter. He signed a publishing deal with Dylan's manager Albert Grosssman, and secured a record deal with Dylan's record company, Columbia Records, which was then the most prestigious and coveted label to be on in the world. Destiny seemed to be on his side when he assembled a group that included Rob Stoner who would go on to record several albums with Dylan as well lead Dylan's touring band, on bass, and fellow Chapel Hillian and UNC student David Olney who has for more than three decades been one of America's best singer-songwriters, on lead guitar. The band was called Simpson and they released an album with that title in May of 1971.

Bland Simpson (right) and his wife Catherine in Chapel Hill in July 1970 shortly aftering recording his debut album in New York

When the Simpson album came out I was the manager of two Chapel Hill record stores and was determined to sell as many copies as possible. In those days neither local station WCHL, nor any stations in Durham or Raleigh were formatted to play the type of music on Bland’s album, so I made an extra effort to advertise it and play it often in our stores. Within two weeks after the album was released we sold more than 150 copies of the album, yet without a radio hit it was hard to keep this momentum going. The album today is largely forgotten.

Cartoon caricature of me - Charly Mann - in 1971 holding the Bland Simpson album which I was enthusiastically promoting to all my customers

After the Simpson album debacle Bland Simpson returned to Chapel Hill and co-wrote and performed in the musicals Hot Grog and Diamond Studs, which both premiered at The Ranch House. Diamond Studs eventually became a hit both on Broadway and in London. Over the last 40 years Simpson has authored several books, been a contributing columnist to local alternative newspapers, was a member of The Red Clay Ramblers, and has written several more musicals including the wonderful King Mackerel and the Blues are Running. For the past 30 years he has also taught creative writing at the University of North Carolina.

October 1974 flyer for DIAMOND STUDS musical which Bland Simpson co-wrote

Note: The first three tracks on the playlist at top of this article are from the SIMPSON album. The second and third songs feature David Olney, marking the start of his brilliant career.

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by Charly Mann

Davy Jones of the Monkees sings "Daydream Believer" at Chapel Hill's Dean Smith Center in 1986

I have probably been to nearly 1000 concerts in Chapel Hill, but the one I am least likely to talk about is seeing the Monkees at the Dean Dome on October 17th,1986. That is because the Monkees' music has always been my one guilty musical pleasure. They were a totally manufactured group created by the Hollywood audition process to portray a television sitcom band that would resemble an American version of The Beatles. Worse than that, their songs were written primarily by Brill Building songwriters from another era, and none of the Monkees even played any instruments on their records. Nevertheless they did have a handful of memorable songs, and I especially loved the Neil Diamond-penned I'm A Believer, as well as Daydream Believer written by one of my heroes, former Kingston Trio member John Stewart.

Peter Tork of the Monkees singing harmony on "Pleasant Valley Sunday" at Dean Smith Center October 17th, 1986

I have always been careful to hide my attraction to the Monkees, but somehow fate always exposes my feelings. While attending high school in Southern California I spent countless hours at the world famous record store Wallach's Music City on Sunset and Vine where they had listening stations, and would just rip the shrink-wrap off and let you hear any album you wanted. It seems like every time I was there in 1967 and 1968 one of the Monkees would come into the store to listen to music at a booth near me, or look at musical instruments in the back of the store. In February of 1968 Mickey Dolenz invited me and a friend over to a Monkees recording sessions a few blocks away at the RCA studios at 6363 Sunset Boulevard. The album they were recording was calledThe Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, and was their answer to the recently released Sgt. Pepper’s album by the Beatles. That album yielded two great songs, Valleri and Daydream Believer.

 
The Monkees, left to right: Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones in Chapel Hill 1986

When it was announced that the Monkees were coming to Chapel Hill in 1986 I had no intention of revealing my love of the Monkees by buying tickets to the show, but again fate stepped in. I had always enjoyed listening to Ron Stutts' morning show on WCHL. During the show he had a trivia contest called Dollar Scholar which I almost always knew the answer to. As luck would have it, instead of a silver dollar prize one day in early October 1986 you would win four front row tickets to the Monkees show, and I rapidly called in the answer. (The question was what is the real name of Fats Domino, and the answer was Antoine Domino Jr.) The Monkees show was great and the opening acts included The Grass Roots, Gary Pucket and The Union Gap, and Herman's Hermits (minus their lead singer Peter Noone). I took my wife Mickey as well as my best friend Fred Castrovinci and his wife to the show.

Charly Mann and four front-row tickets to October 1986 Monkees concert in Chapel Hill

The Monkees set list at the Dean Smith Center show on October 17th, 1986 was:

Last Train To Clarksville
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
(I’m Not Your) Steppin' Stone
Cuddly Toy
Goin' Down
I Wanna Be Free
Your Auntie Grizelda
She
That Was Then, This Is Now
Shades Of Gray
Randy Scouse Git
Valleri
I'm A Believer

Official Program for the Monkees 1986 Reunion tour which played at the Dean Smith Center 

Then the encore was:

Listen to the Band (This is a Michael Nesmith song – the only Monkee who was not part of the Reunion)
Pleasant Valley Sunday

Mickey and Charly Mann in front row at Dean Smith Center for the 1986 Monkees Reunion Concert

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by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill has produced many great singer-songwriters, but David Massengill is probably the best authentic troubadour to originate from our town. For the last forty years he has followed the classic troubadour tradition by composing songs in a wide variety of voices and styles that range from romantic, political, historical, lighthearted, deeply philosophical, to the nearly obscene.

From left to right Charly (Charles) Mann, Bill Ray, Peter Schmuck (Soule), David Massengill, and Tommy Thompson. This is a 1971 photo from an advertisement for the Record and Tape Center I designed. We are mirroring the pose of the promotional poster the Rolling Stones did for their album Sticky Fingers in 1971. I still have the Stones poster in excellent condition (It is 40" by 30"). Bill Ray went on to manage Sam Goody's in Raleigh,and died almost ten years ago. I believe Peter now lives in Arizona. Tommy Thompson married  Amy Langenderfer, who had the best stomach in Chapel Hill. At the time this photo was taken Tommy was dating Madonna Bentz.

I first met David in 1970 when we worked together at the Record and Tape Center on West Franklin Street. He had expansive and eclectic tastes in music, friends, and ideas, and was the least materialistic and serene person I had then known. While a student at UNC he wrote his first truly landmark song, The Eunuch’s Lament, which I think is still the funniest and cleverest song ever written. When he finally recorded it years later, Peter Tork of the Monkees played banjo on the recording.

David Massengill, America's greatest troubadour

David left Chapel Hill to follow in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and move to New York City’s Greenwich Village to become an iconic American songwriter whose songs have been recorded by a wide array of artists including Joan Baez,Tom Russell, Chad Mitchell, and Lucy Kaplansky.

David Massengilll is also the author and illustrator of several small romantic childlike books that are especially enjoyable for adults 

Massengill’s songwriting roots come from American and British folk, as well as the craftsmanship of Tin Pan Alley songwriters like Cole Porter and George Gershwin, yet his style is totally unique and many of his most endearing songs have been painstaking crafted over many years. One common characteristic of most great artists is their lack of commercial success and public awareness during their lifetime, and Massengill is no exception to that rule. Even though he has been critically hailed, his more than half a dozen solo recordings have largely gone unnoticed by the general public.Many of his best known songs including My Name Joe and Riders of the Orphan Train are poignant tales that pass on knowledge of people, social injustice, and the experience of being human to other people. All of his music brings out insights about humanity. What makes David most unique is that he is also a great storyteller and infuses his live performances and many of his songs with myths, fairy tales, and family history. His storytelling is so powerful that it not only entertains an audience, but motivates them.

Legendary folk singer Jack Hardy and David on the left shortly after they as performed a concert at her home of my daughter (in the center) in Oklahoma last year. Together Jack and David are known as the Folk Brothers.

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by Charly Mann

In the Fall of 1959 The Kingston Trio was the most popular group in the world. The previous year their debut single Tom Dooley, which was based on the 19th century North Carolina murder of Laura Foster by Tom Dula for giving him syphilis, was the #1 song in the country. Since then they had had four #1 albums and were the most popular concert attraction in the nation.

From left to right the members of the Kingston Trio: Nick Reynolds, Bob Shane, and Dave Guard inside Memorial Hall shortly before their 1959 concert in Chapel Hill.

On Friday October 30th, 1959, at the start of Homecoming Weekend, the Kingston Trio entertained a packed, spellbound, and extremely zealous audience of 2,000 including myself at UNC's Memorial Hall for almost two hours. I was then nine years old and Memorial Hall was at the time the largest venue for concerts in Chapel Hill.

The following is their setlist which included all their recent hits as well as more than half a dozen new songs.

1. Three Jolly Coachmen
2. A Worried Man
3. Shady Grove/Lonesome Traveler
4. Saro Jane
5. Tom Dooley
6. The M.T.A.
7. Pay Me My Money Down
8. They Call The Wind Maria
9. All My Sorrows
10. Hard, Ain't It Hard
11. When the Saints Go Marching In
12. Little Maggie
13. Santy Anno
14. Bay of Mexico
15. South Coast
16. Scotch and Soda
17. Zombie Jamboree

The Kingston Trio performing in Memorial Hall at UNC on the evening of October 30th, 1959

The reception to the show was rousing and they were applauded loudly to perform several encores. As was the tradition in those days, there were dozens of parties at the nearby fraternities after the show where local combos performed until the wee hours of the morning. It was at one of these that I had the pleasure to meet Kingston Trio member Nick Reynolds whose subsequent rendition of the The Whistling Gypsy remains my favorite Trio song.

Kingston Trio member Nick Reynolds on stage in Chapel Hill in 1959. He sang lead vocals that night on the song The MTA, which was the Kingston's Trio second most popular song after Tom Dooley.

From 1959 to 1962 Folk was the most popular form of music among college students, and the Kingston Trio not only epitomized this sound for that generation of students, they also ushered in the next wave of folk artists including Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell.

That Kingston Trio concert is still one of the most successful and acclaimed shows in UNC history. The next day was not so happy for the Tarheels. The day was cold and rainy and UNC's football team was demolished by Tennessee 29 to 7.

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 by Charly Mann

This is left to right Tom West, Flora Stuart, James Taylor, and Donnie Sumner in 1965 singing during lunch break on the steps of Chapel Hill High School. Less than two years later James would compose and sing the sentimental anthem of Chapel Hill, Carolina In My Mind. The song is one of homesickness and remembering Chapel Hill as it was in the late 1950s and early 60s.

Today, October 26th, 2010, Apple Records has re-released James Taylor's first album with four bonus tracks including this demo of Carolina in My Mind from 1967. Also included is an incredible version of Sunny Skies which was not released until James's second album Sweet Baby James. There is also a demo version of Sunshine, Sunshine which was the first James Taylor song recorded by another artist. It can be heard on Tom Rush's classic album The Circle Game.

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by Charly Mann

Most people remember the start of Beatlemania as February 9th, 1964 when the Beatles first performed on the Ed Sullivan Show. That may have been true in the rest of the United States, but the Beatles had become a popular in Chapel Hill almost a month earlier. The Record Bar on Henderson Street began a campaign entitled The Beatles Are Coming in early January. As you walked in the door there were stacks of a free newspaper called National Record News with the headline SPECIAL BEATLES ISSUE and a large rack displaying the first album to be released by the Beatles in America called Introducing the Beatles.

This "newspaper" was given away to all customers at the Record Bar in January of 1964. I think this was the one and only issue of this publication which Capital Records actually published as a promotional tool to get people excited about the Beatles.

I had become interested in the Beatles the previous December when Walter Cronkite did a feature about their phenomenal success in England on his evening news program, and eagerly bought several of their singles and their first two albums at the Record Bar in January. Local radio station WKIX had also been playing the Beatle songs I Want To Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, Please Please Me, and From Me to You since late December.

These stickers were found on poles in downtown Chapel Hill more than a month before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. 

The Beatle phenomenon was quite strange that January. Here was a new group that had yet to perform in the United States, that no one had heard of two months earlier, that had top charting singles on three labels, Capital Records, Vee Jay, and Swan Records. I was fourteen and had been an avid popular music fan for about two years. Up until that time "hype", as we now call it, had not been used much to promote musical groups, but across Chapel Hill, many lamp poles had a sticker posted with four long-haired heads that said "The Beatles are Coming." During the next five years the Beatles proved that the hype of their enormous talent was merited and they continued producing incredibly innovative records. I was fortunate to see the Beatles perform three times, at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965, and at Dodger Stadium on August 28, 1966, which was their next to last concert performance together.

   
A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles first movie, played to large crowds at The Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill for more than a month. I attended the first showing of it there. Also above is an ad for the Beatles Help album at the Chapel Hill Record Bar in 1965, then located on Henderson Streeet.

On the morning of November 25th, 1968 I was a freshman at the University of North Carolina and my best friend Richard Abbott and I stood in a long line that stretched more than a block waiting to purchase the Beatles latest album at the Record Bar. After we finished classes at about 4 PM we headed over to my house with great anticipation to listen to the record. We spent the next 16 hours laying on separate beds in a darkened room as we played the this two-record album with only a white cover that was titled simply "The Beatles" (but commonly called The White Album) over and over again. It was a bewildering and exhilarating experience, somehow the Beatles had put together the most disjointed album we had ever heard, yet the quality of most of the songs was incredible. We soon agreed that this was not really a Beatle album, but a combination of three separate solo albums by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison. By four in the morning we also concluded it was the also the first Beatle album with "filler" material, which is what we thought of the songs "Revolution #9", "Wild Honey Pie", and "Don't Pass Me By".

My best friend at UNC was Richard Abbott who I spent almost 14 hours with in late November 1968 listening over and over to the Beatles White Album. Richard was from Asheville, but this is a photograph from Chapel Hill High School in 1968, which I believe is the school that he graduated from. Richard died at the age of 54 in 2004.

Less than a year later, in August of 1969, I was the manager of a local record store and had a friend named Ervin Hester who was the program director of WSRC, a soul and gospel radio station, that had somehow gotten an advance copy of a new Beatles album on cassette. The album was called Abbey Road and I was mesmerized by it almost instantly. I had never heard such a perfect collection of songs, and it remains in my estimation the greatest album of all time. Each of the Beatles had contributed the best songs of their career, and the sonic brilliance and production of the work was light years ahead of anything yet recorded. The wonderful song medley on the second side still sounds as fresh and exciting today as it did when I was sitting on the stone wall across from the Chapel Hill Post Office and playing the album for my friends a full month before the album appeared in stores.

The Beatles also played a critical role in launching the career of Chapel Hillian, James Taylor. In 1967, James was 19 and decided to move to the center of the musical universe at the time, London, to try to launch a career as a singer-songwriter. He had made some demo recordings and through a friend had a connection to Peter Asher who had just taken on the role of signing artists to a new record label the Beatles had started called Apple Records. Asher had recently been half of the folk-rock duo Peter and Gordon which had several top songs written by Peter's sister's Jane's boyfriend Paul McCartney. In fact McCartney had been living in the Asher home for several years and written many of his best songs there, most of which were about Jane. Asher saw potential in Taylor's songs and let Paul have a listen. McCartney was impressed and signed Taylor to the Beatles record label.

This is James Taylor's first album and was on the Beatles' Apple Records label. It was released in England in December 1968, and in the United States the following February. In December, I was able to import the album directly from England to my store, The Record and Tape Center, which made us the first place in North Carolina where "Carolina in My Mind" was ever played.

Taylor recorded his album in the same studio and at the same time as the Beatles were recording the White Album. McCartney even played bass on James's signature song, Carolina in My Mind, and there is evidence that George Harrison also played guitar on the same song. Harrison definitely enjoyed listening to Taylor in the studio, and was so inspired by a song he had written and recorded called  Something in the Way She Moves, that he borrowed that phrase as the opening of the song Something.

James Taylor left Apple with his now friend and manager Peter Asher in 1969. Taylor's career continues to thrive, and Asher has gone on to manage and produce some of the biggest names in the music business including Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Cher, Bonnie Raitt, Randy Newman, Ringo Starr, and Diana Ross. However in my humble opinion his Asher's best produced album is that of another Chapel Hill resident Kate Taylor's debut album, Sister Kate, in 1971.

James Taylor and his manager Peter Asher who was the brother of Paul McCartney's 1968 fiance Jane Asher 

The Taylor family all loved the music of the Beatles, and in the musical jukebox above I have included James, Kate, and Livingston singing some of their favorite Beatles songs.

This is an 8th grade picture of Livingston Taylor from Chapel Hill's Guy B. Phillips Junior High School in 1965. This is the same year the Beatles recorded "If I Needed Someone" for their Rubber Soul album which Liv sings on the music player at the top of this article. (This song was originally released in the United States on the album Yesterday and Today.)

In 1977 I gathered a group of Chapel Hill musicians to produce an album called Hot as Sun filled with rare and unreleased Beatle songs. The album was recorded in a small studio that was once The Little Red Schoolhouse. The record was released on my label Pied Piper Records later that year.

This is the front and back cover of the 1977 Beatles Tribute album, Hot as Sun, that I produced featuring Chapel Hill musicians singing rare and unreleased songs by the Beatles

Over the last 40 years I have become an archivist of rare Beatle items and videos. Ironically, the day after John Lennon was murdered, the CBS Evenings News (on which I had first seen the Beatles on December 10, 1963) contacted me so that they could use a rare video I had of John Lennon on their broadcast that day.

I am a long time archivist of rare Beatles-related material. Shortly after John Lennon died the Chapel Hill Newspaper did a piece on my collection and my opinion of John Lennon's importance in modern music.

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by Charly Mann

This article is about my 1970 summer vacation which led to me interviewing Janis Joplin, and seventeen years later to a great concert in Chapel Hill by legendary singer-songwriter Eric Andersen. Included is a wonderful story about former Chapel Hill resident Carey Raditz, the subject of Joni Mitchell's great song Carey.

My interview with Janis Joplin took place three months before she died 

In 1970, I was twenty years old and had spent most of the previous two years working at the Record and Tape Center on West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. That summer a friend and I decided to take a month off to drive across the United States. We did not have any planned itinerary, but I think we knew we would be heading to California. In Los Angles we attended several concerts at the famed Troubadour club where I got to see concerts by Ian and Sylvia and Eric Andersen. I also convinced Ian and Sylvia to do an interview with me which I intended to submit to Atlanta's underground newspaper The Great Speckled Bird.

This is my press pass for the Festival Express in Calgary in July 1970

The name of Ian & Sylvia's band then was coincidently the Great Speckled Bird, and included Buddy Cage (later of the New Riders of the Purple Sage) on steel guitar. I became friends with Buddy, and he took us to a fine Italian restaurant where we sat next to Jim Backus (Mr. Magoo, Rebel Without a Cause). Buddy told us during the meal that in a couple of weeks they would be playing in series of concerts throughout Canada with a number of other artists including The Band, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and Delaney & Bonnie, and that he could get us press passes to attend.

Eric Andersen performing in Calgary on July 4th, 1970. Other performers that day included The Band, Janis Joplin, Delaney and Bonnie, The Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, Tom Rush, Sha Na Na, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Good Brothers.

We soon left Los Angles and headed up to the coast to enjoy the San Francisco music scene which included attending several shows at Bill Grahams' Fillmore West, before heading to Calgary on the Fourth of July to meet up with what was billed as the Festival Express Tour. As we entered the hotel in Calgary where the musicians were staying we first encountered Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir sitting in the lobby jamming with a couple of local musicians on acoustic guitars.

Before performing with the Grateful Dead at the Festival Express concert Jerry Garcia played steel guitar with the New Riders of the Purple Sage 

After securing our press credentials I decided to see if I could find some of the musicians on the tour to interview. I noticed that Eric Andersen, who we had recently seen at the Troubadour, and was also one of my favorite singer-songwriters, was one of the several dozen performers on the tour, and I decided to try to interview him. I ran into Buddy Cage at the hotel bar and he suggested I go into the hotel restaurant which he said been taken over by the musicians. I soon spotted Eric Andersen standing at the restaurant bar and asked if I could interview him. He agreed and said we should talk to all the people at the table he was sitting at, and invited us over.

All the musicians I met who took part in the Festival Express concert were friendly and talkative except for the members of The Band. Rick Danko, the Band's bass player, and years later a member of a trio with Eric Andersen, told me I would have to get approval from the band's guitar player Robbie Robertson before any member of that group would talk to me.

As I sat down next to Eric I noticed on my right was Bonnie Bramlet. Across from me was Eric and his new "very good friend" Janis Joplin, who just happened to be the most popular female rock singer in the world at that time. What a journalistic coup I thought; part of my interview could be with Janis Joplin. As it turned out Eric soon graciously bowed out, and I had a ninety minute off the cuff rollicking conversation with Janis Joplin. During the interview she talked at length about her future and how she envisioned the music industry in ten years. She also told us all about her current musical interests, the breakup of Big Brother, and lot about her personal life - which included showing us her latest tattoo on a fairly private part of her body.

This is Ian and Sylvia on the left with Eric Andersen and Bonnie Bramlett singing Will The Circle Be Unbroken in Calgary 7-4-1970. Jerry Garcia is playing the steel guitar.

Sadly exactly three months after this interview, on October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin died, and I believe this was last full length recorded interview with her. In 1975 I sold the master recording and the rights of the interview to "The Estate of Janis Joplin Deceased." I have however included the beginning of the interview here for you to get a sense of what a wonderful time was had by all.

Eric Andersen and me at my house in Chapel Hill in 1987, shortly before he performed at the Cat's Cradle

While I enjoyed talking with Janis Joplin, for the next seventeen years I felt bad about not getting the interview I had intended with Eric Andersen, so in 1987 I invited him to perform at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill. For the last two decades he and I have remained friends and he has several times stayed with me in my homes in Chapel Hill and Austin.

Poster for the Eric Andersen concert I produced in Chapel Hill on April 5, 1987 partly to make up to Eric for interviewing Janis Joplin instead of him in 1970

Included in the audio portion of this article is the first part of my interview with Janis Joplin, the tribute song Eric Andersen wrote about his friend Janis Joplin called Pearl's Goodtimes Blues, a Chapel Hill radio interview with Eric Andersen from 1987 in in which he talks about Carey Raditz, Joni Mitchell's song Carey, and a story about Townes Van Zandt and his signature song Thirsty Boots from the April 5, 1987 Eric Andersen Cat's Cradle concert.

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by Charly Mann

The story of The Blazers began in the foothills of North Carolina in Rutherford County when in 1963 Sherman Tate got his first guitar. He soon became enamored by the music of the Rolling Stones and their charismatic front man Mick Jagger. Sherman's first band was called December's Children, which was the name of a 1965 album by the Rolling Stones.

The original Blazers: left to right - Rodney Underwood, Ronnie Taylor, Sherman Tate, Jimmy Weaver, and Joey Earth

In 1967 Tate came to Chapel Hill and established himself as one the central figures in the town's emerging rock 'n' roll music scene. In 1969 he put together and fronted the legendary band Frog Level with two of other of the best musicians in the state, Spiral Spurlin and Granny Grantham. In 1970 the band relocated for two years to Toronto so Tate could avoid the draft. In Canada the band really took off and might have made it to the big time if Sherman had not decided he wanted to return to Chapel Hill. When the band returned to Chapel Hill they became regulars at Fat City (now He's Not Here), and Sherman took a job in a store I managed, The Record and Tape Center. Later that year Frog Level broke up and Sherman took a brief hiatus from being a performing musician.

Sherman Tate - Born to Rock 'n' Roll

In 1974 guitar wonder kid and marketing savvy Rodney Underwood convinced Sherman he was the man to front a polished rock and roll band with a strong rhythm and blues undertone, and the Blazers were born. The other original members of the group were Joey Earth (a nom de plume for Joey Sinreich) on bass, and long time Chapel Hill resident Ronnie Taylor on drums. The band quickly established a loyal following and remains the best looking foursome in Chapel Hill's history. Despite Sherman taking off a couple years to enjoy the serenity of northern California, the band revived in 1977 with the addition of Jimmy Weaver on keyboards. It was this line up that I saw several times at the Cat's Cradle and Town Hall music clubs in Chapel Hill. They impressed me so much that I signed them to my record label Cream of the Crop Records.

Logo of my record company, Cream of the Crop Records, on which the first Blazers album was recorded

What made the Blazers an exceptional band was the amazing transformation of the mild mannered Clark Kent-like Sherman Tate into the outrageous bundle of energy known as Shakin' Sherman when the Blazers took the stage. To the trained eye the only visible difference were the dark glasses that were his trademark when performing, yet his personality was so different that it always seemed miraculous when he metamorphosed into a cross between James Brown and Little Richard.

Legendary Chapel Hill band Frog Level in 1974 featuring Sherman Tate (photo by Ric Carter) 

I produced the Blazers first album and the recording was done at Mega Sounds in Baily, NC in 1977. Besides the Blazers the album featured guest vocalist Adele Foster, Jim Henderson on tenor and alto sax, and Spiral Sperlin on harmonica. Richard Royal served as the engineer. The album was titled Store Bought and the cover photograph was taken inside the Record Bar on Franklin Street. On the cover the five members of the Blazers are surrounded and embraced by fourteen of Chapel Hill's most beautiful women. The album had many highlights including, I think, the best cover of the J.J. Cale song, They Call Me The Breeze as well as what several critics have hailed as the best rendition of  Wilson Pickett's 634-5780. My own favorite is their Southern rock treatment of Billy Joe Shaver's I've Been To Georgia on a Fast Train.

Cover photo of the Blazers album Store Bought

The Blazers Store Bought album sold well in Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill and was reviewed favorably by all the local media. One local newspaper even rated it one of the top 15 albums of 1977 along with albums like Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town, Billy Joel's 52nd Street, Dire Straits debut album which included the song Sultans of Swing, Tom Waits's Blue Valentine, Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus, The Cars debut album, and The Who's Who are You. Even though the Blazers did not tour in support of the album, it found pockets of success nationally and around the globe. It was a hit throughout France, sold very well in Italy where it got great reviews, and even had decent sales in England where the prestigious New Musical Express made favorable comments about it.

Back cover dedication of the Blazers album Store Bought

The Blazers stayed together for more than ten years with original members Tate and Ronnie Taylor. They were joined by Rick Miller in 1979 and went on to record their second album called How to Rock. Miller later had a successful career under two different monikers,  Rick Rock and Parthenon Huxley. Many people who knew the Blazers believe if they had relocated to Los Angles, New York City, or Austin in the late seventies they would have also been able to achieve national prominence.

The saddest part of writing this piece was discovering that Rodney Underwood had died on June 4th, 2009. He was the vibrant force of the Blazers and an incredible human being. He had a successful career in advertising in both New York City and Pittsburgh. Just prior to his death he finished making a documentary film on the Pittsburgh blues scene called Getting to the Bottom of Our Blues. Rodney's wonderful vocals can be heard on the third track on the music player at the top of this article singing "I Ain't Got You." 

Rodney Underwood (1951 - 2009)

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by Charly Mann

Woodstock was not the first great three day music festival; it was the University of North Carolina's Jubilee. Beginning in 1963 and continuing through 1971, Jubilee was a spectacular marathon of music, joy, and love that featured the top musical acts in the world at the peak of their popularity.

Crowd on McCorkle Place watching the second Jubilee, April 1964

It all started in the spring of 1963 when the Student Union wanted to bring the Four Preps, one of most popular groups on college campuses at the time, to perform free for the entire student body at Memorial Hall. The problem was Memorial Hall only held 1600 people and was way too small to accommodate everyone. The idea was hatched to have the concert outside under the trees on a stage in front of Graham Memorial. Soon the concept was expanded to become a three day open air party of music, dance, and film called Jubilee, with the slogan "A Salute Spring." The festival was held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 26-28. The stage was placed at the center of McCorkle Place not far from Franklin Street. Students and their dates were the only people that were supposed to attend, but there were no gates, security, or ticket takers, and many townspeople, including myself, then a 13 year-old boy with a passion for music, were also there. (I attended all but one of the nine Jubilees)

The Four Preps performing the first night of the first University of North Carolina Jubilee

From 2PM to around 10PM folk and pop-jazz groups performed on the main stage. The Four Preps concert on Friday attracted more than 5,000 people sitting on blankets almost as far back as the Old Well. On each day of Jubilee major motion pictures were shown for free at 6:30, 8:30, and 10:30 at Graham Memorial. At the close of performances on the main stage, the party simply got larger and expanded into five separate stages around campus where rock combos (a term used to refer to rock bands in the pre-Beatles days) performed almost until dawn. Those stages were in the Planetarium parking lot, in Y-Court, behind the Ackland Art Museum, in Steel Hall's parking lot, and directly in front of Graham Memorial. The headline act for the closing night was The Chad Mitchell Trio whose repertoire contained several songs that mocked right-wing thought and promoted integration. This was at a time when many businesses in Chapel Hill did not allow blacks, and the majority of the state and much of Chapel Hill was politically conservative.

Politcally irreverent folk group The Chad Mitchell Trio, final act of the first Jubilee

Beautiful coed enjoys Four Preps singing their hit song 26 Miles to Catalina

The first Jubilee at UNC was a huge success, and by the following Monday as bleary eyed students returned to classes, the student union began plans for a second Jubilee in 1964. Amazingly, the total cost for the first Jubilee was only $4,000. Jubilee become an annual tradition until 1971. For the next four years the concert continued to be held in McCorkle Place, and headline acts included The Serendipity Singers, Flatt and Scruggs, and Petula Clark in 1965, who chose Chapel Hill as the first place in America to perform her #1 song, Downtown.

James Taylor sings Carolina in My Mind, UNC Jubilee April 1970

As the University's enrollment increased and rock replaced folk as the preferred music on campus, UNC's Jubilee expanded into a major rock festival. In 1970 the event was held at Kenan Stadium and featured, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, then the biggest act in America with three top ten hits, as well as Grand Funk Railroad, Sweetwater, the Bar-Kays, Pacific Gas and Electric, and James Taylor, just months after the release of his Sweet Baby James album. The crowd particularly enjoyed his renditions of Fire and Rain and Carolina in My Mind. The highlight act though was Joe Cocker with his huge Mad Dogs and Englishmen ensemble that featured Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge. That year's crowd was far different than in 1963. Almost everyone was on some mind altering substance especially pot which permeated the air. LSD was also a popular drug of choice. The group that surrounded me enjoyed some amazing marijuana brownies. The UNC athletic department was unhappy with their football stadium being used in this manner, and in 1971 Jubilee was moved to Navy Field (which sits below Fetzer Field). That was the final year of Jubilee, and featured the Allman Brothers with Duane on lead guitar, Alex Taylor, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Spirit, and the J Giles Band.

Crowd at Kenan Stadium UNC Chapel Hill Jubilee 1970

By 1971, I recall many of those in attendance looked more like members of a motorcycle gang than UNC students or Chapel Hill hippies. This group was responsible for a number of fights, vandalism, and the serious injury of a security guard. That was enough for the administration and the Student Union, and Jubilee Music Festival at the University of North Carolina, perhaps the best outdoor music celebration of all time, came to an end.

 Duane Allman performing as the last act of the final UNC Jubilee May 1, 1971 (photo by Ric Carter)

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by Charly Mann

In January of 1952, Dr. Isaac Taylor left his job at Harvard Medical School in Boston to become an assistant professor at the UNC School of Medicine. Ike and his wife Trudy, along with their four children, moved to the outskirts of Carrboro to a two story farmhouse off Old Greensboro Road near University Lake. The family was made up of three boys and one girl each born one year apart from 1947 to 1950. In birth order their names were Alex, James, Katherine, and Livingston. (An additional son was born later at Duke Hospital in 1952 – his name was Hugh).

Alex, James, and Kate with Livingston on Ike Taylor's  lap - June 1952 - Carrboro

From anecdotal information it seems that all of the Taylor children loved music from an early age and were somewhat precocious in their talent. For two of the kids, James and  Livingston, there was one contributing factor that may have put them on the road to musical stardom. It was the fact that the first song each leaned was the commercial jingle for Tube Rose Snuff. Liv says "I sang along in my crib with the Tube Rose Snuff commercial which was popular on the radio in the South…." James, as the recording you can listen to here claims, it was he, and not Liv, that was indoctrinated by this song. We can not say where the truth in the contentious controversy lies, but speculate that without their exposure to the Tube Rose Snuff song it is very possible that James and Liv might have followed their Dad into a medical career instead of becoming professional musicians.

James and Livingston Taylor's Tube Rose Snuff 

Lest you think that the snuff commercial dispute has created a schism between the two brothers, the additional interview you can listen to here, as well as a duet Livingston and James performing City Lights at Martha's Vineyard in 1981, indicate the rift has been healed.

For you snuff commercial fans I can tell you that when I was young, (I am the same age as Kate Taylor), I recall hearing the Tube Rose Snuff jingle many times on the Arthur Smith Show which was broadcast on WFMY, Channel 2, in Greensboro during much of the 1950's. Arthur Smith and his band, the Crackerjacks, would perform the song at least once every show. As I recall, the Smith show was actually taped in Charlotte and re-broadcast on WFMY. In addition the show was recorded for radio and broadcast from Durham.

Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks - The group that sang the Tube Rose Snuff jingle

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In 1970 Chapel Hill seemed to be at the epicenter of the music world as James Taylor's chart topping album Sweet Baby James brought national attention to our little town. While our village was certainly the incubator for many great singer-songwriter talents in those days, including Bland Simpson, Don Dixon, and Mike Cross, the one person everyone knew was destined for stardom was Decatur Jones. He reeked of charisma and talent, yet for some inexplicable reason the stars did not align themselves for Decatur, and his flame has largely faded from our collective memory. Former band mate, and long time Chapel Hill musician, Skip Via recounts for us the recording of Jones’ album that sadly was never released. If any of you have photos or additional memories of Decatur please contact us at chmemories@gmail.com.

Decatur Jones (center with orange t-shirt) and friends Coconut Grove, Florida circa 1982. (photo is by Wayne Sloop)

by Skip Via

In the summer of 1970, Chapel Hill native Decatur Jones assembled a group of local musicians and brought them to New York to record an album. Over the course of a week or so, we recorded 12 tracks in a small studio called Blue Rock Studios in Greenwich Village. All of the tracks were recorded as live takes with Decatur playing and singing in real time along with the other musicians. All of the songs were written by Decatur and arranged by the musicians that played them.

Decatur passed away several years ago at age 44. The album we recorded was never released.

Included here are two of the tracks we recorded with notes on the musicians.

Where Will You Be

Harlan Collins (known during high school as Paul) was living and performing in NYC at the time this recording was made and stopped in to record backing vocals on this track.

Decatur Jones: vocals, acoustic guitar
Jack Becker: double bass
Harlan (Paul) Collins: backing vocals
Corodon (Don) Fuller: piano
Jay Norem: drums
Skip Via: mandolin

Ode to Uncle Sam

The album's producer (name not remembered) brought in a "hot" bass player who was new on the NYC scene. He was a tall, thin, African-American who played excellent bass. Given the time of this recording and my memories of what he looked like, I like to think it was Stanley Clark. I have no proof at all--just my rock and roll fantasy, probably.

Decatur Jones: vocals, acoustic guitar
Unknown: electric bass
Corodon (Don) Fuller: exquisite blues piano
Jay Norem: drums
Skip Via: electric guitar

(Editor's note): Via claims that Corodon (Don) Fuller was possibly the finest musician ever to come out of Chapel Hill

.

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by Charly Mann

Before there were Arrogance, Mike Cross, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, James Taylor, George Hamilton IV, or Kay Kyser, one man put the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill on the music map. His name was Hal Kemp, and he was as well known in the 1930's as Madonna, the Eagles, or the Dave Matthews band are today.

Chapel Hill's first Superstar, Hal Kemp

Kemp was driven for stardom at an early age. As a youth he learned to play the piano, trumpet, alto sax, and clarinet. In high school he even had his own orchestra. He entered UNC in 1922 and immediately joined the glee club, the school band, the University orchestra, the drama club, and two fraternities. He also started his own group, the Carolina Club Orchestra. When that group was not performing for some event, he also had a smaller seven-piece band that also featured Skinnay Ennis, a fellow student, who would go on to be one of the country's most well-known vocalists. Even in college, Kemp's Orchestra was so popular that during the summer breaks it would tour Europe.

When Kemp left UNC he formed his own professional orchestra that featured legendary trumpet player Bunny Berigan as well as Skinny Ennis on vocals.  He turned over the Carolina Club Orchestra to Kay Kyser, who would become a major music and movie star in the 1940's. Kemp's band played all over the United States and Europe, and recorded hits for several major record labels. Kemp died in late 1940 from complications of a serious automobile accident. Many suspect that had he lived, he would have been one the most popular bandleaders of the 1940's Big Band Era.

Skinnay Ennis at the microphone

It was while at UNC that Kemp made and recorded the arrangement of Hark the Sounds of Tar Heel Voices that we all know and love today, which included a coda of I'm a Tarheel Born. In honor of this great man, who many have long forgotten, I have remixed and enhanced the 1925 recording of this song for your enjoyment. Also included are two other of my favorite Hal Kemp songs.

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by Arthur "Dan" Gifford

It's impossible for me to think of Alex Taylor without also thinking that there but for the grace of God go I.

In a 1950s Chapel Hill full of frat boys and others offering beer to kids, Alex Taylor and I started drinking before our teen years. He became an alcoholic, I did not. Just before Chapel Hill was hit with a 60s plague of street drugs that would kill the bodies and damage the minds of a number of friends, I went to Virginia Episcopal School and only heard the horror stories when I'd return to town during vacation breaks.  Against all that, it has often crossed my mind that had I stayed, "it coulda been me," as David Bowie said.

Alex Taylor who was a great singer, but never mastered an instrument, at his home at 618 Morgan Creek Road Chapel Hill

Maybe my escape from Alex' fate was providence. Maybe it was dumb luck, but whatever it was, I took a big hit in the gut on reading about his death at age 47 -- largely attributed to the effects of alcoholism, the stories said -- because some of my earliest happy childhood memories involved Alex.

We were born about two months apart and I first recall meeting him in kindergarten at The Little Red School House though my parents said we had played together earlier.

Alex' father and my mother were both UNC professors who practically worked in the same building in allied fields. My mother was Alice Gifford, the first professor brought on board the new UNC School of Nursing in 1950 and the person charged with obtaining its accreditation. Dr. Isaac "Ike" Taylor was a newly arrived professor of medicine at UNC who would later become the Dean of the Medical School. That connection aside, there were other social binders in play. Both my mother and Alex's father had strong Scottish ancestral links and Boston connections. My mother had grown up in Boston and was in the first Yale class that accepted women. That was a very big deal to both Alex's New England raised mother Trudy -- an early champion of women's equality -- and father, a Harvard Medical School graduate.

James Taylor left, Alex Taylor, and Kate Taylor with Alex Taylor's son Sweet Baby James - 1971 

In class, Alex and I were both hyper kids who probably spent more time sitting in The Little Red School House punishment corner than all the rest of the children there combined. We were also the cut-up bane of the parents who took turns collecting us at the end of the school day, an act we would encore during later years in such venues as Mrs. Bagby's social dance class at Chapel Hill Country Club and the bus to and from Durham Academy. Most of those disruptions involved our imitations of people, pop songs, rhythms and sounds, all of which got an early start at The Little Red School House.

On days when Alex' mother gathered him at LRSH, I'd sometimes go to his house and play until picked up by my parents and vice versa. We both lived in the country at that time, he because his parents, I would later hear, wanted to live in rural surroundings, we because it was affordable. The Taylors were far better off than most in Chapel Hill. They lived outside of Carrboro when they first moved to the area, a blue collar town then that most Chapel Hillians looked down on. As for us, we lived at what seemed like the other end of existence off East Franklin Street in a rented house above a marsh where Eastgate Shopping Center would be built years later.

Alex Taylor at microphone and James Taylor to his left on guitar as the Fabulous Corsairs in Chapel Hill 1964

That strip of higher ground was an old dairy farm owned by Seton Lloyd and his wife. They still grazed several cows that needed milking which Alex and I got to do under Mr. Lloyd's supervision while he sipped moonshine. Lloyd's main business was a Carrboro general store at 118 East Main Street that was chock full of used pick handles, horse collars, stuff the Union Army left behind and God knows what else, which included homemade whiskey on the sly. Mr. Lloyd was one of the few people in Chapel Hill that probably never had to buy gasoline since he could just exhale into his car's fuel tank. I suppose that's why Alex's and my parents declined his occasional kind offer to drive Alex home since he was "goin' that way anyhow."

Alex and I only saw each other a time or two each week during most of our elementary years since we attended our respective public schools, but we saw each other enough to pick up wherever we had left off before. That changed during seventh grade when we found ourselves on the same bus each day traveling from Chapel Hill to Durham. He attended Durham Academy on Duke Street while I went to a different private school a couple of blocks away on Duke. By that time rock 'n roll was about all that mattered to us and we were pumped for new sounds.

We found them by listening to the radio at night. Quite a few boys then twisted the AM dial when they were supposed to be sleeping to find the 50,000 watt signals that skipped in on the ionosphere when the weather got cold from hundreds or a thousand or more miles away. WKBW, Buffalo. WOWO, Fort Wayne, Indiana. WFAA, Dallas. WABC, New York were but a few of them. I think I was the first to "discover" Cousin Brucie and his odd, sing-song DJ delivery on WABC, tell Alex and then drive everyone crazy on the bus with our imitation, but the big find and fav was WLAC in Nashville.

This is Alex Taylor's first album With Neighbors and Friends released in 1971. It is his best album, and sadly no longer available.

This wasn't ordinary rock music from a far off city, WLAC spewed soul quenchers that neither Alex or I had heard before except in milder form on Durham's WSSB. "Daddy Rabbit" Bobbit and the others there were playing Frankie Lymon and Little Anthony and Micky and Sylvia before WKIX came along. Alex and I even visited "Daddy Rabbit" after school once when Alex accompanied me to my weekly choir practice at Durham's First Presbyterian Church. But WSSB's watered down stuff just wouldn't do once we got onto WLAC. It played the originals the music industry ripped-off and diluted to make commercial hits.

On that station, Hoss Allen, Big Hugh Baby and other disc jockeys played the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lead Belly, Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Lowell Fulson, Little Junior Parker, The Spaniels and Sonny Boy Williamson from record packages put together by Ernie's Record Mart in Nashville that we could order for not much money. Whoaaa. What a world changer.

Alex Taylor of Chapel Hill at his creative and vocal prime

You gotta remember the times. This music was beyond the Elvis and Everly Brothers Kemp Nye hated and wouldn't sell. It was light years away from the the Bo Diddly many white adults said was only fit for juke joint colored people. It was in the class of the Gandy dancer chants I'd heard and tried to imitate to Alex and some others. That is to say, it contained the key to the soul that gave Chapel Hill's Lincoln High School band that extra something that the all white Chapel Hill High School band didn't get.

Alex did get it and he put it into his music. I only wish he'd gotten the acclaim he deserved and lived to enjoy it.

Dan Gifford is an Emmy winning investigative reporter who was also nominated for an Oscar for his documentary Waco: The Rules of Engagement. He is also an actor who has appeared in the films Contact, Mad City, and Malcolm X, and television shows including The X Files and The Practice.

Pictures and music provided by Charly Mann 

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by Charly Mann

There are many well known individuals who spent part of their lives living in Chapel Hill, but very few notable people who were actually born there. Perhaps the most talented of these people is Loudon Wainwright III, who was born on September 5, 1946 in Chapel Hill, exactly nine months after his father returned from serving in World War II. Wainwright left Chapel Hill soon after he was born and grew up in a wealthy and privileged family in Beverly Hills and Westchester County, NY.

Loudon Wainwright III, born in Chapel Hill, NC 9/5/1946

Wainwright's name is not exactly a household word. He is best known for the 1973 novelty song Dead Skunk, yet he is a highly respected serious songwriter and actor. He is also the father of three of today's most highly regarded singer-songwriters, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Lucy Roche. In forty years since his signing to Atlantic Records in 1969, Wainwright has released more than thirty albums, each one usually better than the last. He is also recognized for his movie and TV roles including his appearances on the M*A*S*H television series as the singing surgeon Captain Calvin Spaulding, as well as a big band singer in the Martin Scorsese film The Aviator.

Loudon Wainwright III with his son superstar Rufus Wainwright  

Wainwright's Chapel Hill and North Carolina roots have regularly surfaced throughout his remarkable career. In the 1980s he starred in the Broadway version of Pump Boys and Dinettes, the county rock musical which was written in Chapel Hill by Jim Wann, John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, and John Schimmel. He also delighted the many Americans who disliked North Carolina's conservative senator Jesse Helms with the irreverent song Jesse Don't Like It. (You can hear this song in the selections at the top of this article.) On August 18th of this year (2009) Wainwright released the greatest work of his career, a double album tribute to the legendary North Carolina country singer and banjo player Charlie Poole (1892-1931) called High, Wide, & Handsome. The album is simply exceptional and with the help of family members Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Sloan Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, and the Roches, he performs an array of great songs with arrangements that range from Gospel, Dixieland, old time country, to traditional parlor songs.

 
Loudon Wainwright's current album High Wide and Lonesome is a tribute to North Carolina country singer and banjo player Charlie Poole

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by Charly Mann

We almost all love the music of the sixties. In fact it still seems to have replaced Muzak as our dominant background music. In Chapel Hill, to hear the music of the sixties usually meant listening to WKIX in Raleigh, because Chapel Hill's only station, WCHL, played only easy listening.

I have several recordings of "KIX" shows from 1961 through 1968, and in hindsight I am amazed by the high percentage of mediocre songs and long commercial breaks we had to endure before we got to hear a worthy song. (Thank you Steve Jobs for the iPod, where we can listen to thousands of great songs without a single commercial.) I’ve included a segment from  a WKIX broadcast in August 1964 with dee-jay Gary Edens. He went to UNC and worked weekends during college at WSSB in Durham. WSSB also played some rock, but was not as hip as WKIX, and its signal was not as easy to pick up on our AM radios. Edens went to work at WKIX after graduating in 1964. This was a pivotal year in rock history, as the British Invasion had started in February with The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.  After this, British acts began to supplant American artists on the airwaves, and more and more acts also began writing their own songs.

Gary Edens at WKIX 1964

Charlie Brown was one of the original WKIX disc jockeys. His show was usually on from 6 to 9 PM weekdays evenings. The legendary, and still thriving, Nomads band from Chapel Hill did the theme song for his program. It precedes the excerpt of the Gary Edens show on our player.

                               WKIX's Charlie Brown - Then and Now

As a brief history lesson, you can study the charts of the top played songs on WKIX from 1961 to 1969 to see how much changed, but also see how much disposable music was still popular. Note particularly the top two songs in 1969, which many consider the pinnacle year of great rock music.

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by Charly Mann

The rock and roll band era stated in Chapel Hill in the early sixties. While the members of these groups were white, most of their repertoire were cover songs of black artists like the Tams, Wilson Pickett, and The Drifters. The roots of this sound can be heard in much of the original music performed by Chapel Hill musicians over the last four decades. James Taylor, our most well known rock star, and singer-songwriter, has had as many hit songs that were covers of this 60's music as those written by him. They include Handy Man, How Sweet It Is, and Everyday. His two most recent albums, Covers and Other Covers (which was released on April 8th, 2009), are made up almost exclusively of the music of this era.

The common denominator of all these bands is Skip Via on guitar, bass, or dulcimer. Two of these bands, the Sands of Time and Bedpost Reunion, feature lead vocals by members of the illustrious Taylor family. Livingston and Hugh in Sands of Time, and Hugh in the Bedpost Reunion. According to Via, the Bedpost Reunion did some studio recordings. They used a recording studio that was located on Estes drive near where the main Post Office is today. He believes Jack Becker, Chapel Hill High School Class of 1970, may still have tapes of these recordings.

This is The Sands of Time performing at Guy B. Phillips Junior High School in Chapel Hill in October of 1966. Hugh Taylor is the lead vocalist

Skip Via, Fender Telecaster playing through a Fender Deluxe Reverb, David Hackney, bass, Biff Bream, guitar, Hugh Taylor, vocals.

Corodon (Don) Fuller, Mel Jones, vocals

The song you can listen to here is Hugh Taylor's rendition of The Tams classic What Kind Of Fool. It was one of the songs done by him in the Sands of Time. On this rendition his back-up singers are siblings Kate, Livingston, James, and Alex Taylor, who are also from Chapel Hill. lt is from his CD, It’s Up to You, which you can order directly from him at 508-645-3511. Hugh now runs the Outermost Inn in Gay Head, on Martha’s Vineyard.

Hugh Taylor

The Sands of Time photos were provided by Skip Via
 

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by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill has a long history of producing great bands, but none can match the longevity and outrageousness of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. Throughout the sixties they were the most popular fraternity band in the country, and their fame and influence has stayed strong even after the death of Doug Clark in 2002.

Cover of their best album, from 1963, On Campus

Doug Clark started the group in 1955 when he was a student at Chapel Hill's segregated all-black Lincoln High School, which was actually located in Carrboro. The band was originally known as The Tops and then as the Doug Clark Combo in 1956. They performed primarily covers of 1950's rock hits. In early 1957 they added their version of the 1930's blues song Hot Nuts to their set list. The risqué nature of the song, and the rhythm and blues arrangement the band gave it, made it instantly popular among frat boys. From 1957 to 1963 they continued to improve their arrangement of Hot Nuts as well as add new verses to the song. The song became so identified with the group that by 1958 they were called Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts.

Doug Clark Combo 1956

Seeing the appeal of ribald material they soon built a repertoire of naughty songs. They quickly became in demand at fraternities and private parties up and down the East Coast. It was a novelty band because their material was never suited for the mass market, but they were also pioneers in how to be a successful college party band. They did something no other band did: made people laugh and smile throughout their entire show.

This is a picture the band autographed for me at one of their fraternity concerts in 1964

As a young boy of thirteen and fourteen I snuck into at least a half a dozen Hot Nuts shows between 1963 and 64 at various fraternities on Fraternity Court, including Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Pi Lambda Phi. All the members of the group were cordial. John Clark, the saxophonist and Doug's brother, was the most outgoing and charming member of the group. Doug on the other hand was always the quietest and most reserved. While I was not the only Chapel Hill youth crashing these gigs, I think I was the only one who enjoyed the music more than the beer which was always readily available. I recognized at an early age that alcohol interfered with one's ability to concentrate on music, and was used primarily as a quick way to reduce inhibitions between members of the opposite sex. 

The Hot Nuts 1963, left to right William "Chicken" Little, John Clark, Ralph Prince (vocalist), Doug Clark. Tommy Booth (piano), Walter Holmes, and Robert Tillman 

In 1963 the Hot Nuts recorded their best album, On Campus, in a New York recording studio. Even though the song Hot Nuts first appeared on their debut album, Nuts to You, the definitive version of the song, both musically and lyrically, appears in On Campus. The album also contains several of their most popular songs, including Bang, Bang Lulu, Roly Poly, Barnacle Bill, and the The Big Wheel. By the time this album was released it was not unusual for the group to perform for between 4,000 and 8,000 people. They had huge followings in  Atlanta, Dallas, and Baltimore, and also had regular gigs at universities throughout the North, South, and West, including the University of Texas, Yale, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, M.I.T., and the University of Virginia.  Each Spring Break they played to huge crowds at Daytona Beach. In 1963 and 64 they added  three female singers to the band, known collectively as The Three Cherries.

It should be remembered that at the time the Hot Nuts were most popular blacks were denied access to most hotels, movie theaters, and restaurants in much of the South. The band made their living playing for all-white fraternities. Few blacks were even admitted to the universities where they were performing, and some, like the University of Alabama and University of Mississippi, denied access to black students. Nevertheless, the Hot Nuts made a good living off the fraternity crowd. It is ironic that many administrations at southern universities decried and sometimes banned the Hot Nuts for their brand of music, but remained silent on the injustice of segregation at their schools.

Factoid: Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts recorded My Ding-A-Ling in 1961 for their first album Nuts to You. In 1972, Chuck Berry had the biggest hit of his career and his only #1 song with the same song.

Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts Discography

• 1961 Nuts to You (Gross)
• 1963 On Campus (Gross)
• 1963 Homecoming (Gross)
• 1964 Rush Week (Gross)
• 1965 Panty Raid (Gross)
• 1966 Summer Session (Gross)
• 1967 Hell Night (Gross)
• 1968 Freak Out (Gross)
• 1969 With a Hat On (Gross)

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by Charly Mann

I’m a Tarheel Born, The University of North Carolina fight song was supposed to have been written and added as a tag to the University alma mater, Hark the Sounds in about 1928, however this postcard from 1908 makes me believe that the song must be much older. The lyrics to Hark the Sounds were written by a student, William Starr Myers, in 1896. The melody of Hark the Sounds is from a 1857 ballad called Annie Lisle. More than fifty other Universities use the same tune for their alma mater. Maybe UNC should think about coming up with a unique tune for their song.
 

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by Charly Mann

Elizabeth (Nevills) Cotton was born at the railroad tracks between Chapel Hill and Carrboro in 1895. By the time she was eleven she was a sklilled guitarist and banjo player. She wrote one the best loved American songs, Freight Train, when she was about 15 and living on Llyod Street.

Like many black women at the time who lived in Chapel Hill or Carrboro, Elizabeth worked as a maid in the homes of white families. Well into the 1960s most Chapel Hill families had black maids working for them one or more days a week.

Elizabeth eventually left Chapel Hill, settling in Washington D.C., where she became a maid for Seeger family. This family inclued the great folksingers Pete, Mike, and Peggy Seeger. It was while playing guitar for them that her musical talents were finally reconized. She died at age 92, in 1987.

Included songs here are Elizabeth Cotton singing Freight Train and Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, as well as the best known version of Freight Train by Peter, Paul & Mary. By a wonderful coincidence on February 14, 1964, Peter, Paul, & Mary came to Raleigh to perform at Reynolds Coliseum. That night they performed Freight Train, as well as a flawless version of Going Down the Road Feeling Bad; a song that they sadly never recorded. Sitting one row in front of my sister and me at that concert was another Chapel Hill family, the Taylors, who had a number of children who would achieve a bit of notoriety in the music business.

This is our autographed program from the 1964 Peter, Paul, & Mary Reynolds Coliseum Concert

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by Charly Mann

My Evening with Joni Mitchel and James Taylor

On Christmas Eve of 1970 I had just turned twenty-one and was managing the Record and Tape Center at 456 West Franklin Street. It was the largest record store in Chapel Hill history, and had a basement level that included a waterbed store as well as a high-end audio store. It had been a busy day for us, and I had been in the store since about 7:30 that morning. We opened at 10 AM and usually closed at 9 PM, but that night we stayed open until the last customer had finished shopping which was about 9:30. It was several degrees below freezing outside and I was eager to get home. I let my employees leave and started adding the day's receipts so I could place them in a deposit bag to drop off at the bank's night deposit window on my way home. As I was about to leave at 10:15 when there was a knock on the front door of the store from two bundled up people. Annoyed, I approached the door to say we were closed. As I got closer I noticed that the faces looked familiar. As I opened the door I saw in front of me James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, who were at the time the two most popular singer-songwriters in America. James' new album, Sweet Baby James, had been one of the top selling albums in the world since October, and Joni Mitchell's recent album, Ladies of the Canyon, had produced the radio hit, Big Yellow Taxi and her signature song The Circle Game, as well as the song Woodstock which was currently a top hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Joni Mitchell and James Taylor did their Christmas shopping at the Record and Tape Center on Christmas Eve 1970

James explained that he needed to do his Christmas shopping and pleaded with me to allow him to buy some records. Of course I was excited about having James as a customer, but it was Joni Mitchell who I was most in awe of for her magnificent songwriting and incredible voice. I let them both in and James began going through our extensive racks of records and shelves of prerecorded cassettes. He said he wanted to first get some classical recordings for his Dad and I showed him where they were located. I told him to take his time, and explained how the rest of the store was organized. I then locked the front door, and it was just me, Joni, and James inside. Joni looked a bit bored and I offered to take her downstairs to see the waterbed store while James searched for gifts.

The Record and Tape Center opened on West Franklin Street in early 1970. In 1971 a second location was opened in NCNB plaza in downtown Chapel Hill.

Most of the lights in the store were turned off, with just a few security lights left on. I told James to come downstairs when he was finished shopping and I would then ring him up. I was excited about spending some one on one time with my idol, Joni Mitchell. As I recall we both sat on a large waterbed in our darkened basement lit only by several black lights. The long day and the surprise of getting to meet Ms. Mitchell in such an unusual way contributed to me being particularly awkward. I suggested we listen to the new Matthew's Southern Comfort album (which included a cover of her song Woodstock). She seemed delighted and holding the album noted how she had written that song. For some reason, which I have yet to understand, I assured her that she had not written than song, and it had been written by Ian Matthews, the leader of that group. For the record, I have an almost an encyclopedic knowledge of music facts going back to almost 1900, and Joni Mitchell was someone I was especially knowledgeable about, even before she released her first album, so I immediately recognized my mistake. Ms. Mitchell did not argue with my faux pax and remained polite and talkative until James came downstairs to say he had finished shopping.

Joni Mitchell in 1970. James Taylor had been her boyfriend for the last several months of that year.

I walked Joni and James back upstairs to the front of the store where the cash register was located and rang up the records and tapes James had chosen to purchase. The total was more than $110, a huge amount in those days (the average price of an album or cassette was about $3.50). As I gave James his total he began fumbling for his wallet and started to look a bit embarrassed. He said he had forgotten his wallet, and asked if he could come in the day after Christmas and pay for his merchandise. Being in the Christmas spirit and hoping to redeem myself from my embarrassing statement to Joni I said that would be fine.

James Taylor in 1970 at time of the release of his album Sweet Baby James

Early Saturday morning Joni Mitchell came into the store and presented me a personal check for the merchandise James had bought. (I still have a copy of that check somewhere.) I did think it strange that Joni paid for the gifts James got for his family. She was all smiles and seemed to enjoy seeing me again. I asked what they did on Christmas day, and she said they went out caroling. I imagine the Taylors' neighbors on Morgan Creek Road were delighted and surprised to hear and see Joni and James singing  in their yards..

James Taylor painting done by Joni Michell in Chapel Hill over Christmas 1970

The following Monday Trudy, James's mother, came into the store and asked if I would like to display a painting Joni Mitchell had done of James over Christmas. I told her I would be delighted (ecstatic was more like it). She brought it in, and I placed it in the front window of the store for at least two weeksbefore she came to collect it. I am not sure what that painting would be worth today, but I am guessing at least several hundred thousand dollars.

The first song of the music playlist at the top of this article is a rare recording of Joni and James singing live together in 1970. The second selection is James singing Joni Mitchell's Christmas song River.

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by Charly Mann

Of all the songs that I associate with Chapel Hill, Carolina In The Morning is the one that I think best captures its essence: beauty and romance.

Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning,
No one could be sweeter than my sweetie when I meet her in the morning.
Where the morning glories
Twine around the door,
Whispering pretty stories
I long to hear once more.
Strolling with my girlie where the dew is pearly early in the morning,
Butterflies all flutter up and kiss each little buttercup at dawning,
If I had Aladdin's lamp for only a day,
I'd make a wish and here’s what I'd say:
Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning.

Indeed nothing could be finer than to be in Chapel Hill, and it is the one place most of us would wish to be at over any place on earth. German born, Tin Pan Alley songwriter, Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics to the song in 1922. His partner Walter Donaldson wrote the music. Over the years there has been debate about exactly which spot in Carolina the song is about, but I have always known it was Chapel Hill. After all UNC is Carolina, and Chapel Hill is UNC. And just as we all know James Taylor's Carolina In My Mind is not about South Carolina, Raleigh, Asheville, or Greensboro, the lyrics and sentiments of this song, only match a town with the dreamlike qualities of Chapel Hill.

 A butterfly fluttering up to kiss buttercups in Chapel Hill

Carolina in The Morning is from a 1922 Broadway production called The Passing Show, and was sung by future I Love Lucy co-star William Frawley (Fred Mertz). Marion Harris, one of my favorite early singers, made the first recording of the song, and is probably most responsible for popularizing it.

I have included six of my favorite versions of the song here for you to listen to including the one by Marion Harris. As a treat there is included a live "bootleg" version of Phish doing it acappella.

Marion Harris's 1922 recording of Carolina in the Morning made the song popular

I have long considered Kahn to be one of the ten best lyriscists of all time. Among his other timeless materpieces are, I'll See You In My Dreams, Ain't We Got Fun, It Had To Be You, Dream a Little Dream Of Me, Makin' Whoopie, My Baby Just Cares For Me, Side by Side, Yes Sir, That's My Baby, Love Me Or Leave Me, Guilty, and my sentimental favorite, Charly My Boy.

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by Charly Mann

Kate Taylor is a 60 year old late bloomer. She is the middle child, and only daughter, of the remarkable Issac and Trudy Taylor family of Chapel Hill. Now 45 years after her career in the music business started she has released one of the best albums of all original material in the new millennium. The album is entitled Fair Time! and opens with two very memorable songs. The opening number, Soap Opera Life, sounds like a #1 country hit, particularly if Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift decided to do a cover. The next track, Things I Carry, is an instantly enjoyable affirmative rocking love song. Most of the album is an autobiographical record of her life starting with growing up in Chapel with her four brothers on the track, Sun Did Shine (On Carolina), but more accurately called Chapel Hill-Billies. Coinciding with the release of the album is a DVD biography of Kate entitled Kate Taylor: Tunes from the Tipi and Other Songs From Home that is beautifully filmed, produced, and directed by her daughter Liz Witham. Included in the film is some delightful color footage of UNC and downtown Chapel Hill from the early sixties. There is also an array of photos and film clips of the entire Taylor family growing up.

A 20 year old Kate Taylor

Kate Taylor was born on August 15th, 1949 in Boston, and grew up at 618 Morgan Creek Road in Chapel Hill on 28 acres of beautifully secluded land in a house that was designed by two of the most acclaimed architects of 1950s modern houses, George Matsumoto and John D. Latimer. She was named after Katherine Child, the head mistress of a school her mother attended in Boston. Every summer the family would leave Chapel Hill's heat and humidity to stay on the remote island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. It was a perfect place for  Kate and the rest of her clan, and all the Taylors would eventually make it their home. In the 1960s it was a bohemian paradise full of musicians, artists, and writers. The Taylors were all unconventional. Even their father, a respected academic, left his family and teaching position at UNC for two years, doing his service to his country by joining the Navy and being the resident doctor on a naval expedition to Antarctica. All of the Taylor children pursed music in favor of education from an early age, and all lived their late adolescent years as vagabonds.

Issac and Trudy Taylor's house at 618 Morgan Creek Road Chapel Hill, NC

Kate's older brother, Alex, was the only family member who passionately wanted to have a career as a singer, and he probably would have succeeded if he had not abused alcohol so much from an early age. James's surprise meteoric elevation to rock stardom in 1970 allowed Kate to showcase her own talents on her debut album Sister Kate, produced by James's friend and manager Peter Asher. The album is a masterpiece and tour de force of great songs, with back up musicians including Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, her brother James, J.D. Souther, and Bernie Leadon. After a brief career in music, Kate returned to Martha's Vineyard and met her soul mate, Charlie Witham , raised two daughters, and helped raise her stepdaughter. From 1976 to the present Kate has also pursued her interest in Native American art and culture. For several summers she lived with her family in a tipi on Martha's Vineyard.  She and her husband revived the ancient craft of wampum bead making which the native peoples once used as a means of communication.

Kate Taylor and her late husband Charlie Witham, with daughters Aquinnah, Aretha, and Liz Witham

In 1976 brother James produced her excellent second album, Kate Taylor.  This album features a duet with James of It's In His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song), originally a 1962 hit for Betty Everett. This is the only top-forty single Kate has had in her career.  In 1978 Kate went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record her third album, It's In There and It's Got to Come Out, produced by Barry Beckett and using the famed Muscle Shoals Sound rhythm section.  In 1999 her husband Charlie brought her and James together again to record a beautiful rendition of the Robert Burns 1788 poem, Auld Lang Syne, which was long ago made into song. It was subsequently issued on Kate's 2002 album, Beautiful Road.

Kate Taylor and her brother James Taylor October 1968, when James was recording his first album in London for the Beatle's Apple Records

The Taylor family is certainly the most noted and written about in recent Chapel Hill history. Even without James's celebrity status, Dr. Taylor's contribution as dean of the UNC medical school and the children's uniquely privileged and unconventional upbringing make all seven members of this tribe fascinating. It is noteworthy in Chapel Hill if even one child raised by a UNC professor does not attend college, but in this case all five did not. Also amazing is the array of musical talent that each of the five children have. There are debates among Chapel Hillians about each member's abilities, such as who had the best voice -- Alex usually wins this title, most gifted songwriter -- James hands down, best performer -- unquestionably Livingston, most balanced and underrated, and usually rated the second best singer -- Hugh, and for me the one I can never hear enough of -- Kate.

Kate Taylor and her brother Alex Taylor

Kate's new CD "Fair Time!" now available at katetaylor.com.
Amazon.com
CDBaby
iTunes

Kate's new DVD Kate Taylor: Tunes from the Tipi and Other Songs from Home now available at DocuTunes.TV.

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1961

1. "The Twist"..........................................Chubby Checker
2 "It's Now or Never"..................................Elvis Presley
3 "Save The Last Dance For Me".........................The Drifters
4 "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"....Brian Hyland
5 "I'm Sorry"..........................................Brenda Lee
6 "Walk, Don't Run"....................................The Ventures
7 "You Talk Too Much"..................................Joe Jones
8 "Finger Poppin' Time"................................Hank Ballard and the Midnighters
9 "Diamonds and Pearls"................................The Paradons
10 "Only The Lonely"...................................Roy Orbison
11 "Volare"............................................Bobby Rydell
12 "I Want To Be Wanted"...............................Brenda Lee
13 "Stay"..............................................Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
14 "Chain Gang"........................................Sam Cooke
15 "My Heart Has A Mind Of It's Own"...................Connie Francis
16 "Georgia On My Mind"................................Ray Charles
17 "Are You Lonesome Tonight"..........................Elvis Presley
18 "A Million To One"..................................Jimmy Charles and the Reveletts
19 "Poetry In Motion"..................................Johnny Tillotson
20 "Dreamin' ".........................................Johnny Burnette
21 "Mr. Custer"........................................Larry Verne
22 "New Orleans".......................................Gary "U.S." Bonds
23 "Theme From The Apartment"..........................Ferrante and Teicher
24 "He Will Break Your Heart"..........................Jerry Butler and The Impressions
25 "A Thousand Stars"..................................Kathy Young And The Innocents
26 "Devil Or Angel"....................................Bobby Vee
27 "Image Of A Girl"...................................The Safaris
28 "Please Help Me, I'm Falling".......................Hank Locklin
29 "Tell Laura I Love Her".............................Ray Peterson
30 "Exodus"............................................Ferrante and Teicher
31 "Mission Bell"......................................Donnie Brooks
32 "Wonderland By Night"...............................Bert Kaempfert
33 "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go"......................Hank Ballard and The Midnighters
34 "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".........................The Shirelles
35 "Kiddio"............................................Brook Benton
36 "Sailor (Your Home Is The Sea)".....................Lolita
37 "Yogi"..............................................The Ivy Three
38 "Alley-Oop".........................................Dante and the Evergreens
39 "Everybody's Somebody's Fool".......................Connie Francis
40 "Many Tears Ago"....................................Connie Francis




1962

1 "Mashed Potato Time".................................Dee Dee Sharp
2 "I Can't Stop Loving You"............................Ray Charles
3 "Twist and Shout"....................................The Isley Brothers
4 "Duke of Earl".......................................Gene Chandler
5 "Sherry".............................................The Four Seasons
6 "Roses Are Red"......................................Bobby Vinton
7 "The Twist"..........................................Chubby Checker
8 "Soldier Boy"........................................The Shirelles
9 "The Loco Motion"....................................Little Eva
10 "Do You Love Me"....................................The Contours
11 "Hey! Baby".........................................Bruce Channel
12 "The Stripper"......................................David Rose and Orchestra
13 "Big Girls Don't Cry"...............................The Four Seasons
14 "The Wah Watus!"....................................The Orlons
15 "He's A Rebel"......................................The Crystals
16 "Monster Mash"......................................Bobby "Boris" Picket
17 "Midnight in Moscow"................................Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen
18 "The One Who Really Loves You"......................Mary Wells
19 "Playboy"...........................................The Marvelettes
20 "Green Onions"......................................Booker T. and the MG's
21 "Stanger On The Shore"..............................Mr. Acker Bilk
22 "I Know"............................................Barbara George
23 "Peppermint Twist"..................................Joey Dee and The Starliters
24 "Johnny Angel"......................................Shelley Fabares
25 "Palisades Park"....................................Freddy Cannon
26 "Don't Hang Up".....................................The Orlons
27 "Slow Twistin' "....................................Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp
28 "All Alone Am I"....................................Brenda Lee
29 "Ramblin' Rose".....................................Nat "King" Cole
30 "The Wanderer"......................................Dion
31 "You Belong To Me"..................................The Duprees
32 "She Cried".........................................Jay and The Americans
33 "Bobby's Girl"......................................Marcie Blane
34 "Sheila"............................................Tommy Roe
35 "Sealed With A Kiss"................................Brian Hyland
36 "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do".........................Neil Sedaka
37 "Let Me In".........................................The Sensations
38 "I Love You"........................................The Volume's
39 "Limbo Rock"........................................Chubby Checker
40 "What's Your Name"..................................Don and Juan
41 "Baby It's You".....................................The Shirelles
42 "Smoky Places"......................................The Corsairs
43 "Let's Dance".......................................Chris Montez
44 "Uptown"............................................The Crystals
45 "Surfin' Safari"....................................The Beach Boys
46 "Return To Sender"..................................Elvis Presley
47 "Twistin' The Night Away"...........................Sam Cooke
48 "You'll Lose A Good Thing"..........................Barbara Lynn
49 "Afrikaan Beat".....................................Bert Kaempfert
50 "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"...........................The Tokens

1963

1 "I Will Follow Him"..................................Little Peggy March
2 "Be My Baby".........................................The Ronettes
3 "He's So Fine".......................................The Chiffons
4 "Our Day Will Come"..................................Ruby and The Romantics
5 "Easier Said Than Done"..............................The Essex
6 "So Much In Love"....................................The Tymes
7 "My Boyfriend's Back"................................The Angels
8 "Hey Paula"..........................................Paul and Puala
9 "Fingertips Part 2"..................................Little Stevie Wonder
10 "Go Away Little Girl"...............................Steve Lawrence
11 "Blue Velvet".......................................Bobby Vinton
12 "Sugar Shack".......................................Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs
13 "If You Wanna Be Happy".............................Jimmy Soul
14 "Washington Square".................................The Village Stompers
15 "Walk Like A Man"...................................The Four Seasons
16 "Walk Right In".....................................The Rooftop Singers
17 "It's My Party".....................................Lesley Gore
18 "Candy Girl"........................................The Four Seasons
19 "Deep Purple".......................................Nino Tempo and April Stevens
20 "Foolish Little Girl"...............................The Shirelles
21 "I'm Leavin' It Up To You"..........................Dale and Grace
22 "Surf City".........................................Jan and Dean
23 "Hello Stranger"....................................Barbara Lewis
24 "Denise"............................................Randy And The Rainbows
25 "She's A Fool"......................................Lesley Gore
26 "Dominique".........................................The Singing Nun
27 "It's All Right"....................................The Impressions
28 "Donna The Prima Donna".............................Dion
29 "Surfin' U.S.A."....................................The Beach Boys
30 "You Can't Sit Down"................................The Dovells
31 "Tell Him"..........................................The Exciters
32 "Da Doo Ron Ron"....................................The Crystals
33 "The End Of The World"..............................Skeeter Davis
34 "Heat Wave".........................................Martha and The Vandellas
35 "Rhythm Of The Rain"................................The Cascades
36 "Baby Workout"......................................Jackie Wilson
37 "Blame It On The Bossa Nova"........................Eydie Gorme
38 "Blowin' In The Wind"...............................Peter Paul and Mary
39 "The Monkey Time"...................................Marjor Lance
40 "Up On The Roof"....................................The Drifters
41 "I Can't Stay Mad At You"...........................Skeeter Davis
42 "Puff The Magic Dragon".............................Peter, Paul and Mary
43 "El Watusi".........................................Ray Barretto
44 Then He Kissed Me"..................................The Crystals
45 "Cry Baby"..........................................Garnet Mimms and The Enchanters
46 "Sukiyaki"..........................................Kyu Sakamoto
47 "Mockingbird".......................................Inez and Charlie Foxx
48 "Ruby Baby".........................................Dion
49 "Can't Get used To Losing You"......................Andy Williams
50 "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight".................Barry and the Tamerlanes
 

1964

1 "Hello Dolly"........................................Louis Armstrong
2 "I Want to Hold Your Hand"...........................The Beatles
3 "She Loves You"......................................The Beatles
4 "Where Did Our Love Go"..............................The Supremes
5 "Chapel of Love".....................................The Dixie Cups
6 "Pretty Woman".......................................Ray Orbison
7 "Rag Doll"...........................................The Four Seasons
8 "A Hard Day's Night".................................The Beatles
9 "Everybody Loves Somebody"...........................Dean Martin
10 "Do Wah Diddy Diddy"................................Manfred Mann
11 "I Get Around"......................................The Beach Boys
12 "A World Without Love"..............................Peter and Gordon
13 "Do You Want to Know a Secret"......................The Beatles
14 "The House of the Rising Sun".......................The Animals
15 "Dawn"..............................................The Four Seasons
16 "She's Not There"...................................The Zombies
17 "Baby Love".........................................The Supremes
18 "Under the Boardwalk"...............................The Drifters
19 "Dancing in the Street".............................Martha and the Vandellas
20 "Twist and Shout"...................................The Beatles
21 "My Guy"............................................Mary Wells
22 "Leader of the Pack"................................The Shangri-Las
23 "Can't Buy Me Love".................................The Beatles
24 "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)"....................The Shangri-Las
25 "Java"..............................................Al Hirt
26 "Love Me Do"........................................The Beatles
27 "Please Please Me"..................................The Beatles
28 "Last Kiss".........................................J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers
29 "You Don't Own Me"..................................Lesley Gore
30 "Time Is on My Side"................................The Rolling Stones
31 "My Boy Lollipop"...................................Little Millie Small
32 "Love Me With All Your Heart".......................The Ray Charles Singers
33 "Forget Him"........................................Bobby Rydell
34 "There! I've Said It Again".........................Bobby Vinton
35 "Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)"...............Betty Everett
36 "A Summer Song".....................................Chad and Jeremy
37 "Ronnie"............................................The Four Seasons
38 "Because"...........................................The Dave Clark Five
39 "Since I Fell For You"..............................Lenny Welch
40 "Louie Louie".......................................The Kingsmen
41 "You Really Got Me".................................The Kinks
42 "Memphis"...........................................Johnny Rivers
43 "People"............................................Barbra Streisand
44 "Bread and Butter"..................................The Newbeats
45 "My Love Forgive Me"................................Robert Goulet
46 "Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying"................Gerry and the Pacemakers
47 "Walk On By"........................................Dionne Warwick
48 "I Only Want To Be With You"........................Dusty Springfield
49 "I Feel Fine".......................................The Beatles
50 "Wishin' and Hopin' "...............................Dusty Springfield


1965

1 "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"......................The Rolling Stones
2 "Help"...............................................The Beatles
3 "I Can't Help Myself"................................The Four Tops
4 "Downtown"...........................................Petula Clark
5 "1-2-3"..............................................Len Barry
6 "Lover's Concerto"...................................The Toys
7 "Let's Hang On"......................................The Four Seasons
8 "I Got You Babe".....................................Sonny and Cher
9 "Come See About Me"..................................The Supremes
10 "Stop! In the Name of Love".........................The Supremes
11 "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"...................The Righteous Brothers
12 "Wooly Bully".......................................Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs
13 "Love Potion No. 9".................................The Searchers
14 "I Hear a Symphony".................................The Supremes
15 "Help Me Rhonda"....................................The Beach Boys
16 "I Feel Fine".......................................The Beatles
17 "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter"...........Herman's Hermits
18 "This Diamond Ring".................................Gary Lewis and the Playboys
19 "The Name Game".....................................Shirley Ellis
20 "Hang On Sloopy"....................................The McCoys
21 "Mr. Tambourine Man"................................The Byrds
22 "Yesterday".........................................The Beatles
23 "Get Off of My Cloud"...............................The Rolling Stones
24 "Eight Days a Week".................................The Beatles
25 "Ticket to Ride"....................................The Beatles
26 "I'm Henry VII, I Am"...............................Herman's Hermits
27 "Eve of Destruction"................................Barry McGuire
28 "I'm Telling You Now"...............................Freddie and the Dreamers
29 "Mr. Lonely"........................................Bobby Vinton
30 "Cara, Mia".........................................Jay and the Americans
31 "Taste of Honey"....................................Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
32 "Go Now!"...........................................The Moody Blues
33 "Unchanined Melody".................................The Righteous Brothers
34 "Like a Rolling Stone"..............................Bob Dylan
35 "Game of Love"......................................Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
36 "Goldfinger"........................................Shirley Bassey
37 "The "In" Crowd"....................................The Ramsey Lewis Trio
38 "What's New Pussycat"...............................Tom Jones
39 "Back in My Arms Again".............................The Supremes
40 "My Girl"...........................................The Temptations
41 "Keep On Dancing"...................................The Gentry's
42 "She's Not There"...................................The Zombies
43 "I'm A Happy Man"...................................The Jive Five
44 "California Girls"..................................The Beach Boys
45 "You Were On My Mind"...............................The We Five
46 "Rescue Me".........................................Fontella Bass
47 "Goin' Out Of My Head"..............................Little Anthony
48 "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat".......................Herman's Hermits
49 "Bye Bye Baby"......................................The Four Seasons
50 "I'll Never Find Another You".......................The Seekers


1966

1 "The Ballad of the Green Berets".....................S/Sgt. Barry Sadler
2 "You Can't Hurry Love"...............................The Supremes
3 "Strangers in the Night".............................Frank Sinartra
4 "Good Lovin' ".......................................The Young Rascals
5 "Reach Out, I'll Be There"...........................The Four Tops
6 "Last Train to Clarksville"..........................The Monkees
7 "Cherish"............................................The Association
8 "We Can Work it Out".................................The Beatles
9 "Turn! Turn! Turn!"..................................The Byrds
10 "Monday, Monday"....................................The Mamas and the Papas
11 "(You're My) Soul and Inspritation".................The Righteous Brothers
12 "The Sounds of Silence".............................Simon and Garfunkel
13 "California Dreamin' "..............................The Mamas and the Papas
14 "Summer in the City"................................The Lovin' Spoonful
15 " A Taste of Honey".................................Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
16 "Born Free".........................................Roger Williams
17 "Lightning Strikes".................................Lou Christie
18 "Paint It Black"....................................The Rolling Stones
19 "See You In September"..............................The Happenings
20 "Red Rubber Ball"...................................The Cyrkle
21 "96 Tears"..........................................? And the Mysterians
22 "Hanky Panky".......................................Tommy James and the Shondells
23 "You Keep Me Hangin' On"............................The Supremes
24 "19th Nervous Breakdown"............................The Rolling Stones
25 "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' ".................Nancy Sinatra
26 "Winchester Cathedral"..............................The New Vaudeville Band
27 "Wild Thing"........................................The Troggs
28 "A Groovy Kind of Love".............................The Mindbenders
29 "Lil' Red Riding Hood"..............................Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
30 "Walk Away Renee"...................................The Left Banke
31 "Sloop John B"......................................The Beach Boys
32 "Nowhere Man".......................................The Beatles
33 "Well Respected Man"................................The Kinks
34 "Sunny".............................................Bobby Hebb
35 "When A Man Loves A Woman"..........................Percy Sledge
36 "Let's Hang On".....................................The Four Seasons
37 "Good Vibrations"...................................The Beach Boys
38 "Sunshine Superman".................................Donovan
39 "Paperback Writer"..................................The Beatles
40 "I Hear a Symphony".................................The Supremes
41 "Daydream"..........................................The Lovin' Spoonful
42 "Yellow Submarine"..................................The Beatles
43 "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"....................Stevie Wonder
44 "I Got You".........................................James Brown
45 "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"..........................Bob Dylan
46 "Mr. Dieingly Sad"..................................The Critters
47 "Bang Bang".........................................Cher
48 "Mother's Little Helper"............................The Rolling Stones
49 "Devil With A Blue Dress On"....................Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
50 "I Am A Rock".......................................Simon and Garfunkel


1967

1 "To Sir With Love"...................................Lulu
2 "Light My Fire"......................................The Doors
3 "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"......................Frankie Valli
4 "Happy Together".....................................The Turtles
5 "Groovin' "..........................................The Young Rascals
6 "The Letter".........................................The Box Tops
7 "Windy"..............................................The Association
8 "Georgy Girl"........................................The Seekers
9 "Little Bit Of Soul".................................The Music Explosion
10 "Respect"...........................................Aretha Franklin
11 "Ode to Billie Joe".................................Bobbie Gentry
12 "I'm a Believer"....................................The Monkees
13 "Somethin' Stupid"..................................Nancy and Frank Sinatra
14 "Apples, Peaches, Pumkin Pie".......................Jay and the Techniques
15 "Expressway to Your Heart"..........................The Soul Survivors
16 "All You Need is Love"..............................The Beatles
17 "How Can I Be Sure".................................The Young Rascals
18 "I Think We're Alone Now"...........................Tommy James and the Shondells
19 "The Happening".....................................Diana Ross and the Supremes
20 "Penny Lane"........................................The Beatles
21 "I've Been Lonely Too Long".........................The Young Rascals
22 "Ruby Tuesday"......................................The Rolling Stones
23 "Kind of a Drag"....................................The Buckinghams
24 "Jimmy Mack"........................................Martha and the Vandellas
25 "Reflections".......................................Diana Ross and the Supremes
26 "Love is Here and Now You're Gone"..................Diana Ross and the Supremes
27 "I Got Rhythm"......................................The Happenings
28 "Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"...................The Monkees
29 "Never My Love" ....................................The Association
30 "This Is My Song"...................................Petula Clark
31 "I Was Made to Love Her"............................Stevie Wonder
32 "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron"..........................The Royal Guardsmen
33 "Gimme Some Lovin' "................................The Spencer Davis Group
34 "Pleasant Valley Sunday"............................The Monkees
35 "A Whiter Shade of Pale"............................Procol Harum
36 "She'd Rather Be With Me"...........................The Turtles
37 "Soul Man"..........................................Sam and Dave
38 "Dedicated to the One I Love".......................The Mamas and the Papas
39 "It Must Be Him"....................................Vikki Carr
40 "There's a Kind of Hush"............................Herman's Hermits
41 "Bernadette"........................................The Four Tops
42 "Come Back When Your Grow Up".......................Bobby Vee
43 "The Rain, The Park & Other Things".................The Cowsills
44 "Gimme A Little Sign"...............................Brenton Wood
45 "Incense and Peppermints"...........................The Strawberry Alarm Clock
46 "Sock It To Me, Baby"...............................Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
47 "Baby, I Love You"..................................Aretha Franklin
48 "I Wanna Testify"...................................The Parliaments
49 "You're My Everything"..............................The Temptations
50 "Tell It Like It Is"................................Aaron Neville

1968

1 "Hey Jude"...........................................The Beatles
2 "Young Girl".........................................Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
3 "People Got to Be Free"..............................The Rascals
4 "Mrs. Robinson"......................................Simon and Garfunkel
5 "Love is Blue".......................................Paul Mauriat
6 "Beautiful Morning"..................................The Rascals
7 "Those Were the Days"................................Mary Hopkin
8 "MacArthur Park".....................................Richard Harris
9 "This Guy's in Love With You"........................Herb Alpert
10 "Simon Says"........................................The 1910 Fruitgum Company
11 "Honey".............................................Bobby #ccccccsboro
12 "Cry Like a Baby"...................................The Box Tops
13 "Born to Be Wild"...................................Steppenwolf
14 "Love Child"........................................Diana Ross and the Supremes
15 "Tighten Up"........................................Archie Bell and the Drells
16 "Stoned Soul Picnic"................................The Fifth Dimension
17 "Green Tambourine"..................................The Lemon Pipers
18 "Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)"...................John Fred and his Playboy Band
19 "Lady Willpower"....................................Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
20 "Harper Valley P.T.A."..............................Jeannie C. Riley
21 "Lady Madonna"......................................The Beatles
22 "Hello I Love You"..................................The Doors
23 "Light My Fire".....................................Jose Feliciano
24 "Valleri"...........................................The Monkees
25 "Turn Around, Look at Me"...........................The Vogues
26 "Woman, Woman"......................................The Union Gap
27 "Jumpin' Jack Flash"................................The Rolling Stones
28 "Hurdy Gurdy Man"...................................Donovan
29 "Little Green Apples"...............................O. C. Smith
30 "Midnight Confessions"..............................The Grass Roots
31 "Mony Mony".........................................Tommy James and the Shondells
32 "Bend Me, Shape Me".................................The American Breed
33 "Reach Out of the Darkness".........................Friend and Lover
34 "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay"..................Otis Redding
35 "Spooky"............................................The Classics IV
36 "Sunshine of Your Love".............................Cream
37 "Yummy Yummy Yummy".................................The Ohio Express
38 "Hush"..............................................Deep Purple
39 "Angel of the Morning"..............................Merrilee Rush
40 "Theme from Valley of the Dolls"....................Dionne Warwick
41 "Magic Carpet Ride".................................Steppenwolf
42 "1-2-3 Red Light"...................................The 1910 Fruitgum Company
43 "I've Gotta Get a Message to You"...................The Bee Gees
44 "Baby, Now That I've Found You".....................The Foundations
45 "Hello, Goodbye"....................................The Beatles
46 "Since You've Been Gone"............................Aretha Franklin
47 "Fire"..............................................The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
48 "The Horse".........................................Cliff Nobles and Company
49 "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"....................Hugo Montenegro
50 "Classical Gas".....................................Mason Williams


1969

1 "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".......................The Fifth Dimension
2 "Sugar, Sugar".......................................The Archies
3 "Honky Tonk Women"...................................The Rolling Stones
4 "Get Back"...........................................The Beatles
5 "Crimson and Clover".................................Tommy James and the Shondells
6 "Dizzy"..............................................Tommy Roe
7 "Jean"...............................................Oliver
8 "Build Me Up, Buttercup".............................The Foundations
9 "Touch Me"...........................................The Doors
10 "Hair"..............................................The Cowsills
11 "Sweet Caroline"....................................Neil Diamond
12 "Crystal Blue Persuasion"...........................Tommy James and the Shondells
13 "Everyday People"...................................Sly and the Family Stone
14 "Good Morning Starshine"............................Oliver
15 "In the Year 2525"..................................Zager and Evans
16 "I Can't Get Next to You"...........................The Temptations
17 "Love Theme from Romeo and Julliet".................Henry Mancini
18 "Proud Mary"........................................Creedence Clearwater Revival
19 "Spinning Wheel"....................................Blood, Sweat and Tears
20 "One"...............................................Three Dog Night
21 "Love (Can Make You Happy)".........................Mercy
22 "Traces"............................................The Classics IV
23 "You’ve Made Me So Very Happy"......................Blood, Sweat and Tears
24 "This Magic Moment".................................Jay and the Americans
25 "Worst That Could Happen"...........................The Brooklyn Bridge
26 "I Heard it Through the Grapevine"..................Marvin Gaye
27 "It's Your Thing"...................................The Isley Brothers
28 "A Boy Named Sue"...................................Johnny Cash
29 "Wedding Bell Blues"................................The Fifth Dimension
30 "Get Together"......................................The Youngbloods
31 "Easy to Be Hard"...................................Three Dog Night
32 "Little Woman"......................................Bobby Sherman
33 "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me".................The Supremes & The Temptations
34 "These Eyes"........................................The Guess Who
35 "Baby, It's You"....................................Smith
36 "I'll Never Fall in Love Again".....................Tom Jones
37 "My Cheri Amour"....................................Stevie Wonder
38 "Hooked on a Feeling"...............................B.J. Thomas
39 "Smile a Little Smile For Me".......................The Flying Machine
40 "Baby, I Love You"..................................Andy Kim
41 "Time of the Season"................................The Zombies
42 "Suspicious Minds"..................................Elvis Presley
43 "25 Miles"..........................................Edwin Starr
44 "Hot Fun in the Summertime".........................Sly and the Family Stone
45 "Love Me Tonight"...................................Tom Jones
46 "What Does it Take (to Win Your Love)"..............Jr. Walker and the All Stars
47 "Grazing in the Grass"..............................Friends of Distinction
48 "Bad Moon Rising"...................................Creedence Clearwater Revival
49 "Green River".......................................Creedence Clearwater Revival
50 "Only the Strong Survive"...........................Jerry Butler

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The past is about to become the present. Come see the heartthrobs of 1960s Chapel Hill reunited for a one time event at the American Legion. Flashback to the voice of Carter Minor and other legendary Chapel Hill musicians including Don Sparrow, Skip Via, Mel Jones, Bif Bream, Jay Cole, Andy Preston, and JP Mitchell. We hope the surprise guests include several members of the Taylor family who were also part of this musical fraternity.  We understand at least one set will contain music of The Sands of Time band. 

Chapel Hill Memories plans to have a full article on the event in the coming months.

For more details on the history of these artists and bands see:
http://www.chapelhillmemories.com/cat/4/54

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