[Vintage-Audio] Some Trivia Help

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

It is "still" Summer until the 22nd of September +/- (Longer if I have my 
way!)

I am still surprised with myself that I unknowingly remembered their name 
correctly! I actually got banned from the "Oldies" contests at the outside 
lawn car shows because the DJ there knew Fischer probably had the answer! He 
even banned anyone standing within thirty feet of me, as he figured I would 
tell them the answer! It got to be a running joke.

The down side was that when nobody could identify the song or artist, or 
both, he asked me over the PA system to ID it. Well, there were times that 
DBF had absolutely no clue who did the song, the song title, and had to 
admit he had never heard it before! Sometimes I wonder where they find some 
of these "Huh?" singles!

Maybe the "B" side of a promo single by some group that never made it. I had 
a local DJ from WTRX, 1330 AM, give me a stack of those 45's once. Some of 
the songs were really very good! Others? Well ... I remember Bobby Curtola, 
from Canada? Three Rows Over And Two Seats Down. Those were fun days, heh?

Thank you for the additional Bob and thank you Gerry!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Nickels" <W9RAN at oneradio.net>
To: "Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back" 
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 10:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Some Trivia Help


> Duane,
>
> In addition to Gerry's answer to the question you asked, here's a bunch 
> more info about the Sunrays, just for grins...hey it's still summer!
>
> Your correlation with the Beach Boys was right on the mark, as you'll see. 
> This is from an interview with the band leader, Eddie Medora - I thought 
> it might be of interest to others.
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN
>
> **We were called the Renegades.  We were a garage band rehearsing in my 
> parents home in Pacific Palisades.  We were in 7th and 8th grade.  I saw a 
> band  perform called the Riptides - they had a local hit called Machine 
> Gun.  My name is Eddy Medora and I was the lead guitar player  for the 
> Sunrays. After I saw the reponse from the crowd, I knew I wanted to start 
> a band.   We played all over West L. A.  There were five of us - Marty, 
> Darrol,  Mike, Ricky, and myself.   We were doing pretty well when Mike 
> moved away.   Darrol also left.  In the first year of high school, I met 
> Steve and Vince.  These guys did not have a band.  They were both good 
> musicians. They asked if they could join our band.  We auditioned them. 
> After we heard them play, I knew they had all of our votes.   So we 
> continued to perform throughout California as the Renegades.  I played 
> saxaphone, Marty played keyboard, Ricky played drums,  Steve played lead 
> guitar, and Vince played bass and rhythm guitar.   I changed high schools. 
> I enrolled in Hollywood Professional.   /In 1963,/  I met Carl and Dennis 
> Wilson of the Beach Boys.  At that time the Beach Boys had ten 
> double-sided hits on the charts.   Carl heard our band, The Renegades, and 
> thought we were fabulous.  Carl mentioned us to his dad, Murray Wilson, 
> who was looking for another group to manage.  Carl set the audition up. 
> We were at the Beach Boys home in Hawthorne until 4 AM.  He said if we 
> listened to him we would have a hit record in six weeks.   Murray told us 
> to go home and write songs.  "I Live for the Sun" was our first hit. 
> Steve left the group at this time to try and make it on his own.  He was 
> replaced by my friend, Byron.   "Andrea" was our second hit.   All these 
> releases were on Tower Records label.  The label was created just for us 
> so we would not be on The Beach Boys label, which was Capital Records.**
>
> *
> We all started playing in a band in 8th grade.  As the Renegades, we 
> recorded songs under the following names:  The Snowmen,  The Rangers, 
> (pre-Sunrays).
> Kim Fowley produced these songs.   I played saxaphone in the Renegades and 
> rhythm gutiar.   Our first song recorded was "Sidewinder."  These early 
> songs can be heard on our box set called "Vintage Rays."  The Sunrays sang 
> 5 part harmony.  We were really a blues and soul band when we started out. 
> It was 1964 when our first Sunray release was a song called " Car Party," 
> which Murry wrote.   It did not do well at all.   I wrote  the song  "I 
> Wanna Know" about our group breaking up.   Ricky wrote a song called "Our 
> Leader" for Murry Wilson's Christmas present.  Murry cried when we gave 
> him the record on Chritmas Eve.  We all paid for the session.  Hial King, 
> a friend and a musical genius, came aboard to help arrange and write songs 
> for us.   Murry hired Don Ralke to help arrange our vocals and songs we 
> wrote.  The song "Andrea" was written about a flight attendant we met on 
> one of our flights.   Glen Campbell did play guitar with me on "I Live For 
> the Sun."  Murry Wilson was the niecest man ever.   We never saw any abuse 
> towards us or his sons, the Beach Boys.  Capitol Records did start a new 
> label, Tower Records, just for The Sunrays.   If we did not smile on stage 
> we would either have to stand on our heads or pay a $100.00 fine, which 
> would go into a fund for music accessories.  Barney Kessel (Jazz 
> Guitarest), Mickey Rooney's stepdad, used to help us arrange some of our 
> songs.  I did fraternity parties with Bruce Johnston, pre-Sunrays.  Mike 
> Adams and the Red Jackets were a band we admired.  We liked them so much 
> we asked them for their red jackets,  which they gave to us,  pre-Sunrays. 
> *
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