Don_Krider's Full Review: Red Rubber Ball by The Cyrkle
Talk about having all the breaks at the right time: Beatles' manager Brian Epstein handling your career, John Lennon giving your group a new name, touring as opening act for The Beatles, being produced by John Simon (famed producer of Janis Joplin and of The Band) and having Paul Simon toss songs your way.
The Cyrkle had it all, including six Hot 100 singles between May 1966 and September 1967.
Among those hits, a Top 10 smash with their very first single, a gorgeous piece of pop written by Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel fame) with Bruce Woodley of The Seekers (who hit # 2 with "Georgy Girl" in 1966) that was called "Red Rubber Ball."
That tune rose to # 2 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 Singles chart in the summer of 1966.
How it began:
The band members, natives of New Jersey and New York, met while students at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Tom Dawes was a serious student of folk-rock acts such as The Kingston Trio (whose "Tom Dooley" hit # 1 in 1958) and The Journeymen (the latter featured John Phillips and Scott McKenzie), among others. He was also a member of The Ironwood Knights, a local band.
However, things changed for the college freshmen in 1964 when folk music took a backseat to The Beatles rock 'n' roll on the U. S. pop charts.
Dawes hooked up with vocalist Don Dannemann and keyboardist Earle Pickens to form a trio known as The Rhondells. The group gained a large following at fraternity parties playing songs by The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons, the leading acts of the day.
Dawes and Dannemann developed "an Everly Brothers-style blend between them," according to the CD booklet, which also notes that "this was embellished by Dawes' close analysis of Beach Boy/Four Season/Beatle harmony."
The band added drummer Marty Fried and was soon discovered by Warren Covington, conductor of the Tommy Dorsey Band. The Rhondells were asked to appear as the rhythm section of Dorsey's "big band" sound in Atlantic City for a time, being allowed to perform Top 40 tunes for audiences when the rest of the 1940s-era band took a break.
The band followed this up with gigs at a local club called The Alibi. This attracted the interest of ABC/Paramount Records which put out a single by them entitled "Parkin' At The Kokomo."
Paul Simon:
A second summer of gigs in Atlantic City at The Alibi in 1965 led to the band being seen by attorney Nat Weiss, who represented Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, in the United States.
Demo recording sessions followed, briefly interrupted when Dannemann went on active duty for several months with the U. S. Coast Guard.
During this pause in The Rhondell's career, Dawes was hired as bass player for Simon & Garfunkel's band, the legendary folk-rock duo having just scored a # 1 single with "The Sounds Of Silence" at the end of 1965.
It was during this gig that Dawes heard a number of unrecorded songs by Paul Simon, the songwriting genius behind Simon & Garfunkel.
Simon offered Dawes four of his songs to record (Dawes turned down the fourth song, "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," which was then given to Harper's Bizarre, which scored a # 13 hit with the tune in 1967).
The Cyrkle recorded the other three tunes ("Red Rubber Ball," "Cloudy" and "I Wish You Could Be Here") themselves.
Brian Epstein:
With several song demos, including "Red Rubber Ball," The Rhondells were taken to meet Brian Epstein. Epstein, the man who directed the machine that made The Beatles the biggest recording act of all time, was also the manager of a number of other British acts, including Gerry & The Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas.
Epstein became fast friends with The Rhondells' members but not with the band's name. At the suggestion of The Beatles' John Lennon, the group changed their name to The Cyrkle.
Epstein then got the band signed to Columbia Records.
This CD:
The original 11 tracks of the "Red Rubber Ball" appear here, along with 8 additional bonus tracks that increase the total number of tunes to 19.
Sundazed Records has finally brought The Cyrkle's Columbia Records' vinyl catalog to CD (they have also issued The Cyrkle's second album, "Neon," which peaked at # 164 in 1967, on CD).
Among the tunes:
"Red Rubber Ball":
The band's first single, "Red Rubber Ball," was released in April 1966 and by summer had risen to # 2 on the pop charts (held back from # 1 by Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night").
It's an amazing pop record, opening with producer John Simon's 75-pipe calliope giving the tune a happy day at the circus feel. The tune features bright, uptempo guitars, with drums providing a solid backbeat, all played beneath sweet vocal harmony as Dawes and Dannemann sing:
"I should have known you'd bid me farewell / there's a lesson to be learned from this / and I learned it very well / now I know you're not the only starfish in the sea / if I never hear your name again / it's all the same to me / and I think it's gonna be all right / yeah, the worst is over now / the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball..."
The Beatles:
The success of "Red Rubber Ball" as a single led to an LP of the same name in the summer of 1966. The songs on that album were sent to The Beatles in the hope they would allow The Cyrkle to be their opening act on their 1966 tour.
As quoted in the CD booklet's notes, winning that national tour spot and going on stage before "The Fab Four" was a dream come true for The Cyrkle, according to Dawes, who said, "We went from playing to around 2,000 people nightly to over 60,000."
With a successful tour (The Beatles last tour --- they chose to concentrate on making albums and gave up live performing after this tour) and a huge hit single, the band appeared on a number of television shows, all of which drove their debut album to # 47 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
"Turn-Down Day":
For a time, the hits kept on coming. The band's second single, "Turn-Down Day," rose to # 16 in that summer of 1966.
"Turn-Down Day" pre-dates the Americans-singing-British Merseybeat-power pop of later groups such as Badfinger and The Raspberries, but the sound is very similar to those acts.
Written by non-band members Dave Blume and Jerry Keller (who hit # 14 in 1959 with the song "Here Comes Summer"), "Turn-Down Day" opens with brightly played keyboards (almost honky tonk-ish in playing style) and features Dawes playing a sitar drone hook that accents the chorus:
"It's much too groovy a summer's day / to waste runnin' round in the city / but here on the sand I can dream away / or look at the girls if they're pretty / it's a turn-down day / nothin' on my mind / it's a turn-down day / and I dig it / there's nothing easier I can do / than lyin' around doing nothing / it's a turn-down day..."
"Baby, You're Free":
Bob Crewe's work with Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons had already established his credentials as a pop songwriter when The Cyrkle recorded his pretty ballad "Baby, You're Fine."
The band sounds a great deal, to this listener at least, like The Turtles ("Guide For the Married Man" comes to mind style-wise) on this tune, which showcases Dannemann's tenor talents ("...you're not for me, baby, you're free...").
"Cloudy":
The "Red Rubber Ball" songwriting team of Simon and Woodley also contributed "Cloudy."
As performed here, the tune sounds as if it were actually being sung by Simon & Garfunkel (the S&G version appears on their "Collected Works" album), very mellow and relaxed with a lovely harmony over sparse instrumentation (which is mainly an acoustic guitar):
"Cloudy / my thoughts are scattered and they're cloudy / they have no borders, no boundaries / they echo and they swell..."
"Bony Moronie":
A # 14 hit in 1957 for Larry Williams, "Bony Moronie" ("I got a girl named Bony Moronie, she's as skinny as a stick of macaroni...") is totally out-of-place amid the more classic pop tunes here.
The '50s rocker is presented with a very unusual arrangement here by The Cyrkle, which makes it a bit more interesting than your usual cover tune.
In fact, one of The Beatles appreciated The Cyrkle's version, according to Dawes, "I recall asking Paul McCartney if he'd listened to the album and he went on to compliment our upside-down arrangement of Larry Williams' 'Bony Moronie'..."
"How Can I Leave Her":
Presented here as both the originally released studio version and as the previously unreleased demo recording, "How Can I Leave Her" shows that Dawes and Dannemann were capable songwriters themselves.
It's a very Beatles-inspired ballad, the type of tune that would have fit perfectly on "Beatles '65":
"How can I leave her / all alone and blue / how can I / after all that we've been through..."
"We Had A Good Thing Goin'":
Imagine The Beatles' "Got To Get You Into My Life" sung by Blood, Sweat & Tears with a "Penny Lane" arrangement and you've got an idea of what The Cyrkle's version of Neil Sedaka's "We Had A Good Thing Goin'" sounds like.
One of this CD's bonus tracks, this tune hit # 72 in 1967 as a single. In the spirit of "Sergeant Pepper" and 1967 psychedelic recording (backward tapes, studio tricks, backing vocals that at times sound like The Chipmunks), the song works.
"Penny Arcade":
Another tune not on the original album, "Penny Arcade" (written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell) was the band's final chart hit, peaking at # 95 in 1967.
It's perfect '60s bubblegum pop, with the band's classic keyboard emphasis, sounding not unlike The Partridge Family did a few years later.
"The Words":
Dawes seems to have been listening to The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album when he wrote "The Words," another bonus track offered here.
There's a bit of sped-up "Norwegian Wood" in the melody of this perfectly delightful tune.
Hidden track:
Not listed, but appearing shortly after "The Words" ends, is a hidden track. It's a very short interview (apparently from 1966) with the band members by an unnamed reporter.
It's a pleasant surprise and worth listening to (for instance, the band members answering questions about why they chose to wear their hair short and about what they thought of the "new" mini-skirt craze among '60s women).
The tracks:
From the original album: "Red Rubber Ball," "Why Can't You Give me What I Want," "Baby, You're Fine," "Big, Little Woman," "Cloudy," "Cry," "Turn-Down Day," "There's A Fire In The Fireplace," "Bony Moronie," "How Can I Leave Her" and "Money To Burn."
The bonus tracks: "Straighten Out My Messed Up Life," "Downtown Lies" (previously unreleased), "How Can I Leave Her" (previously unreleased demo), "Money To Burn" (previously unreleased demo), "We Had A Good Thing Goin'," "Reading Her Paper," "Penny Arcade" and "The Words" (with the hidden interview embedded in track 19 a few seconds after the song ends).
This CD's sound:
Very clear sound from recordings that will be 40-years-old soon (no trace of hiss or any other distractions). Mastered from the original tapes by Bob Irwin.
For information on this and other Sundazed Records releases (they not only put out CDs, but many of their titles are issued on vinyl as well): http://www.sundazed.com
The CD booklet:
Very informative, well-illustrated, 8-page CD booklet with liner notes by Domenic Priore. He includes commentary from interviews he did with band members.
The front and back of the CD booklet are reproductions of the front and back covers of the original LP.
Recommendation:
Fans of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, The Turtles, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Monkees and The Association will enjoy this.
Where are they now?:
The band reunited for a benefit concert in 1986, but the members have been involved in solo projects since the band split up in the late 1960s. Manager Brian Epstein's death by drug overdose in 1967 coincided with the band's declining popularity.
Dawes and Dannemann have enjoyed success as composers of commercial jingles in recent years (one of the most famous being the 7-Up "Un-Cola" commercial).
On the web:
Sundazed Records official site: http://www.sundazed.com (be sure to fill out the online form and request their very fun catalogs; they recently did one catalog in 3-D, including free 3-D viewing glasses with the free catalog!)
Capitol/EMI's 20-track 24-bit digitally remastered CD "Greatest" by Raspberries (the original lineup --- Eric Carmen, Wally Bryson, Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti --- who sang the million-seller "Go All The Way" reunited in 2004-2005) was released in May of 2005 in the U. S. and Europe. It features all 7 of Raspberries Hot 100 singles, has 20 tracks and runs 78:53 minutes: http://www.epinions.com/content_186044681860
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