St. Louis Park Historical Society St. Louis Park, MN

Everyone has “Googled”, their own name. Yes you have, if only to find out how many more of you by the same name are out there.
Recently I was told I was dead. An obituary was mistakenly attributed to me and read years ago on the radio in the Twin Cities. What a surprise to me, and the IRS who’ve been collecting my taxes for the last 30 years. Does my vote still count?
The Minnesota Historical Society provided proof that “yes” a Daniel Holm, of about my age at the time, passed away in the mid 1970’s. I won’t make light of this finding. Someone did lose a loved one. I send my sympathy to his family even at this late date.
Another Minnesota historical society also provided a portal back in time. The St. Louis Park Historical Society had something no other web site had, a lengthy article on local music! What a treasure to find on-line.
If you haven’t already done so, take the time to look at this website. It’s packed with many names, dates, places and memories of what I’ve heard called the “Golden age of Minneapolis music”. Jeanne Anderson, who accepted my humble additions, totally surprised us with a page devoted to “The Chancellors”.
Please take a moment to thank the volunteers at these important local repositories of our life stories. Their time, talents and enthusiasm for small town history provide the first link to preserving the greater past.
http://www.slphistory.org/history/chancellors.asp

Mr. Lucky's, Nicollet at Lake

The Underbeats

I’ve talked about Jim Johnson before, a fantastic guitarist he started out with a band called “The Underbeats”. “The Underbeats” were the most professional band I knew at that time and I respected them.
I think “The Underbeats” were a little older then “The Chancellors”, “The Accents” and “Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s”. “The Underbeats” were grounded in the 50’s and serious musicians.
Jim Johnson was a personality, he loved Chuck Berry and when “The Underbeats” played a Chuck Berry song, the notes, the timing and intonation were Chuck Berry. Jim Johnson was Chuck Berry.
Ray Berg, rhythm guitar and Rod Eaton, drums, were excellent technical players, although I didn’t know them well personally.
Don Larson was a clean bass player. If I had to explain what I mean by “clean bass” I would have to describe it in terms of the drums. John Hughes played “clean drums”, a steady beat with some fill in the right places for flash. “Dirty drums” is when you play flash all the time. “Clean bass” is a steady beat, enough to get the song across and coordinate with the drums.
I played fast on bass. I once listened to another musician playing fast bass and it sounded muddled in the crowd. I was playing “dirty”, fast and overplaying. I learned, from listening to Don Larson, how to play “clean bass”.
Jim Johnson wrote many of the songs recorded by “The Underbeats”, “Little Romance”, “Annie Do The Dog” and “Sweet Words Of Love”. Jim wrote with “Underbeats” guitarist, Rico Rosenbaum, “Crusader” and “Is That News”.
KFAI, Radio Rumpus Room, opened their Soma recordings tribute to Amos Heilicher with “The Underbeats” favorite “Foot Stompin”.

The Accents

The Minneapolis band “The Accents”, recorded on the Garrett label, then distributed through Soma Records. Influenced by Lonnie Mack, they were a solid rhythm & blues band.
Leader, Bill Miller, played Wurlitzer piano with Kenny Sands an excellent lead guitarist and Tom Green on drums, who later joined “The Underbeats”. Skip Dahlin, bass, and I used to listen to music together.
“Why”, by Lonnie Mack was one of the songs recorded by “The Accents” for the LP album “Big Hits Of Mid-America”, which also included “Wherever There’s A Will”. “Searchin” a song by the writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller was another and blues bassist, Willie Dixon, provided “Howlin’ for My Baby”.
I was always impressed with the vocals of “The Accents” and the Austin Healy 3000 that Bill Miller drove.

Gregory Dee & The Avanti's

“Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s” were also a South Minneapolis band. They were the only other local band that had fans more enthusiastic then “The Chancellors”. Their fans were crazy! Super loyal. There were kids that went to every dance that “Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s” played.
“Gregory Dee” was Greg Malland, lead singer and keyboard player. “The Avanti’s” first lead guitar was Bruce Madison followed by Dave Metzold who also played sax. Frank Prout (aka Frank Thomas) was the bass player. Doug (Froggie) Nelson was the drummer. Froggie went on to form “Froggie & His Friends”.
“ Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s” was a party band. Their loose sounding arrangements and relaxed approach to the music insured that they never got uptight as long as the kids had fun.
The LP I have “The Big Hits of Mid-America” features four of “Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s” hits. “Olds-Mo-Williams” which was featured on KFAI, Radio Rumpus Room, Oct. 17, 2008, “The Slide” written by Greg Malland and “Ain’t Got No Home”. “The Grind” their biggest hit was written by "The Avanti’s" and is still popular.
“Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s” were always friendly, never full of themselves that was part of their appeal, just regular guys.

The Chancellors on KFAI, Radio Rumpus Room

Friday night, October 17th, radio station KFAI, Radio Rumpus Room, hosted by Ron Thums and Jean Silverberg, dedicated a portion of the show to Amos Heilicher. In the program was an informative history of Amos Heilicher’s influence in American music and a great rundown of Soma’s stable of hits.
Featured first were “The Underbeats” with “Foot Stompin” and “The Castaways” singing “Goodbye Babe”. Radio Rumpus Room had several nice things to say about “The Chancellors” and I had the pleasure of hearing “Little Latin Lupe Lu” played on the radio for the first time in four decades. “The Highspirits” followed with little Cliffy Seigel’s “I Believe” and “The Trashmen” recording of “Bird Dance Beat”. The Soma tribute ended with “Gregory Dee & The Avanti’s” ever popular “Olds-Mo-William”.
http://www.kfai.org

Happy Birthday, John Hughes!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Jo-ohn
Happy Birthday tooooo yoooou!

Happy Birthday to John Hughes, the best drummer I know and the best friend I’ve ever had.
If we both still smoked, we’d have a cigar together.
Love ya buddy, Dan

The Chancellors, 44th Anniversary of Little Latin Lupe Lu

I wish I remembered this on Monday but it didn’t occur to me until today. October 13th was the 44th anniversary of the recording of “Little Latin Lupe Lu”.
“The Chancellors” were a live music entertainment group. Making a record was a promotional move that would introduce our style of music and performance to a wider area of teenagers. More demand meant more money for a gig. I don’t think any of us thought about making a record to become rich and famous. We were happy with who we were at the moment.
Ira Heilicher from Path Musical Productions, our booking agent, arranged for us to record at Kay Bank Studios. Path paid for the studio time and we showed up to play.
We approached playing in the studio the same way we did on stage, rehearsed and prepared. We played through “Little Latin Lupe Lu”. It was perfect on the first take. They wanted us to play through again to see if anything changed, so we did, a couple of times. Ira, Dick and the sound engineers went with the first take.
So now we had all this time still on the clock, what to do? We recorded Mike Judge’s crowd pleasing “Yo Yo”. The later WDGY Top 40 hit, “So Fine” and an instrumental “Surf Beat” were taped. “Charlie Brown” with David Rivkin singing lead and Dan Holm asking, “Why’s everybody always picking on me?”. John Hughes even sang one of his rare solo pieces, “I Can Tell”. “The Chancellors” tight harmony was well represented.

Rest In Peace, Amos

I have been on holiday, idling away the days in the half-timbered and stone villages of Normandy, France, attending the wedding of my beautiful God-daughter, Laura. As so often happens, happiness is followed by sadness and so it is upon my return to hear about the passing of Amos Heilicher.
Amos was the father of my friend, Ira. He was co-owner of Soma Records, the label that put it’s faith behind “Little Latin Lupe Lu/YoYo” and “So Fine/I'm A Man” by “The Chancellors”. He was a force in American music recording, retail and distribution and radio industry that was incomprehensible to me as a teen-age musician but that I intuitively respected.
I wish now I would have stopped in to see Amos when I was in Minneapolis last but I didn’t. Instead Ira and I mused over the old days, catching up on our lives and families. Amos was still working, keeping his mind sharp on the grindstone of business.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ira’s daughter, Hannah. She has been engaged with the promotion of St. Anthony Main for a number of years. Another Heilicher involved in the music legacy of Minneapolis.
What more can we ask of our lives than to be a positive influence to the next generation. Rest in peace, Amos.

Amos Heilicher, The Godfather of Minneapolis Music

November 12, 1917- October 12, 2008

http://www.startribune.com/mobile/?aid=30872664&section=Entertainment