NIGHT SHADOWS BAND CHRONOLOGY
Volume 1: The Rhythm & Blues Period
1959-1964
Introduction
This CD is the first volume of a limited edition musical
anthology featuring the legendary Night Shadows. The Night
Shadows are well known to serious record collectors as one of the
pioneer "garage bands" of the 1960’s and the
paragons of psychedelic music in the Deep South. In collector
magazines and catalogs, the group’s infamous 1968 acid-punk
album "The Square Root of Two" on Spectrum Stereo
Records, is currently valued at more than $1000 in mint
condition. The 1979 reissue of that classic album on Hottrax
Records has already increased in value by 700% over its original
retail price.
It may be surprising to some collectors that the Night Shadows were organized almost a decade before the release of their 1968 masterwork by Aleck Janoulis, the group’s bass player and vanguard. Volume One spans the band's early years between 1959 to 1964, which is considered the Night Shadows’ Rhythm & Blues period. This was long before the band teamed up with Little Phil to front the group and also became known as Little Phil and The Night Shadows. However, to present a proper historical perspective of the group, a chronology should begin several years prior to 1959 when band alliances were formed in area schools.
1952
Ronnie Farmer (guitar), Mike Moore
(piano & organ) and Aleck Janoulis (bass) are classmates in
elementary school. Janoulis is introduced to Rhythm & Blues
music by his uncle who was returned from the Korean War. This is
just before Rock and Roll is officially "invented" by
fusing "Hillbilly" music with Rhythm & Blues.
1956
Farmer and Pitner form their first band, the Kavaliers. Janoulis
purchases an electric bass by mail order and replaces George
Richardson who played a "washtub bass" in the group.
1958
Mike Moore joins the Kavaliers becoming their first keyboard
player. Mike Moore constructs an electronic theramin, an
instrument used in 1950's science fiction films, to create
pre-psychedelic "space sounds." Janoulis' cousin
introduces band to music-whiz Donald Adams (trumpet) and Ray
Massey (drums). They join the group and become The Barons
(Pre-Night Shadows line-up). Adams teaches the others how to
"arrange" tunes for maximum impact on audiences.
1959
Janoulis changes the band name from "The Barons" to
"The Night Shadows" when Adams departs for college.
Bobby Newell, a Massey schoolmate, replaces Mike Moore on piano.
Bobby "Bones" Jones (vocals & Harmonica) is hired
as the first "front man" for the group and Hilton
Dickerson joins the group as their first "road
manager." Their first public appearance as "The Night
Shadows" is made on December 13, 1959 at the Maid of Athens'
Annual Masquerade Ball.
1960 - 1961
The Night Shadows became one of two alternating house bands
playing shows at an infamous skating rink called "Misty
Waters". (The other group was The Zots, a.k.a. Mac Davis and
The Zots). Although both groups' shows were primarily blues
oriented, radio station DJ's and local concert promoters started
to book the Night Shadows as the primary back-up band for solo
rock & roll stars who were touring in the area. Their ability
to quickly learn the songs of the traveling artists and arrange
them in a show format (often just minutes before curtain call)
gave the The Night Shadows a virtual monopoly over other local
bands. It also increased their bookings by giving them a lot of
exposure in front of large crowds. They would "warm-up"
those audiences with their own show which featured a great blues
singer and harmonica player named Bobby "Bones" Jones.
"I Love You Baby" (Track 1) and "Honest I Do" (Track 2) are live performances and are the earliest known recordings of the Night Shadows with Jones fronting the band. These primitive tracks were recorded on a tape machine with one microphone located near a telephone booth in Misty Waters in late 1959 or early 1960. If you listen closely, you can hear a conversation outside the phonebooth and the static caused by someone stepping or tripping on the microphone cable.
What these two tracks lack in sound quality is made up by the historical significance of the recording being a "bootleg" before such a term was recognized. "Blindside" (Track 3), which has the best sound quality of the three tracks with Bobby Jones on vocal, was an unreleased studio recording. Tracks 1, 2, and 3 feature the band line-up depicted as NIGHT SHADOWS # 1 on the personnel chart. On Track 3, however, Johnny Pitner provided both rhythm and lead guitars since Farmer was unavailable for the studio session.
1962
After Jones left the group in the fall of 1961 the Night Shadows
joined forces with Ervin Barocas and Helene Kopell, a male/female
duo that fronted the band as Little Erv & Helene. It was
during this period that the Night Shadows began to release
records on independent labels. The group's first release was a
risqué single titled "Garbage Man" (Track 11) backed
with "The Hot Dog Man" (Track 4). The tunes were
written and sung by Janoulis to break into the lucrative college
fraternity market that was dominated by black artists performing
party songs. Their earliest commercial release was a new dance
called "The Elevator" (Track 7). The solo in this tune,
although very simplistic, is the earliest known indie rock
recording with two guitars playing in harmony. The flipside was a
jazz-rock instrumental called "Station Break" (Track
5). It was used as "bumper" music (background music) in
several radio station air checks. One musicologist familiar with
both jazz and rock believes that "Station Break" may
have been the first "fusion" release (1962) of these
two music genres. The band's popularity started to soar during
this period because of a combination of being on area concerts,
radio airplay, the notoriety of their risqué' 45 and a great
live show featuring Little Erv & Helene. The Night Shadows
were also the first known "garage" band at this time to
use portable stagelights, a cut-down organ that their keyboard
player modified for easy mobility, and low impedance microphones
for off-stage mixing into a board they dubbed "The
Brain".
1964
By chance, Spinks and Janoulis happened to see TV newscasts in
early November, 1963 of the rock & roll "mania"
sweeping Britain. The coming "English Invasion" of rock
bands was postponed, however, by the tragic assassination of
President Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. This allowed the Night
Shadows to get a three month jump start on other American groups
that would follow this new direction in music after the
"mop-top invasion" started in February, 1964. At the
insistence of Spinks, Janoulis agreed to incorporate more
English-type rock into their repertoire. This broader scope of
music became a factor in the change of lead singers later that
year when Little Erv quit and Judy Argo departed for
opportunities in New York. In June, 1964 Janoulis decided to hire
Little Phil to front the band under protest from other members of
the group. Little Phil had just completed the ninth grade in high
school while the rest of the band members were college-age
adults. Everyone except Janoulis thought he was too young to
front the band. It turned out to be the right decision however,
since Little Phil could sing rock and R&B equally well. He
remained lead singer for the next five years. ( To be covered in
The Legendary Night Shadows Volumes 2 and 3).
1964-1969
This period to be covered in Vol. 2 - The Little Phil
Era, 1964-1967 and Volume 3 - The
Psychedelic Years 1967-1969