The Cyrcle
by Ben McLane, Esq.
Cyrcle: an easily recognizable shape; and, in 1966, an easily recognizable sound.
I spoke with Tom Dawes, an original member of the ‘60s pop group The Cyrcle, and
all quotes are from him.
The band initially formed at Layfayette College in Pennsylvania. "I was a freshman
there and wanted to start a band. Word got around and I met Earl Pickens who
could play ‘What I Say’ on a Wurlitzer Electric Piano just like Ray Charles.
We decided to form a band. About six months later Don Dannemann joined the
band. Dannemann played lead guitar, I played bass, Earl played keys. At
first we performed as the Rhondells. Our original drummer came up with the
name but it did not have any special meaning. A year later Marty Fried
joined on drums. At times Pickens would play bass and I would play guitar
so we could have the configuration of two guitars, bass and drums like the
Beatles. We switched off on leads vocals, but Dannemann did more singing
than anyone. Although we were a top 40 band at first, I started analyzing
Four Seasons, Beach Boys, and Beatles’ parts and we became a four part
harmony group, which was pretty unique for a college band at that time."
The band's first shot at stardom came about via a connection with famed '60s producer
Jerry Ross (producer of artists such as Keith, Bobby Hebb and Spanky and Our Gang)
who was based in Philadelphia. “A local DJ named Gene Kaye heard us at a sock hop
and we signed up with him for a recording contract. He had an allegiance with
Jerry Ross. We cut two sides with Ross as the Rhondells, but nothing happened.
I am not sure if this was ever commercially released. Ross and Kaye sort of
disappeared on us after that.” [For hardcore Cyrcle fans, these cuts were just
released on the Yo! Philadelphia – Look What I Found CD put out by Jerry Ross
himself.]
Disillusioned but determined after the Ross nonevent, the band moved on to what turned
out to be their big break. "We took our top 40 bit to Atlantic City and got a job
there in the summer. This experience really tightened the band up because we played
90 days straight, every night." It was during this period that the band met artist
manager/music attorney Nat Weiss who was Brian Epstein's American liaison.
"By the time Nat Weiss happened to see us at a bar we were at our peak
performance. He was impressed and brought us to New York to play in the
Village.” Weiss and Brian Epstein became the band's managers (as
Nemperor Artists). “Brian then brokered a record deal with Columbia.
Everyone was bowled over by the Beatles at that time and Columbia was
hungry to please Epstein." During this period there was a moniker switch
from the Rhondells to The Cyrcle. "Supposedly, Brian asked John Lennon
to come up with a name and Lennon came up with it. That is what Epstein
told us. Lennon could do no wrong then."
Happiness was just around the bend, but the band had a bit of a delay in conquering
the music world. However, this delay was quite fortuitous. “At around this time,
Dannemann had to go into the Coast Guard for several months to honor his military
commitment; I was stuck in New York with Marty waiting for Don to come back so we
could resume our career. Barry Kornfeld - who was putting together a band for Simon
and Garfunkel when they were just starting out with ‘Sounds of Silence’ - heard
us play. He liked my bass playing and hired me for the gig. I went on the road
with Simon and Garfunkel for the first four gigs they did. That is where I first
heard ‘Red Rubber Ball’ [written by Simon]. Simon had been working with Bruce
Woodley of the Seekers and writing a lot of songs. When Dannemann came back to
town we played it for Weiss and everybody liked it so we recorded it. John Simon
became our producer at Columbia. The chemistry was great with John Simon.
He got the idea to play the Hammond organ on the song. John Simon also did
most of the arrangement for [the second single] ‘Turn Down Day’; the piano
at beginning. We sang harmony parts on the songs.” Pickens left the band
prior to recording and was replaced by Michael Losecamp.
The first album was titled Red Rubber Ball. “Columbia really got behind the record
and the rest is history. [‘Red Rubber Ball’ hit #2 BB ’66; the follow up ‘Turn Down
Day’ reached #16 BB, ’66.] We went out of our minds when we heard our music on WABC.”
The radio support led to an opening slot on the Beatles’ last US tour. “’Red Rubber
Ball’ was successful enough to warrant putting us on the tour. It was like the
Tom Hank’s movie ‘That Thing You Do’. We went from playing fraternity parties to
going on right before the Beatles in front of 75,000 people; we were looking at
each going ‘can you believe this?’”
The follow-up Cyrcle LP was called Neon. “That one was done with John Simon, too.”
This album included the minor hits “Please Don’t Ever Leave Me” (#59 BB ’67) and
“I Wish You Could Be Here” (Paul Simon again, #70 BB, ’67). Group composition
“Don’t Cry, No Fears, No Tears Comin’ Your Way” was also released as a single
but did not chart. “I am not sure why we did not hit the top 40 again. We
just sort of went downhill after ‘Turn Down Day’. When Epstein passed away
[in ‘67] this did not affect the band much because Weiss was really running the
show. We were on the road for a few years and getting a salary from Nemperor
because when Kaye and Ross heard ‘Red Rubber Ball’ they sued us for the
contracts we had signed with them. This tied up all the money we made
from all of our records. It was all in escrow and we could not touch it.
When the smoke cleared and the lawsuit done, no one made money; the
lawyers’ bills took it all. This was my first screw job in rock and roll.
A good lesson to learn.” The Neon album also contained in this writer
’s opinion at least two other laudable non-singles worth investigating,
“The Visit (She Was Here)” and “Two Rooms”.
The final Cyrcle recordings involved a change in the band’s sound. “We went from John
Simon to Charlie Calello as producer when we weren’t getting hits. Calello had many
hits with the Four Seasons. He was supposed to turn us around. Somehow it got off
into this whole different thing. You see Weiss worked with Robert Stigwood [manager
of the Bee Gees]. Stigwood played Nat the Bee Gees. Calello heard the Bee Gees
and decided to rip off Bee Gees’ tunes and sort of make the Cyrcle sound like the
Bee Gees. This did not work for me.” (An example of this would be the flip of
‘”Don’t Cry…”, “Turn of the Century”, written by the Gibb brothers.) It was
during this era when the band last charted with “We Had A Good Thing Goin’”
(written by Neil Sedaka, #72 BB, ’67) and “Penny Arcade” (#95 BB, ’67). “At
this point I got discouraged because we were not making any money and left
the band. Danneman and Fried carried on for a few years.” Dawes
apparently did not participate in the last Cyrcle single; the fantastic
overlooked 1968 pop gem “Reading Her Paper”.
After Cyrcle, the band members went their separate ways. Toward the end of Dawes’
tenure in the group, “someone called do a demo for a 7-Up commercial. Nat handed
it to me. I wrote and arranged the commercial and got Marty and Don in the studio
and we sang it. They liked it and we won the campaign. The first 7-Up ‘Uncola’
campaign was us. I got a check for $10,000. It made me decide to stay at home
and get paid for what I do so I went into the jingle business. While doing
jingles, I also produced two Foghat albums [Rock & Roll (’73), Energized (’74)].
Their manager and I had been friends from the time of the Beatles’ tour
because he worked for Nat Weiss at the time. He called up and asked if
I would like to produce Foghat. I said sure and we got along very well.
About 1990, I left commercials and started producing records again. The guy who
used to manage Foghat turned me on to a guy named Bill Sims, who is a blues singer
in New York. They just did a big PBS special on him. I produced his LP. Also,
recently I did a blues project for Rod Price, a lead guitar player in Foghat.”
After Cyrcle, Dannemann started his own jingle company and is still doing it today
in New York. Marty got out of music and lives in the Midwest. Michael continued
in music but I lost track of him. Pickens is a successful surgeon in Gainesville,
Florida.” Manager Nat Weiss went on to work with James Taylor, brokering his
1976 mega-bucks deal with CBS and he later formed the Nemperor label, distributed
by CBS, which released at least one hit group, the garage pop troupers the Romantics.
Copyright 1998, Ben McLane
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