THE ROCKY FELLERS, "BYE BYE BABY" C/W "SHE MAKE ME WANNA DANCE" (SCEPTER 1263, REL. 12/1963)

I have more records from the year 1963 than any other in my ever-growing collection. It’s not a tribute to my birth year—it reflects the quality and variety of music styles that percolated in what is really the final year of the 1950s.

In hindsight, it’s clear American music had no clue what was right around the corner. The Beatles had achieved some regional US charters with “From Me to You,” which also got a charting US cover by singer Del Shannon. The group was in the news due to the clamor they created in Europe. To most music biz movers and shakers, it was immaterial. All that mattered was now, and to make that now expand into infinity with a constant fresh supply of new songs and performers.

1963 is the end of an era—a bold demarcation of past and future. It seems clear now that pop music needed a new direction. It had been spinning its wheels with often-appealing results, but recycled approaches began to pall. Something needed to change. The influence of folk music and the Brazilian bossa nova infused pop music to good effect (and Black music as well) but a certain stagnation was evident. No one wanted to rock the boat too hard, lest the hits cease to happen, but the long-range view revealed something new needed to appear.

Through Wednesday, we’ll hear 1963 selections that emphasize the last stages of the 1950s pop-rock sound—an integral element of the forthcoming British invaders, who singles and LPs teem with cover versions of American material. A key track of The Beatles’ debut LP was “Twist and Shout,” a 1962 release by The Isley Brothers. The group also covers Arthur Alexander’s recent “Anna” and “Baby It’s You,” a ’62 smash for The Shirelles. Every British group that impacted the US scene in ’64 relied on rehashes of Yank material. It provided a bridge from old to new, and many groups would develop enough original material that they no longer needed to rely on cover versions.

Exhibit A is a December 1963 release by The Rocky Fellers, a Filipino pop-rock combo who had two chart hits that year with “Killer Joe” and “Like the Big Guys Do.” Like The Bee Gees and The Osmonds, this was a family band, with father Doroeteo Maligmat and his four sons, Albert, Eddie, Junior and Tony. This self-contained group began performing in the late 1950s and were signed to Scepter Records after they made two singles for Philadelphia label Parkway.

The high energy of these elfin performers got them into the Top 20 with the first Scepter release. “Killer Joe” was inspired by a real-life NY dance teacher who was called the “King of the Discotheques” and was co-written by Bert Berns, who provides the B-side of today’s musical offering.

Scepter rushed out an album in the wake of “Killer Joe”—full of cover versions of house material, as was the label’s wont, and the group’s two hits. Public interest waned by year’s end, and “Bye Bye Baby” proved the Fellers’ next-to-last Scepter platter. Co-written by Big Dee Irwin and J. B. Willingham, the prolific authors of scores of r&b and soul songs, its intro riff sounds quite like that of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the song that, within days, would upend American music for good.

It’s an impressive pop-soul item, taken at mid-tempo and sung in dense harmonies to a solid, beefy instrumental backing. This isn’t kiddie rock: it’s a fascinating blend of musical approaches that eschews novelty for a solid, convincing emotional approach. Scepter plugged it in Cash Box, who didn’t bother to spotlight it with a review. Billboard stepped in to make it one of their Pick of the Weeks, as seen below.

Hear it >>>>> HERE. <<<<<

Billboard corrected the grammar of our B-side.

Bert Berns provided the exciting “She Make Me Wanna Dance,” a fast number with the songwriter’s trademark light Latin rhythms and the chord progression of his most successful song, the afore-mentioned “Twist and Shout.” The high voices of the younger Fellers are more evident on this bright dancer. It’s loaded with tropical percussion and it’s not a far cry from one of The Drifters’ contemporary records.

Bongo fury reaches a welcome peak on this mover ‘n’ shaker which sounds like it could have been a hit for somebody. This was the side to plug, and it could have held its own against the British invaders, had Scepter bothered to push it. The immediate sheaf of royalties they received for UK covers of their labels’ material perhaps gave them a more relaxed first response to the Beatles, et al. This piece of musical democracy is one of the late lost gems of the first decade of youth music in America.

Hear it >>>>> HERE. <<<<<

The Rocky Fellers moved to Warner Brothers Records, who had no clue what to do with them. After four singles, they were dropped from the WB roster and the group sunsetted. Various members worked with other groups and kept busy, but mainstream success eluded them. They recorded 33 tracks, which have been collected into a single CD which is available on Amazon and elsewhere.

Tomorrow: The Permanents deliver the anonymous girl-group goods on yet another Chairman Records 45 from 1963. They might be another group in disguise.