Rock and Roll

"He's our kind of guy." -- Frank Beard to Billy Gibbons after Beard introduced himself to Dusty Hill in a bar. Hill passed out drunk before returning Beard's greeting.--1969
Best known for: Classic rock trio known for its Texas heritage, bearded, haggard look, reclusive mystique, hard-nosed business tactics, and blues-rock sound.

Born: ZZ Top (aka, That Little ol' Band from Texas): 1969; Billy F. Gibbons (guitar): Houston, September 16, 1949; Dusty Hill (bass): Dallas, May 19, 1949; Frank Beard (drums): Dallas, June 11, 1949; Bill Mack Ham (manager): Waxahachie, 1937.

Family: Billy Gibbons, the son of a financially well-off family living in the Tanglewood suburb of Houston, never married. Dusty Hill is divorced with a college-age daughter. Frank Beard is married and has two twin boys and a daughter who reportedly goes to college in Houston and will be part of the University class of 2001.

Education: While growing up in suburban Houston, Gibbons learned about R&B music from his family's maid, who was African-American.

Career: Guitarist Billy Gibbons met his future manager, Waxahachie native Bill Mack Ham, backstage at a Doors concert in Houston in 1967. Gibbons' band at the time, the Moving Sidewalks, had a local hit with the song "99th Floor." They soon opened on the Doors' Texas tour. After later opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix named Gibbons his favorite guitar player during an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson." The Sidewalks broke up and Gibbons and Ham contracted to form a new band.

After a few false starts with other musicians, the Gibbons-Hill-Beard version of ZZ Top was founded in 1969. According to Gibbons, the name came from one or more of the following: the two brands of rolling-paper, Zig-Zag and Top, a tribute to blues legend Z.Z. Hill, and/or Gibbons seeing the two words running together on a dilapidated bill board. Hill and Beard had been members of a Dallas band called American Blues.

The trio spent its first few years playing mostly regional concerts. Ham's bosses, Houston record producer Pappy Daily and family, cut a deal with him to finance "ZZ Top's First Album" (1970). Five other records followed on the London Records label. The third album, "Tres Hombres" (1973), brought them national attention. Its hit song "La Grange," about a whorehouse, was allegedly based on John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen." It is still the band's signature riff tune. Also included was "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers," the would-be anthem.

In an event that tried to be a rock-style Willie Nelson Picnic, the group was the featured headliner in the "Rompin' and Stompin' Barndance and Barbecue," held in Austin on Labor Day, September 1, 1974. Appearing with them before a crowd of 80,000 was San Francisco legend Bill Graham, Santana, Joe Cocker and Bad Company making its U.S. debut. This was ZZ Top's first concert in which they were seen as more than just a Texas act. It was the biggest concert in Austin's history, and the last to be held in Memorial Stadium on the University of Texas Campus for another twenty years. The stadium had been trashed by concert-goers, who had suffered from the heat and lack of food, water and toilets.

The year-and-a-half-long Worldwide Texas Tour, with stage props like haystacks, ranch tools and Longhorn cattle, began in 1975. It featured songs from "Tres Hombres" and "Fandango," their fourth album. Although their concert earnings were now in the tens of millions, by the end of the tour the group was exhausted. They took a break that ended up lasting three years. Manager Bill Ham stayed busy, however, shrewdly negotiating a lucrative recording contract with Warner Brothers that is still talked about in the music business. Their next two albums, "Deguello" and "El Loco," were well received with hits like "Cheap Sunglasses" and "Tube Snake Boogie."

The next album, "Eliminator," featuring musically controversial electronic instruments, debuted ZZ Tops biggest hits, "Legs" and "Sharp-Dressed man." The synthesizers and drum machines caused controversy in other ways as well. According to former roadie David Blayney in his book, "Sharp Dressed Men," sound engineer Linden Hudson co-wrote much of the material on the album as a live-in high-tech music teacher to Beard and Gibbons. Hudson claims that in addition to not getting songwriting credit, Ham worked to cover up his contributions to the album. Despite continued denials by the band, it settled a five-year legal battle with Hudson, paying him $600,000 after he allegedly proved he held the copyright on the song "Thug." Another copyright suit was brought by a co-writer of John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen," the alleged basis of "La Grange." That case was settled and sealed. The group's eighth album, "Afterburner," with its continued use of synthesizers, became a worldwide smash hit.

Until MTV came along in the '80s, ZZ Top had declined all offers for TV appearances. Their first video, "Gimme All Your Lovin'," set the style for follow-ups "Legs" and "Sharp-Dressed man." The addition of videos took the band's famous mystique and popularity to an all-time high.

In 1981, ZZ Top joined a diverse group, organized by art patron and civic leader Marilyn Lubetkin and including such philanthropists as Dominique de Menil, to donate money to purchase J.D. McKissack's Orange Show from his heir. The Orange Show, an open-air, multimedia sculptural installation dedicated to the orange, is Texas' leading example of an art form called "folk art environment." For their support of the blues and an art form, the band was given a piece of wood from Muddy Waters' shack in Clarksdale, Mississippi. They had it made into a guitar, named it the "Muddywood," and sent it on a tour to raise funds for the Delta Blues Museum.

By 1990, the band had sold 50 million records. Tragedy struck in 1991 when Ham's wife, Cecile, was murdered. A 23-year-old man on parole with three prior convictions strangled her for her car so he wouldn't have to walk to his halfway house. In spite of hard times personally, ZZ Top's 1996 album, "Rythmeen" was considered one of their best. Gibbons called it the "first pure trio record of our career," because only the three of them played on it. That return to an earlier sound, made more pure and raw, continued on their 1999 album, "XXX," which celebrates the band's thirtieth anniversary. At the turn of the century, ZZ Top was the only rock group with its original members after three decades. Amazing !!!!

MARY WELLS
One Of My Favorites From The "Day"

Born on May 13, 1943, in Detroit, MI; died on July 26, 1992; married Herman Griffin, early 1960s (later divorced); married Cecil Womack, 1966 (later divorced); children: Stacy, Cecil Jr., Harry, and Sugar.

The first star to bring consistent sales and recognition to Detroit's Motown label in the 1960s, Mary Wells was also the first of many Motown stars to break away from that label acrimoniously. Her signature hit, "My Guy," is known to virtually all Americans who came of age in the 1960s, and she notched a string of other hits in collaboration with Motown's prolific songwriter and producer, William "Smokey" Robinson. Yet her career floundered until her tragic death in 1992.

Mary Esther Wells was born in Detroit on May 13, 1943. When she was three years old, she contracted spinal meningitis and had to remain in bed for two years. Wells also suffered from tuberculosis as a young woman. Her family was poor, and at the age of 12 she began to help her mother with housecleaning work. "Daywork they called it," Wells was quoted as saying in Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music. "And it was damn cold on hallway linoleum. Misery is Detroit linoleum in January--with a half-froze bucket of Spic-and-Span."

Nevertheless, Wells found time to perform solos with the choir at Detroit's Northwestern High School, from which she graduated when she was 17. Shaken by the illnesses she had survived, she thought about trying to become a scientist. But the new Motown Records studio was not far from where she lived, and music seized her imagination. "I could sing, and all the entertainers looked so glamorous and wonderful, so I started writing songs," she was quoted as saying in People. When she was 16, she met an assistant to Motown owner Berry Gordy Jr., and wangled an appointment to pitch one of her songs to Gordy in person.

Signed to Motown Label

Wells had composed the song, "Bye Bye Baby," with R&B vocalist Jackie Wilson in mind, but Gordy quickly brought Wells herself into the studio to record it. It required 22 takes to coax a usable rendition from the nervous young vocalist, but Gordy's judgment was vindicated when "Bye Bye Baby" rose to the R&B top ten and even cracked the pop top 50 in 1960. Wells signed a contract with Motown, and as she gained experience, the label began to put its top creative people behind her career. The most important of these was Smokey Robinson, who wrote many of her songs and produced her recordings between 1962 and 1964.

Her voice, gentle and coy and subtly playful at unexpected moments, was the perfect foil for Robinson's songwriting, and the combination yielded for Wells and for Motown a consistent string of hits. In 1962, "You Beat Me to the Punch" and "Two Lovers" both topped R&B charts, with both of those songs and "The One Who Really Loves You" making it into the pop top ten. "Laughing Boy," "Your Old Stand By," and "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One" all reached upper chart levels the following year, and by 1964, "Mary Wells was our first big, big star," former Motown sales executive Lucy Gordy Wakefield told the New York Times. Her personal appearances with the touring Motown Revue confirmed her popularity.

Opened for Beatles on Tour

Wells's high-water mark as a chart-topper came in 1964 with "My Guy," which topped the pop charts for two weeks in May at the height of the "British invasion." The song even did well in Britain, and Wells became the first Motown artist to appear across the Atlantic when she opened for the Beatles on a 1964 British tour. Despite the chart competition between them, Wells got along well with the mop-topped British sensations and always maintained a friendly relationship with them.

When she turned 21 in 1964, however, Wells left Motown, spurred on by promises of greater riches to come by her husband, backup vocalist Herman Griffin. Already having undergone two abortions at Griffin's behest, she signed a $500,000 deal with the Twentieth-Century Fox label in Hollywood that included promises of starring film roles. Motown took her to court, but Wells and her lawyers maintained that she had been deceived by the contract she had signed when she was just 17. Gordy angled to prevent other labels from signing Wells, but she eventually prevailed.

Wells would be succeeded by a long line of other Motown vocalists, predominantly female, who would tangle with the label in court. Some would move on to stardom with other labels, but Wells proved to be dependent upon the synergy between her own talents and those of Robinson and the rest of the Motown assembly line. Except for the forgettable Catalina Caper (1967), Wells's film career came to nought, and her recordings for Fox fared little better. Moving to the Atco label in 1965 she notched a few top ten R&B hits, but her days at the top of the charts were essentially over. She later recorded for Epic, Reprise, Warner Brothers, and a host of smaller labels, all without notable success. Her marriage to Griffin ended in divorce.

Appeared on Motown Television Special

Wells married R&B vocalist Cecil Womack; she had three children with him and one, after the couple's 1977 divorce, with his brother Curtis. For a time in the 1970s, she dropped out of the music business altogether to concentrate on raising her children, but as nostalgia for the golden age of Motown grew among baby-boom music lovers, Wells returned to the road. She became a fixture of Motown retrospectives, such as the 1983 television special mounted on the occasion of the company's 25th anniversary. Around that time, possibilities surfaced that she might return to the label, but a deal was never struck.

The last chapters of Wells's life were tragic ones. A heavy smoker who also battled heroin addiction for a time, Wells was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1990. Like many other musicians, she had no health insurance, and the illness wiped her out financially. Through the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, established partly to assist musicians who encountered financial problems in later life, various entertainment figures, including Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, and fellow Motown star Diana Ross, donated money for Wells's medical treatment. Her life might have been saved by removal of her larynx, but that would have meant that she would never sing or talk again. Instead Wells chose dangerous and painful option of radiation therapy, but it did not save her life. She died in Los Angeles on July 26, 1992, at age 49.



Mary Wells's Career
Signed to Motown label, 1960; debut single released, "Bye Bye Baby," 1960; recorded and released signature single "My Guy," 1964; signed to 20th Century label, 1964, precipitating court battle with Motown; signed to Atco label, 1966; recorded for Jubilee and Epic labels, 1970s and 1980s; appeared on Motown 25th anniversary television special, 1983; toured with Motown revues, 1980s.

Famous Works

Selected discography
Bye Bye Baby, I Don't Want to Take a Chance Motown, 1961.
The One Who Really Loves You Motown, 1962.
Two Lovers and Other Great Hits Motown, 1963.
Recorded Live on Stage Motown, 1963.
Second Time Around Motown, 1963.
Together (with Marvin Gaye), Motown, 1964.
Mary Wells Sings My Guy Motown, 1964.
Greatest Hits Motown, 1964.
Mary Wells 20th Century, 1965.
Mary Wells Sings Love Songs to the Beatles 20th Century, 1965.
The Two Sides of Mary Wells Atco, 1966.
Servin' Up Some Soul Jubilee, 1968.
In and Out of Love Epic, 1981.

Prior to forming Dr. Hook And The Medicine Show, George Cummings, Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis were members of an earlier group called "The Chocolate Papers", along with Bobby Dimingus, Popeye Phillips and Jimmy "Wolf Cub" Allen. After touring clubs in Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina, the six settled in Biloxi to open up their own club called "Chez Joey". The group played as the house band for a while, then went to Chicago, where after a brief stint, Cummings left to form a new band in the New York area.

The year was 1968 when Cummings called his old friend Ray Sawyer to come to New Jersey and join him. This new group began performing using no name at all, until one night, a club owner asked George what name to use when advertising the band. Right on the spot, George came up with the name, "Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show", in reference to Ray's eye patch making him look like Captain Hook from 'Peter Pan' (Ray had lost his eye in an auto accident) and since drugs were all the rage at the time, he tacked on "The Medicine Show".

They had been performing together for about a month or two, when Dennis Locorriere came in one night and sat in on guitar. By the end of the evening, he was asked to join the group. As time passed, George brought two other former 'Chocolate Papers' members in, Popeye Phillips on drums and then Bill Francis to play keyboards. Popeye didn't stay long and moved back to Mobile. He was replaced by Jay David.

Their first big professional break came in 1970 when record producer Ron Haffkine heard a tape of the band's music and asked them to perform the Shel Silverstein song 'Last Morning' in the Dustin Hoffman film, 'Who Is Harry Kellerman And Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?' Silverstein, a Playboy magazine cartoonist, had composed the film's musical score and he was subsequently to play an important role in Dr. Hook's story, writing many of their earliest successes. Ron Haffkine meanwhile went on to produce all of Dr. Hook's recordings.

The band signed their first record deal with CBS/Columbia and began the recording of their debut album in New York City, completing all but the track that was to become their first hit single.

After being invited to play at the CBS Records convention in Los Angeles, the band moved to California, settling in San Francisco. It was there that Shel Silverstein played the newly written 'Sylvia's Mother' for them and they decided to include it on their self titled album, released later that year. Initial reaction was encouraging and CBS issued the track, 'Sylvia's Mother' as a single.

The quirky, offbeat love song got off to a slow start when it was first released, managing only to make the lower end of the U.S. pop charts before leaving without a trace. Undeterred, Clive Davis, then boss of CBS Records, was determined to salvage 'Sylvia's Mother'.

Davis believed the record could be a hit and put CBS' full promotion efforts behind the single. It was re-released in July 1972, and this time, 'Sylvia's Mother' climbed all the way to number one, selling over a million copies. Shortly after, the record repeated its American success in Britain where it topped out at number two, spending 13 weeks in the British Top 50 - a considerable achievement for an act that had been unheard of only 12 months before.

Later that year, again with Haffkine producing and with two new members, bassist Jance Garfat and guitarist Rik Elswit, the band recorded their second album, irreverently titled 'Sloppy Seconds'. From this album, their second single, 'Carry Me, Carrie', was chosen. Although the single was a moderate success, reaching the higher end of the Billboard Top 100, the album just missed the Top 40. The band's chart fortunes were restored however, with the release of 'The Cover Of The Rolling Stone', another wry Shel Silverstein composition, again taken from 'Sloppy Seconds'. The single was a huge success in the U.S., climbing to number two and securing the band their very own cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March 1973.

'The Cover Of The Rolling Stone' gave Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show their second million-selling single. Ironically however, the record ran into problems in Great Britain when it was released. The BBC steadfastly refused to play it on either TV or radio because the song's title was deemed an advertisement for the famous American rock music magazine. CBS Records in London attempted to sidestep the airplay problem by setting up special phone lines whereby fans could call up and hear the record. There was even an 'alternative' version in which a group of BBC radio disc jockeys were heard to chant 'Radio Times' over the offending words. Despite these efforts, the single failed to make any impact on the British charts.

The follow ups to 'Rolling Stone' failed to match the group's earlier success. 'Ballad Of Lucy Jordan', (later successfully revived by Marianne Faithful), 'Roland The Roadie And Gertrude The Groupie', and 'Life Ain't Easy', failed to make any significant impact. The singles struggled to make the Billboard Hot 100 while the sales of 'Belly Up', their third album, were equally disappointing (the album peaked at number 141 in the Billboard chart).

It was at this point that the band's long-time co-manager, Bobby Heller, entered the picture. Heller, had been a life-long friend and confidant of Haffkine's and had followed the band's career with interest. He received a phone call from Haffkine asking him to help sort out major band and label problems, together with other complicated business and legal issues. This resulted in Heller flying out to San Francisco. The group had become disillusioned with CBS Records following the sudden departure of Clive Davis, the man who had been their main champion there and they were anxious to obtain a contract release.

After Davis left, three executives attempted to run CBS by committee. They shuffled Heller from one office to another and ignored his plea to support the band financially or to let them out of their contract. The band's foreign sales success was one of the main reasons for CBS' reluctance to grant them a release. Eventually, Heller, with the right legal support, got the band out of the deal by commencing a successful bankruptcy proceeding. The group was now free to deal with another label.

It was decided to shorten their name to just 'Dr. Hook', and a change of fortune arrived when Capitol Records showed interest in the band. Dr. Hook were subsequently offered a one-year deal with the company and thus began the most successful and musically creative period of their career.

Their recording comeback was slow in taking off however. Their first album for Capitol Records, appropriately title 'Bankrupt', reached only number 141 in the Billboard chart, while 'The Millionaire', their debut single for the label, peaked at number 55. Undaunted, and with a new drummer, John Wolters, the band finished 1975 with a U.K. tour which helped to lay the foundations for their future British success.

In early 1976, Capitol Records released a second single from the album, a revival of the Sam Cooke classic 'Only Sixteen'. There had been some resistance within the record company over the release of a cover version as a new single, but Bobby Heller, together with Bruce Wendell, the head of promotion at Capitol at the time, were the persuasive factors. Eventually, the song was released and entered the American charts in early February, just as their contract was about to run out.

Capitol increased its promotional efforts on 'Only Sixteen' and the single eventually enjoyed a 14 week chart run in the American Top 40 and reached number 6, giving the group their third million selling single. Capitol's investment in the band was further rewarded when Dr. Hook secured another major hit with the title song from the 'A Little Bit More' album, recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, which was now the group's new home base. George Cummings however, decided to leave the Hook line-up mid-way through the recording of the album.

'A Little Bit More' reached number 11 in the U.S., and spent 14 weeks in the Top 40, and also stayed for four weeks at number 2 in the U.K. charts, only being prevented from reaching number one by the Elton John and Kiki Dee duet, 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart'. Meanwhile their album was also a huge hit this side of the Atlantic, climbing to number 5 and spending a total of 42 weeks in the charts (in the U.S. the album reached number 62 in the Billboard chart).

Underlining their country music influences, the band appeared at a benefit performance at the world-famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and followed it with more recording sessions in the country music capital. 1976 ended on a triumphant note when another single 'If Not You', penned by Dennis Locorriere and also taken from the album 'A Little Bit More', reached number 5 in the U.K. (spending ten weeks in the Top 50), but stalled at number 55 in the Billboard Hot 100.

The first half of 1977 saw Dr. Hook back in the studios, recording their next album 'Makin' Love And Music', (while Ray Sawyer simultaneously made his own solo album of country songs in the next-door studio). In late summer, they released a new single from the album, a revamp of 'Walk Right In', originally a number one for The Rooftop Singers in 1963, which failed miserably. The album however, went top 40, and a follow up single scored a U.K. Top 20 single in April 1978 with Shel Silverstein's 'More Like The Movies'. In October 1978 their latest U.S. single 'Sharing The Night Together', taken from their forthcoming Capitol album 'Pleasure And Pain', started climbing the Billboard Hot 100.

'Sharing The Night Together' climbed to number 6 on the American chart, spent a total of four months in the Top 40, and sold over a million copies. The release of the 'Pleasure And Pain' album in early 1979 also became a milestone for the band as it became their first gold album, selling over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Tragically, guitarist Rik Elswit became seriously ill with cancer and had to leave the line-up for a year. Rik's place in the band was taken over by Bob 'Willard' Henke, who remained within the ranks for some time after Elswit's return.

Dr Hook's next U.S. single, 'All The Time In The World', also from the 'Pleasure And Pain' album, could only reach number 54 in February 1979 but was followed by what was to ultimately become Dr. Hook's biggest-selling single, 'When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman', composed by Even Stevens. The single received little response in England, but following its international success, was re-issued by Capitol/EMI and Dennis Locorriere and Ray Sawyer flew to London to help promote it. Locorriere and Sawyer's efforts paid dividends. 'When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman' broke into the British Top 50 in September 1979 and within two months had sailed gracefully to the top chart position, where it remained firmly planted for three weeks. It racked up a 17 week chart residency in the Top 50 and back in the U.S., the song was also a huge hit for the band, climbing to number 6 on the Billboard chart and spending 16 weeks in the Top 40.

The new decade began with yet another transatlantic smash hit for Dr. Hook. 'Better Love Next Time' reached number 12 in the U.S. (with 14 weeks in the Top 40), and made number 8 in the U.K. Three months later, in March 1980, the band released the infectious 'Sexy Eyes' and it notched up yet another Top 10 hit for them, reaching number 5 in the U.S. charts (with a total of 15 weeks in the Billboard Top 40) and providing Dr. Hook with their sixth million selling single. In the U.K. 'Sexy Eyes' fared equally as well, soaring to number 4 and spending nine weeks in the Top 50. The single was featured on their latest album, 'Sometimes You Win', which reached number 14 in the U.K., and spent 44 weeks in the Top 50, earning the band another gold disc.

Ironically, 'Sexy Eyes' proved to be the last major hit single for Dr. Hook. There were two more minor hit singles during 1980 - 'Years From Now', which peaked at number 47 in the charts (and made number 51 in the Billboard Hot 100), followed by 'Sharing The Night Together' which stalled at number 43 in Britain, two years after its original American chart success. By now the band's contract with Capitol Records was about to expire and they decided to part company with the label.

Now with new guitarist Rod Smarr replacing Henke, Dr. Hook signed a new recording deal which saw their music released on Casablanca in the U.S., and on the Mercury label in the U.K. Their first album under the new arrangement, 'Rising', barely made the Billboard albums chart and did only marginally better in the U.K. where it reached number 44. Their single however, 'Girls Can Get It', made the Top 40 on both sides of the Atlantic.

There were several other minor American hits including 'Loveline' and 'Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk' (which reached number 25 in the U.S.) taken from their final studio album, 'Players In The Dark', but increased tensions and musical differences were taking their toll. Ray Sawyer left the band in 1982 to pursue a solo career and Dennis Locorriere carried on with the band, doing two more sell out tours of the U.K and Australia - including " Dr. Hook's One and Only Farewell Tour" before disbanding the group in 1985.

Since then, Sawyer has returned to live performance with a new band, however, Locorriere's company owns all the rights to the Dr. Hook name and licenses it to Sawyer.

Dennis Locorriere has toured the U.K. several times in recent years, performing his own successful solo gigs, as well as helping to promote the best-selling anthology album, 'Completely Hooked'. During 1996, he completed work on his solo album, 'Running With Scissors', which he produced with former Dr. Hook member Rod Smarr, and released in Autumn '96.

In 1995, Sawyer released an album containing re-recordings of many of the classic Dr. Hook hits under the name 'Dr. Hook featuring Ray Sawyer', a group which consists of no original members other than Sawyer himself.