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Merrell Wayne Fankhauser (born December 23, 1943, Louisville, Kentucky, United States) [1] is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s with bands including the Impacts, Merrell & the Exiles, HMS Bounty, Fankhauser-Cassidy Band, and Mu. In addition, 12 songs recorded by Merrell & the Exiles were later released under the group name Fapardokly, even though that group never actually existed.
After moving to San Luis Obispo, California in his teens, he began playing guitar, [1] and got his first break playing in movie theaters and talent shows. In 1960, after one of these shows, he joined a local band The Impacts as lead guitarist. [1] Their Ventures-influenced sound developed a strong following at the start of the surfing scene.[ citation needed ]
In 1962, the saxophone player from The Revels (Norman Knowles) met Merrell and his bandmates after a show at The Rose Garden Ballroom, and convinced them to record a session with Tony Hilder at a backyard studio in the Hollywood area. As much as this seemed like a notable event for the band, it was more of a lure than a lucky break. After recording the songs "Wipe Out," "Fort Lauderdale," "Tears," "Revellion," "Blue Surf," "Impact," "Steel Pier," "Tandem," "Sea Horse," "Beep Beep," "Lisa," and "Church Key," the recordings were taken by Norman Knowles and Tony Hilder to Del-Fi Records, where owner Bob Keene signed the album for immediate release. Knowles and Hilder never revealed to the band how much money they made by doing this, however, they also tricked the young band into signing a contract for one dollar. Merrell and his band was unable to collect royalties on this music for 36 years thereafter, as Hilder and Knowles claimed both artist and publishing royalties with Del-Fi Records. Merrell would encounter many more of these so-called song sharks during his musical career, although he and his bandmates were wiser after this hard lesson. [2]
Fankhauser left the band and moved to Lancaster, California. [1] There he met Jeff Cotton (later of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band), and in 1964 they formed The Exiles. [3] The band — which also included John "Drumbo" French — had some regional success with songs including "Can't We Get Along", but then broke up. Fankhauser moved back to the coast, formed a new band, Merrell and the Xiles, and had a minor hit with "Tomorrow's Girl" in 1967.
An album followed, which included old Exiles songs and newer psychedelic folk material. [1] For the album the band was credited as Fapardokly, taking its name from the surnames of the original members — Fankhauser, Dan Parrish (bass), Bill Dodd (guitar) and Dick Lee of The Brymers [4] (drums). Despite its later cult acclaim, the album was not a success.
Fankhauser and Dodd then formed another, more overtly psychedelic, band with Jack Jordan (bass) and Larry Meyers (drums), naming it HMS Bounty. They won a recording contract with Uni Records, and their self-titled album was released in 1968, followed by the single "Tampa Run". However, success was again thwarted, by personal and record company problems, and the band split up.
Reuniting with Jeff Cotton in 1970, Fankhauser then formed Mu. [1] In 1971, their first album was released and became a radio hit. Increasingly fascinated by legends of the lost continent of Mu, Fankhauser then relocated to the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1973.
Material for a second Mu album was recorded on Maui in 1974, but not released until the 1980s on the two LPs The Last Album (Appaloosa, Italy 1981) and Children Of The Rainbow (Blue Form, US 1985). Mu disbanded in 1975. Fankhauser recorded a solo album, Maui (1976), before returning to California in the late 1970s. [1] All his 1970s recordings have been reissued repeatedly in the CD format.
Fankhauser continued to record, occasionally with friends including John Cipollina, Pete Sears, and later Ed Cassidy of Spirit in The Fankhauser Cassidy Band, [5] as well as producing new surf albums credited to The Impacts. Fankhauser has also produced radio and TV shows such as his long-running Tiki Lounge. [6]
In June 2015, Fankhauser released an mp3 rock album titled Signals from Malibu.
Eva Marie Cassidy was an American singer and musician known for her interpretations of jazz, folk, and blues music, sung with a powerful, emotive soprano voice. In 1992, she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by the 1996 live solo album titled Live at Blues Alley. Although she had been honored by the Washington Area Music Association, she was virtually unknown outside her native Washington, D.C., at the time of her death from melanoma at the age of 33 in 1996.
John Stephen French is an American drummer and former member of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, where he was known by the nickname Drumbo. He was the principal drummer on several of Beefheart's albums, including 1969's Trout Mask Replica, for which he also acted as arranger. He later released several albums as a solo artist as well as with the collaborative group French Frith Kaiser Thompson.
Sundazed Music is an American independent record label founded in Coxsackie, New York and currently based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. It was initially known as a 60's centric Surf, Garage, and Psych label, over time with the additions of imprints such as Modern Harmonic, Americana Anthropology, Beat Rocket, Dot Matrix Recordings, and Liberty Spike Recordings, their reach spans most genres and many decades while still firmly rooted as an archival label.
The Centurians were an instrumental surf rock band started by Dennis Rose from Newport Beach, California. They were active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Their music has been used in at least two films. They reformed as The Centurions in 1995 and released new material.
Jeffrey Ralph Cotton is an American rock guitarist, known for his work as a member of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band.
Dengue Fever is an American band from Los Angeles who combine Cambodian rock and pop music of the 1960s and 70s with psychedelic rock and other world music styles. Their most recent album, Ting Mong, was released in September 2023.
Stick Men is an American progressive rock supergroup founded in 2007 by Pat Mastelotto, Tony Levin, and Michael Bernier. Since 2010, the lineup stabilized around Mastelotto, Levin, and Markus Reuter. The band was formed as a vehicle for progressive rock music performed almost exclusively with Chapman Sticks and drums.
Ant-Bee is an American experimental musician and writer. In his musical work, he is a psychedelic era revivalist, working with members of The Mothers of Invention; the original members of the Alice Cooper group, and Captain Beefheart's Magic Band.
The Pyramids were a surf group from Long Beach, California, United States, who formed in 1961. In early 1964, they made the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 with their instrumental "Penetration". It proved to be the final major instrumental surf hit.
Susan and the Surftones is an American surf instrumental band. The band is considered part of the “third wave” of surf-revivalist bands that formed in the 1990s. The band was started in 1993 in Rochester, NY by lead guitarist Susan L. Yasinski, one of very few female lead guitarists in instrumental surf music. Influenced also by early Elvis and the Beatles, 1960s garage and 1970s punk music, their sound incorporates traditional surf with elements associated with these other genres, such as the use of the combo-organ. The band’s first recording deal was with Gee-Dee Records in Hamburg, Germany who released their first CD, WIthout A Word, in 1995. Subsequent releases on Gee-Dee and two other European labels, Surf Waves (Belgium) and OmOm (Italy), and four European tours, earned them a fan base in Europe as well as the US. Susan relocated to the west coast in 2000, and reformed the band in Portland, Oregon. They continued to release albums both on CD and as digital releases.
The Revels were an American rock band from California, associated with the 1960s surf music craze. They had hits with "Six Pak", and "Church Key" which was their most famous single.
Anthony J. Hilder was an American author, film maker, talk show host, broadcaster, news correspondent and former actor. In the late 1950s to the mid-1960s he was also a record producer, producing music mainly in the surf genre. He headed a couple of record labels as well as working for various others. He was also a publisher.
The (Original) Surfaris were a surf music band from California. They were active from the early to mid 1960s and had singles released on various labels which included Del-Fi, Northridge, and Reprise.
Impact Records was a California based record label run by CT Records creator, Tony Hilder in the 1960s. This label released some surf records by The Crestwoods, Dave Myers and The Surftones, The Ramblers and The New Breed and The Revels. The Revels were known for the hits "Comanche" and "Intoxica".
"Church Key" is an instrumental single that was released by California surf group The Revels on Tony Hilder's Impact Records label in 1960. It was a hit for the group and later a hit for Dave Myers and his Surf-Tones.
The Charades is a doo-wop, r&b group which was mostly active in California in the early to mid-1960s and has released a number of singles on various labels. One of the songs it recorded, which was associated with the surf genre, was "Surf 'n Stomp" on the Northridge label. The band also recorded for Tony Hilder's Impact label, and even had a release on a label owned by Fred Astaire. They had a minor hit with "Please Be My Love Tonight". The group, though it has been through some changes, still continues today, and has a history that spans six decades.
Robert Hafner was an American record producer and songwriter who, along with Tony Hilder, was responsible for many of the surf records that came out in California in the 1960s including "Vesuvius" and "Intoxica" by The Revels. He also contributed to the music for the film The Exiles. Music historian and author Robert Dalley said that he had a definite place in surf history.
Sutton Records was a budget record label that was sold in outlets other than record shops. The outlets for Sutton were supermarkets, gas stations etc., would be serviced by rack jobbers. In addition to cover versions, the label issued recordings by The Ink Spots, Jesse Crawford and Jimmy Witherspoon.
Norman Knowles is a surf musician, band leader, and record producer from California. He is the composer of several classic surf songs, including as co-writer of the surf classic "Church Key", which was a hit for The Revels. He also has been involved in band management, managing another surf band, The Sentinals. Knowles has made a significant contribution to the surf genre.
Charles Williams Wright is an American singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. He has been a member of various doo wop groups in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as a solo artist in his own right. He is also the former leader and writer of hits for the group, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band.
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