The Vejtables | |
---|---|
Origin | Millbrae, California, U.S. |
Genres | Rock |
Years active | 1964 - 1966 |
Labels | Autumn Records |
Past members | Bob Bailey Jan Errico Richard Fortunato Ned Hollis Jim Sawyers Reese Sheets Frank Smith |
The Vejtables were an American rock band from Millbrae, California, United States. They recorded for the Autumn label and found limited success with such songs as "I Still Love You" and a cover version of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind". [1]
Lead singer Jan Errico also played drums for the group's recordings, making her one of the relatively few female drummers at the time. The Vejtables began their career playing bars and nightclubs along El Camino Real on the San Francisco Peninsula, even though they were still in high school at the time.
The band's origin was Portola Valley which is south of San Francisco. They started playing together around 1964 [2] A good body of their Autumn recordings were produced by Sly Stone. [3] [4]
From 1964 to 1965 the line up consisted of Ned Hollis on rhythm guitar, organ and backing vocals, Bob Bailey on lead vocals, tambourine, harmonica and percussion, Jan Errico (aka Jan Ashton) on drums and backing vocals, Rick Dey on bass and backing vocals, and Bob Cole on lead guitar. [5]
In May 1965, the band was part of a KYA sponsored concert held at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. Other acts at the concert were The Beau Brummels, The Byrds, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and The Rolling Stones. [6] Also in 1965, Autumn label boss Tom Donahue had hired Sly Stone to produce the group along with The Great Society, The Mojo Men and The Beau Brummels. [7] By mid to late August, Billboard had predicted that their single "I Still Love You" would reach the Hot 100 chart. [8] It did quite well in Chicago. Debuting on 10 September, it spent three weeks in the charts, peaking at no 23 on the 24th of that month. [9] By October 1965, "I Still Love You" along with others by The Other Tikis, The Mojo Men, and The Beau Brummels appeared in a Billboard advertisement "Autumn Is Here With Big Records Breaking Nationally With Proven Sales In Major Markets". [10] Also in October 1965, the band was also on the bill of a Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue and Bob Mitchell produced concert at The Cow Palace (San Francisco) that featuring Little Anthony & The Imperials, Bobby Freeman, The Beau Brummels, The Byrds, Glen Campbell, The Castaways, The Lovin Spoonful, The Mojo Men, Charlie Rich, The Shangri Las, Sonny & Cher, The Sunrays, The Tikis, The Toys, and Roy Head. [11]
In early January 1966, the group was playing at the Nu Beat club in Redwood City which had recently opened. [12] Also that year Autumn went broke and closed which meant the end of their relationship with the label. [13] By the spring of 1966, Errico had already left the band and she was a member of The Mojo Men. [14] Bob Bailey kept the band going while they had some changing line ups. For a short time Bob Mosley who would one day join Moby Grape was a member, but he never recorded with the group. With a change in musical direction to a more psychedelic sound, the group recorded two more singles in 1966 for the Uptown and Tower labels. [15] They were credited as The Book of Changes for their Tower release. The A side of the single was "I Stole The Goodyear Blimp" was a novelty type of single. [16]
Jan Errico actually changed her last name to Ashton because she thought it sounded British. She later left the group because their sound was evolving into a harder psychedelic sound, joining another San Francisco group, the Mojo Men, for which she sang a very audible harmony vocal on their biggest selling single, the Stephen Stills-composed "Sit Down I Think I Love You" from 1967. The Mojo Men eventually shortened their name to Mojo, and released an album and several singles on the GRT label before disbanding.
Title | Release info | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
"I Still Love You" / "Anything" | Autumn 15 | 1965 | |
"The Last Thing On My Mind" / "Mansion Of Tears" | Autumn 23 | 1965 | Produced by Marty Cooper |
"Shadows" / "Feel The Music" | Uptown 741 | 1967 | Produced by Leo d.G. Kulka |
"I Stole The Goodyear Blimp" / "Suddenly I'm Desperately In Love" | Tower 337 | 1967 | as The Book Of Changes Produced by Jim Marino |
No | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
01 | "Anything" | Bailey | 1:57 |
02 | "I Still Love You" | Errico | 2:22 |
03 | "Mansion of Tears" | Cooper | 2:20 |
04 | "The Last Thing on My Mind" | Paxton | 2:28 |
05 | "Smile, Smile, Smile" (Previously unissued) | Errico | 1:55 |
06 | "Cold Dreary Morning" | Errico | 2:11 |
07 | "I Still Love You" (Alternate version) | Errico | 2:16 |
08 | "Feel The Music" | Fortunato/Bailey | 2:50 |
09 | "Shadows" | Fortunato/Bailey | 3:10 |
10 | "Better Rearrange" (Previously unissued in US) | Bailey/Fortunato | 2:16 |
11 | "Good Times" (Previously unissued in US) | Bailey/Fortunato | 3:28 |
12 | "Time and Place" (Previously unissued in US) | Bailey/Fortunato | 3:46 |
13 | "Suddenly I'm Desperately In Love" | Oeller | 2:08 |
14 | "I Stole The Goodyear Blimp" | Smith | 2:19 |
15 | "Hide Yourself" (Previously unissued in US) | Bailey/Fortunato | 2:48 |
16 | "Good Things Are Happening" (Previously unissued in US) | Bailey/Fortunato | 2:47 |
17 | "Hide Yourself" (Alternate take, previously unissued instrumental) | Bailey/Fortunato | 4:00 |
The Beau Brummels was an American rock band. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the band's original lineup included Sal Valentino, Ron Elliott, Ron Meagher, Declan Mulligan, and John Petersen (drums). They were discovered by local disc jockeys who were looking to sign acts to their new label, Autumn Records, where Sylvester Stewart—later known as Sly Stone—produced the group's early recording sessions. Initially, the band's musical style blended beat music and folk music and typically drew comparisons to the Beatles, while their later work incorporated other music genres such as psychedelic rock and country rock.
Autumn Records was a 1960s San Francisco-based pop record label. Among the notable acts on its roster was The Beau Brummels, a band who released a pair of top 20 singles, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little".
"Laugh, Laugh" is a song by American rock group The Beau Brummels, written by guitarist Ron Elliott and produced by Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone. Released in December 1964 as the band's debut single, the song reached number 15 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart the following February. "Laugh, Laugh" was the first hit single to come out of the emerging San Francisco music scene in response to the British Invasion. The song was later included on the band's first full-length album, Introducing the Beau Brummels, released in April 1965.
Sal Valentino is an American rock musician, singer and songwriter, best known as lead singer of The Beau Brummels, subsequently becoming a songwriter as well. The band released a pair of top 20 U.S. hit singles in 1965, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little". He later fronted another band, Stoneground, which produced three albums in the early 1970s. After reuniting on numerous occasions with the Beau Brummels, Valentino began a solo career, releasing his latest album, Every Now and Then, in 2008.
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Triangle is the fourth studio album by American rock band The Beau Brummels. Produced by Lenny Waronker and released in July 1967, it was the band's first album to include songs that vocalist Sal Valentino and guitarist Ron Elliott composed together. The band incorporated fantasy elements and surreal characters into the album's song titles and lyrics, and worked with a variety of session musicians to create Triangle's psychedelic musical style. The Beau Brummels were reduced to a trio—Valentino, Elliott, and Ron Meagher—at the time Triangle was recorded, as former group members Don Irving (guitars) and John Petersen (drums) left the band following the release of the group's previous album, Beau Brummels '66.
"Just a Little" is a song by American rock group The Beau Brummels. The song is included on the band's debut album, Introducing the Beau Brummels, and was released as its second single, following "Laugh, Laugh". "Just a Little" became the band's highest-charting U.S. single, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1965. It also reached the top 10 of the charts in Canada and Australia.
"Don't Talk to Strangers" is a song by American rock group The Beau Brummels, released as the second single from the band's second album, The Beau Brummels, Volume 2. The song later appeared on the band's 1987 compilation album The Best of The Beau Brummels 1964–1968. The single peaked at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1965; its relatively low chart placement possibly being the result of the band's label, Autumn Records, verging on collapse at the time. The song reached number 16 on the Canadian singles chart.
The Beau Brummels were an American rock band that formed in 1964 and originally consisted of singer Sal Valentino, lead guitarist Ron Elliott, bassist Ron Meagher, rhythm guitarist Declan Mulligan and drummer John Petersen. Local radio disc jockeys Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell discovered the band at a club near San Francisco. They signed the Beau Brummels to their fledgling Autumn Records label, and their house producer, Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone, recorded the band's early sessions.
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The Mojo Men was an American rock band based in San Francisco. Formed in 1965, the group underwent several name and personnel changes until their 1969 breakup. Their highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 single was a cover of Buffalo Springfield's "Sit Down, I Think I Love You", which peaked at number 36 in 1967.
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"I Still Love You" is a song by the American folk rock band the Vejtables, written by Jan Errico, and first appears on the group's debut single, which was released on Autumn Records in 1965. The Vejtables were signed to the record label after receiving some regional notice on the nightclub circuit, despite all the band members still being enrolled in high school. "I Still Love You" exhibits influences from their label-mates the Beau Brummels, though it is largely marked by its jangling 12-string guitar arrangements, folky vocal harmonies, and sparse use of the harmonica. Arguably the Vejtables' greatest asset was Errico, who not only penned the song, but also played drums, making her one of the few 1960s female musicians to do so. Upon release, "I Still Love You" reached number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the only Vejtables release to crack the chart. The song charted quite respectably in Chicago. It debuted on the 10th of September, and 3 weeks in the charts, finally peaking at number 23 on the 24th of that month.
Jan Errico is a drummer and singer who was a member of two San Francisco rock groups in the 1960s, The Vejtables and The Mojo Men.