The Knickerbockers by Bill Small

The Knickerbockers were formed in mid - 1964 during the height of the Beatles craze, as a sort of Junior Four Seasons with guitars. They played at local high schools and colleges in the upstate New York area and featured entertaining stage patter as well as polished imitations of other bands, always an important part of their act. The band consisted of Buddy Randell, lead vocalist and sox (he played with the Royal Teens and co-wrote "Short Shorts”); Jimmy Walker on drums; and brothers John and Beau Charles on bass and guitar.

Their big "Break" came in early 1965 when they performed with Jerry Fuller, a small-time solo act ("Shy Away;" etc.) signed with Challenge Records in Hollywood. Fuller liked their commercial style, their straight appearance (the Knicks wore matching charcoal suits with hair styles reniniscent of the previous decade) and their professional manner,sole signed them to Challenge.

The Knickerbockers' first single effort was penned by Fuller, titled "All I bteed Is You." Wth great four-part harmony and a gentle bleating sax, Jimmy plaintively declared, "I don't need a bright moon, I don't need the month of June; They say you need these things for true love to bloom, but all I need is you… «; hardly competition for the Beatles tn late 1964 (the flip, "Bite Bite Barracuda, " was a particularly lame ear tune, written around a strikingly ill-cancelved ferocious-fish metaphor).

An unusual and highly obscure first album followed shortly afterward. Sing and Sing long with Lloyd/Lloyd Thaxton presents The Knickerbockers (with guest vocalist Phyllis Brown on three tracks). The album was made up of stock cover versions ("It's Not Unusual," "King of the Rood," and Challenge's own "In the Misty Moonlight"), but with a couple of odd touches. For one, after the songs ended, there was another minute's instrumental run-through allowing the listener to sing along, a la the Beach Boys' Stack-O-Tracks, etc.. And the record featured an amusing glmnlck called here "Trick-Track," otherwise known as the "Magic Record," wherein the grooves were set up so that any tine you placed your needle down you could get any one of the five tracks on the side, quite unpredictably—very entertaining, a real mlnd-boggler for all your friends, but a royal pain if you had a passion for Phyllis Brawn's version of "Girl from Ipanema" and got the Kn icks "Hully Gully” six times tn a row instead. At any rate, as the liner notes said, "It's almost as good as having L byd host your next party I" and there was an excellent cover of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" buried vithln, a sign of things to come.

A second album came out in early 1965, Jerk and Twine Time, again all covers except for a single, "Jerktown;” they opened up with "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night1’ (Inspired programming), closed with "Sb's Not There 1 and filled in the middle with dance numbers.

The third single hit the jackpot, however, “Lies" was an unabashed Beetle imitation, sounding more like the Beatles than the Beatles often did in late '65; in fact, when the record broke in Los Angeles nxny hicji school kids were firmly convinced it was the Beatles nusquerading. At any rate it became a huge seller for Challenge (inspiring a large-scale labd move into the teen field which produced great, — or at least interesting- records by the Brogues, an important early Bay area band, Christopher & the Togas, Dbn Grady, Finders Keepers, Peter Pan & theGood Fairies, We the People, andl'm Allergic to Flowers" by the Jefferson Handkerchief. The Brogues and three WB the People singles are especially notable for savage hard-edged punk performances).
The Knicks' follow-up album featured accolades from the sfaref'Brian Wilson: "These guys have class"; Ian Whitcomb: "I think they're tickety-boo (American translation—out of sight)"] and a pretty good batch of songs. Side On was Beatle- flavo red material in the style of the hit, notably Glen Campi- bell's excellent "Can't You See I'm Try In'" (later a Fireballs flip side) and Seals & Crofts' "I Can Do It Better" foth members of the devotive duo had been members of Challenge's mainstay instrumental group, the Champs, and Jimmy Seals had two singles on his own on Challenge in 1964-5 — not bad, either). Side two featured a Righteous-Brother-like "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Harlem Nocturne;" and all in all it was an excellent album effort (arranged by Leon Russell, too, for those keeping score).

Oh the strength of their hit and their talents of mimicry, the Knickerbockers became regulars on "Where the Action Is," where the decidedly porcine contours of Buddy Rondell's.face distracted many viewers to a considerable extent and obscured that feet tha t they were doing some fine cover material "Lies" proved to be a one-shot, unfortunately; the follow-up "One Track Mind," a similar-styled number, had only moderate Success and nothing else re ally made it. Nonetheless, "High on Love" and "Love Is a Bird" were terrific harmony rockers. On On the other hand, "Chapel tn the Reids" was a fairly dire slow tune, and "Can You Help MB" was dismal funk (Its flip, "Please Don't Love Him," was an excellent Four Seasons-sfyle record, though). Near the end, Challenge resurrected "Wishful Thinking" and "I Can Do It Better" from the LP as singles, but they fared no better; the Knickerbockers never re-captured the hit-record elixir.

Later on there were Jimmy Walker solo singles (Challenge and Columbia) and likewise for Buddy Randell (Uni); and Walker "replaced" Bill Medley in the Righteous Brothers for an unsuccessful spell . The Knickerbockers, despite great musical strengths (vocals especially) hit with the imitation gimmick, and never really came up with anything startlingly out of the ordinary again. Mimic-oriented groups, while quite successful in live performances, often enough, have problems translating that aspect to record (and at least the Knickerbockers did far better than their Los Angeles impressionistic successors, the Knack). The Knickerbockers merely made excellent records, but without real distinctiveness. Brian Wilson notwithstanding, it wasn't enough just to "have class."

KNICKERBOCKERS DISCOGRAPHY

Challenge

59268 All I Need is You/Bite Bite Barracuda
59293 Jerkfown/Room For One More
59321 Lies/The Coming Generation
59326 One Track Mind/l Must Be Doing Something Right
59332 High On Love/Stick With Me
59335 Chapel in the Flelch/Just One Girl
59341 Love Is a Bird/Rumors, Gossip, Words Untrue
59348 Please Don't Love Hliq/Con You Help Me
59359 What Does That Make You/Sweet Green Reids
59366 Come and Get It/Wishfol Thinking
59380 I Can Do It Better/You'll Never Walk Alone
59384 As a Matter of Fact/They Ran For Their Lives

LP' Sing & Sync Along With Lloyd/Lloyd Thaxton Presents The Knickerbockers
LP62I Jerk and Twine Time
LP622 Lies

BUDDY RANDELL

Uni 55209 Be My Baby/ Randi, Randi

JIMMY WALKER

Challenge 59392 Always Leaving Always Gane/Drown In My Broken Dreams
Columbia 44742 Dbwn (Go Awayl/The Greatest Love
Columbia 44884 I Got the Best of You/Your Past is Beginning to Show

Last minute addition: Buddy Randell sang lead on a late ‘71 Panueunt single (0126) by a group called Blowtorch. Titles were "I Want Sugar All The Time"/"C'mon And Get It", and sadly It's really nothing special.

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