The Unlucky 13: Thirteen Lost Rockers — and rock radio stations — from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s
That’s not triskaidekaphobia: You’re coughing on dust from vinyl obscurities you never heard on radio stations you didn’t tune into
“Sell your soul to the company
Who are waiting there to sell plastic ware
And in a week or two if you make the charts
The girls’ll tear you apart.”
— “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star?” by the Byrds
The Executive Suite Killed the Radio Star . . . and the Radio Station
The local classic rock radio station in my hometown — in radio broadcasting jargon —expunged their previous “positioning” from broadcasting as a rock-oriented “classic rock” outlet to a more pop-rock friendly “greatest hits,” aka “classic hits,” outlet. That resulting musical shift of the format change means “programming adjustments” where some of our favorite songs (well, more than some) will be dropped from the station’s song library.
Notice I did not say, “album library,” as the radio stations of today no longer stockpile, store, and file records albums (like those in the crate, above) as did the stations of our analog yesteryear: Today’s conglomerated, consolidated and homogenized radio outlets are long since over the use of CDs (compact discs) and only interested in individual songs from those once analog and compact disc albums. Those songs are since converted to digital files stored on a file server: those files, in turn, are provided over a TCP/IP network by a programming service offering an array of pre-packaged formats. So, no more pesky albums to cue or CDs need be loaded by pesky humans, aka disc jockeys, because, well: there’s nothing to “jockey,” anymore.
Depending on the format and how much “variety” the station’s program director (well, the corporation’s national “programming consultant”) wants to provide to listeners: A classic rock station can have as much as 1,500 to 1,000 digitized songs in the file-served library, which are rotated through a playlist comprised of 500 to 300 songs that air during a week of broadcast — over and over and over, again. On the other hand: A classic hits station’s library is even tighter: a library of 300 to 500 song titles to program a 100-plus song playlists; some may have a bit deeper song library — dependent upon the mix of old “album rock” classic rock songs vs. “Top 40” pop songs (“Take On Me “ from A-ha segues to Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” ugh)— allowing for a wider playlist with as much as 300 songs vs. 100 songs.
In either scenario: The songs we love (April Wine’s “Sign of the Gypsy Queen” for me) simply vanish from the radio; songs you hate (anything by Huey Lewis and the News, for me) returns; however, in our digital today: we can search Spotify or You Tube for our lost favorites.
In the golden days of my ’80s youth: The market’s (city’s) local AOR (Album-Oriented Rock) station — in the wake of the arrival of Van Halen in 1977 fighting back against K.C and the Sunshine Band-spearheaded disco to return Marshall-stacked rock ’n’ roll to airwaves — expunged all of their old, late ’60s and early ’70s “progressive rock” from their album library: a library where the disc jockeys didn’t just play the hit-singles from albums, but fan-favorite deep cuts, as well. Sometimes, even a no-longer-aired song you remembered would spin once again, by your request, because: station’s maintained libraries that crossed decades.
“Hey, mama, I’m going away
I’m gonna hit the big time
Gonna be a big star someday.”
— “Shooting Star” by Bad Company
To assuage those more-mature listeners — ones who dismissed the new, young bucks of the Van Halen-inspired set —who missed their Amboy Dukes, the Animals, Frijid Pink*, the Small Faces, and Strawberry Alarm Clock, as well as the more pop-oriented, “Top 40” psychedelic-cum-garage rock sounds of the Box Tops, the Beau Brummels, the Lemon Pipers, the Standells, the Syndicate of Sound, and the Turtles (those latter bands also cross-formatting on oldies stations that mixed the ’60s flower-power with the ’50s doo-wop and rockabilly), the station created two, specialty-program block shows: The Electric Lunch and Psychedelic Sunday.
Now, at lunchtime: Those still stuck in the past got four hits from the bygone flower-power era. On Sundays at 11 AM: You’d get an hour-long recreation-taste of the sound of progressive-rock radio of the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Oh, but wait: Even then that flower-power programming came from, you guessed it: a programming consultant and stations across the country had the same program; localized, yes: but the same program. So much for uniqueness. Years later: As I work at vintage vinyl outlet, aka used record store, a customer trades-in a box of albums: multiple episodes of “The Metal Shop,” the show I used to listen to on K-102. It wasn’t even local or live: it was pre-recorded, pressed, and distributed on vinyl LPs to affiliate stations.)
Then, one day: My beloved station spinning The Electric Lunch and Psychedelic Sunday changed formats and those block programs — giving a respite to those unwanted bands and the listeners that loved them — were gone. Forever. Well, at least until the naughts-arrival of You Tube allowed fans to rip and upload every album and song — no matter how obscure — since the beginning of modern recorded music, to the web.
Today, radio stations are nationally programmed by consultants that churn out “cookie cutter” formats that air and air and re-air on station after station after station, remote voice-tracked by non-local national air talents over and over . . . and over, again. During most dayparts (ugh, more radio jargon) the broadcast day is jockless (especially in the evenings, overnights, and weekends) since a computer program fed by a file server rid the corporations of that pesky, cash-draining human element.
Yesterday, during the rise of the then new breed of progressive rock radio stations in the late 1960s and early 1970s, radio stations were locally programmed by a program director and their music director from a human-curated vinyl album library (with a “programming assistant” doing the dirty work: me). Each station had its own individual “sound” that didn’t follow the national trends set forth by any industry charts. Young upstart musicians — both solo and band — stood a chance to receive airplay. Some of those artists were fortunate enough to go national as result of the local-to-regional airplay exposure.
“I’ve been around the dial so many times
But you’re not there
Somebody tells me that you’ve been taken off the air.”
— “Around the Dial” by the Kinks
A Few, ‘Unlucky’ Honorable Mentions Before We Meet the ‘13’
Signed to Epic Records, the first three albums by the Rockford, Illinois, hard rock band, Cheap Trick, languished in the lower regions of the “Top 200” album charts. In their U.S Midwestern region home base: Cheap Trick were superstars. On the East and West coasts: very few-to-no stations aired the band. Not even spreads in the best-selling pages of Circus and Hit Parader magazines cajoled the radio programming or record buying public.
Meanwhile, overseas: Cheap Trick were the Beatles: So much so that the band recorded an album, Live at Budokan, to chronicle their crazed Japanese concerts. The Japanese-import (1978) of what became the band’s fourth album — originally not intended for the U.S market (1979)— broke the band nationally.
Then there’s the case of Neil Merryweather** with his two albums released by Mercury Records in 1974 and 1975 for his band, the Space Rangers. As with Cheap Trick: Merryweather gained a loyal fan base responding to the airplay of the albums across the Midwest. Sadly, unlike Cheap Trick: a national breakout wasn’t forth coming.
Y&T, once known as Yesterday & Today (inspired by the studio album of the same name by the Beatles) recorded four, Van Halenesque, hair metal-precursor albums between 1976 and 1982. On the West Coast, especially across California: Y&T achieved an analogous regional success — both in sales, radio airplay, and concerts — to that of Cheap Trick. Nationally, as with Cheap Trick: no one cared. That was, until, the arrival of the MTV cable network: a 24-hour music channel that played rock videos. One of those videos was for the title cut from Y&T’s fifth album, Mean Streak (1983). Hey, when you have a skimpy-clad, sexy jezebel belching forth a tongue-snake out of her mouth: kids are buying the album and requesting it on the radio (or pumping quarters, standing glazed-eyed in the video arcade watching the video play on a video jukebox).
Then, there’s this lot of hopefuls in the below, five panels of albums . . . some “made it,” while most never found a home on the radio or with the record buying public (no, we are not breaking down each album/artist in detail — and not all of them — we are just going to glean a few of them to give you a handle on the rock scene of the 1970s).
- Starting in the upper right corner panel: The B’zz — the new wave outgrowth of the biker-band, the Boyzz — received scant MTV airplay with “Get Up, Get Angry.” The Iron City Houserockers — huge in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, received scant national airplay after their appearance on U.S television’s Solid Gold. Duke Jupiter was another regionally-successfully band that got a little MTV love before they disappeared. Legs Diamond — always a live concert favorite — never took off despite their perpetual appearance in the pages of the U.S rock magazines Circus, Creem, and Hit Parader.
- In the center panel: Shooting Star did alright on the radio while Detroit’s the Rockets scored the biggest (and only) national hit of their career with their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” Surgical Steel — even after appearing in the (failed) rock flick, Thunder Alley (1985)— didn’t make the charts and yes: REX is a hard rock band fronted by teen-idol actor Rex Smith of the solo ’70s hit love ballad, “You Take My Breath Away” (REX opened one of Ted Nugent’s tours: I kid you not; REX also double-billed with Bill Nelson’s equally lost, Be Bop Deluxe for a failed U.S tour).
- In the left panel: The keyboard-driven, Deep Purple-cum-Uriah Heep inspired “biker rock” (like the Boyzz) of the Godz, like Legs Diamond, were better known for their press than their music. Atlanta, Georgia’s Riggs (also home to Fortnox)— after a national tour with the concert-popular Sammy Hagar (he’d not yet broken out nationally or internationally, himself), as well as having their song “Radar Rider” opening the box-office hit, animated rock film, Heavy Metal (1983) — vanished from view. Canada’s April Wine broke out of their native Canada on the U.S and European charts, while Angel and Riot received a little bit of radio love, but not much in retail hugs before their never-was vanishing.
- In the bottom left panel: Yes, before Billy Squire became a successful solo artist, he slugged it out with two failed albums with the pop-rock concern, Piper. Before Rainbow, Joe Lynn Turner recorded four radio and retail unnoticed albums with Fandango. Before Survivor, Jimi Jamison toured the county with Black Sabbath, Boston, and Kiss for two albums with Memphis, Tennessee’s Target; then he toured with Nazareth and Krokus — and made it to MTV — with the short-lived, one-album Cobra. Black Sheep was the two-album precursor to Lou Gramm joining Foreigner (they opened for all the major bands of the day to no avail), Starz — as with Legs Diamond and the Godz: more popular in the magazines than on the radio or retail fronts (fronted by Rex Smith’s brother Micheal Lee).
- In the bottom right panel: Blackjack — a band we’ll discuss at greater length in this essay of “lost bands” — was pop star Micheal Bolton’s hard rock concern. Same for Los Angeles’ Rockicks — who we’ll also discuss in detail, later in this piece: respected stars in their native California that didn’t make it to a second album. Indianapolis, Indiana’s Roadmaster — as with Neil Merryweather — was unable to convey their four-album, Midwest success to a national audience, as did Cheap Trick.
Uh, maybe we’re overstating things: The musicians and bands featured in this “Unlucky 13” essay weren’t really so “unlucky.” As we’ll read: While not achieving national success in the U.S., these artists did achieve a level of regional success with their initial careers. A few forged some success in Europe versus the U.S (such as April Wine). A few bands even wrote hit songs for other, more popular artists: an artist that wouldn’t have achieved their fame in the first place, if not for that song from the first band that didn’t make it. The Fates of Rock ’n’ Roll, huh?
“If you think it’s easy doin’ one night stands
Try playin’ in a rock roll band
It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ’n’ roll.”
— “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll)” by AC/DC
Hey, Hey, We’re . . . The Unlucky Thirteen
1. David Werner
2. Doug Lubahn with Riff Raff
3. Billy Steinberg with Billy Thermal
4. Gene Cornish and Dino Danelli with Bulldog/Fotomaker
5. Jerry Zubal and Brian Naughton with Rockicks
6. Kim Milford with the Jeff Beck Group/Moon
7. Lane Caudell with Skyband
8. Roger Wilson
9. Michael Bolton with Blackjack
10. Russ Ballard
11. Richard Bowen with the Source
12. Jay Wilfong with Primevil
13. Nigel Benjamin with Mott/London
1: David Werner
The four-album career of David Warner across two albums for RCA Records and two albums for Epic Records.
David Werner in the official video — that I don’t remember MTV ever playing — for his 1979 single, “What’s Right.”
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s David Werner and New Haven, Connecticut’s future soul-revisionist crooner Michael Bolton were label mates at RCA Records when David, at the age of 17, issued his freshman and sophomore efforts in 1974 and 1975. (Bolton’s, then 22 and under his birth name of Bolotin, were issued in 1975 and 1976.)
Werner got his second spin at the wheels of Fate through a pair of promotional compilation albums issued by his next label, CBS/Epic, which included his new 1979 single, “What’s Right.” (There was a box of the albums tossed into the $1.00 cut-out section of the record store. We all bought one!)
Believing they had something with David Werner (they did: it’s a great, new wave-pop debut): CBS bankrolled a headlining tour. His opening act was an up-and-coming singer on the scene with her debut album, In the Heat of the Night (1979 on Chrysalis Records), featuring a nifty little rocker, “Heartbreaker.” There’s David Werner’s single, “What’s Right,” stalling on the chart in the upper 100s — and his opening act, Pat Benatar, has a song in the U.S “Top 30.”
While his recording contract with Epic Records was over: His career was just beginning. Werner’s songwriting skills earned him a spot on the top of the charts with Billy Idol’s recording of “Cradle of Love,” on his fourth solo album, Charmed Life (1990). Signed to EMI Records with a publishing deal, David Werner continued to write and produce for other bands, such as successful blues and county music artists Mark Copely and Mary Fahl in the 2000s.
2: Doug Lubahn, Riff Raff
The six-album career of Doug Lubahn with Clear Light, Dreams, Pierce Arrow, and Riff Raff.
Doug Lubahn’s Riff Raff with “Treat Me Right,” from 1981.
Fans of the Doors know Doug Lubahn as the Doors’ session bassist who turned down an offer to join the Doors as an official, full-time member.
He came into his gig with the Doors — appearing on the albums Strange Days (1967), Waiting for the Sun (1968), and The Soft Parade (1969) by way of his band Clear Light — which featured future film and television actor Cliff DeYoung as lead vocalist and drummer Dennis Taylor, later of Crosby, Stills & Nash— touring with the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Formed in 1966 and formerly known as Brain Train, they changed their name to Clear Light when Elektra Records released their lone album in 1967 — produced by Paul Rothchild who also produced the Doors.
Recording two albums for Columbia Records as the trendier jazz rock-collective, Dreams, from 1969 to 1970 (the eventual home to the jazz rock-inflected Journey), Doug Lubahn recorded two chart-ignored albums with drummer Bobby Chouinard as the Eagles-inspired country rockers Pierce Arrow. Dreams featured bassist Will Lee, known for his tenure with The World’s Most Dangerous Band during David Letterman’s time as the host of U.S NBC-TV’s Late Night talk program.
When Pat Benatar (there she is, again; she’ll be back) scored a 1980 Billboard “Top 20” hit with a cover of Doug Lubahn’s “Treat Me Right,” it lead to the signing of his band, Riff Raff, formed in 1979, and issuing their own version of the song on their lone album, Vinyl Futures (1981). Riff Raff also featured ex-Cactus (they’ll pop up again in our discussion) guitarist Werner Fritzschings from Pierce Arrow, and Ned Liben from the the MTV-remembered Ēbn-Ōzn (“AEIOU Sometimes Y”).
Doug Lubahn and Bobby Chouinard recorded and toured the multi-platinum albums Emotions in Motion (1982) and Signs of Life (1984) as the rhythm section for a solo bound Billy Squire (formerly of A&M Records’ Piper). After his tenure with Billy Squire, Doug recorded and toured with “The Motor City Madman” Ted Nugent on Penetrator (1984).
In addition to Pat Benatar, another of Doug Lubahn’s songs, “Talk to Me,” appeared on Warrior (1984), the platinum-selling debut album by Scandal featuring Patty Smyth.
3: Billy Steinberg, Billy Thermal
The lone, never-released album by Billy Thermal — reissued in the years-after-the-fact digital age.
Billy Thermal with “I’m Gonna Follow You,” their 1980 debut single from Planet Records issued on the Sharp Cuts compilation.
While the Plimsouls became Planet Records’ bread-and-butter with their MTV new-wave favorite, “A Million Miles Away,” (no, they didn’t do “Everywhere I’m Not,” that was Translator; no, they didn’t do “Chamber of Hellos,” that was Wire Train) no one remembers, or even heard of, their labelmates: Billy Thermal.
As with David Werner: Billy Thermal got their greatest exposure through another $1.00 cut-out bin compilation we bought: Sharp Cuts, issued by Planet Records. Also featured on the album was the MTV-era Single Bullet Theory with their new-wave favorite, “Keep It Tight.”
Regardless of Billy Thermal’s chilly reception: Steinberg’s “I’m Gonna Follow You” and “Precious Time,” which he wrote and sang lead vocals for on the band’s lone, unreleased album, became hit singles on Pat Benatar’s early ’80s albums. Even Linda Ronstadt knew a good album when she heard one: she had a new-wave hit with the band’s “How Do I Make You.”
Other song’s in Billy Steinberg’s post-Billy Thermal catalog include Pat Benatar’s “Sex as a Weapon” and “Fire and Ice,” as well as songs for Cyndi Lauper (she’s coming back, again, in this essay) and Whitney Houston, “Alone” by Heart, Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” and the Divinyls with “I Touch Myself.”
Billy Thermal’s bassist Bob Carlisle returned to the charts in 1997 with the worldwide Christian and secular crossover smash, “Butterfly Kisses.” Lead guitarist Craig Hull transitioned to a studio and recording career with Kim Carnes, Peter Cetera, Journey’s Steve Perry, and Dwight Twilley.
Musicians are lucky — and happy — if they get one hit single on their album, let alone three. And Billy Thermal died on the vine (the name is inspired by grape harvesting and wine making). Imagine the albums the band could have produced: they’d be bigger than the Beatles.
Speaking (more) of Pat Benatar: The original singer behind Pat’s first and biggest hit — the one that eclipsed David Werner on the charts — Jenny Darren, who cut the original version on her 1978 album Queen of Fools, faded into obscurity.
. . . And that’s how the Fates rock ’n’ roll, roll.
4: Gene Cornish and Dino Danelli, Bulldog and Fotomaker
The two album career of Bulldog on Decca/MCA and Buddah Records.
The three-album career of Fotomaker on Atlantic Records.
Felix Cavaliere, later of the chart-topping, U.S hit makers, the Young Rascals, and then, the Rascals, got his start with Joey Dee & the Starlighters, which served as the house band at New York’s famed Peppermint Lounge. After his stint with Joey Dee: Cavaliere formed the Young Rascals with Gene Cornish, Eddie Brigati, and Dino Danelli. (The Starlighters at one time featured Joe Pesci; without Pesci: they starred in the 1961 rock flick, Hey, Let’s Twist!)
After the worldwide chart-topping years of the Rascals were over, the group, with vocalist/guitarist Gene Cornish and drummer Dino Danelli at the helm, evolved into the harder-rocking Bulldog. Issuing two radio and retail ignored albums (Decca and Buddah) in the early ’70s, Cornish and Danelli teamed with Wally Bryson, formerly with the early ’70s chart-topping, “power-pop” pioneers, the Raspberries. Their new concern was the new-wave-inspired Fotomaker, which lasted from 1977 to 1980.
Fotomaker issued three albums in the new-wave era: Fotomaker, Vis-à-vis, and Transfer Station in which a Cars or Knack-like success wasn’t meant to be: even with their great, lone U.S “Top 40” charting single, “Where Have You Been All My Life.”
Eric Thorngren, John Turi, and William Hocher became Pepper, which released a lone, self-titled pop-rock album on RCA Records in 1977.
John Turi was also a member of Blue Angel — the band of the solo-bound Cyndi Lauper — which issued one album on Polydor in 1980. Turi got his start in the late ’60s with Decca Recording artists, Fuzzy Bunny.
While Fotomaker was going on: Felix Cavaliere — who once played with Joey Dee, mind you — formed Treasure: a hard-rock, AOR-trio that issued an album in 1977 (Epic Records) that featured Vinnie “Vincent” Cusano, later of Kiss, on lead guitar.
Dino Danelli reappeared on the scene in the more-chart/video-single successful Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul in a rhythm section alongside ex-the Plasmatics bassist, Jean Beauvior.
After the Raspberries, and before Fotomaker: Ex-’Berry Wally Bryson formed the hard-rock outfit Tattoo with Thom Mooney. Mooney himself did time in Todd Rundgren’s the Nazz; then the Cheap Trick precursor, Sick Man of Europe. Tattoo managed one album in 1976 on Prodigal Records (a Motown subsidiary).
However, prior to those musical adventures: Thom Mooney did time in Fuse: the first recording band (on Epic Records) of Rick Neilson and Tom Petersson, both later of Cheap Trick. The drummer in Fuse was Chip Greenman. Upon turning down an offer to join the nascent Cheap Trick, he joined the power-pop concern the Names. That band’s claim to fame was doubling as the faux metal band the Clowns in the horror film, Terror on Tour (1980). Cheap Trick introduced themselves to the world as part of their soundtrack effort, Over the Edge (1978).
Yes, we are in agreement: The cover of Fotomaker’s second album — the one that contained their lone “Top 40” hit — is as uncomfortable to look at as it is creepy. No wonder their career tanked. Then again, Foreigner got away with the offensive cover for their fourth album, Head Games. (Sorry, Lou: we’re not buying the “joke” of the cover.) Then there’s the original European covers of the Scorpion’s early albums, Virgin Killer, and Lovedrive — the latter with its bubblegum-on-the-breast cover (that I bought for a dollar at my local library’s book and video swap: held in the same conference room where they hosted kids’ reading programs and puppet shows).
5: Jerry Zubal with Rockicks and Pendragon / Brian Naughton with Rock Candy¹
Jerry Zubal’s bands: Los Angeles’ Rockicks and Detroit’s Pendragon.
That’s Zubal, far left with a mustache, and Brian Naughton, third from left in opened blue shirt, on the Rockicks cover.
Jerry Zubal’s Rockicks with the non-album track, “Reach for the Sky,” from a 1978 demo.
Jerry Zubal with Pendragon, recorded live in 1978 in Detroit with four band originals penned by lead singer Ted Pearson (center).
Brian Naughton, later of Rockicks, with Rock Candy and their 1970 single, “‘Cause We Want to Please You,” with Naughton, far right, on the album cover.
Detroit, Michigan’s Jerry Zubal, as with any other teen born in the 1950s, was hooked by the Beatles-cum-Stones-cum-Kinks-inspired British Invasion ruling the U.S airwaves and television. His first teen-band, the Kwintels, rose to a point in their career where they served as the backing band for a Detroit-visiting Freddy Cannon (1959’s “Tallahassee Lassie, 1962’s “Palisades Park”) and opening shows for Detroit-visiting, chart-topping Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Then, the Beatles ditched the “power-pop” and recorded “Helter Skelter” as Led Zeppelin’s electrified blues arrived. So, as did all of the young rockers of the times: Jerry Zubal sharpened those six-strings for some harder sounds with the band, Tea.
Quickly becoming a state, then regionally-successful band, Tea came under the auspices of Bob Seger’s manager, Punch Andrews, who rechristened the “drug inference”-named band as 1776. One liberty-spread eagle cover later issued in 1971 (Palladium/Reprise/Warner Bros.) — that features their take on ex-Traffic’s Dave Mason’s debut solo hit, “Only You Know and I Know,” and a single release of the Byrds’ rearrangement of the Art Reynolds Singers “Jesus Is Just Alright” — Jerry’s Zubal’s connection to the pre-stardom career of Bob Seger was over.
Meanwhile, Brian Naughton formed his first teen group, the Velaires in 1961. In 1965, it was all about the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, the Rip Chords and the Rivieras: Brian ditched the British Invasion for a surf-sound with the Persuaders. Then another, harder “wave” stormed in from Britain — in the form of the hard-rock trinity of Led Zeppelin, U.F.O, and Uriah Heep: the hard-rock quartet Rock Candy was born.
Sadly, Rock Candy’s stellar, MC 5-inspired debut issued in 1970 for MGM Records was three years before the arrival of Sammy Hagar and Montrose (who had their own, “never was” hit with a song, “Rock Candy”). As with Montrose: Rock Candy were too groundbreaking for the times.
By 1972, Brian Naughton kept career-busy as a member of the ready-to-implode Peanut Butter Conspiracy, which had a Jefferson Airplane-inspired “hippie-hit” in 1967, “It’s a Happening Thing.” Then, Brian was off to greener pastures with “Top 40” hit-makers the Grass Roots in 1973, appearing with the band on U.S television’s American Bandstand, as well as early-seventies variety shows hosted by Sonny & Cher and Kenny Rogers.
Relocating to Los Angeles, ex-Tea guitarist and lead vocalist Jerry Zubal joined forces with Rock Candy’s ex-lead guitarist and, under the management of ex-the Grass Roots founder Warren Entner (who also managed Lane Caudell, as well as the harder-rocking Angel and Quiet Riot), Rockicks took on the L.A rock scene. Dropped after issuing their lone album, Inside, in 1977 on RSO Records: Jerry Zubal returned to Michigan; Brian Naughton began a new career as a crew production assistant for television and film.
Back in Detroit: Jerry Zubal teamed with Ted Pearson: a long-suffering Detroit musician who issued a lone album on Capitol Records in 1974, Phantom’s Divine Comedy: Part 1, that everyone — at the time — thought was a Jim Morrison-back-from-the-dead solo album. Their new concern, Pendragon, while becoming a local-to-Midwest concert favorite, with a 1983 local hit, “Queen of Air,” never found a major label home.
Brian Naughton returned to Los Angeles stages in 2004 with the Naughtones, which released two critically-acclaimed albums. Sadly, before this great band could achieve a major-label deal or nationwide recognition, Brian Naughton passed away from a heart attack in 2008. Ted Pearson died in 1999. Jerry Zubal retired by way of illnesses after a successful career as a music teacher and producer in his home state of Michigan.
6: Kim Milford, the Jeff Beck Group and Moon²
Singer and actor Kim Milford for an album cover shoot with the Jeff Beck Group — but really the quartet version of Beck, Bogert and Appice.
Kim Milford with Moon, featuring cuts from their two, 1974 ABC-TV telefilms, Song of the Succubus and Rock-a-Die Baby.
Kim Milford is a musician best known to wider audiences for his acting work. A revered stage actor in the musical and dramatic realms, Milford, like most stage actors, cut his acting teeth on hour-long, early 1970s television cop dramas. Another stage actor making the rounds on U.S television with Milford was his close friend Mark Hamill — which the world came to know as “Luke Skywalker.” The two worked together on Kim’s second-starring film and Hamill’s first post-Star Wars movie: 1978’s Corvette Summer. Kim’s first starring film role was in a Star Wars ripoff, 1978’s Laserblast.
Raised in the northern suburbs of Chicago of Winnetka, Illinois, Milford was a child prodigy actor, singer, and dancer who appeared in summer stock theatre at the age of ten. By the late ’60s, he made his Broadway debut; by the age of seventeen, he played multiple roles in the rock musical Hair and alternated the roles of “Jesus” and “Judas” in the first touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar. He received his greatest stage acclaim for his casting as “Rocky” in the original, Los Angeles, New York, and London stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show (he appears on the Roxy Cast Album production of the show).
In addition to his stage work, Kim was an accomplished rock ’n’ roller with his band Eclipse, which consisted of remnants from Genya Ravan’s jazz-rock fusion outfit Ten Wheel Drive, a band active from 1968 to 1974, which released four albums through Polydor and Capitol Records. Eclipse would see one of their songs, “Between the Ceiling and the Sky,” used as theme song to the low-budget, 1974 sci-fi film, UFO: Target Earth.
Impressed with his stage work, Jeff Beck hired Kim Milford as Rod Stewart’s replacement in the Jeff Beck Group — the second version of the group (summer of 1972) that also featured Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice of the recently splinted Cactus — to fulfill touring obligations before the trio, sans Milford, formed Beck, Bogert and Appice (with Tim Bogert as lead vocalist).
Under the guidance of the Monkees’ Svengali Don Kirshner since 1969, Kim Milford recorded a series of singles and two unreleased albums assisted in the studio by ex-Archies songwriter/singer Ron Dante. Kim’s band, Moon, toured (rumored; not confirmed) as the opening act for another band in the Kirshner stable: platinum-selling classic-prog rockers, Kansas. Then, with Jim Steinman, Kim recorded an unreleased version of a 1977 album called Bat of Out Hell — that ultimately became Meatloaf’s debut album.
In addition to his management by Don Kirshner, Kim Milford, during his tenure with the band Eclipse, was managed and produced by Patrick Colecchio, who managed the ’60s California “sunshine pop” outfit the Association (“Cherish,” “Windy,” “Along Comes Mary”). His next manager was Bill Aucion, who orchestrated the meteoric rise of Kiss. By then, Milford has been in the rock ’n’ roll business over a decade without a breakthrough. So, Aucion switched his attentions to two newer, already-established artists for whom he developed successful solo careers: Billy Squire from the two-album A&M recording band, Piper, and Billy Idol, fishing a three-album career with Chrysalis Records’ Generation X.
Kim Milford continued to act on the stage and television until his death on June 16, 1888, as result of complications from surgery for his long-time heart condition.
7: Lane Caudell, Skyband³
Skyband: Peter Beckett, Lane Caudell, and Steve Kipner.
Skyband with their lone, 1975 album.
Lane Caudell — with his fifth, overall solo career single, as well as debut solo album — with the title cut from 1978’s Hanging on a Star.
A mere two years after graduating from Asheboro High School in North Carolina, Lane Caudell scored his first recording contract at the age of 20, with Capitol Records issuing his debut single, “Let Our Love Ride” b/w “You, Him & Her” (July 1972), along with the sophomore effort, “Play On, Play On” b/w “And Then We Danced” (January 1973). Caudell’s labelmate was fellow “teen idol” Rick Springfield. Sadly, even with the full court press of the worldwide teen magazine industry behind Lane, his singles failed to set the retail and radio world on fire. A David Cassidy rise to fame was not forthcoming . . . nor a delayed rise, as in the case of Rick Springfield.
Next for Lane Caudell was a 1973 deal with the RCA Records-connected Metromedia Records. Once again: His labelmate was another chart-topping teen idol, one who benefited from a guest appearance on television’s The Partridge Family: Bobby Sherman. Their deals both went under when the label filed for bankruptcy not long after Caudell’s single was issued.
Meanwhile, over in Australia, another young, up-and-coming singer-songwriter named Peter Beckett auditioned for the Beatles-inspired Badfinger — then hot with their Paul McCartney-penned worldwide smash “Come and Get It” — but he lost the coveted gig to Joey Molland.
By 1974, Lane Caudell and Peter Beckett, along with Steve Kipner from another of Beckett’s bands, Tin Tin, formed a new musical concern. Under the management of ex-the Grass Roots founder Warren Entner (his name pops up again in the career of the to-be-discussed Jerry Zubal) and backing from Elvis Presley’s old label, RCA Records, now known as Skyband, they toured as the opening act for the Jackson 5 and issued their one and only self-titled album in 1975.
By that point, and as with Rick Springfield and Kim Milford (who eschewed the “teen idol” marketing for his early career): Lane Caudell begun studying acting. Meanwhile, Reed Kailing from the Grass Roots replaced him in Skyband; with a few more roster changes, the band transformed into Player, which scored a U.S #1 with “Baby Come Back.”
Lane Caudell made his film debut as a supporting actor in the exploitation teen-horror, Satan Cheerleaders (1977); starring-roles proper followed with Goodbye, Franklin High, and the rock ’n’ roll follow up, Hanging on a Star. (1978). Both films, backed by the Great Lion of Hollywood: MGM Studios, featured his music, with the latter film — his solo album debut — producing a soundtrack album. MCA financed a second, non-charting album, Midnight Hunter (1979).
In his non-rock ’n’ roll life: Lane Caudell appeared on several U.S television nighttime series and daytime dramas as he transitioned into a full time career as a songwriter, music publisher, and session musician in the country music marketplace.
8: Roger Wilson⁴
Roger Wilson in the 1985 rock flick, Thunder Alley.
Roger Wilson with the B-Side to his lone, 45-rpm/7"-inch single release, “Can’t Hold Back,” issued in 1985.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 8, 1956, actor Roger Wilson came to notice at the age of 25 in his first starring role as “Mickey” in the hugely successful Animal House-inspired comedies Porky’s (1981) and Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983).
As with Kim Milford and Lane Caudell before him being better known for their acting than their music careers: Roger Wilson was an aspiring and accomplished rock ’n’ roller who fronted a band called Num for several years in America. It was through Wilson’s acting endeavors that he was able to get two of his written/performed songs, “This Time” and “Radioactive Tears,” on the soundtrack for the New Zealand-shot film, Second Time Lucky (1984), in which he also starred (and sang and danced).
Then, when writer-director J.S Cardone produced his autobiographical rock ’n’ roll love letter, Thunder Alley (1985), he gave Wilson’s musical skills a spotlight, starring as a troubled, up-and-coming musician.
Then, Roger Wilson met Academy Award winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio, fresh from his breakout role in Titanic (1997), whose gaggle of Hollywood buddies were known as “The Wolf Pack”: a celebrity-clique notorious for their allegedly misogynistic and rebel rousing behaviors on the upscale-New York City club scene.
At the time, Roger Wilson was dating actress Elizabeth Berkley, who grew up from her role on U.S Saturday morning television’s Saved by the Bell to a grown-up role in the box office bomb, Showgirls (1995). It’s alleged DiCaprio, as well as others in “The Pack,” had eyes for Berkley: It ended in an alleyway-behind-a-nightclub brawl where Wilson was punched in the throat. His larynx damaged: Wilson’s singing career was over.
After the May 4, 1998, assault, Wilson’s career continued with a series of television movies and direct-to-video films. His Hollywood career turned around as he transitioned to screenwriting, doing numerous uncredited rewrites, then taught the craft at the college level. He then forged a career in real estate development, which he pursues, today.
9: Michael Bolton, Blackjack⁵
The two-album, Polydor Records career of Blackjack.
Blackjack with their lone video-single release for the debut single, “Love Me Tonight” — that I do not recall ever seeing on MTV.
Yes, Micheal Bolton —an “adult idol” adored by the female-driven, U.S daytime television Oprah Winfrey-set — before he was an oozy-sexy, soulful crooner who seem to come out of nowhere to storm the radio and retail charts: he was a long-suffering, kick-ass rock ’n’ roller.
So . . . if those now married-with-children women responded with an analogous fervor as young girls and teenagers in 1975 when the then Michael Bolotin issued his debut album at the age of 22 . . . we would be having a different conversation.
Today’s “Soul Provider” scored his first recording contract at the age of 15 in 1969 when his band, the Nomads, signed a two-singles deal with Epic Records. By 1975, Michael was a 22-year-old singer and songwriter recording in New York with a deal through RCA Records based on demo tapes he cut at Leon Russell’s Tulsa-based label, Shelter Records (that worked with Tom Petty’s early band, Mudcrutch, which became Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). Both his self-titled, 1975 debut, and his 1976 sophomore effort, Every Day of My Life, flopped at radio and retail.
Teaming with guitarist Bruce Kulick — yes, of later fame and fortune with Gene Simmons and Kiss — and music attorney Steve Weiss as their manager— who oversaw Bad Company’s and Led Zeppelin’s legal affairs— and producer Tom Dowd in the studio— who took Eric Clapton, Cream, the Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd to the top of the charts — the duo signed with Polydor as the hard pop-rock concern: Blackjack.
Unfortunately, even with high profile tours opening for Peter Frampton and Ozzy Osbourne, singles from their related albums, Blackjack (1979) and World’s Apart (1980), failed to connect with radio or retail.
First Epic. Then RCA. Then Polydor. It was time for a career reboot.
Now, under the Micheal Bolton name we know, he continued in the same hard pop-rock vein with two albums for Columbia Records. His third solo album — but fifth album overall, 1983’s Michael Bolton, fared better courtesy of MTV’s support of its single, “Fool’s Game,” but the rocking title cut from 1985’s Everybody’s Crazy repeated the sophomore jinx that plagued Blackjack.
Then, when Laura Branigan scored an international smash with the Bolton-penned, “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” it opened the door for him to provide songs for charting albums by Kiss, Kenny Rogers, and Barbra Streisand, in addition to collaborating with esteemed songwriters such as Eric Kaz, Barry Mann, Diane Warren, and Cynthia Weil. Thus, a new, chart-topping multi-platinum career was born . . . and we’re back to his breaking hearts of women across America — and the world — on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
The now 71-year-old Michael Bolton cancelled his annual Valentine’s Day concert for 2025 as result of his 2024 brain tumor surgery . . . but plans to return to the stage, soon, where he belongs.
10: Russ Ballard⁶
Russ Ballard, with the title cut from his second solo effort, 1976’s Winning. The song later became an international, chart-topping hit — especially in the U.S — for Santana, in 1981.
When it comes to obscure rockers on this “Unlucky 13” list: None are more popular — still, to this day across Europe — than British singer-songwriter Russ Ballard. Next to the equally U.S unknown Chris Rea— outside of a lone solo hit single — Ballard commands Bruce Springsteen-like fandom with concert appearances across Europe and Australia (and . . . if and when he comes to America: a club appearance).
Ballard got his teen start in early 1960s, eventually appearing a record-breaking nine times between 1964 and 1965 on the legendary U.K television series, Ready, Steady, Go!, with Adam Faith’s backing band, the Roulettes. Then Ballard, along with drummer Bob Henrit from Faith’s band, joined ex-Zombies’ Ron Argent in his new, hard-rock concern: Argent. That’s Russ’s vocals on the band’s lone, 1972 U.S “Top 40” hit, “Hold Your Head Up.”
When Argent split after a five-album career in 1974, Russ Ballard released six European-successful solo albums. While “Voices” from his 1984 self-titled fifth album became his only U.S solo hit, his songs were all over U.S and international radio by way of covers from America, the Bay City Rollers, Roger Daltry, Ace Frehley, Kiss, Rainbow, Santana, and Three Dog Night — to name a few.
Russ Ballard continues to rock in 2025 as the host of The Voices of Russ Ballard Podcast and plans to embark on a tour of Germany and Switzerland later in the year that should expand across Europe.
11: Richard Bowen, The Source⁷
The Source: Richard Bowen (left) with Danny Heald, Harold Finch, Jr., and Robert Gilly (not in order), 1970.
Their best known single, due to its Doorseque qualities, “Phantom in the Rain,” below.
When one speaks of bands hailing from San Diego, California: The world is certainly aware of the multi-platinum catalogs of the post-punk pop of Blink 182, the MTV-era glam metal of Ratt, the alt-grunge sounds of Stone Temple Pilots, and forever remember the ’60s proto-metal of Iron Butterfly with their international, 1968 smash single, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”
Then there’s Richard Bowen and his band, the Source.
When 1950s exploitation drive-in cinema purveyor American International Pictures incorporated their own music imprint, A.I.R: American International Records, producer-singer-songwriter Harley Hatcher was hired to head the label’s A&R department to develop soundtracks and music for the studio’s films.
When the studio began production on a biographical film on the life of infamous U.S gangster Charles Arthur Floyd, aka Pretty Boy Floyd, Hatcher signed the Source to record music for the film: the A-Side of the soundtrack for A Bullet for Pretty Boy (1970) served as their six-song recording debut; two more, non-album songs, “Yesterday Is Gone” b/w “Phantom in the Rain,” were issued as a standalone release. The film flopped and the album and singles failed to chart.
Fast forward to 1984: The film’s director, Larry Buchanan, remembering the Doors-Jim Morrisonesque qualities of Richard Bowen’s voice, contracted the then successful owner and operator of San Diego’s renowned Circle Sound Studios (and its first-floor rock club, The Rock Palace), to be the singing voice of Jim Morrison in the speculative “What If” rock ’n’ roll flick, Down On Us, issued to theatres in 1984, then as Beyond the Doors in 1989 to home video. Bowen licensed five songs to the film: four from his self-produced solo albums — along with a remake of his best-known song, “Phantom in the Rain.”
The inclusion of that “Morrisonesque” song in the film — and with everyone’s continued fascination with all things Jim — lead many to assume the Source, that is, Richard Bowen, may have been the band responsible behind the infamously mysterious, “Jim Morrison solo album,” Phantom’s Divine Comedy: Part 1, issued in 1974, three years after the Doors’ lead singers death.
They weren’t.
During its years of operation, Circle Sound Studios hosted recording sessions for a wide array of artists, such as Jimmy Buffett, Jack Bruce from Cream, late ’80s U.S college radio-star Skid Roper, and pre-Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder. The studio’s large ballroom with video recording facilities gave Circle Sound its greatest recognition by way of the U.S Gold-certified-selling series of ’80s “Jazzercise” exercise albums and videos.
As with Brian Naughton of Rock Candy and Rockicks: Richard Bowen continued recording in the ’90s with his sons as Mission Street, before retiring from the business. As a testament to Richard Bowen’s ever-growing Internet fan base: “Sorcery,” his best-known single from his solo album, Pictures in the Air (1984), was reissued in May 2024 as part of the Numero Group’s A.O.R soft-rock “W3NG” compilation. The soundtrack to A Bullet for Pretty Boy was officially, digitally reissued in October 2024. Both newly-digitized efforts stream as part of the programming on today’s soft-rock oriented Internet-streaming stations.
12: Jay Wilfong, Primevil⁸
Jay Wilfong, center, in 1974 with Primevil.
Smokin’ Bats at Campton’s, the lone release by Primevil, below.
As with any ’70s-era metal head: Jay Wilfong got his Indianapolis, Indiana, start emulating the Beatles and other British Invasion bands with his teen groups Westminster 5 and Knights of Day. At the age of 15 in 1967, he joined the Temperance Union, which evolved into a heavier, Cream and the Who-inspired concern, the Poverty Programme, which featured Wilfong’s longtime drumming cohort, Jerry DeRome.
The band crumbling in the wake of winning a “Battle of the Bands” contest that allotted for the recording of a single, “Two Years Ahead of My Time,” that was rejected by Mercury Records, Jay Wilfong, inspired by the likes of
Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, formed Primevil.
As with his previous band having roots in a prior band: Primevil’s roots were in the Cactus and Led Zeppelin-inspired Ezra: a band formed in 1969 by vocalist Dave Campton and drummer Mel Cupp. Upon the addition of mutual school friends Larry Lucas on guitar and Mark Sipe on bass: Primevil was born. Falling apart in the mid-’70s after the independent recording of one 45-rpm/7-inch single and an album, Smokin’ Bats at Campton’s (1974), Primevil — without Jay Wilfong — transformed into the Deep Purple/Uriah Heep-inspired concerns Nightowl and Killerwatt.
By 1980, Jay Wilfong and Jerry DeRome returned to Indianapolis stages as the heavy blues-rock concern, Buccaneer, which recorded two independent singles and an a self-titled album before their demise.
In his later, non-rock ’n’ roll life: Jay Wilfong achieved dual successes in the hospitality industry operating restaurants, music stores, and a company providing sound reinforcement and sound equipment manufacturing. Now a resident of Nashville, Tennessee, he’s known as that city’s eminent, vintage guitar collector, of which he owns over 100 classics.
The subject of several pirate reissues over the years, Primevil’s lone album was legally remastered by the Los Angeles-based retro label Cleopatra Records in January 2024. Buccaneer was reissued proper to compact disc and digital stream in 2013.
13: Nigel Benjamin, Mott and London⁹
Future Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx and ex-Mott lead vocalist Nigel Benjamin on stage with the Los Angeles band, London.
Nigel Benjamin with the truncated Mott (the Hoople) on the popular British music program, So It Goes, 1976.
As with the respected, then teen-idol guitarist Rick Springfield, who recorded and toured with Australia’s Zoot, theatre vocalist-actor Kim Milford, who replaced Rod Stewart in the Jeff Beck Group, and Lane Caudell, who fronted the precursor to U.S #1 chart-toppers Player, known as Skyband: Nigel Benjamin’s rock ’n’ roll pedigree was his replacing Ian Hunter in Mott the Hoople. Between 1975 to 1976, he recorded two albums for the truncated Mott, touring the world with Humble Pie, Judas Priest, Kiss, REO Speedwagon, and Thin Lizzy.
Benjamin’s first bands in the early seventies were the London/Southend-based glam-groups Grot and Fancy; after issuing their 1973 single “Starlord,” Fancy transformed into the Billion Dollar Band, and then Royce. After Mott’s demise — to become British Lions with Ray Major on lead vocals — Benjamin formed English Assassin, which recorded an unreleased album for Arista Records. The one English Assassin “album” that did see a release: Just for the Record: a 1978 solo album by famed British motorcycle and film stuntman Eddie Kidd — an album that English Assassin backed and Benjamin produced.
The lone single by Nigel’s Benjamin’s group, Fancy.
Upon the failure of English Assassin, Benjamin relocated to Los Angeles. Courtesy of his hard rock pedigree, the city’s nascent hair-metal scene adopted Benjamin and he soon fronted the infamous London: a band with an ever-evolving roster that, while never scoring a deal of their own, served as a rock ’n’ roll boot camp for musicians who joined the more commercially successful bands of Cinderella, Guns N’ Roses, and W.A.S.P.
When one of London’s ex-members, Nikki Sixx — who also went through the ranks of Circus Circus with Blackie Lawless, later of W.A.S.P — formed his next band, Mötley Crüe: the first singer on his list was Nigel Benjamin. There being no love lost between the two: Benjamin turned down the offer. At the time: Nigel was dating the sister of Tommy Lee’s future wife, actress Heather Locklear; the Locklear sisters and Benjamin shared a home.
Benjamin’s next band was Satyr: a progressive-rock band active on the Los Angeles scene since the mid-’70s fronted by future Giuffria and Quiet Riot bassist, Chuck Wright. Upon Wright’s departure, the group evolved into Eyes (songs from their lone, 1982 independent EP appear on the soundtrack to Rocktober Blood).
By 1984, to make ends meet as he searched for another band, Nigel Benjamin began working with film production crews. His first production assistant job was on an early “metalsploitation” film, Rocktober Blood. When Sorcery, the band hired to portray that film’s band, Head Mistress, lost their lead singer, David Glen Eisley, to ex-Angel Gregg Guiffria’s new, self-named band: Benjamin stepped in as lead vocalist for the film, which lead to his lone acting role in a movie.
Over the years: Nigel Benjamin worked as a studio musician-for-hire, recording music for overseas commercials, which evolved into his designing turnkey recording studios. Beginning in 2009, and up until his death on July 31, 2019, he released several, independent digital-only solo albums through Soundcloud and ReverbNation.
Hey, if Nigel Tufnel’s amps can go to “11,” then this “Unlucky 13” list of lost musicians can go to “14.”
14. Al Corley
The three-album, Mercury-Polygram Records career of Al Corley.
The video for Al Corley’s biggest and beloved Euro-hit, “Square Rooms.”
As with Kim Milford and Roger Wilson before him: Al Corley is what is known in the industry as a “triple threat”: he could sing, dance, and act — with an added bonus: he could write songs. And as with the previously spotlighted Russ Ballard: Corley isn’t so “unlucky,” at least not in Europe, as he forged a respected, still-revered career where his songs transport fans back to their youth . . . as any good songs, should.
The Wichita, Kansas-born Corley got his start as a doorman at New York’s famed Studio 54 in the late ’70s and appeared in a U.S cable television, VH 1 Behind the Music special about the venue to recount his experiences. The contacts Corley made at the club transitioned him into an acting career; he was soon cast as the first “Steven Carrington” for 37 episodes during the 1981 to 1982 season of the popular, U.S ABC-TV prime time soap opera, Dynasty.
During those years, Corley was in a relationship with international pop star Carly Simon. So deep was the love that he appears on one of her album covers; that’s his back to the camera on the album artwork for 1981’s Torch (this Carly Simon blog regarding her album covers chronicles Corley’s involvement). You know Simon from the ’70s song “Anticipation” and her James Bond theme song “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
First and foremost: Al Corley was a musician and he, like American television actors David Hasselhoff, Don Johnson, David Soul, and Rick Springfield before him, embarked on a successful European singing career across three albums: Square Rooms (1984), Riot of Color (1986), and Big Picture (1988). His debut album produced two European “Top 20” singles/videos: “Square Rooms” and “Cold Dresses,” with the title cut single reaching number one in France. His other “Top 100” Euro-hits were “After the Fall” and “Land of the Giants” from his respective, final two albums.
Those European hits, in turn, netted Al Corley the lead in the 1989 West Germany-produced feature film, Hard Days, Hard Nights, aka Beat Boys: a very loose, pseudo-Beatles bio-flick about a Liverpudlian rock band’s quest for stardom in Hamburg. Still currently active as an actor and producer, Corley directed the feature film, Bigger Than the Sky, in 2005.
END
All album and band images courtesy of Discogs, unless otherwise noted. Video embeds courtesy of You Tube with those uploads cleared by that hosting platform.
