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If you're interested in hunting it down, there is an album
(available on the 'net), on Vault Records, called "Vol. 44", that has a
lot of the tunes that were slated for the third Autumn album, as well as
songs that didn't make the first two (such as "Louie Louie, with John
Petersen singing).
Tom Donahue and Bob Mithcell were the discoverers and promoters of The
Beau Brummels. Without them, we, possibly, may never have heard of the
group. But they were not ideal management. They didn't tend to re-invest
money from their successes back into their acts and record company. To
make a very long story short, they mismanaged Autumn records into
non-existence (the late Tom Donahue was quoted as saying he believed
that "Laugh Laugh" would have been a number one, gold record, if the
group had been on a major label - as it was, "Just A Little" out-sold
the first song substantially, though I can attest, from our many live
performances, that "Laugh Laugh" was remembered much more, by our
general audience, than "Just A Little" - at least 5-to-1!).
The sale of their contract to Warners was quite sudden for the Brummels.
They had songs in the can for a third album, but, though Donahue sold
the group to Warners, he sold all the master tapes to Jack Lawerke of
Merit Distributing (who proceeded to release a "Best Of" album, with
cover art of a painting of a woman in a flowing gown, and "Vol. 44",
with a cover resembling a Victorian woodcarving).
This created a serious conflict: Warners had a group, but no product to
sell. Rather than being patient, and allowing the group to develop new
material for them, the "brainstorm", the ill-conceived "Beau Brummels
'66" album, came into being. It was a rush-job (and a pretty poor album,
to boot) but Warners was over-anxious to get some Beau Brummels product
of their own onto the market, and shot themselves, and the group, in the
foot, artistically, and comercially!
Between the inability of Autumn Records to maximize the marketing &
distribution/promotion of The Beau Brummels, and losing an original
member (Declan), and their artistic driving force becoming a
"part-timer" (Ron Elliott), because of poor health, the lack of
attention from management (Bob Mitchell dying of Hodgkins Disease, and
Donahue being a major-league party-animal), and Warners IMMEDIATE
screw-up, by ordering up a cover-tune album from a group that had
established itself as an original-song act, with its own distinct
musical personality, created a serious abyss, from which The Beau
Brummels, sadly, never fully came out of.
It is sometimes said, "timing is everything", and The Beau Brummels are
a classic case of unfortunate timing, circumstances, and mishandling.
I've always believed that this band deserves to be remembered a lot more
than they are............
Footnote: The bandmembers have told me (and, if you listen closely, you
can tell yourself), that the first album had only four songs that were
fully produced, and the others are, basically, demo recordings. "Laugh
Laugh", "Still In Love With You Baby", "Just A Little", and "They'll
Make You Cry", are the four songs. The rest were 'filler', selected from
mounds of demo tapes. "Oh Lonesome Me" (written by Don Gibson), and "Ain't
That Loving You Baby" (written by Jimmy Reed, though the album credits
it to someone named "D. Malone") were the only songs not written, or
co-written, by Ron Elliott and Bob Durand, if memory serves. |
Posted
6-20-2000 16:58