John Mark Edmunds was a talented singer and songwriter from north-central Illinois whose professional career started when he was just 14-years-old. Throughout the 1960's, Edmunds sang on half a dozen different singles, both as a solo artist and as a front man with a variety of different groups.
His earliest recordings were done while he was attending high school in Morris, Illinois. His family soon moved to DePue and then Dixon, Illinois. His father, John Edmunds, was a popular disc jockey and radio personality. To differentiate himself from his father, the younger Edmunds dropped his last name, using John Mark as his stage name.
In the fall of 1962, John Mark was singing with a quartet of Morris teenagers known as the Spartans. The group included three guitarists, Rich Sparta, Rich DePung, Mike Wiechen and a drummer, Paul Sullivan. The Spartans would serve as the backing band on Edmunds' first single - "Three Pigs" and "Tribute To Tobin," which was uncredited but was actually a cover of Buddy Holly's "Think It Over." The record was recorded at a Chicago television studio and pressed by Sheldon. It was self-released on Big "J" Records in November 1962.
The Tobin in question was Chicago-area singer Tobin Matthews who had recorded the same Holly tune for USA Records a year before. An article in the Morris Daily Herald claimed that Matthews had "discovered" the young John Mark. Chances are the two met when John Mark's father emceed a dance in Morris featuring Matthews in November 1961.
A month after John Mark's single, the Spartans released their own record on Big "J" Records. It included an original instrumental written by Rich Sparta called "Jungle Call" and a rocking rendition of "In The Mood."
In late 1963 or early 1964, the Edmunds family relocated to DePue, Illinois. John Mark, who was still in high school at the time, started to perform with another group of teenagers known as the Sir-Vays. The band had members from DePue and nearby Princeton, Illinois, including Keith Dean on lead guitar; Dan Morel on bass guitar and Tom Poff on drums. Edmunds and the Sir-Vays recorded a single in 1964. It contained two original songs (one credited to John Mark and the other to "Pappy" John) and was again released on Big "J" Records.
Edmunds was still singing with the Sir-Vays in early 1965. He was also working as a disc jockey at WLPO in LaSalle, Illinois. Sometime during this period, the Sir-Vays went through a lineup change. Drummer Tom Poff was replaced by a young Keith Knudsen from Princeton and Gary Swanson also joined the group. Edmunds however graduated high school that spring and parted ways with the Sir-Vays.
In August 1965, John Mark returned to Morris to perform at the county fair with the Techniques, a group led by Les Lockridge of Seneca, Illinois. It was around this same time that he had started performing with Angelo's Angels, another popular group from the Illinois Valley. The band at that point consisted of Tony and Sharon Angello from Tonica, Illinois, Bill Seaton of Oglesby, and Bob Norris from Streator. Angelo's Angels had already recorded a handful of singles for various Chicago labels before Edmunds joined the group.
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| Angelo's Angels |
Before the end of 1965, John Mark recorded another single under his own name. Both songs were written by Tony Angello. It is very likely that Angelo's Angels are the backing group on the record.
"Big City" and "She Wants It That Way" were presumably recorded in Chicago in 1965. It was released on Jester Records.
John Mark had started college at Illinois State University in the fall of 1965. By the summer of 1966, he had joined yet another area band, the Vengents. The group had members from LaSalle-Peru and Spring Valley and had already gone through a number of lineup changes since their formation in 1963.
Around the time that John Mark joined, the group consisted of Dick Verucchi, Dick Hally and Mike Roach. They soon added Les Lockridge of Seneca. The Vengents would change their name (or at least the spelling of their name) to the Vengeance. Under the modified moniker, the band recorded a single for Thor Records out of Chicago in late 1966.
The record included a version of "Big City" which John Mark had just recorded the year before. The flipside was an original song written by Verucchi and Hally, "You Cheated On Me."
By mid-1967, the Vengeance had changed their name to A Hat Full Of Rain, which was eventually shortened to just The Rain. Mike Roach appears to have left the group at some point before the summer of 1968.
All of the others members were attending different colleges at this point with John Mark Edmunds and Dick Verucchi attending Illinois State in Normal while Les Lockridge was at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby and Dick Hally at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
Despite being spread out geographically, the band continued to perform together all across the state. For a time, the group was even represented by the Blytham Ltd. talent agency. In 1968 for example, they performed at the Brown Jug in Champaign, the Morgue in Decatur, and the Reservation in Pontiac.
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| The Rain: John Mark Edmunds, Dick Hally, Les Lockridge, Dick Verucchi |
The band also went back into the studio in 1968 where they recorded a John Mark Edmunds original, "Love's Funny Like That," along with a cover of the Hollies' "Peculiar Situation." The single was again released on Thor Records.
Not long after this release, their recording of "Peculiar Situation" was re-released on Cobblestone, a subsidiary of Buddah Records. The band's name, however, was changed to The Golden Haze for the release. The A-side of the single contained a second Hollies' cover, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody."
By 1969, the Rain added an additional member, guitarist Alan Thacker. That spring Edmunds graduated college and got married.
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| The Rain on stage in Spring Valley, 1969 |
The Rain opened for Rare Earth at the Back Door in Peru, Illinois in July 1970. The poster for the show references the Rain's new release - "You Are But An Animal." This release, if it exists at all, could not be verified. A month later, the Rain were scheduled to play at the doomed Canned Heat "festival" at the Back Door. Instead they opened for Poco.
By 1971, The Rain had changed their name one more time. The group was now Stronghold.
That year, the band recorded for RCA Records. Out of the sessions came one single, released only as a promo. It included "Sow The Seed," written by John Mark Edmunds. The flip side was "Big Man," credited on the record to Les Lockridge, Dick Hally and Dick Verucchi. In the copyright records however, the song is credited to Hally, Verucchi and Alan Thacker (not Lockridge).
Stronghold appears to be the end of John Mark Edmunds' musical career. The other members of the group went on to form the band Buckacre. They recorded two albums for MCA in the late 1970's.
By the late 1970's, Edmunds' extensive record collection had evolved into a record store, Nickelodeon Records & Tapes, in Dixon.
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| Dixon Evening Telegraph, August 20, 1977 |
In 1984, John Mark and his father along with the mayor of Dixon, started a record label (Nickelodeon Records) and production company (J.E.D. Productions) with the sole purpose of producing records and tapes of President Ronald Reagan Reads Stories from the Old Testament. Reagan, a Dixon native, had visited the town earlier that year on his 73rd birthday. The tapes were sold locally at that time but were starting to be distributed nationally when they ran into legal trouble.
The recordings, which were originally produced for RCA Records in 1955, were thought to be in the public domain. The Edmunds' production company however failed to secure the necessary rights before reissuing the recordings and were promptly sued by the record label for one million dollars. For a few days in June 1984, Edmunds' Nickelodeon Records became national news. The matter was eventually settled out of court.
Outside of music, John Mark Edmunds worked at the Dixon State School for many years. He was also a Nursing Home Administrator in Illinois, North Carolina and Florida.
Sadly, Edmunds suffered a stroke in 2002 which left him partially paralyzed. He passed away five years later at the age of 59. According to his obituary, "John's life was full of music and laughter - he was a vocalist and keyboardist, and always proved to be the life of the party."
