Dave Scherer & The Castels, Charles J. Givens and "Sloopy" (Decatur)

Who was Sloopy from "Hang on Sloopy" and what does it have to do with an obscure single released in Decatur, Illinois in 1965?  Below we will try to answer at least one of these questions by untangling decades worth of misinformation.

In early 1965, Dave Scherer and the Castels from Decatur, Illinois released their second single, "Everybody's Doin' It (The Penguin)" b/w "Sloopy Can Penguin" on Loki Records.

Members of the group were:  Dave Scherer (vocals & bass), George Hickman (guitar), Jack Trowbridge (sax), Jim Seitz (sax), Chuck Jordan (drums)  and Dee Brownson (organ).

The single was recorded and produced in Nashville by another Decatur native, Chuck Givens, who ran a studio in Music City.  Despite not being a member of the group, Givens took a writing credit on both songs of the single.  Listen to the b-side "Sloopy Can Penguin" below:

Shorty after the single's release, the Decatur Daily Review ran several articles suggesting that the single was a hit and had already sold over 200,000 copies. 

Decatur Daily Review  Feb. 14, 1965

Mar. 22, 1965

In July of 1965, Scherer and the Castels recorded and released their third and final single, "My Dog Spookie" / "Tell Me Who She Is."   Again, both songs were recorded with Givens in Nashville and again the Decatur Daily Review ran an article suggesting the song was on its way to being a big hit along with other bold claims regarding the records promotion and national distribution. These claims along with those printed about the earlier release seem to be based in pure fantasy.

That same month, the McCoys released their first single "Hang On Sloopy."  The McCoys were originally known as Rick and the Raiders from neighboring Indiana.   Rick Zehringer (who would soon change his last name to Derringer) and his band were invited to record in New York by another group, the Strangeloves, who they had opened for and played with in Ohio.   The Strangeloves it turned out were a group of New York songwriters and producers looking for a group that looked like the Beatles.  They were especially eager to release their re-working of an R&B tune called "My Girl Sloopy" for a white audience with such a group.  

As a result Derringer's lead vocals were added to the Strangeloves' already recorded backing tracks and it was released under the new band name, The McCoys. "Hang On Sloopy," as it was now called, was a number one hit by October of 1965.  

Six months after it went number one, the Decatur Daily Review ran another outrageous article suggesting that "Hang On Sloopy" was based on Scherer's "Sloopy Can Penguin."  The article even claimed that Scherer and the group would be receiving a royalty of a penny per copy on the McCoys' hit single.

Mar. 2, 1966

While it is true that “Sloopy Can Penguin” predates “Hang On Sloopy” by roughly six months, both are obviously based on “My Girl Sloopy” which was written by the New York songwriting duo of Bert Berns and Wes Farrell.  It was recorded and released in early 1964 by the R&B vocal group the Vibrations on Atlantic Records  - a full year before Scherer and the Castels.

The Vibrations even released another song in 1964 called "Sloop Dance" on Okeh Records which bears some resemblance to their earlier "My Girl Sloopy."  It too predates the Scherer single by months.

Much of the misinformation regarding the authorship of "Sloopy" and any connection it might have to Decatur and Scherer's single seems to lead back to one man and it would only get worse as the years went on. 

Charles J. Givens was born in Decatur, Illinois in 1941.   As a teenager he played in a local band known as the Quintones.  By the mid-1960's, Givens had moved to Nashville where he ran a recording studio, booking agency and record label.  During this time he recorded and produced a handful of records including the two singles by Dave Scherer and the Castels as well as other Decatur groups such as the Chosen Few and Eugene and the Fugitives:

 

According to Givens, the recording studio burned down in 1966 which was uninsured and left him broke.  As a result, Givens left the music business and sought his fortune elsewhere. 

Over the course of the next decade, Givens would reportedly make and lose millions of dollars at various business ventures.   By the 1980's however, Givens had become a multi-millionaire by giving motivational lectures and selling personal financial advice.  By the end of the 1980's, Givens had become a get-rich guru and a best-selling author.   He hosted a weekly radio program and was a regular on syndicated daytime talk shows and late night infomercials. 

It was also during this time that Givens began publicly claiming that he had written "Hang On Sloopy."  Sometimes he claimed to have sold the song for next to nothing or even had given it away and other times he claimed to have gotten rich off the royalties.  He would continue to tell a version of this fabrication in interviews throughout the 1980's which were printed in newspapers all over the country.  In a few articles he was even photographed on his sailboat named "Sloopy" of course.



At some point in the late 1980's, Givens' claim was challenged by a lawyer representing Wes Ferrell, one-half of the writing team behind "My Girl Sloopy."  From a Los Angeles Times article dated May 14, 1989:

Confronted with all this by Farrell's lawyer, Givens now claims he  wrote a song called "Sloopy Can Penguin" in the early 1960s that he called in a letter to Farrell's lawyer "a new dance idea that we had almost identical to Hang On Sloopy."  He blames the media for improperly crediting him with writing Farrell's song, even though publicity materials he distributed at the time said he wrote "Hang On Sloopy" and sold the rights "for peanuts."  Just about every article about him at the time also mentioned he wrote the song.

In a November 7, 1993 article in the Orlando Sentinel, when asked whether or not Givens wrote "Sloopy Can Penguin," Dave Scherer responded this way, "God love him, Chuck's my friend, but Chuck sometimes claims for himself things that other people have done."  Scherer added, "Of course, he promoted my group and produced the record, but he didn't write the song."

With Givens' claims completely refuted, it would seem that any confusion regarding the authorship of "Hang On Sloopy" would be settled.  Yet, in a strange twist of fate it is Rick Derringer that has kept Givens' lie alive.

In a 2012 interview with Karen Kernan which can be found on YouTube, Derringer innocently mentions an article published in a St. Louis newspaper that someone had sent him where a successful businessmen claimed to have written the song while in high school and sold the rights for next to nothing.  

It is obvious that this article was written about Givens sometime in the 1980's.  Derringer, not realizing that Givens claim had been disproved years earlier, seems to believe it completely.  He even conflates a few of the details and as a result, the idea that "a high school kid from St. Louis" wrote "Hang On Sloopy" persists to this day.   

At the same time, the myth that the McCoys' hit was somehow based on Dave Scherer and the Castels' b-side never went away either as this 1995 article in the Decatur Herald & Review demonstrates:

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By the early 1990's, Givens' get-rich empire was starting to come apart as he became the target of multiple lawsuits and investigations.  He died from prostate cancer in 1998.

Dave Scherer passed away in 2008.   His obituary read, "Dave was well known throughout Decatur for the past 45 years for his various bands.   He wrote Sloop Quin Penguin in the early 60's which was sold to the McCoys and renamed Hang On Sloopy."  Proof that Decatur newspapers have never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

So who was Sloopy?  

In Ohio "Hang On Sloopy" is the official rock song of the state and is synonymous with many sporting events there, particularly at Ohio State University.  Therefore, many in Ohio claim the song was named after Dorothy Sloop, a New Orleans jazz pianist from the 1930s that was born in Steubenville, Ohio.  For them, it strengthens the state's connection to the song.

Rick Derringer tells a different story.  In that same 2012 interview where he lends credence to Givens' fabrication, Derringer says "(Bert) Berns told me... that he lived for awhile in Cuba.  Sloopy was a colloquialism, he put it, or a nickname for girls in Cuba.  Guys would just go, 'Sloopy how ya doin?'  He said he took that and wrote "Hang On Sloopy."

While this seems to be the most plausible explanation, we will likely never know as Bert Berns died in 1967.  One thing is for certain.  Sloopy wasn't from Decatur and she didn't dance like a penguin.

This article was originally posted on Dec. 30, 2019.   It was updated and re-posted on Oct. 6, 2020.

Canned Heat "Festival" @ The Back Door, Peru, Illinois Aug 1, 1970

On August 1st, 1970 something big was about to happen in the Illinois Valley. At least that is what the organizers of a Canned Heat concert were hoping to convince you of. They promoted the concert as a "gigantic music festival."

Canned Heat was billed as "Stars of Woodstock & Kickapoo Creek Rock Festivals" and several ads included a picture of the traffic jam along the road to Woodstock while mentioning "10 acres of free parking" would be available. These ads, which ran in newspapers across northern and central Illinois, made it seem as though this would be an outdoor festival similar in size and scope to those earlier events.

In truth, the "festival" was just an evening concert being held inside a former roller rink called The Back Door (previously known as Skaters Junction) which was located on Rt.6 at the west end of Peru, Illinois.  In addition to Canned Heat, there were just two local bands on the bill: The Rain and 927 Ya Ha Band.  

Surprisingly, the location (now Steinberg's Furniture) had hosted a couple of big name concerts just a few years earlier.  In April of 1966, when it was still Skater's Junction and under different ownership, the venue hosted Dick Clark's all star show, Where The Action Is.  On the bill was Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Paul Revere and the Raiders and several other acts.  

Perhaps an even bigger performance came less than two months later when the Dave Clark Five gave two performances there on June 19th (3:00 & 7:30).   

The English group, which sold over 100 million records and has since been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had performed on the Ed Sullivan Show just a week before their stop in Peru.  

How exactly they ended up at Skater's Junction is somewhat of a mystery.  The concert was promoted by a Peoria radio station (over an hour away) and featured three opening groups from the Peoria area: The Friars, The Shillings and The Coachmen (who replaced The Inn Group). 

Whatever the reason, Skater's Junction almost certainly had to be one of the smallest venues that the Dave Clark Five would perform at on any of their American tours in the mid-1960s.  Despite that fact, it has been reported that the concert was not well attended.  If true, that should have been a warning to the organizers of the Canned Heat concert a few years later.

The promotional campaign to cast the Canned Heat concert as a "gigantic rock festival" may not have fooled any concertgoers but it was enough to put fear in the minds of city officials and some residents living on the west end of Peru.  In the weeks before the concert there were several attempts to block the event.

It didn't help the that the local papers had recently reported on the drug-use and perceived lawlessness of the Kickapoo Creek rock festival which had occurred just a few months earlier in central Illinois.  One Illinois legislator referred to that event as "a muddy and obscene haven for dope-users and flower children."

Peru citizens expressed fear that their town would be overrun by a similar crowd.    Nearby taverns and local businesses such as the Igloo Drive-In (still in business) said they would close as a precaution.  

The situation took a turn for the worse when alderman William Roth referred to potential attendees as "rumdums" in a city council meeting.

That set off a series of angry letters published in the open forum column of the local newspaper, The News Tribune:

In the end, the concert could not be stopped.  It was on private property outside the city limits.

Fate had other plans however.   Just days before the concert, the organizers received a telegram from Canned Heat's management informing them that the group would have to cancel.  The telegram, which would be published in the News Tribune, read:

THIS SHALL ACT AS OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION OF CANCELLATION OF THE CANNED HEAT ENGAGEMENT TO BE PLAYED THE WEEKEND OF JULY 31 - AUG 2.  ALAN WILSON SINGER-GUITAR PLAYER OF THE GROUP HAS BEEN HOSPITALIZED FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS FOLLOWING A SERIOUS AUTO ACCIDENT.  HE IS STILL UNABLE TO LEAVE THE HOSPITAL AND IS UNABLE TO PERFORM ANY ENGAGEMENT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE FROM HIS DOCTOR.  A LETTER FROM HIS DOCTOR AND CANNED HEAT INC IS FORTHCOMING TO YOU.  WE ARE EXTREMELY SORRY THAT WE MUST CANCEL THIS ENGAGEMENT CORDIALLY = SKIP TAYLOR, PRESIDENT CANNED HEAT INC

Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson's auto accident was believed to be a suicide attempt.  Sadly, he would die just over a month later (September 3, 1970) from what was ruled an accidental overdose.  

Music Festival Still Goes On!  

The concert promoters were able to salvage the event by quickly booking Poco, which featured Richard Furay and Jim Messina of Buffalo Springfield, as a replacement. An additional band, the One-Eyed Jacks from Champaign-Urbana, was also added to the bill.

Without Canned Heat however, the concert had little chance of living up to the hype.  Advanced ticket sales were already below expectations before Canned Heat had cancelled and their departure from the bill all but guaranteed a low turn out.  

Still, rumors circulated that thousands of advanced tickets had been sold and that hordes of hippies were camped out west of Peru.   

Come the night of the concert, several neighboring towns sent police officers and squad cars to help patrol the area.  The Illinois State Police was also out in force while several units of the LaSalle County civil defense group were put on standby.

In the end, however, just 1,412 people attended the concert, mostly kids between the ages of 15-18.  The event went off without incident.  

The biggest issue that the police had to deal with was the traffic of curious residents, which was bumper to bumper for miles.  It was even reported that around 200 people stood across the road from The Back Door hoping to see something happen.  They would be disappointed.  

Inside however the crowd of young people enjoyed four hours of music on a hot and muggy Saturday night.  

Local group 927 Ya Ha Band performed first.  Next was local group The Rain which included members Dick Verucchi, Les Lockridge, Dick Hally and John Mark Edmunds. (The group would record a single for RCA as Stronghold about a year after this concert.   Later several members would form the group Buckacre.)

 

The third act to perform was the One-Eyed Jacks from Champaign-Urbana.  The group had been around for several years and had gone through several lineup changes.  At the time of the Peru concert, the group was led by Mike Murphy who would go on to play with REO Speedwagon for several years.  The group had several singles including two released on Roulette Records.

 

Poco would close the show which lasted until midnight.  (Ironically Poco's next gig was at an actual festival, a three day event near Galena, Illinois that was scheduled that same weekend.)

According to the News Tribune, reactions of local residents to the concert ranged from "I knew everything would be okay" and "I'm glad nothing happened" to "It's a good thing the police were so well-prepared."  

In the week after the concert, the paper continued to publish letters to the open forum, mostly denouncing the fear and close-mindedness that had surrounded the event.

Yet one local citizen warned, "This first concert is just a front, just wait until the next one."  He or she was correct in that there were more concerts to come but none created the controversy that surrounded the first one.

Anyone that remembers the event or attended the concert is encouraged to leave a comment below.  If you want to contact me directly you can do so at:  downstatesounds@gmail.com

The Mod 4 (Aledo)

Billed as the youngest all-girl combo in the country, the Mod 4 from Aledo, Illinois were still in 8th grade when the four friends decided to form a rock & roll group in the late summer of 1966.

Alice Appleton (organ)
Nellie Hastings (lead guitar)
Barb Stutsman (bass guitar)
Kathy Talkin (drums)

 

In a 1969 newspaper article, guitarist Nellie Hastings told how the group got its start.  “We were sitting around one afternoon bored with our lives.  I said, ‘Let’s start a rock and roll group.’  It was a joke at first, but once we realized we could all play instruments we got so excited over the idea.   Our parents liked the idea and gave us the necessary encouragement, that’s how it happened.”  

The girls indeed had the support of their parents, none more so than Kathy’s dad, Robert “Tab” Talkin, who became the band’s manager, agent, promoter, chauffeur and stage hand.

After regular practice sessions at the Talkin household, the group had developed a repertoire of a dozen or so songs.  The group’s first gig was in December of 1966 at a cafeteria dance after a high school basketball game.  Soon the group was playing other dances and local events.  

In the early summer of 1967, before entering high school, the four girls went into the Fredlo Recording Studios in nearby Davenport, Iowa and recorded their first single.

A cover of Wilson Pickett’s “Midnight Hour” was sung by Kathy Talkin while the flipside featured Nellie Hastings singing a version of Bobby Goldsboro’s “See The Funny Little Clown.”  The record was released in early July of 1967.

  

The combo continued to perform live at teen clubs, high schools, colleges and county fairs around western Illinois and eastern Iowa, though appearances were limited to a 100-mile radius during the school year.    Despite their busy schedule, the girls were all honor students in high school.

 

The group returned to Fredlo Recording Studios in the late spring of 1968.  This time they recorded two original tunes, both written and arranged by guitarist Nellie Hastings: "Open Up Your Mind" & "Puppet."

 

In the summer of 1968, the Mod 4 performed at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.  (The same year as the Who and the Association.)  By 1969, the group was performing twice a week on average.  According to an article in the Quad-City Times, “the Mod 4 carry more than $9,000 worth of sound and musical equipment with them in their personal van and the girls have 10 outfit changes in their stage wardrobe.”  According to Tab Talkin their gear included “echo chambers, strobe lights and other ‘blow your mind’ equipment.”

As the Mod 4 stage show grew, so did their setlist.   In a 2004 interview with Mike Markesich for his book TeenBeat Mayhem!, Nellie mentions that at one point they had up to 57 different numbers in their repertoire. Examples include “Hang On Sloopy”, “White Rabbit”, “Good Lovin”, “For What It Is Worth”, “You Keep Me Hangin On”, “Sgt Pepper”, “Purple Haze” and “Respect.” In 1969 the group told the Quad City Times, “We play a lot of Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles.”

The Mod 4’s biggest performance came in early 1969 when they were selected to be on the rock variety show Happening, an ABC-TV program produced by Dick Clark and hosted by Paul Revere and the Raiders.  In January, the girls along with Kathy’s parents flew to Los Angeles for the taping.  The group lip-synced to a taped version of “Midnight Hour” which they had submitted as part of a “Battle of the Bands” portion of the show.  

Because the show did tapings for the whole month in one day, the girls were able to see and meet several famous groups such as Tommy James & The Shondells, Canned Heat, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Gary Lewis, Keith Allison, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap as well as the hosts of the show, Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere.

“We were thrilled to pieces when Paul Revere recognized our name and said he had heard of us when he was in the Quad-Cities for a performance last year,” Nellie told the Quad-City Times after returning home from the taping.  She added, “I only wish we could have stayed in Hollywood a while longer.  We would have met so many more groups.”

The show aired in February but unfortunately the Mod 4 did not win the contest.   Instead first prize went to a group of young kids, ages seven through 13, known as Paula & The Pipsqueaks.  As a consolation prize, the girls each received a Waltham wristwatch.  “I still have mine and it still works,” Nellie told Mike Markesich in 2004.

While in California, two talent agents showed interest in the group for a possible U.S. tour during the summer.   “We haven’t decided anything definite yet but the possibility is there.  If they can line up enough shows to make it financially beneficial for us, we’ll go,” Kathy told the Quad-City Times in January of 1969.  Obviously the tour never materialized.  The group continued to perform around western Illinois.

During the last year or so of the group’s existence, they were joined by a fifth member, Trisha Meacham.  By fall of 1970 however the girls were busy with their senior year of high school and the live performances began to slow down.  The group’s last gig was October 30-31,1970 at a club in Kewanee, Illinois.   

After graduating high school, the four girls went their separate ways to attend different colleges.  Officially, however, the group never broke up.  They remain in contact to this day.

This post was updated on Sept 17, 2020.   An earlier version was posted on Sept 4, 2019.  Special thanks to Kathy Talkin.

Byron "Wild Child" Gipson (Peoria)

If Little Richard was "the architect of rock 'n' roll," then central Illinois' Byron Gipson was one of his early apprentices with a front row seat to many of Richard's legendary performances and recordings.

During 1955 and 1956 Gipson traveled with Little Richard on his first American tour, acting as Richard's road manager, driver and bodyguard (possibly saving the star's life on one occasion).  Gipson was also present for many of Richard's recording sessions in New Orleans that produced such hits as "Long Tall Sally," "Rip It Up" and "Ready Teddy."

During that same period, Gipson himself released two singles as Byron "Slick" Gipson and the Sliders for the same label as Richard, Specialty Records.  He also helped write hit songs for Richard and Lloyd Price among others, although he was rarely credited for these efforts.

In 1958, Gipson recorded two singles with Freddie Tieken & The Rockers for Hit Records including "Uncle John," a song he had written for Little Richard as an answer to "Long Tall Sally."  He continued to record sporadically throughout the 1960's.

Though he never received the recognition that he deserved, Gipson remained a lifelong student of music.  In the late 1960's and early 1970's he went back to college to study music and sound production.   He would continue to perform and produce music in and around Peoria for decades until his death from cancer in 1994.

___

Born in 1930, Byron Everett Gipson, Jr. grew up on a farm in Gulfport, Illinois.   His family was just one of two black families living in a five-county area.  As a teenager Gipson moved to Iowa and then to Hannibal, Missouri to stay with relatives when his mother and sister died from tuberculosis.

In 1950 he was drafted into the army and served as a bomb expert during the Korean War.  While stationed in Germany, Gipson made his first recordings which he sent back home to his family.  They included a recording of Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" and an original tune called "You've Got To Work."

After the service, Gipson moved to California to pursue a professional musical career.  At a popular talent show in Los Angeles, Specialty Records' A&R man Robert "Bumps" Blackwell saw Gipson perform and signed him to the label.   Soon Gipson was writing songs for the label and its artists.

Gipson made his first recordings for Specialty with a group called the Sliders (aka The Pharoahs) which included Judge Dennis, Eugene Jackson, Clarence Alexander and Alexander Lee.  Gipson was billed as Byron "Slick" Gipson.  When asked years later about the nickname, Gipson said "we wore our hair slick and my brother-in-law said I had a slick way with women, 'cause I'd steal guys' girlfriends and they wouldn't even know it." 

Gipson and the group released two singles on Specialty.  "The One I Love" b/w "Honey-Dew" was released in January of 1956.  Early pressings of the single credit Byron Gipson as the artist whereas later pressings show it as Byron "Slick" Gipson and the Sliders.

The second single, "Footloose and Fancy-Free" b/w "Etta Mae," was released in November of 1956.  On the record and in the early reviews it was credited to "Flick" Gipson and the Sliders.   Later pressings corrected it to "Slick" Gipson.

Gipson and the group recorded at least two more songs for Specialty but both went unreleased until a 1993 compilation, Golden Groups, which included "I Want 'Cha Baby" and "My Little Girl" (released as The Pharoahs).

___

Little Richard

How Gipson came to be Little Richard's road manager was a matter of being in the right place at the right time.   Gipson was already with Specialty Records before Richard joined the label.  In fact, Gipson claimed to be in the office the day someone first brought a tape of Little Richard in for label owner Art Rupe to hear.  Gipson contends that Rupe was not impressed with Richard initially.  Still the label sent Richard to New Orleans to record at Cosimo Matassa's J & M Studio.  That session produced "Tutti Frutti" and the label quickly had a major hit on their hands.   

When Specialty was booking Little Richard's first tour, Gipson was again in the label's office.  In a 1990's interview Gipson said "The recording company was the booking agent, too, so they hired me. I guess, to get me out of their face or something.  They said, 'Hey, we need a road manager, you want to be a road manager?'"  Just like that, Gipson had the job.  

He added "A road manager in those days was more than a road manager.  He was bodyguard, chauffeur and everything else.  I drove the station wagon, booked the bands in the hotels.  I started with them in the mid part of '55 and was with them a little over a year."  

Gipson was also in charge of counting the tickets and keeping track of the money.   As a result, Gipson carried a gun on the tour though he only kept it loaded with one bullet in the last chamber.   One night after a concert in New Orleans, Gipson had taken the money and the gun to Little Richard's suite at the Hotel Foster.  Shortly after leaving, Gipson realized he had left his wallet in Richard's room. 

"I was going down to the Dew Drop Inn.  Fats Domino was there, and Ray Charles was playing there, too.  I went back to the hotel to get my billfold; the Dew Drop Inn was only about three blocks away.  I went in there and this kid's with Richard playing with a gun, clicking it.  I opened the door and seen this kid clicking that gun and I said, 'Hey, put that gun down - there's a bullet in there!'  I hollered at him, I scared him, and he turned and it went off."  Gipson was shot in the leg.  He carried the bullet in his leg for the rest of his life.  

About the incident, Gipson said, " I wasn't hurt that bad.  I still have copies of the hospital bills somewhere."  In another interview he added "I saved Little Richard's life.  He wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for me hollerin' at that kid.  He sure was dead.  The kid clicked it right in his face."

In addition to saving Richard's life, Gipson claimed to have written his hit song "Ooh, My Soul."  As to how he wrote it, Gipson said "he was always going, every time he'd see somebody, 'Ooh, my soul, honey, did you see him right there?  Ooh whee!'  That's why I wrote that song.   I sung it to him, he didn't get it all but he got enough of it.  Then he added a couple more verses to it." The song was released in 1958 and reached no. 31 on the US pop chart and was no. 15 on the R&B chart.  Despite his claim, Gipson was not given any writing credit on the song.

Similarly, Gipson claimed to have written "Baby Please Come Home" which was a hit record for Lloyd Price on Specialty Records.  "They added a chorus to it, wasn't no chorus when i wrote it."  Again, Gipson was not credited.  

Perhaps because of the poor treatment he received from his own record label, Gipson would use pseudonyms and sell songs to other labels around that same time.   One example was "I Need Someone" which was released by Amos Milburn on Aladdin Records in 1956.  The song was officially credited to "Junior Everett" but was really Gipson.  

Sometime in 1956, Gipson left the tour and broke ties with Specialty Records.  Years later, Gipson said he got tired of the road, especially having to deal with the extreme racism in the South.  He recalled stories of police beatings as well as being chased by the Ku Klux Klan. 

Gipson did not return to Los Angeles, however.  Instead he first moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and then Quincy, Illinois.   It was in Quincy that Gipson met local sax player Freddie Tieken and his band.  The two soon hit it off and "Wild Child" Gipson with Freddie Tieken and the Rockers was born.

In addition to singing with the group, Gipson played piano and guitar.  In a 1991 interview, Gipson said he took the nickname "Wild Child" as a gag to draw people to his music.  Together the group performed up and down the Mississippi River and across the Midwest.

In 1958, the group made several recordings at Boulevard Studios in Chicago.  The session was paid for by the group's guitarist John Moorman.  The result was two singles released on Hit Records.   

The first was "Uncle John" / "Sitting Here Cryin'" released in late 1958.  Both songs were written by Gipson.

The single was a regional hit and was re-issued nationally on the Laurie label as well the Astra label.  According to Freddie Tieken, the single made it to number 24 on Billboard's R&B chart.

The next single was "Lost Control"/ "Kool" which was released sometime in 1959.  Again both songs were written by Gipson.

In an interview years later Gipson stated that the group actually recorded 10-15 songs for Hit Records.  It is unclear whether or not any of those other recordings still exist.

Before the end of 1959 Gipson parted ways with Tieken and the Rockers.  Gipson moved to Peoria where he would live the rest of his life.   About the move, Gipson said, "I liked Peoria because it had so many bands, the music was flourishing.  I got tired of travelling, getting cheated out of your money and stuff.  Hit Records, we got cheated out of that money, too.  It's a never-ending thing."

Over the next seven years, Gipson would perform with several of his own bands around the Peoria area.   First the Violators, then Katz & Jammers and finally the Soul Merchants.   Some of the people that performed with Gipson during this period include John "Pops" McFarlane (brother to Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane of Spanky & The Gang) and Tim Drummond, a bass player who went on to play with Neil Young, Bob Dylan and many others.

In 1962, Gipson recorded for Chess Records in Chicago but the recordings were never released.  In 1965, Gipson did release a single for IT Records out of Quincy, Illinois.  The label and studio were owned by Gipson's old bandmate Freddie Tieken and fellow Rocker Jack Inghram.  "Sweet Roll'n Stone" & "My Kinduva Blues" were both written by Gipson (aka Jr. Everett) and released in September of 1965.

In 1966 Gipson formed his last group, the Peoria Soul Merchants.  They released one single sometime that year on C.A.B. Records:    "Boogaloo Train To Peoria" / "Coal Mine no. 2"

 

In 1967, Gipson continued to perform in clubs but he was now a one man band, billing himself as Wild Child Gipson and His Funk Machine.  

At the same time, Gipson decided to go to college and study music.   He first attended the newly opened Illinois Central College in East Peoria where he also joined the jazz ensemble.  He continued to perform with the ensemble for years afterward and would even go on to teach music at ICC sometime later.

Gipson continued his music studies at Illinois State University and then later attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY to study sound production.  

By the mid-1970s, Gipson had set up a recording studio in his home.  The Peoria Journal Star referred to it as "the smallest recording studio in Peoria, a one man operation at 1506 W. First."   At the time, Gipson was producing what he called "personal interest tapes" on demand which included anything from audio letters, original poetry, educational tapes and Halloween special effects.

For years Gipson also produced customized soundtracks for exotic dancers and strippers across the country.   At the same time he continued to perform as a one man show in nightclubs and lounges around Peoria.  In 1985, Bill Knight of the Peoria Journal Star wrote this about him, "Gipson was Peoria's first local 'rock star,' a R&B machine who churned out hits and hot nights at local nightspots for years."

His last single of original music was released in 1989.  The song "Bobby 'Kewanee' Brains" was a country & western duet with Sharon Bryant about his friend and favorite bartender.  It was released on Music 55 Records and was being distributed by The Basketcase where Brains worked.

In the early 1990's Gipson said "I'm back playing R&B stuff now, New Orleans stuff.  I finished 18 new songs.  I've recorded them about ten different times, but I'm not satisfied with them."   Those recordings it appears were never released.  Gipson passed away from cancer on January 30, 1994.  He was 64.

Shortly before his death when asked to reflect on his life and his time with Little Richard in the 1950's, Gipson said, "I wouldn't give a million dollars for what I learned, but I wouldn't give two cents to do it again  Everything we did was nothing."  He added, "We were all buddies, trying to write songs, trying make some money, get a Cadillac, get a girlfriend.  Now it's all history, a big thing, but it wasn't nothing to us."

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A version of this article was published in the November-December 2020 issue of Illinois Heritage.  

Listen to a selection of Byron "Wild Child" Gipson's early recordings below.

ARTIST	TRACK	LABEL	YEAR	NOTES
Byron Gipson	The One I Love	Specialty	1956
Byron "Slick" Gipson & The Sliders	Footloose and Fancy-Free	Specialty	1956
Amos Milburn	I Need Someone	Aladdin	1956	written by Gipson
The Pharoahs	My Little Girl	Specialty	(1955)	aka The Sliders (unreleased)
Byron "Slick" Gipson & The Sliders	Etta Mae	Specialty	1956
Byron "Slick" Gipson & The Sliders	I Want 'Cha Baby	Specialty	(1955)	(unreleased)
Byron Gipson	Honey Dew	Specialty	1956
Lloyd Price & His Band	Baby Please Come Home	Specialty	1957	possibly written by Gipson
Little Richard	Long Tall Sally	Specialty	1956
Wild Child Gipson w/ Freddie Tieken & The Rockers	Uncle John	Hit	1958
Wild Child Gipson w/ Freddie Tieken & The Rockers	Lost Control	Hit	1959
Little Richard	Ooh! My Soul	Specialty	1958	possibly written by Gipson
Wild Child Gipson w/ Freddie Tieken & The Rockers	Sittin' Here Cryin'	Hit	1958
Wild Child Gipson w/ Freddie Tieken & The Rockers	Kool	Hit	1959