Anyone ever heard of a band called "Oak"?

I found this single among my 45's and I really don't know anything about this band. There seems to be little or nothing written about them online.

Anyone have any info to share?

 

What's the flip on that???---I know they had one Top 40 hit,that I can't recall offhand,but I know their name....

 

The Flip is "Goin' Nowhere Fast", but I'm pretty sure that "This Is Love" was the a-side.

 

I had the album that this song was on. This song was a hit in 1979 early 1980 in Maine which is where I heard it. Perhaps a very regional chart hit. It was on the top-40 Presque Isle radio station -- FM 92 or something like that.

Wow. That brings back some memories.

Cheers.

 

Their Top 40 hit was "King Of The Hill", released as Mercury 76049 in February 1980. On that single, the group was listed as "Rick Pinette & Oak" The song peaked at #36.
"King Of The Hill" made a momentary CD appearance on Rhino's "Radio Daze" series.

YouTube - Oak - King of the Hill

 

Good info, I knew someone on here would know about them. I guess they had 3 songs that made the top-100 and then dissapeared into obscurity.

 

Bingo! That's the one that was their "big hit". Thanks for that.

Cheers.

 

That was a band out of Maine that had a shot at "stardom". They hired some indy promo guys (Rod Stevens and Paul Barrette, where are you?!?) out of Boston who worked the bejeezus out of that record at every toilet radio station in existence in New England, got a ton of airplay for "King of the Hill"....but it always struck me a strictly a "turntable" hit, probably didn't sell 200 copies.

 

Their singer, Rick Pinette, played Smooth Herman's in Sydney a number of times during the 80's.

 

As a Mainer, I can tell you they did about as well as the only other local act to be signed to a major label at the time - The Blend (who were on MCA). Did ok locally, got some airplay on the radio stations (WJBQ, WMGX) at the time, but that was about it. Pinette would later form the Rick Pinette band who toured locally through the late 80's and early 90's, built a recording studio which has since changed hands a names (it's now "Big Sound Studios), and is now a born again Christian, (last I was told, that is).

If Rod Stevens is the same Rodney Stevens that I know, he's still around and is a label rep for Interscope Records (having also worked for Atco and Atlantic over the years). I think, though I could be wrong, that Paul Barrette was label rep for Epic/Sony for some years, too, during the late 80's/early 90's.

 

The Band "Oak"

The band "Oak" was from Berlin, New Hampshire, my home town. I knew Rick and most of the band members. They faded away a few years after their hit "King of the Hill". I hear Rick is now a motivational speaker.

 

This article is actually about The Blend, but the focus is on record promotion and a lot of the same players were involved behind the scenes. Carl Strube would go on to found the Critique record label which had a pretty good run in the 80s and 90s. He's now part-owner of a couple of pea-shooter AM radio stations in Maine and Massachusetts.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...HVRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uPoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5867,3033800

 

Tree-mendous?

 

that's my 45!

here is the flipside

 

Rick Pinette is now a motivational speaker in Orlando, Florida. I grew up in Maine, and OAK was a "local" band that played at my high school dances more than once. Pinette played keyboards and guitar. They played anywhere and everywhere to promote their first album, which has never been released on CD as far as I know. Very pop band in an area that thrived on classic rock for the most part in that era, they fell apart when Pinette became the focal point of the promotions as the songwriter- they played shows as Rick Pinette and Oak, Rick Pinette with Oak, and, near the end, simply Rick Pinette. He went to Nashville for awhile to try to do the songwriter thing but not much came of it.
And for those who mentioned or remembered The Blend, a band that was way better than Oak (IMO), Jim Drouin's widow has had both their records issued on CD, as well as a few other releases that he was involved in after The Blend. Check out rustyrocket.com, I believe the proceeds from any sales go to charity.
And I'll throw one more Maine band that came close in the 70s, Katahdin, with Nick Knowlton. Perhaps the best live band on the Maine circuit in that era, only 1 record release that I know of, but not available on CD that i know of, please correct me if I am wrong. Nick is a DJ nowadays in Maine, and once in awhile trots out the old band for a show.

 

I think I seen them in a record store once between "black" and "arkansas".











sorry...


I just can't help myself sometimes.

 

Not a band but a solo album by Oak from Black, Oak and Arkansas.

 

I had both of OAK's albums and loved them. They played at my college (Stonehill) and I got one of the broken drumsticks thrown to the crowd.
Did you know they were also killed off by Stephen King in one of his novels? I forget if it was Firestarter or Dead Zone. I think it was Firestarter because it was in a fire in a club that they died.

 

Sorry to bring up a dead thread, but I saw Oak a couple times in my early days. Solid band. Thread dug up some old memories.

 

I grew up in Maine and Oak was huge on the local radio stations. "This Is Love" was a huge local hit (much bigger than "King Of The Hill") and got to #58 nationally in summer 1979 . I have both the single and the first album. Their second single "Draw The Line" (not an Aerosmith cover) was a moderate local hit, but did not chart nationally. It was their 3rd single "King Of The Hill" that made the top 40 (at #36 in the Spring of 1980). The group wrote all their own stuff for the first album and it is really quite good. The song "Let It All Begin" is a personal favorite as I love how much joy the band puts into the performance and the enthusiasm at being able to play seems genuine. I saw them live 3 or 4 times and lead singer Rick Pinette was a great showman.
Curiously for the 2nd album they decided to bring in a "professional" songwriter. Their management thought the single "Set The Night On Fire"was going to be "huge". A friend of mine who tried to book the band for a local college was told Oak was out of their price range and was going to be was too big to play at their little school. The song pretty much tanked. It did get to #71 nationally, but locally it got only a bit of airplay when it first came out. The biggest reason is that it was a total cliche of a song both musically and lyrically. It was a formula single at it's worst. The only thing worse was the B side "She's An 11", which was totally gimmicky and bland. I saw them live one more time and they were still good (they had a particularly cool thing where they played Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" and they had a guy (I think he was a roadie) who came out and did impressions during the song (I remember Thurston Howell III and Howard Coselll). I never got the 2nd album and I've never seen it anywhere.
As someone else mentioned, Pinette is now a motivational speaker (and I've also heard he is a minister).
A group with the potential to be bigger. "This Is Love" deserves to be a well remembered hit. I'd love to see a compilation of the two albums come out on CD.

 

Rick Pinette died yesterday at 63.