Hooters? (the band) *

I'm so glad somebody remembers the Hooters! They were GREAT! And absolutely a key ingredient to the PA rock scene. So was Harpo and Hybrid Ice, names which are probably familiar to anybody who was around back then. We recorded in Hybrid Ice's A-frame studio. And Harpo used to practice in a friend of mine's old store building. All cool guys. Hey, don't forget Kix!

 

Cyndi got other stuff from PA, too. Our keyboard player, Kit Kelly, wrote "True Colors" which Cyndi later bought and used quite successfully. Kit also played in Hybrid Ice, that's who we stole him from, LOL!!

 

Cool! True Colors is a great song!

I love Cyndi's version. The Phil Collins version does not do too much for me. I remember when Phil Collins was on A&E's Live By Request (~1999 or so) and Cyndi called in to talk to Phil after he performed it and Phil thanked her for writing it for him?!? Cyndi said that she did not write it! Obviously, Phil was wrong (and embarrassed)!

...When I mentioned Patty Smyth's Never Enough album earlier, her rendition of the Never Enough song was actually a Baby Grand song (drastically) reworked into the version for Patty Smyth! I too really wish that the Baby Grand material would be released on CD.

On the same album, Patty's version of Tom Waits' Downtown Train with the Hooters backing her blows Rod Stewart's (big hit) version away (IMHO)! My favorite Patty Smyth/Hooters collaboration is Where Do The Children Go.

 

Amore sounds good on CD!

 

Philly folks knew them first by a wonderful ska cover of a song called Man in the Street that is probably one of the best car crusing songs ever, right up there with Prince's 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton. It got picked up by a local dj whose repulsive name I cannot say. It was never issued on vinyl (I did know someone who swore that a promo infdie single of it was pressed up for a local college radio station), and thank God finally made it to cd as a bonus track on Amore.
I listened to Nervous Night last week, still an excellent power pop disc. But I still return to those great radio broadcasts when they played hot and sweaty ska, reggae, and rock steady.

 

i saw the hooters many times at a forgotten bar in allentown, pa before they recorded thir first local lp. they had a pic sleeve 45(all you zombies-i think) that came with a 1" metal badge.their first local lp is very cool,too. re; hybrid ice-they came from a great semi-unknown pa band called the brigg who issued a hard-to-find private press lp.(it was bootlegged in europe in the late 70s).

 

I always think of the Outfield and Hooters as sister bands for some reason. Does anyone else?

 

I went to Drexel University in Philly between 1981 and 1986.

At the time, there were three musical acts that did a lot of gigs around
town (especially at schools):

1.) Robert Hazard and The Heroes

2.) The Hooters

3.) John Eddie and The Front Street Runners


Robert Hazard was the first one to have a successful independent release.
I believe it was a 5 song 12" EP. He had two "big" songs that got a lot of attention (locally). "Escalator of Life" and "Changes"... I personally like a song on the EP that I think was called "Hang Around With You"... and I seem to recall a Bob Dylan cover song ("Blowin' In The Wind" - I think).

Hazard got signed by RCA records. And the first thing they did was re-release his 5 song EP. No one in Philly bought it (because those who were interested already had it) and apparently neither did anyone anywhere else - LOL

I remember Robert Hazard and The Heroes played a gig at JFK Stadium in August '82 - on a bill that featured Genesis, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Blondie, and Flock of Seagulls.

Most definetly the first big song by The Hooters was "Man In the Street".
And it was definetly a 'radio only' thing. They had two indie singles and seemed to be making some noise at the local level when they were placed on a bill at JFK Stadium in Sept 82 with The Who, The Clash, and Santana.

For reasons that I never been clear about, The Hooters then temporarily broke up... only to emerge again in 84 with a reformed lineup - that included two people who were in Robert Hazard's band. One of those two had some sort of health problem (car accident - I think) and he was quickly replaced with another person on a temporary basis that eventually became permanent.

In 83, Bazillian and Hyman went up to NYC and played on Cyndi Lauper's major label debut album. So what does Lauper record first ? A Robert Hazard song !!! "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" (and yes - it is kind of ironic that the song became a "girl power" type hit - after having been written by a MAN - LOL)

In 1984, I remember The Hooters constantly playing gigs all over the city. I specifically remember seeing them at Drexel on a Saturday afternoon - knowing that they had a gig later that night at a nightclub. That was the knd of band they were... if the other gig was within driving distance - they were there - LOL

I saw them a few times in 84... and I remember Hyman would always sing "Time After Time" - which was rising the charts at the time - based on Lauper's version. I specifically remember seeing them in a club on South Street - circa May or June of 84 (The Ripley Music Hall?) where they announced that they had just gotten a phone call that "Time After Time" was now the number one song in the US - according to the Billboard charts that were about to be published.

Pretty heady stuff - for a local bar band !!!

In September of 84 - the Hooters played on a bill with Cyndi Lauper at the local outdoor shed (The Mann Music Center). This was a really cool show. In part because we got to see Lauper sing the song with Hyman (the co-author). Plus Cyndi wanted the band on stage with her at the end of the night - where they played "Fightin' On The Same Side" together (in an arrangment very much like the indie 45).

By the time, 85 rolled around and they made their major label debut - The Hooters were kind of "old hat" in the Philly area.

They still played a lot of local colleges - and I remember a contest where they played a free gig at the high school that could generate the most postcards. My sister's high school won that contest - but its not really clear why the kids bothered to fill out the bazillion postcards it took to win the contest - when they probably could have just HIRED the band outright.

I've always been curious about what happened to Robert Hazard. I think he released an album on RCA after the EP re-issue... and the album flopped.

To this day - I have yet to hear what "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" sounds like when sung by its author (a man). But I'm sure Hazard has enjoyed the royalty checks !

As for John Eddie... I seem to recall him putting out an album around 86 that featured Max Weinberg and maybe some other E Streeters... and I remember him being on the bill at Giants Stadium for that Amnesty International show that featured The Police, U2, and others (including The Hooters - now that I think about it).


The last time I saw The Hooters was at Rutgers University in 1987. They had definetly become a little too slick for my taste by that point.... and I kept wondering "Why did we used to like these guys???"

I think it was originally because The Hooters were a reggae/ska band (who rumour has it decided to become a reggae/ska band after seeing The Police at JC Dobbs on South Street - with about 5 other patrons).

I think Bazillian married (is still married?) to Joan Osborne (who sang "What if God Was One of Us?" - written by Bazillian).

 

john eddie is still performing and i think has gotten much better than those early philly days. he put a cd out about 3-4 years ago called "who in the hell is john eddie" and it has some great songs on it. i see him about once a year and am never disappointed.

 

I saw that somewhere recently - fairly cheap... and I considered buying it.
It was used... I pulled it out and looked at the liner notes. No E Streeters this time. That shouldn't have been my main criteria for buying it - but I put it back in the bin....

The title ("Who The Hell Is John Eddie") really made me laugh.

 

Ooops... The second song was called "Change Reaction".

Both songs seemed to be Bowie influenced.

I still have a Robert Hazard 45 rpm record that the RCA label released when they were trying to push him. I forget the a-side (probably "Escalator of Life") but I loved the (non-album) b-side... a track called "Say Yo"...

"Yo" is a very common Philly word (watch a Rocky movie if you doubt me).

The song "Say Yo" had some call and response vocals with Hazard leading a pseudo audience (a studio chorus - actually)...


I also have a 45 rpm record of the song "Blood From A Stone" as covered by The Red Rockers. The song was written by The Hooters. It was definetly on Amore - not sure about elsewhere....

One common thread throughout much of the music I'm mentioning is Ric Chertoff (who I believe produced Baby Grand, The Hooters, Cyndi Lauper, The Red Rockers, et. al).

 

Since we're talking Philly bands, anyone remember the A's?

 

woman got the power.again very good very early in their career.have the first 2 lps and i think after they signed to a major-they lost the "power".

 

Possibly because of some shared connections in the production department? Rick Chertoff and William Wittman, to be specific? Chertoff was producer on the Baby Grand albums, Wittman the engineer - if memory serves Chertoff also produced The Hooters' material, probably with Wittman pushing faders. Wittman then was producer for The Outfield, with Chertoff given an executive producer credit.

 

Yes. I remember them.

I think they were from either Kensington or Feltonville (sections of Philly).
Maybe both. I seem to recall there being some real estate in Feltonville that a number of bands used for rehearsal. I'm pretty sure The Hooters used it (and fell in love with the local pizza joint - which got a credit in the liner notes of their second LP - and some postcards from the band that they had on the wall for a while). I seem to recall the reformed Black Sabbath rehearsing at the same location in Feltonville the day before Live Aid.

Clarence Clemons and The Red Bank Rockers covered "Woman's Got The Power."

I think Clemon's version was more popular than the original.

 

I saw The Hooters/Outfield @ William Patterson College in NJ in '85. Saw them a year later at Bergen Community College w/Glen Burtnick - Co-writer of Patty Smyth's Sometimes Love... hit among other achievements. Another Philly band/Chertoff connection - Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers. TC played on Patty's Never Enough album. He had a great local album out at the time called Walking On The Water. Like Amore, some tunes ended up recut on his major label debut which I believe was a Chertoff deal. Not sure if he ever did anything with the Hooters but I would believe it was likely. Ahh, the college years.

 

They did a fantastic cover of "500 Miles." In fact, it blew away PP&M's version.

 

I LOVE The Hooters. My wife and I had tickets to see them while we were living in VA in the mid 80's but got lost on the Beltway and never made it to the concert. Nervous Night is one of my top 10 albums of all time.

I remember having the Amore cassette back in the day and thinking it was rarer than rare!

 

Wow...look at this...


http://cgi.ebay.com/TOMMY-CONWELL-R...=item320129145383&_trksid=p3286.c28.m20.l1116

 

Not to go off-topic again, but yeah, Tommy Conwell and the Rumblers were a rockin' little band from Philly also. Oh, and Tommy's brother played for the Philadelphia Eagles.

 

I saw Squeeze in 1985. It was a co-headline bill with The Hooters, and the great UK power pop band The Truth were the opening act. All three bands were great. I'm sure I've shared this story here before, but I'll do it again for those who did not read it previously...the marquee outside looked like this:

SQUEEZE
HOOTERS
TRUTH

A drunken bum was stumbling down the street as I was outside the venue. He stopped, looked up at the marquee, and said "Squeeze hooters? Alllllrriiiiggght!"

I listened to the Nervous Night album quite a bit in 1985. I love "Don't Take My Car Out Tonight" and "Where Do The Children Go?"

I wouldn't mind a reissue of that CD with some bonus tracks...

 

Robert Hazard is still around; I did the sound for an acoustic gig of his. And as said before, John Eddie is also still playing. I saw him once about 10 years ago; you don't have to know his songs to enjoy the show!

One thing about Robert...he's a solid songwriter. I couldn't believe this was the guy who wrote the Lauper hit; the music he played at the show sounded absolutely nothing like that song.




Dan

 

Got the Amore CD in the mail today. Am really looking forward to hearing it!

 

Can anyone comment on the sound of THE HOOTERS "500 MILES" 2 CD compilation from 2003?