A retrospective on our band in the California Fifties, Sixties and Seventies

For me, music became a dominant force in my life like a thunderbolt in 1957 when I heard a song called Silhouettes by the Rays on the radio. From that point on I wanted nothing more than to sing in harmony with other voices. It was a passion, an obsession.

Despite the obsession, without a lot of natural talent as a singer I had to learn how to sing to satisfy that passion. With the guidance of some of the first people that I met like Hastings Smith in high school, who went on to become a famous nuclear physicist (see sidebar) and Don (?), who was one of the most respected choir masters in Indiana history, and school and church choirs I became singer enough to follow my dream.

This singing group idea grew along in this process into 1958 when we needed to find a tenor voice. All of the really cool vocal groups of the time doing the kind of music we were interested in had wonderful falsetto tenors and while one of the guys tried to sing those parts, we hadn’t found the voice that we needed. Our group was centered socially within our school life at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis so it wasn’t until a girl from our church choir suggested a potential tenor from Broad Ripple High School, a bitter rival in sports and with a slightly more upscale student family, that we considered that possibility. Dave Dunn, this girl explained had a great voice and he was in the Golden Singers, the premier ensemble group at that school.

I still remember when Dave came in the door, tall and skinny and kind of shy. We sang some songs and then when Dave had left, we compared notes. Hasty and Pat liked Dave’s voice and were all for inviting him in. I said no, his falsetto is too breathy, not crisp and clean enough like Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons or the Del-Vikings. I argued vehemently until the other two pointed out that we didn’t really have anyone else that we liked and if we wanted to keep singing, Dave better be the guy; whether I liked his tone or not, he had the range. I didn’t have an answer to that so the next day, Dave was invited to sing with us. I have been more wrong about things in my life than on this but not often. Within a few short months as Dave’s voice matured and got stronger with use, it became clear that he was the best singer of us all.

THE COLLEGE YEARS

©2004 Stark Naked & the Car Thieves
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