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| David L'Heureux in the mid-1960s. Courtesy of D.C. LaRue. |
The Fonograf Four present two winning sides on their sole 45 from late 1967, both penned and sung by future disco icon D.C. LaRue — who at the time was still going by his birth name, David L'Heureux. But the ace finished product belies some music industry shenanigans...
The "Fonograf Four" never existed as a real band. The backing band was in fact The Prodigal Sons from New Britain, CT, featuring Bob Turek on bass and lead vocals, Ed Brighenti on guitar, his brother Bill Brighenti on organ, and David Cimino on drums.
Bill Brighenti: "We performed all summer at the Surf-a-Go-Go in SoundView in the summer of 1966. We performed at area colleges, including Central Connecticut State College and the University of Hartford, and won several band contests, including a contest at Lake Compounce. I played a Vox organ with an 18" Ameg bass speaker. Edward Brighenti played a Les Paul guitar with a Super Beetle Vox amplifier. Bob Turek played bass and was lead vocals."
Meanwhile, David L'Heureux was living in Cheshire, CT, working as an art director at Hit Parader / Song Hits magazines in Derby, CT, and writing songs on the side, looking for a hit record. (David had some earlier pop singles under his belt as a teenager under the pseudonyms Matthew Reid and Casey Paxton, working with Bob Crewe and Frank Slay — and even is credited as co-writer on the Rockin' Ramrods' cut "Play It" on Claridge Records.) Popular local disc jockey Ken Griffin recommended the Prodigal Sons to L'Heureux to perform two of his compositions. And here is where the story takes an unexpected turn.
Bill Brighenti: "We never knew Dave until he approached us about the songs. Our band was the Prodigal Sons. He gave us the music; we did the arrangement and vocals. We performed and recorded "Don't Throw Stones" at Syncron Studios (Wallingford, CT) as a folk-rock recording, with Bob Turek performing the lead vocals, and Ed and I doing background harmony. But Dave, who wrote the music, had us revise the arrangement at the very last minute at the studio that night using Chris Montez's arrangement of "Let's Dance." And after we had left the studio, dumbfounded by the surprise and chain of events, Dave scrapped our vocals and recorded his own vocal tracks. To say the least, we were not happy with the finished product; however, we had no control since we were not financing the recording. The Fonograf Four name was put on the record without our knowledge. We were never offered payment.
"Ken [Griffin] told me he had paid the bill at Syncron, and it was way more than he had anticipated ($250?), perhaps due to the fact that Dave had us re-record the music while there and then he re-recorded the vocals after we had packed up and left the studio."
D.C. LaRue: "It was a really limited pressing because I was paying for everything myself. And If I remember correctly, at the time I only had a couple of hundred copies pressed. I figured if I could get local Top 40 radio play, we could take it one step at a time. I loved it and really thought it sounded like a hit. I got WPOP and WDRC in Hartford to play it for a few weeks but the play was limited late at night and they stopped playing it almost immediately. Payola was the only game at the time ... even in the Hartford market. And New Haven or Bridgeport or Waterbury stations were useless when it came to breaking records."
And regarding the strange label name, Recettsic: "A close friend Jack
Costa came up with the label name. I don't think it means anything!"
And there is the Fonograf Four story, warts and all. I sure wish the original recorded versions arranged by the Prodigal Sons still existed, but odds are they never survived past that night.
Dedicated to the late Ed Brighenti, who's stinging guitar breaks punctuate "You're Not Foolin' Me."
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| Ed Brighenti's previous band, The Epics, circa 1963. From left, Bob "Dino" DiDonno on rhythm guitar, Dick Rosol on bass, Ed Brighenti (kneeling) on lead guitar, Dan Szewczul on drums, Harold Sessa on sax. Courtesy of Bill Brighenti. |
FONOGRAF FOUR
Don't Throw Stones / You're Not Foolin' Me
Recettsic (RR 69 • UK4M-0685/0686) Note: matrix is written incorrectly on the A-side label.
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