Gemcor 5002 was one of the three 45-rpm records produced by Gemcor Records in Hollywood, California, in 1965. (The other two were Gemcor 5001, Ed Burkey: Stepping Stones / Emerald Shadows and Gemcor 5003, The Becket Quintet: No Correspondence / It's All Over Now/Baby Blue. Gemcor 5001, side A (always the first tune listed, usually the main song the group or artist thinks has the best chance of success and airplay, but the public and disc jockeys sometimes surprise a group, artist, or record producer by preferring the B side), got into the top ten on soft rock stations in Los Angeles and other cities; Gemcor 5003, side B, got into the top ten in various regions of the country, including Portland, Oregon. I heard it while I was at college there.)

        Gemcor 5002 was The Rumors: Hold Me Now / Without Her. Side A was Hold Me Now; words were by Ben Turner and Norman Prinsky; music and arrangement by Ben Turner. The personnel were Ben Turner, lead vocal and keyboard; Ed Burkey (from the Ventures, one of the great guitar groups of all time), lead and rhythm guitar; Larry Scher, bass guitar and chorus; Norman Prinsky, drums and chorus. Larry Scher graduated from Fairfax High School, in Los Angeles, a half-year after I did; Larry is now Professor of History and Communications at Rio Hondo College in La Mirada, California. Larry recommended bringing me into the group when the long- time original drummer increasingly didn't seem to be able to get the job done, just as the group was on the verge of making a record and getting its break. The story was a parallel of Ringo Starr's replacement of Pete Best as drummer for The Beatles, and of the drummer character in Tom Hanks' charming film That Thing You Do.

        Side B, Without Her, was hurriedly composed -- melody, arrangement, and lyrics -- by me, in forty-eight hours, when I learned virtually on the eve of the recording session, that although my new group had a strong song in Side A, which never failed to really excite audiences at clubs or even the Battle of the Rock Bands at The Palladium in Hollywood, at which we performed, the group did not have a second original song to put on the other side of the 45 r.p.m. record. (In some ways, the Rumors was not my favorite of the many groups, including Latin, standard dance music, and jazz, as well as Rock, in which I played professionally ever since I was thirteen. My favorite rock group was "T and the Mystics," with high- powered combination musicians-equipment experts-intellects, all of us students at my rather selective college, the name of which you can find in our ASU catalog, where my academic credentials are listed. My favorite jazz group was a musically-accomplished Latin-jazz sextet headed by a high school acquaintance, John Tartaglia, who went on to make two albums with the prestigious company Columbia Records, when it was an extraordinary feat to get a recording contract with a major label. My first guitarist, Neil Seidel, a cornerstone of most of my early groups, from the age of thirteen on, became a studio pro in Hollywood, whose credits included the band playing for the Dina Shore television show.)

        Surprisingly to all of us, Without Her turned out to be the main play side on radio stations where the record was played. The producers of Sonny and Cher, who worked with the Bill Bell studio (the organization behind Gemcor Records) and listened to the record, liked this side best, though they were surprised the two songs on the record were from the same group. Ben Turner was influenced by strictly American rock; I was more eclectic, including British Rock groups, particularly, at the time, the lesser-known British group The Zombies, who did the minor hit She's Not There. (Over the years, very few of my students have been able to identify this group, which does have a "best of" CD of the group.) Sonny and Cher's producers recommended adding instrumentation to the arrangement and production, including brass (trumpets) and strings (violins); the young hard rocker composer of the words, melody, and arrangement -- the youthful know-it-all Norman Prinsky -- rejected this idea, but now realizes he was foolish and may have missed the chance for a hit by not heeding advice from wise and successful elders. The personnel for Without Her were Norman Prinsky, words, melody, arrangement; Larry Scher, bass guitar and lead vocal; Ben Turner, keyboard; Ed Burkey, lead and rhythm guitar; Norman Prinsky, drums. (Listen for my home-made jingle sticks, used in some fancy sticking. It was inevitable, being a drummer, that I would turn pro -- professional and professor -- at cymbalism/symbolism. Cf. the Tom Berenger, "Word Man" character in the fine movie Eddie and the Cruisers.)

        Without Her was played on various radio stations in large towns in California outside the Los Angeles area such as Bakersfield and Fresno; the Rumors appeared on Bakersfield and Fresno television to perform (lip sync) the song, as well as be interviewed. A fan club was started on the basis of the record and the appearance of the group at the Battle of the Rock Bands at the Paladium theater in Hollywood, California. (I had to buy many new drumsticks after our appearance because several female fans took my drumsticks as souvenirs or keepsakes--something that still irritates me.) The Rumors spent some time with the celebrated group The Byrds, with whom The Rumors were to appear, at the Paladium in Hollywood, in the event that the record got into the top forty. The record, alas, did not get into the top forty. Gemcor went out of business, though the recording studio and producer remained, to continue a thriving business in radio commercials; as a result, all three records, including the fairly successful Gemcor 5001 and 5003, were pulled from production and distribution. About fifteen seconds of my record was played regularly in Los Angeles for a while as part of a McDonalds' commercial; officer Big Mac interrupted a rock song to issue a McDonalds alert: it was The Rumors' record. Bill Bell Studios was very successful in radio advertising; Bell Studios had done Hold Me Now and Without Her; so naturally officer Big Mac interrupted, to issue a Macdonalds' alert, Hold Me Now / Without Her (I can't remember which one, all these years later; it wasn't the success I had hoped for).

        In 1985, the composer of Without Her and former percussionist of The Rumors, now a professor of English at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia, received a long distance telephone call from Texas, from a young man who was the producer of Cicadelic Records and wanted permission to put the group and song on an LP of rock groups from the 1960's. And, more recently, in 1996, I received a telephone call (at first a message on my answering machine, which I subsequently copied), from the producer of Cicadelic Records, now relocated in Tucson, Arizona, who wanted to know more about The Rumors and put our 45 r.p.m. record on a CD collection of American Rock bands from the 1960's. A contract was mailed from Cicadelic Records and signed by me in 1997; payment was six copies of the CD, hardly a financial windfall, but providing me with more copies of the record than I had ever had before, since the members of the group had only received one copy of the 45 r.p.m. each, though on our road tour of various Southern California radio and television stations, the producer was giving away dozens of the records. The Cicadelic Records producer asked for a photo of the group to put on the cover of the CD, and thanks to my sister, I was able to oblige. Then one June night in 1998, as I was about to go out dancing (tough guys don't dance--as indicated by the Norman Mailer novel title--but some English professors do), I found on my front porch a box that could only contain--and did-- the CD's: The Cicadelic 60s: Volume 8 (Cicadelic Records/Collectables COL 0708; website: www.oldies.com or www.cicadelic.com). Indeed, my picture and name and the core of the band were on the back cover, as well as on the CD insert, along with a condensed (but still lengthy) version of this very account of my musical career and that of the Rumors, which I had e- mailed the Cicadelic Records producer. Truly, Rock and Roll will never die! Thus, I've had the eerie feeling of the movie Eddie and the Cruisers coming true, in a way: the movie deals with the rediscovery, twenty years after the group's career, of the Rock group "Eddie and the Cruisers" and the band members' memories and reliving of those early times.

        This is the front cover (not as interesting as the back cover, which has my band and my picture on it):
 
 

        Here is the much more interesting back cover of the CD:

        My essay on my musical career became the basis of an edited-down version for the liner notes on the CD:

        Within a few weeks of receiving the CD, the Cicadelic Records producer telephoned me from Tucson with "some really good news." When I asked what could be better news than that the CD was out, and that my picture and name were on the back cover and CD insert, along with my writeup of the group, he replied that a major label, Rhino Records, had picked up our record, and was putting one of the songs, Hold Me Now, on a major four-CD compilation set, which was entitled Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968; the song, along with a listing of the band members and a writeup, appears on the fourth CD. The set includes famous names and tunes of the era (The Kingsmen's Louie, Louie, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs' Wooly Bully, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Knickerbockers, the Sir Douglad Quintet, etc. As quoted on the Internet at cdnow.com and cduniverse.com, who, along with such chains as Borders, carry the CD set, this compilation was listed as one of the top ten in 1998.

        Here are some pages of the information about the CD-set from one of the good Internet audio CD companies:
 

Note track 24 on the fourth CD of the four-CD set:

        Here is the insert that comes in the box that holds the 4-CD set, along with the booklet for all the tracks:

        Here is the front of the fourth CD (which has the Rumors' song on it) of the 4-CD set:

        Here is the back of the fourth CD of the 4-CD set; note track number 24:

The write-up in the liner notes of Nuggets is partly based on my original essay:

        In 1998, for the first time in thirty years, the Rumors who had performed on the 45 r.p.m. record actually began to make money in royalties. (I have sat in as drummer with several Rock groups around town and have told the performers that all they have to do is wait thirty years to begin making money on a record or CD.) When I contacted Ben Turner and Larry Scher about sending them their share, I learned from Ben Turner that unbeknown to me (I smell a multibillion-dollar lawsuit here) our record had been included in the CD compilation Pebbles, Vol. 8: Southern California 1 (Archive International Productions, 1996). The liner notes for this CD reflect an ignorance about the Rumors not to be found on either The Cicadelic 60s, Vol. 8 or Nuggets; besides identifying the group, song, date, and company identification on the 45 r.p.m., the entire comment is "A fine two-sided release from this obscure band."

        Here is the front cover of the Pebbles Vol. 8 CD:

        Here is the back cover of the Pebbles Vol. 8 CD -- note track 8:

        Here are the uninformative liner notes about the Rumors on the Pebbles Vol. 8 CD (I should have been contacted to provide information to clear up the "obscurity"!):

        In contrast to the inclusion of our record on Pebbles, I did not mind when several enthusiasts posted it on Napster, before the demise of Napster. I felt that -- as with the inclusion of credited material from my 1986 reference-set article on E.A. Poe as part of a term paper on 123students.com -- real fame had been achieved by being placed on the internet.

        Finally, my 45 r.p.m., as well as my memory of that hectic period, is immortalized in the Goldmine's Rock'n Roll 45 RPM Record Price Guide, in which, with due alphabetical order, The Rumors and our record are listed, plus prices for the record. (The Rolling Stones are just a couple of pages earlier; I was dismayed that I and the Rumors weren't asked to accompany them on their Voodoo Lounge world tour. They must not know about the Goldmine reference book.) In fact, prior to the release of the CD's with our record on them, I myself would have paid the prices listed for a precious second copy, or for copies, of this 45 r.p.m. record ($6 for good condition, $30 for near mint condition), since I and the members of the group only got one apiece, though we were dropping off dozens at every one of the multitude of radio stations in Southern California we visited while on a road promotional tour. We pleaded with the producer for more copies for us, but to no avail. But like 45 r.p.m. records and CD's, what goes around comes around--even if it did take three decades.
 

Lyrics of Hold Me Now (Gemcor Records, 1965)

Lyrics: Ben Turner and Norman Prinsky
Music: Ben Turner
Lead Vocal and Keyboard: Ben Turner
Rhythm and Lead Guitar: Ed Burkey (formerly with the Ventures)
Bass Guitar and Chorus: Larry Scher
Drums and Chorus: Norman Prinsky
 

I'm coming, baby
Coming home to you now
I'm running, baby
Running to be with you now
Ah, don't you know
I'm gonna' love you so
I need all your lovin'

After I went and left you, I was blue
I'm saving all my money for only you
I'm gonna' love you, love you 'till the day I die
I--you know what I've been doin'

[Chorus] Around and around and up and down we go, baby
Around and around and up and down we go, baby
Around and around and up and down we go, baby
I need all your lovin'

[Chorus] Hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me now
All of the time

Hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me,
hold me now
You'll be mine

Hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me, hold me,
hold me now
You're so fine

I need all your lovin'--
Right now!
 

Lyrics to The Rumors' Without Her  (Gemcor Records, 1965)

Lyrics, Melody, Arrangement: Norman Prinsky
Lead Vocal: Larry Scher
Keyboard: Ben Turner
Rhythm and Lead Guitar: Ed Burkey
Bass Guitar: Larry Scher
Drums: Norman Prinsky
 

I saw her leave with him last night
Just when the future looked so bright;
That girl's left my heart so dark
The world hasn't even one spark
To light my way out of sorrow--
I know I'll look for her tomorrow

O why can't I die
Without her, without her

The pain of losing her has grown
I can't help feeling sad and lone;
The streets of Bristol are cold and wet
But they can't help me to forget
The girl with dark eyes and hair
I can't believe she's just not there

I'll cry, and I'll cry
Without her, without her

Girl, come back, come back to me now
I love you; you know I'm so sad
I'll always think of you and how
You made me feel so happy and glad
Girl, come back; girl, come back
Girl, come back; girl, come back

I'll cry, and I'll cry
Without her, without her