Recording "Red Rubber Ball" by The Cyrkle

Folk singers wouldn't throw in the towel. The Brits were here. Blues masters tossed jagged contrapuntal lines into a densely textured pop symphony. Back in 1966, young musicians like Tom Dawes and Don Dannemann had a lot of influences from which to draw. Along with drummer Marty Fried and keyboardist Earl Pickens, they were The Cyrkle, a group that recorded a pair of hits in 1966 — “Red Rubber Ball” and “Turn-Down Day” — and spent a season in the sun with The Beatles.

While students at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., Dawes, who sang the upper part on “Red Rubber Ball,” and Dannemann, who handled the equally weighted lower part, formed a band called The Rhondells with Fried and Pickens. The group quickly moved from being the most in-demand party band on campus to playing clubs along the East Coast. Eventually spotted by Nat Weiss, a New York attorney who had a partnership with Beatles manager Brian Epstein, the group was rechristened The Cyrkle by either Epstein or, as legend has it, John Lennon.

The Vietnam War was raging, and Dannemann decided to spend six months in the Coast Guard Reserves rather than risk getting drafted. Dawes, meanwhile, had been spotted playing bass in a New York club by Barry Kornfeld, who was putting together a touring band to support Simon & Garfunkel, whose Sounds of Silence was at the top of the charts. At some point during the tour, Paul Simon played Dawes a demo he'd made of “Red Rubber Ball,” a song he'd written with Bruce Woodley of The Seekers.

Meanwhile, John Simon (no relation) was making his way up the ladder at Columbia Records. “I had been a ‘trainee’ at Columbia,” says John Simon, “and had just been moved to the pop department as an associate producer and assigned a few acts that the experienced producers didn't see as profitable when Nat Weiss walked into my 10-by-10 windowless cubicle. He said he was ‘an associate of Brian Epstein’ and that every other producer in the place had turned him down. He played a demo of ‘Red Rubber Ball,’ which I thought was okay. I screwed up my courage and went to ask my scary, imposing boss — gruff Bill Gallagher — if I could have $5,000 to cut it. He said sure, as if it were pocket change!”

John Simon and The Cyrkle headed into Studio B at Columbia to work with Roy Halee. “Roy was the real deal,” says Dawes. “He had that flowing combination of ‘big ears’ and technology savvy that's hard to find. You know how, given the same ingredients, one person will cook a mediocre meal and the other will get the balance just right and it will be twice as good? That's what Roy did, and he made it look easy. I remember [engineer] Freddie Catero was around, but Roy Halee did everything on ‘Red Rubber Ball’ and ‘Turn-Down Day.’

“We sat down in the session and headed out the arrangement, building on the demo,” Dawes continues. “John Simon thought it should have a Hammond organ calliope-stop lick, and that little ‘so-mi-fa-mi-re-do’ lick popped into my head. I hummed it to him, we adopted it and the first pass was Dannemann on electric guitar, me on acoustic, Marty Fried on drums and Simon on Hammond. Then I overdubbed bass. John and I overdubbed tambourines for the “think…it's gonna be all right” parts, then Don and I sang and doubled the parts. I'm not sure where all this went on the 4-track, but I don't think we had to bounce down to another machine. John Simon was the catalyst: He had interesting musical ideas, played keyboard really well and he drove the boat. He was the real deal, like Halee. It took me a few years to realize that The Cyrkle had started with the best. I was so young I thought all engineers and producers in New York were great like these guys. Er, not! [Laughs]

“Roy was the engineering king at the time. A lot of the equipment was primitive, but he could make anything sound good — he'd make those limiters sing. I have a tech-y bent and love to know how equipment works, and I remember asking Roy and others a lot of questions. At first, people were reluctant to waste time explaining things to me, but that changed. I studied the way Roy premixed a track and still was able to end up with just the right amount of bass.” At the time, Columbia Studios was equipped with its own custom-built consoles, and the outboard gear of the time comprised mostly simple analog boxes that are cherished today — from Pultecs to 1176s and EMT reverbs.

Dannemann recalls playing his Fender Strat through the Fender Bandmaster amplifier that currently occupies a corner of his Pennsylvania studio. “It took awhile to get the basic track down. Finally, we're coming to the end of the take that we all know is going to be the keeper and I missed a note. We talked about it afterward and decided to leave it in.”

“Red Rubber Ball” traveled up the charts in a hurry during the spring of '66 but stalled at Number Two, outflanked by the Tommy James & The Shondells' song “Hanky Panky.” Buoyed by the success of their debut album, which also included the breezy but melancholic “Turn-Down Day” (featuring a prominent electric sitar line played by Dawes), The Cyrkle was given a golden opportunity: the chance to join The Beatles on their farewell tour in 1966.

“That tour was totally awesome,” Dannemann recalls. “I'll never forget that first concert. We hadn't met The Beatles and we were in awe of them. The first night we wondered if the crowd would boo us off the stage and demand The Beatles, but they whooped and hollered, and we did well. That was a relief.

“We were playing an indoor arena that first night in Chicago, or maybe it was Detroit. After we played, I stood behind the stage waiting for The Beatles to come on. They looked really good in their dark-green velvety jackets. I was watching all these young girls sitting in the front rows, and it seemed like they were sitting on electric chargers. Every once in a while, one girl would fly out of her seat, almost higher than you'd think was possible. Then another one — there was this out-of-control popping of girls! I looked around and there was a grown woman, possibly a reporter, standing next to me, sobbing uncontrollably. You couldn't hear enough to know if The Beatles were performing their stuff well, though — you just couldn't tell!

“The first meeting we had with any of them was in the chartered airliner after that show. The Beatles had a walled-off area at the back of the plane. Tommy, Nat Weiss and I were sitting three-across near the front of the plane, waiting to see them. Finally, oh my God, there's Paul [McCartney]! He seemed like a normal, good guy as he worked his way up the aisle shaking hands and saying hello to people. Finally, he reached us. Nat knew Paul through Brian, and so he introduced us to him and we had a brief, mundane exchange. Tom and I spent the rest of the trip analyzing every word that was said, pondering what we could have done to engage and keep him around longer!”

But as the song says, the roller coaster ride they took was nearly at an end. One minute you're playing Candlestick Park in San Francisco, waiting for The Beatles to take the stage and give their last live concert performance. And the next? “I remember most vividly the contrast between Candlestick Park [now Monster Park] with, what — 50,000 people cheering and screaming,” says Dawes, “and The Cyrkle's next gig two nights later is at some low-life dive in the Catskills [N.Y.], where there were 14 people in the audience, including one guy who's tapping on his water glass and yelling, ‘Hey, keep it down, keep it down, I'm tryin' to eat here!’”

“Coming off the mountain was very difficult,” Dannemann confides. “The last job we played was in the beginning of 1968, at a teenage nightclub somewhere in Pennsylvania. We actually had broken up, but the gig had been booked way in advance. We drove two rented station wagons ourselves and dragged in the equipment.

“Once out of that 15-minute bubble, nothing went right. We were heading into the studio one day to work on our second [and last] album when we ran into Paul Simon. He and Art [Garfunkel] were working in the same studio. Paul told us they'd just finished a song he thought would be perfect for us, and said that since they wouldn't be releasing their version of it for months, we could put it out first. But we passed on ‘59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy).’”

Pickens left the group to pursue a career in medicine, and Fried became a lawyer. Like Dawes, Dannemann built a successful jingle house in New York. By and by, though, The Cyrkle remained unbroken. “A few months ago, Tommy called me and said that Earl, who's living in Gainesville, Florida, and Marty, who lives in Michigan, were both going to be in the city,” says Dannemann. “Tom and Ginny have an apartment in Manhattan, and they hang out at the Café Des Artistes all the time, so they were able to book a dining room for us with a private bar and bathroom. It was great. My wife and I drove in from Pennsylvania, and we spent the whole evening reminiscing.”


By Gary Eskow
http://mixonline.com/

 

I prefer the Cyrkle's version but The Seekers were actually the first group to record the song. As the above article states, Paul Simon co-wrote the song with Bruce Woodley of The Seekers. It appeared on their Come the Day album in 1966 prior to the release of the Cyrkle's version later that year.

Here's The Seekers' Red Rubber Ball on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY4L5tTvjTY

Here's a link to The Seekers Come the Day album with both mono and stereo mixes of the album:
http://www.amazon.com/Come-Day-Seekers/dp/B00004VXPK

 

Thanks for the clip, I like the Seekers version for its own charm. Here's The Cyrkle with a scary intro from Paul Anka: No it wasn't Brian Epstein who named the other band and apparently it was John Lennon who named this band ......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBRh9Wu65jw&mode=related&search=

 

You need to hear the mono "hit" mix of this classic. The stereo mix just doesn't sound as balanced in comparison.

Thanks John!

Bob-

 

Thanks, JohnB, for sharing this great article. I find myself coming back to the Cyrkle LPs (particularly Neon), far more often than some of my other relics from the 60s. Too bad that the recent reunion didn't make its way into a studio.

 

In that song (Red Rubber Ball) I've always imagined I can differentiate the Paul Simon bits (I think it's gonna be all right...) from the Bruce Woodley bits (I should have known..).

Maybe it's just my imagination. I don't really know who wrote what but there are marked changes of rhythm that sound distinctive.

I only knew the Seekers version until a few years ago. It was the bigger hit in Australia as you could imagine.

 

Thanks a lot for the info! "Red Rubber Ball" is one of my all-time favorite 60's pop tunes. It's a perfect record. Istill love it everytime I hear it. And I was around when it first came out!

 

According to Woodley, he composed virtually all of the melody with Simon contributing about 80% of the lyrics.

 

Not that album blurbs are ever accurate but their first album credits Epstein. Don't think I've heard that Lennon had a hand in the naming unless he gave Epstein the idea.

 

Great article, thanks for posting.

I especially love the bit about girls popping into the air one at a time...great name for a rock band, the Popcorning Girls!

 

I'm not sure how easy this CD is to find, but original pressings of Pop Classics of the 60s were released without the calliope overdub. As a novelty, it's interesting to hear!
http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Classics-...8823969?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1189046862&sr=1-1


I haven't heard the mono version since my original 45 disappeared years ago, and I don't see that it has been released anywhere on CD to date.

 

I was just going to ask about this. Thanks!
I always wondered why they used this version.

 

Thanks for posting that article, John- a fascinating read! I've got the original stereo mix off the vinyl LP on tape, and you gave me the incentive to do a tape drop to cd-r. I haven't heard that classic song in probably 20 years!
Better get movin' before the 27-year old TDK AD tape disintegrates....

Looks like Sundazed reissued "Red Rubber Ball" and "Neon" on cd awhile back.
Anyone got them, and if so, how are they? I know, the mono 'hit' mixes of the singles are preferable to the original stereo mixes, but am just wondering how Sundazed handled them- would be stunned if they included any mono mixes. Am just looking for general impressions on the sound, and mastering, and am wondering if they were remixed-? Thanks in advance.

 

That's very interesting. Did he say what the breakdown was on their other collaboration, "I Wish You Could Be Here"? That definitely sounds like a Simon melody.

 

A rookie engineer named Mark Wilder learned a valuable lesson on that CD as to why it is important to listen to the original mix of a song before you attempt to remix it.

Is it just me or is that mono version of "Red Rubber Ball" a different take?

Derek

 

So, I take it that the mono version is not available anywhere on CD?

 

He doesn't mention who wrote what on that one or on "Cloudy". What he does recall is that Simon wasn't an easy guy to be around at that time; he was ruthlessly ambitious and controlling, constantly shoving Garfunkel in the background and humiliating him on a lot of occasions.

An interesting point on "Red Rubber Ball" is that Woodley felt he was shafted with the royalties for the song. He was paid only 25% for many years instead of the 50% it should have been. "I continually wrote to him (Simon) and said 'This is not right, this is totally unfair'. It was only 6 or 7 years ago (around 1998) that I got him to agree to give me 50% of the song. It was like getting blood out of a stone."

 

I recently was in Greenwich Village and picked up two collections of Simon's Brill Building demos and 60s singles before he became THE VOICE OF OUR GENERATION, merely one lonely and confused teenager with whom all of The Kids out there buying 45s could identify. There's even a classic about what a pain it is to have to walk up and down the stairs in high school to get to classes. Nothing on acne, but that may be on another volume. The few Garfunkel solo singles included are dripping with unbearable teenage angst-the guy's almost weeping in each, confronted with the agonies of Young Love, puberty and, apparently, his musical relationship with his partner Jerry Landis (Simon). American Tune, this stuff isn't.
A listen to these would give Paul a dose of (reportedly) much-needed humility.
Amazing, cringe-inducing, yet strangley historically irresistable stuff. I don't dispute his talent, but this had to be one commercially driven little fella.

 

Great read, John!

Thanks for posting it.

 

I just ordered an old Nuggets CD on Rhino that has the track but I don't know yet if its the mono. I'm assuming it will be the stereo version.

 

Good luck on it being mono, 'mafru2'. I just went through the listing on the 1998 4-cd box set "Nuggets", hoping to find "Red Rubber Ball" listed- but not expecting it, because it was probably too 'polished' for the 'garage' theme of that great set-and of course didn't find it. While I don't own that older Nuggets cd on Rhino that you ordered, my impression from the 'jumbo' Nuggets box set was that Rhino went out of their way to track down the original mono mixes. Whether that was true for the '85-'87 (am guessing) Nuggets cd you ordered is another question- guess you'll find out soon enough. Please post on the result though: I'd sure like to get the original mono 'hit' mix!

Meanwhile, I'll just have to be content with my 'double tape drop' of "Red Rubber Ball" from the original stereo album. It still sounds great, and actually-now that I think of it- that's the version that's burned into my brain....

Does anyone have the Sundazed reissue cd of "Red Rubber Ball", and if so, how does it sound? Is it a remix, or straight transfer? Thanks in advance.

 

I have both of the Sundazed Cyrkle CD's, along with the original Columbia albums ("Red Rubber Ball" in both mono and stereo, and "Neon" in stereo). To me, the Sundazed CD's sound like straight transfers from the stereo master. I don't detect any remixing, and there is none indicated in the liner notes. Bob Irwin is listed as having mastered the CD. In fact, they even point out that Roy Halee was the original mix engineer. Unfortunately, "Red Rubber Ball" is not included as a mono bonus track. However, the mono mixes of "The Words", "Penny Arcade", "Reading Her paper" and "We Had A Good Thing Goin'" are included.

 

That's what I'm hoping dynoguy but I kind of doubt it. I just got the mono LP a few weeks ago and the differences between the mono and stereo are night and day. My needledrop will suffice if the mono is not on CD. That LP is pretty easy to find in good shape and Columbia vinyl seems darn good.

I have the Sundazed CDs and I like them. There was some subtle hint in previous thread that the EQ is more "correct" on the Japanese issues. But I don't hear anything on the Sundazed that really bothers me. There is no indication on the CDs that they are remixes either. The bonus tracks on both the Sundazed collections are fantastic - in some respects better than their LP tracks.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but if it's Even More Nuggets (Vol. 3), then it's the stereo version.