Yesteryear’s Hits Gather Dust as Singers Keep Busy

Twenty-eight years ago this month, Rosie and the Originals became the first San Diego rock band to score a national hit. “Angel Baby” peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and is considered the harbinger of the “girl group” sound subsequently popularized by the likes of the Supremes, the Ronettes and the Shirelles.

“Angel Baby” was the only hit Rosie and the Originals would ever have. Several follow-up singles flopped, and, in 1962, the group broke up.

These days, singer Rosie Hamlin is living in Bakersfield. With a new band, she continues to perform two or three nights a week in tiny nightclubs, mostly in the Southwest.

Throughout the 1960s, a handful of other San Diego rock bands had their brief moments in the national spotlight. Here is a selective list of who they are, what they did and what they’re doing now:

- The Cascades. Like Rosie and the Originals, the Cascades were a one-hit wonder. The quintet’s first--and only--Top 40 success came in January, 1963, when the pleasant pop ditty “Rhythm of the Rain” went all the way to No. 3.

The Cascades continued to play locally for more than a decade. In the late 1970s, lead singer Eddie Preston set out on his own and maintained a steady presence on the San Diego nightclub scene until last year, when he moved to Washington.

- Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. The one-time house band at the Quad Room (now the Alamo) in Clairemont first topped the charts in December, 1967, with “Woman, Woman,” a maudlin ballad that showcased the amazing vocal prowess of Puckett, a former psychology major at San Diego City College.

The next year, the Union Gap scored three more hits: “Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower” and “Over You.” By the end of 1968, the group had sold more records than any other recording act that year, including the Beatles.

In 1970, Puckett embarked on an uneventful solo career. He spent the rest of the 1970s playing San Diego lounges; in 1980, he began the first of several unsuccessful attempts at a comeback.

Three years ago, Puckett hooked up with the traveling “Happy Together” oldies show and subsequently opened for the reunited Monkees on their 1986 world tour. Since then, nothing more has been heard from Puckett, who now lives in Vista with his mother.

- Iron Butterfly. In 1966, the Palace Pages were playing rhythm-and-blues covers at the Palace nightclub in San Diego. A year later, they moved to Los Angeles and metamorphosed into Iron Butterfly, playing a new style of music called heavy metal.

The group’s first two albums sold more than a million copies each and, in September, 1968, they cracked the Top 40 with “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida.” By then, singer Darryl DeLoach, guitarist Danny Weis and bassist Jerry Penrod had already left the band and returned home to San Diego. DeLoach later opened a restaurant in La Jolla; the whereabouts of Weis and Penrod are unknown.

Singer Doug Ingle and drummer Ron Bushy kept Iron Butterfly going until 1971, when declining record sales prompted them to call it quits. Today, Ingle and Bushy are still in Los Angeles, doing session work and playing clubs.

For several years, North County radio station KGMG-FM (Magic 102) has been broadcasting a “classic rock” format. Thursday night, the station will pay tribute to San Diego’s own classic rock heritage by presenting in concert two of the most popular local bar bands from the 1960s and ‘70s.

Appearing at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach will be Glory and Bratz, each reuniting just for the occasion.

Between 1969 and 1977, Glory regularly attracted standing-room-only crowds to such favorite San Diego rock haunts of the time as the Palace, Cinnamon Cinder and Funky Quarters.

The band was founded by singer-guitarist Jerry Raney, now with the Beat Farmers. Other original members include drummer Jack Pinney, now with the Jacks, and bassist Greg Willis. Before joining Glory, Pinney and Willis had been with the Palace Pages, who later relocated to Los Angeles and became Iron Butterfly.

Bratz was formed in 1977 by singer Paul Shaffer and guitarist Jack Butler. After enjoying successful house-band stints at Dick’s at the Beach and Little Bavaria in North County, the group moved south in 1979 and for the next three years played to packed houses at such trendy rock clubs as the Bacchanal, the Rodeo and the Halcyon.

Bratz broke up in 1982, when Shaffer and Butler decided to put together a new band, Private Domain, that would concentrate on originals. Private Domain has since released an album on Chameleon Records and last year scored a minor hit with “Absolute Perfection,” which appeared on the “Back to the Beach” sound track album.

LINER NOTES: Noted Bay Area rocker Greg Kihn, whose recent hits include “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” and “Jeopardy,” was in town last week for two reasons: to perform Wednesday night at Mick’s P.B. and to help local power-pop band Four Eyes record a demonstration tape at Circle Sound Studios in East San Diego.

Techno-pop futurists Devo return to the Bacchanal tonight for a second appearance at the Kearny Mesa nightclub in less than a month.