BRUCE JOHNSTON
Bruce Johnston (born Benjamin Baldwin on June 27, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as a member of the Beach Boys. He joined the band for live performances in 1965, but then became a contributing member on subsequent albums. Johnston is also known for his early 1960’s collaborations with Terry Melcher as Bruce & Terry and with the surf band the Rip Chords, as well as composing the 1975 Barry Manilow song “I Write the Songs”. (More from Wikipedia)
The Rip Chords had one of the biggest hits of the surf era in the early 1960’s with “Hey Little Cobra” – maybe THE biggest outside of those by Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys – when it reached #4 on the charts in early 1964 (back in the early days of Beatlemania). They don’t get a lot of respect though; since many people think that L.A. wunderkinds Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher – who later recorded as Bruce & Terry – bullied their way into the band, this led a lot of people to conclude that they were only a studio fiction.
On the band’s next single, “Gone”, Bruce Johnston (who later became a member of the Beach Boys) was brought in as a secondary vocalist, though Ernie Bringas still sang lead. Terry Melcher’s role was strictly as producer on both of these records. This single was not widely promoted but performed well where they received airplay; for instance, in the week of August 1, 1963, “Gone” made it to #2 in San Antonio, TX.
Meanwhile, Ernie Bringas had graduated from college and was about to go into United Theological Seminary for training as a minister. (Bringas did become a “Rev.” and served as a minister in the United Methodist Church for almost 20 years; presently, he is a college professor teaching religious studies). He would be able to go back to the recording studio in Hollywood, but his ability to tour would be limited, so two additional members were brought in to tour with the band: Rich Rotkin and Arnie Marcus. They were never involved in any of their recordings, but – together with Phil Stewart – they were the public face of the Rip Chords, since Ernie Bringas was unavailable, and Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher were much too involved in record production to tour with a band.
The potential of “Hey Little Cobra” was recognized immediately (the song was co-written by Terry Melcher with Carol Connors; her many other songwriting credits include “Gonna Fly Now”, the theme from Rocky); and both Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher were brought in as the vocalists on this song.
Most sources believe that Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher basically took over vocal duties for almost all of their recordings thereafter. Allmusic claims that Phil Stewart (who has a distinctive bass/baritone voice) was the vocalist on only two songs on Three Window Coupe, the band’s second album – “Bonneville Bonnie” and “Old Car Made in ’52” – and that Ernie Bringas didn’t perform at all on the album. However, Bringas insists that all four vocalists collaborated as to who would handle the singing, and that the hit song “Hey Little Cobra” is about the only song where neither he nor Stewart sang at all. For instance, both he and Bruce Johnston were singing the falsetto part on the Top 30 follow-up to their big hit, “Three Window Coupe” (co-written by Jan Berry of Jan & Dean). (The full list of vocalists and their parts on various songs is provided on Ernie Bringas’s website, www.ripchords.info).
(July 2011)
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