Dec 14

The Starfires Cleveland

Barely Appreciated

THE STARFIRES (Cleveland Band)
 
 
 
The Starfires  is an American rock and roll band, founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1958, by Tom King when he was aged 15.  The band is sometimes identified as Tom King and the Starfires.  King is best known as the original bandleader of the Outsiders; however, it was only at the insistence of Capitol Records that the band’s name was changed when they created their breakout hit “Time Won’t Let Me”.   (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

I had ordered a retrospective album on a predecessor band to the Outsiders called the Starfires; as a matter of fact, the band still had that name when “Time Won’t Let Me” was first recorded.  That became yet another Cleveland band that I wrote about:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starfires_(Cleveland_band) . 

 

Actually, when I ordered the Starfires CD, I was hoping against hope that they would turn out to be the band called the Starfires who recorded one of my very favorite Pebbles tracks, “I Never Loved Her”.  This 45 has brought up to $1,500 at auction.  But of course that was a different band, so I put in Wikipedia what little information I could find on those Starfires in:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starfires . 

 

(September 2013)

 

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Name changes are sometimes not up to you.  As I wrote many years ago, when the Starfires came up with their signature song “Time Won’t Let Me”, Capitol Records told them to pick a new name, so they came up with the Outsiders.  Later, Sonny Geraci and Tom King were each heading up a band called the Outsiders; when King legally won the rights to the name, Geraci’s band – which included Outsiders guitarist Walter Nims – changed their name to Climax and had an even bigger hit with a Nims song, “Precious and Few”.  

 

(June 2014)

 

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In 1963, David White and John Madara were approached by a Cleveland girl group called the Secrets, who had secured a recording contract after playing at a gig with the Starfires (also of Cleveland and later evolving into the Outsiders). They used their influence to release a single in October 1963 on Philips Records, “The Boy Next Door” b/w “Learnin’ To Forget” that became a #18 hit. The Secrets released three other unsuccessful singles on Philips Records that each featured a David White/John Madara penned song. The “A” side on one single that is shown in Discogs, “Here He Comes Now!” b/w “Oh Donnie (He Ain’t Got No Money)” was co-written by legendary “Philly soul” producer Leon Huff, who also worked with past UARA Mikki.
 
(August 2015)
 
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The Cleveland music scene has long fascinated me; rock bands from the future home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included the Choir, the Outsiders, the James Gang, and the punk rock band the Dead Boys.  I had picked up a more comprehensive album of songs by the Choir, called Choir Practice, and also an album of material by the Starfires, the predecessor band to the Outsiders who still had that name when they were trying to line up the release of their major hit song “Time Won’t Let Me”.  More recently, many years after locating their other three albums, I finally found a copy of Album #2, considered by most rock critics to be the best album by the Outsiders. 
 
I wrote up several Wikipedia articles on this music, including the Choir and the Starfires; and I greatly expanded the article on the Outsiders and came up with articles on their albums as well.  Another Wikipedia article (much of whose content has been deleted, I was distressed to find out just now) was on the compilation album of music made by Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators for Bomp! Records, called L.A. L.A., which includes a cover version of the song by the Choir, “It’s Cold Outside”. 
 
(December 2017)
 
Last edited: April 12, 2021