Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Breakers; Big Fun b/w Sun Time



I recently purchased a USB turntable so I could archive some of my records which I cannot find either on CD or on the many blog sites that have the more obscure music that I love.

For it's maiden voyage I pulled out a very rare single from 1984 by a group called The Breakers, produced by New York independant/New Wave journalist/emprasario Alan Betrock (responsible for the early Smithereens EP Beauty and Sadness).

I don't know where they came from but they sound as if they were from early 60's West Coast, doing an innocent surf music that Brian Wilson would have been proud to have written.

I attempted to find out some more information about this group and in the process discovered that Alan Betrock died in 2000 at the age of 49 from cancer.

7 comments:

angelo said...

hi,
maybe i'm wrong but the tune is credited by Kowalski who certainly was Fran Kowalski - the same Fran Kowalski can be heard on the New-York's Bionic Gold LP (a tribute to Phil Spector) - he covered "I Can Hear Music" on that album (available on my blog)

great surf song by the way - i didn't know the single - thank you and i will eagerly check your next posts

angelo said...

http://home.comcast.net/~trentonmakesmusic/pages/assorted.htm

more about the breakerse

Doug said...

Thanks Angelo,

In my initial research I figured out that Fran Kowalski was someone, I just didn't know who!

The most important question I have is; How come my single didn't come with a picture sleeve?!~?!?

Anonymous said...

Fran played in Alex Chiltons band circa 78/79. I saw them at CBs and the Ocean Club.
Alan Betrock also recorded early Blondie and Marsall Crenshaw, besides putting two great music zines..first The Rock Marketplace, and then New York Rocker.
Gary F

Anonymous said...

This is great! Thanks Doug!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I played bass in the Breakers for a couple years. Fran and Cliff from the Breakers are apparently in business making ballpark sound tracks and jingles these days. We played out maybe 10 or so times - City Gardens, Kenny's Castaways, Maxwell's (chilton was there), and the Brian Wilson night at Folk City. That was cool. We rarely made enough to buy gas home!

We got as far as making some demos with Richard Gotterher - Pete Holsapple added some guitar to that. Fran and the dBs dudes had played behind chilton. My brush with fame. Fran is a talent - his clavinet playing was especially cool.

Cheers,
Charles Ross, somewhere in Ohio

Diane Borders said...

Last summer, Fran Kowalski released “The Greatest Game in the World,” a 22-song tribute to baseball. Here’s more on that venture: http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/a-tribute-to-jeter-in-song/

The company that Fran Kowalski and Cliff Wight started in 1985 is still going strong. They’ve moved from making jingles to enhancing the game-day experience at sporting venues across the country. Here’s the website: http://www.clickeffects.com/