Johnny Paris®: "I was
saxophone player already in other local bands such as Bob
Green and his Cats, but shortly after, I started my first
band called the Black Cats. We did concerts, played in
local clubs and at weddings, mainly Polka and dance music.
We were still minors and each of us had to have one of our
parents with us to be allowed to play the local clubs. I
made already during that time more money than my father
brought home by working in the factory, and even though I
had to give my father 75% of my income, I had already my
first car, paid off, standing in our drive way before I was
even allowed to have a driver's license. My father could
not understand that his teenaged son could make more money
by playing saxophone than he made by doing hard labor at
Libbey Ownes Ford, bending windshields. He never understood
that someone could actually make money by doing something
that was fun, and that was BEFORE we had a record deal."
"We changed to play Rock 'n Roll Music,
changed our name to the Orbits and later on to Johnny and
the Hurricanes®, when we were offered a recording contract
up in Detroit, because there was already a band named the
Orbits that was recording stuff, so we had to change our
name. The name Johnny was placed at the front, because I
was the headman in that band, which at that time was known
mainly for its saxophone and guitar sounds. The Hurricanes
were added, because Florida was plagued by Hurricanes in
that year, it was all over the news and therefore on our
minds and so we called our band Johnny and the
Hurricanes®."
The early professional years starting 1959 with
continuous changes on drums: Paul Tesluk (organ), Lionel
"Butch" Mattice (bass), Dave Yorko (guitar), William
"Little Bo" Savich (drums) and
Johnny Paris® (saxophone)
"It was Fred Kelly and the
Parliaments out of Toledo that took us up to Detroit, we
backed them up, they were a singing band, a white group,
and we were the band that played the music behind them when
they went in for an audition for a record contract. The
producers didn't like them, but they liked my band, and so
we got the contract, they didn't!"
"The first things were on Twirl Records. We worked quite a
bit up in Detroit with the Dream Girls, Willie Jones, Fred
Kelly and the Parliaments, Mack Vickery - we did quite a
few things up there with those people in the years, until
we got our start, after Crossfire was released (Lazy on the
flip side). Then we came out with Red River Rock and
Buckeye was then released on Warwick. It was just a license
agreement with Warwick, it was not a contract. Everything
was done at Twirl Records.
We had only one LP deal with Warwick, they wanted to renew,
but the deal wasn't good enough for us, and we got a better
one from Bigtop Records, so at that time we switched labels
and went to Bigtop out of New York City!"
Johnny Paris® about their # 1 hit Red River Rock: "It took
us only three takes to record Red River Rock. We put it on
the B side and did not think much of it. We were the very
first band to record a hit record with the organ playing
lead. We just thought it was a funny thing to do and we had
the Hammond Chord organ only because we could not afford a
better organ at that time as we upgraded from an accordion
to an organ when making the transition from a Polka band to
a Rock 'n Roll band. So a lot of accidental things were at
play here, and in the end this song was really the one that
made our band famous. Before that song our band was noted
for his saxophone - and I was the leader, and for its
guitar sound, that the organ would become our distinctive
sound was really just by accident, and we left it with
that, as people liked the funny flute sound it made, it was
really a novelty at that time and became our trademark so
to speak."
"Originally we worked out of Carmen Tower
Studios in Detroit. Then we went to Bell Sound Studios, a
famous studio in New York, and after that it was the
Americanas Studios. We were experimenting with stereo
records at Bell Sound."
During the years hundreds of musicians have joined Johnny
and the Hurricanes® and left, by the 70's Johnny Paris®
could recall already over 300 members.
"When musicians play, they play, when they get tired of it,
they leave me and I have to find other ones. Most of the
musicians that started out with me in the 60's don't play
music professionally anymore, they have not gone on farther
than 1965-1967. I think most of them really regretted that
they traded the music against the security of a hum-drum
job in a factory or other means."
On New Year's Eve 1962
Johnny Paris®
recorded the album Live at the
Star Club Volume 1. This album was never released on
record, but only on CD (please review our Atila Records
products page or the discography page for detailed
information).
"It was a wild time. For a young musician it was really an
eye opener. The Star-Club was really the first place in the
world for musicians to come internationally together on a
big scale and to learn from each other. Nowadays that is
very common, but before the Star-Club opened up it was
unheard of. This was very inspiring for musicians. We were
rather constructed before we went to Hamburg, with short
hair cuts, suits, jackets and ties, because that was the
accepted mode to perform in the United States at that time,
and there we met all the other European bands, including
the Beatles, that had long hair, wore casual clothes, and
we found out that this casual mode was really better for
thinking musicians, so we practiced that mode and it was
not well accepted in the USA. In fact we had gigs being
cancelled on us when we showed up in long hair and leather.
"
"I look back at my early German days with awe. A lot of
partying, a wild and crazy time.
People there were more liberal as far as their sexual
attitude were concerned. It was quite different from our
Catholic upbringing in Ohio. Not that one was bad and the
other was good, the thinking was just different, people in
Germany at that time were just more open to experience
their sexuality than people in the Midwest."
"I was very fond of Hamburg, that's why I moved over there
in 1980. We had always a great time playing in Europe and
in the UK. "
In 1964 Johnny and the Hurricanes® returned back to
the Star-Club in Hamburg as special guests for the two year
anniversary of this famous music club. This is when the
Johnny and the Hurricanes® Live at the Star Club Volume 2
was created.
This album was released on record and on CD (please review
our Atila Records® products page or the discography page
for detailed information).
Johnny and the
Hurricanes® in the mid and late 60's
Phil January (organ), Johnny Paris® (saxophone, lead vocals
and backing vocals), Frank "Butch" Cook (drums), Bobby
Cantrell (bass), Les Todd McDonald (lead guitar, lead
vocals and backing vocals)
Steve
Clark (keyboards and backing vocals), Ricky Gee (lead
guitar, backing vocals and lead vocals), Johnny Paris®
(saxophone and lead vocals), Mick Brady (drums), Tony
Raw (bass),
Early 80's in England.
Johnny and the Hurricanes® 1983 in Germany. Left to right:
Klaus Wecker (bass), Johnny Paris® (lead vocals and
saxophone), John's close friend and German agent Manfred
Noll (drums), Werner Grabowski (lead guitar) and Steven
Getten (keyboards).
Johnny and the Hurricanes® in the early 90's: Edwin
Hettinger (keyboards),
Bernd Ohnesorge (bass), Johnny Paris® (saxophone and lead
vocals), Joja Wendt (piano),
Dick Byrd (lead guitar), Roy Dyke (drums).
During the early 90's Johnny and the Hurricanes®
played many gigs with a keyboarder AND a pianist for a
fatter sound.
Johnny Paris®: "I was always proud of this formation.
Bernd Ohnesorge is one of the best bass players I ever
worked with, and my German formation is really top of the
line. Even the mild changes from that moment on in the
sector drums (also performed by Mick Brady) and guitar,
made no difference in the quality of the band.
Because of the high standard we reached with these European
musicians, I played from that moment on just as Johnny
Paris® in the States occasionally with American musicians
and refused to play big concerts in the USA or anywhere
else in the world for that matter as Johnny and the
Hurricanes® without these guys backing me up.
"
Johnny
and the Hurricanes® at the NDR TV Show OPA Oldies Parade in
1993. Left to right: Bernd Ohnesorge (bass), Thomas Meltzer
(lead guitar), Edwin Hettinger (keyboards), Roy Dyke
(drums), Johnny Paris® (saxophone and lead vocals).
The last year of life performances in Sweden 2005 before
Johnny Paris'® passing in May 2006. Left to right: Edwin
Hettinger (keyboards), Hans Edler (Swedish agent), Bernd
Ohnesorge (bass), Johnny Paris® (saxophone and lead
vocals), Mick Brady (drums), Heiko Siebert (lead guitar).
The saxophone is according to Johnny
Paris®: By far the nicest instrument I could think
of. Playing saxophone takes real skills, I did not yet find
a keyboard or sampler machine that could simulate the true
saxophone sound with all its roughness. I am glad to see
that young people get into this instrument again that was
almost extinct in the late 60' s and the 70's. We have way
too much "canned" music nowadays, with drum machines and
keyboards and such, it does not give you a live feel. I do
not like "canned" music, I like the live feeling that just
comes over with real drums and real saxophones. Way too
much music nowadays lacks the life and vitality of the
early Rock 'n Roll years. People feel that, this is why
Rock 'n Roll will never die and why the Oldie wave is
unstoppable, people are just getting tired of music that
has no soul. I am sure that our Rock 'n Roll songs will
still be heard in 100 years from now, I seriously doubt
that this can be said about Rap and many other forms of
newer music. My all time favorite sax player is Stan Getz."