Formed in 1959 by
Ballard High School kids, their original lineup included: Dan Olason (guitar),
Peter Riches (bass), Center Charles Case (keyboards), Howard Hornsby (sax), and
Jim Nichols (drums). Early on they played social club tea parties and P.T.A.
dances, but by 1960 the first of many personnel changes began, with Olason and
Riches as the permanent core and Al Scanzon (sax) joining them. The Counts began
developing their reputation as a good dance band, with the significant bonus of
Scanzon’s skillful sax-work and Olason’s estimable guitar technique raising the
stakes. By 1963 Olason’s younger brother Bill (keys)
and Phil Creore (drums) were brought aboard. Finally, an R&B singer from Los Angeles, Billy Burns,
arrived in town and this lineup stuck together for the band’s prime years.
Over time the Counts had
worked their way up to gigging on the emerging Northwest teen-dance circuit,
playing halls all over the region including: the Spanish Castle, the Lake Hills
roller rink, Capitol Skateland in Olympia, Laurie’s in Everett, the Target
Ballroom in Burien, and the Pypo Club in Seaside, Oregon. Throughout those years the band also saw
additional changes to their lineup: Mike Smale, Steve Lervold
and Craig Parker each had turns as keyboardist; Mike Leary was a drummer; Dick
Gazewood played sax – and most importantly, the addition of Richard Person on trumpet gave the
band’s sound a rich twin-horn dimension. Along the way various local singers fronted the Counts, including "Tiny Tony" Smith of Seattle's '50s doo-wop vocal group, the Gallahads, and Nancy Claire.
Though they failed open
auditions held at the Olympic Hotel by New York’s Golden Crest label – which
had already issued discs by Tacoma’s Wailers, Centralia’s Lord Dent and the
Invaders, and Salem, Oregon’s Mad Plaids (and would actually sign Seattle's "Scandihoovian" musical humorist Stan Boreson that very same day) – the Counts soon scored a different deal.
Through connections made via a school chum’s father, the Counts were signed to
a new local label, Sea Crest Records, which would release two singles by them.
“Turn On Song” was released
in July 1964 and has the distinction of being one of the last instrumental rock radio hits of that
genre’s Classic Period (1956--1965). A song that hung on Seattle’s KJR Fab-50
charts for seemingly ever, it was basically a raw, uptempo R&B riff with a
stunningly memorable melody and by any measure one of the best Northwest Rock
songs of all time. Backing the hit was a much slower and jazzier piece,
“Enchanted Sea.” The follow-up single, “And Then I Cried,” a snappy Dave Lewis
composition, featured local R&B singer Woody Carr. The flipside, “Doggin,’”
was a good raunchy original instrumental. Meanwhile, Portland’s Don & the
Goodtimes covered “Turn On Song” and created another hit single on the New
York-based Wand label.
The Counts were such good
players that they were hired as the support band for the 1964 and 1965 Teen Spectacular events at the Seattle
Center. In that role they performed instant-arrangements of all the hit songs
by touring stars including: the Righteous Brothers, Jan and Dean, Glen
Campbell, Barry McGuire, and even Patty Duke. The band also worked as Ian
Whitcomb’s backup during the Dubliner’s lengthy stay here while Seattle’s
Jerden Records managed his climb to brief pop stardom which peaked in ’64 with
his #8 Billboard hit, “You Turn Me
On.”
In November of that same
year the Gallahads used the Counts to back them for
their Sea Crest single, “My Offering” / “Have Love Will Travel.” The latter was, of course, the other song
written by Richard Berry – the author of the Northwest’s signature rock song,
“Louie Louie” – and “Have Love Will Travel” also became a regional dance
staple, one that was also recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders and then the
Sonics.
It was by mid-1965 that Jim
Walters (trumpet) and Dave Hummon (drums) had replaced departing members. That
July the Counts next single was released by Panorama Records, a sister label to
Jerden Records. “Clyde, Clyde, the Cow’s Outside,” a song that was originally
conceived as a very bluesy shuffle, was – under the guidance of KJR DJ, Lan
Roberts – rendered with a then-trendy “Jerk”-beat in the studio. Intended to now
appeal more to Roberts’ boss, Pat O’Day, the song – which was even named after one of Roberts’ silly on-air
comedy shticks – received minimal radio support and sank without trace. Too bad,
because the flipside, “Chitlins Etc.,” was a fine funky instrumental workout.
Then, a version of Earl King’s “Trick Bag” (featuring Billy Burns on vocals,
and evidently a outtake from an earlier Whitcomb-era session) was issued on
Panorama’s Battle of the Bands album.
In April 1966 the Counts
released their final single. “Come Now” was a good original vocal pop/rock
number with quite cool simulated Eastern modal guitar lines. The flip was an
adequate but uninspiring cover version of Lenny Welch’s over-recorded 1963 hit,
“Since I Fell For You.” It was just too little, too late, with the hippie revolution
already on the horizon.
After trimming down to a
quartet the Olasons, Riches, and Hummon renamed their group the Rubber band and
continued regular bookings into the spring of ’67, and then performed their
final gigs at Tumwater, Washington’s sole rock ‘n’ roll landmark, the Tyee
Motor Inn. The Olason brothers both entered graduate school at the University
of Washington and today lead professional business careers. Riches went on to
become a successful photographer and local business owner. Both Lervold and
Leary resurfaced in James Henry and the Olympics (1963-1964), and after Scanzon
left in August 1965, he became a police officer, but almost five years ago died
in an off-duty motorcycle accident. Jim Walters left the Counts to form the
Emergency Exit in 1966, releasing two great singles nationally on the ABC
Dunhill label, and then he went on to help form Ballin’ Jack who recorded LPs
for the big-time Columbia and Mercury labels.
Text copyright © 1984, 2014 by Peter Blecha