The Doughboys (New Jersey)
Encyclopedia
History
The Doughboys are an American rock band from Plainfield, New Jersey. The band originally formed when three members of The Ascots, Richard X. HeymanRichard X. Heyman
Richard X. Heyman is an American singer-songwriter, born in 1951 and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, who has released seven albums , two EP's Richard X. Heyman is an American singer-songwriter, born in 1951 and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, who has released seven albums ("Living Room!!",...
(drums), Mike Caruso (bass), and Willy Kirchofer (guitar) were joined by two members of The Apollos, Myke Scavone (vocals, harp), and Mike Farina (guitar). The group initially kept the name, The Ascots. From 1965 through 1968 they were considered the top band in Central New Jersey. Their repertoire consisted mostly of covers of groups like The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds
- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...
, The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
, The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
, and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. The group played school dances and opened for acts such as Henny Youngman
Henny Youngman
Henry "Henny" Youngman was a British-born American comedian and violinist famous for "one-liners", short, simple jokes usually delivered rapid-fire...
, The Hassles
The Hassles
The Hassles were a rock group in the 1960s, most notable for recording the first releases to feature Billy Joel. The group released two full-length albums and a number of singles....
(with Billy Joel), and The Vagrants
The Vagrants
The Vagrants were a Long Island-based rock and blue-eyed soul group from the 1960s. The group was composed of Peter Sabatino on vocals, harmonica, and tambourine, Leslie West on vocals and guitar, Larry West on vocals and bass guitar, Jerry Storch on organ, and Roger Mansour on drums.- Rise to...
(with Leslie West).
In 1966 The Ascots appeared on John Zacherle
John Zacherle
John Zacherle is an American television host, radio personality and voice actor known for his long career as a television horror host broadcasting horror movies in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his character "Roland/Zacherley," he also did voice work for...
's Disc-O-Teen television show several times competing in a year long battle of the bands contest. The Ascots won the contest, and first prize was a recording contract with Bell Records
Bell Records
Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 by Arthur Shimkin in New York, the owner of children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records. A...
. Prior to making their first recording, The Ascots changed their name to The Doughboys. The band's two singles, "Rhoda Mendelbaum" and "Everybody Knows My Name" (written by Bob Gaudio of The Four Seasons), were produced by the Jerome Brothers, who would later go on to produce The Left Banke
The Left Banke
The Left Banke is an American baroque pop band that formed in New York City in 1965 and disbanded in 1969. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina"...
. Both singles were released on the Bell Records
Bell Records
Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 by Arthur Shimkin in New York, the owner of children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benny Bell who used the Bell name to issue risque novelty records. A...
label but failed to chart. Around this same time, the group began to perform in World War I "Doughboy" uniforms that they had purchased at a vintage clothing store in the East Village.
After releasing "Rhoda Mendelbaum", The Doughboys performed on WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
Good Guys weekend shows around New York City with artists such as Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, The Fifth Dimension
The Fifth Dimension
The 5th Dimension is an American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes pop, R&B, soul, and jazz.Originally known as The Hi-Fi's, the 5th Dimension changed its name in late 1966, and was best-known during the late 1960s and early 1970s for popularizing the hits "Up, Up and Away",...
, The Syndicate of Sound, and The Music Explosion
The Music Explosion
The Music Explosion was an American garage rock band from Mansfield, Ohio, best known for their Top 10 hit, "Little Bit O'Soul", in 1967. The song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and received gold record status by the R.I.A.A....
. Around this time the group also opened a show for The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
and The Buckinghams
The Buckinghams
The Buckinghams are an American Sunshine Pop band from Chicago, Illinois. They formed in 1966 and went on to become one of the top selling acts of 1967. The band dissolved in 1970 but reformed in 1980 and continue to tour throughout the United States....
. The Doughboys had developed a grand finale for their shows that consisted of a rousing rendition of "Bo Diddley" where Heyman and Scavone would set up floor toms at the front of the stage and play them ferociously using maracas instead of drumsticks. As the song reached it's climax, the two Doughboys would each pick up their floor tom and throw them together in mid-air for a dramatic end to the show. The day of the Beach Boy/Buckingham show, the group realized that they had neglected to bring one of their floor toms along with them. After asking The Buckinghams to borrow a floor tom and being turned down, the group asked The Beach Boys, who agreed. During The Doughboys' finale, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson happened to spot his floor tom being ridden like a horse by Myke Scavone. Furious, Wilson rushed the stage, tackled Scavone, and the set ended with Scavone and Wilson trading punches in front of a shocked audience. Wilson later apologized, and admitted that he was upset because his brother, Carl, was about to be arrested for draft evasion.
In 1967 the group decided to drop the rhythm guitar from their line-up and dismissed Mike Farina. By 1968, with the rise in popularity of groups such as Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doughboys dropped Myke Scavone from the group and focused on playing long instrumental music. In the summer of 1968, the three-man Doughboys were the house band at the famous Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan...
in Greenwich Village. By the end of 1968, the original Doughboys broke up.
Post-Doughboys, Scavone, Caruso, and Heyman played briefly together in Cool Heat in 1969. Kirchofer played with Jake and the Family Jewels. Kirchofer and Heyman were reunited briefly in the Quinaimes Band in 1973. Scavone worked briefly with Bo Gentry and Richie Cordell, released two singles on Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
as a solo artist, sang background vocals on a Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
album, and did session work as a drummer for producers Kasenetz and Katz.
Myke Scavone would eventually go on to front the group, Ram Jam
Ram Jam
Ram Jam was an American 1970s rock band, best known for their 1977 hit single, "Black Betty".The band members were Bill Bartlett , Pete Charles , Myke Scavone , and Howie Arthur Blauvelt . Also, Jimmy Santoro, who toured with the band in support of their debut album, joined on guitar for the...
, who had a hit record with the song, "Black Betty
Black Betty
"Black Betty" is a 20th century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources claim it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material; in this case an 18th century marching...
". Although Scavone was not on the recording of the song, he was recruited to front the group shortly after it was released and appears in a video of the song.
Richard X Heyman played drums for artists such as Link Wray
Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....
and Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
. On the strength of a self-released album, "Living Room", Seymour Stein signed Heyman to a deal with Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
/Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
where he recorded as Richard X Heyman. Heyman continues to record as a solo artist.
Mike Caruso did session work as a bassist for Kenny Laguna and Bo Gentry
Willy Kirchofer continued to play with bands around the Central New Jersey area.
Mike Farina moved to California where he got into television production.
In 2000, for Richard X Heyman's birthday, his wife Nancy organized a surprise Doughboys reunion. With Myke Scavone manning the drums in rehearsal, he, Mike Caruso, and Willy Kirchofer worked up a group of songs based on their old repertoire. Mike Farina was living in California and was not able to participate. The "surprise" show went so well that the group again began playing shows around Central New Jersey and New York City. In 2005, Willy Kirchofer died. After much consideration, the band added guitarist, Gar Francis. Francis was also from Plainfield, New Jersey and, although a few years younger, had listened to and admired the older Doughboys when he was in high school. Francis had played with Kirchofer, and had also done session work, most notably playing guitar on Billy Idol's version of "Mony, Mony". Francis was a prolific songwriter, who also had a solo career playing as Plainfield Slim. At his urging, the band began to incorporate an increasing number of original songs into their shows. Songs written by Francis, Francis and Scavone, and by Richard X. Heyman
Richard X. Heyman
Richard X. Heyman is an American singer-songwriter, born in 1951 and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, who has released seven albums , two EP's Richard X. Heyman is an American singer-songwriter, born in 1951 and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, who has released seven albums ("Living Room!!",...
, who was also a prolific songwriter, increasingly became staples of the band's live sets and developed into crowd favorites.
The Doughboys released their first full length recording, "Is It Now?" in November 2007. The CD was a mix of cover songs from the group's 1960's incarnation and originals written by Francis, Heyman, and Scavone. Willy Kirchofer also appeared, posthumously on some of the cover songs using guitar tracks that he had recorded with the group while he was still alive. Two songs from the CD, "Black Sheep", and "Out Of The Night" received extensive airplay on Little Steven Van Zandt's Underground Garage
Underground Garage
Underground Garage is the name shared by two related but different radio outlets, a syndicated show and a satellite radio station, both created and supervised by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt to present rock 'n' roll and garage rock on radio...
radio station. "Black Sheep" was ultimately picked as the #2 Coolest Song of 2008 by listeners of the station. The CD received strong reviews in such publications as USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Performing Songwriter, and Goldmine. The group continued to play live, headlining venues such as the Stone Pony, and opening for groups like The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
, Catpower, and Robin Trower
Robin Trower
Robin Leonard Trower , known professionally as Robin Trower, is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum during the 1960s, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio.-Biography:...
.
In January 2010, the group released its second full length recording, "Act Your Rage". The CD featured mostly original songs, again written by Francis, Heyman, and Scavone. Kirchofer's guitar was again featured on a cover of "It's Alright". The lead off single, "I'm Not Your Man", was chosen as the #3 Coolest Song of 2009 by the listeners of Little Steven's Underground Garage, and the second single, "Why Can't She See Me?", was chosen as the first Coolest Song In The World This Week for 2010 by the station.
Studio albums
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Is It Now? |
| 2010 | Act Your Rage |