I love when this happens! A MusicMaster Oldies listener requested a song which I happened to play regularly. We exchanged a couple of e-mails and, as luck would have it, he was more familiar with the song than me! He helped fill in a whole bunch of information about these guys, and now I’m passing that new information along to you!

The song was by a group called The Jacemen from Rockford, Illinois. Back in 1964 they cut their one and only 45 on Larson 5305/5306 featuring a cover of the Beatles tune, You Can’t Do That, backed up with a great song called Don’t Take It Out On Me.

The Jacemen consisted of Jim Friis on vocals, Vito Spatare on bass, Jim Beilfus on horn, Alec Garrison on keyboard, Rick Conklin on rhythm Guitar, Ted Mizner on drums, and Lee Wagoner on lead guitar.

Jim Friis also did vocals for another Rockford group called The Valiants. Those guys cut two 45’s. The first was a cover of Ronnie Self’s Bop A Lena (written by Country legends Mel Tillis and Webb Pierce) on Allstar 3054 in 1963, backed with an instrumental called Gunshot. They followed that up in 1964 with Allstar 3678 featuring an excellent garage rocker called Serpents And Spiders, backed up with a very nice version of the Link Wray instrumental, Jack The Ripper.

Here’s a recent photo of Jim Friis holding up the Serpents And Spiders record!

The Valiants consisted of Denny Barker on bass, Jim Friis on vocals and guitar, Bob Roell on rhythm guitar, Denny Kolata on lead guitar, and Dewey Lashock on drums.

You’ll hear all of these songs on MusicMaster Oldies, except Gunshot, which I don’t have, but plan to add as soon as I find it.

Thanks for the photos and information about these guys, Mel!

Listen to Don’t Take It Out On Me by The Jacemen: