The Standells

The Standells began life as a clean-living, fun bunch playing the rock hits of the day like Louie Louie and Money at trendy clubs like P.J's and on a variety of TV shows like The Munsters. Their fortunes changed upon meeting producer/songwriter Ed Cobb (formerly a member of The Four Preps).

Dirty Water was released as a single on Capitol Records' Tower subsidiary towards the end of 1965. The song surprised everybody by climbing to Number 11 on Billboard's US chart (Ed Cobb had written the song from an experience he had fending off muggers while walking with his girlfriend along the river in Boston). The success of the single led to The Standells opening on The Rolling Stones next American tour.

Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White was their next hit, and other songs began to cement their bad boy "punk" image. In spirit, a true American counterpart to The Rolling Stones, The Standells were later attracted to the same mysterious Eastern images that the Stones popularised with such songs as Paint It Black.

This culminated in perhaps their finest record - Try It - an immediate hit in Los Angeles. It was soon banned by most radio stations on the ridiculous notion that urging listeners to "try it" was a blatant request for a girl to surrender her virginity. The group even attempted to do battle on the Art Linkletter Show in a confusing debate - but all in vain. Ironically, an inferior version by The Ohio Express made the charts many months later.

The next single, Riot on Sunset Strip, was the title song to the movie of the same name. The Standells also appeared in the movie along with The Chocolate Watch Band. When these two remarkable records failed to become national hits, bewilderment set in and the group began to question their direction. They rejected Cobb's Tainted Love - which he later recorded with Marc Bolan's main lady, Gloria Jones - and which became one of the biggest hits of 1982 when re-recorded by Soft Cell.

The Standells' attempt at Stax-influenced soul, Can't Help But Love You, wasn't entirely convincing, while All Fall Down bore an uncanny resemblance to Pink Floyd's Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. The foray into psychedelia was a novel one for The Standells, and it seems mere coincidence that their single and Pink Floyd's were released at roughly the same time, and both on Tower.

Animal Girl was the group's last single - a gentle, melodic, evocative song featuring studio engineer Ritchie Polodor on sitar. As the 60s drew to a close, The Standells found themselves lost in a new post-Woodstock era of 1000 watt Marshall's and twenty minute guitar solos and the band called it a day.

In 2004, Dick Dodd, Gary Lane, Larry Tamblyn and Tony Valentino reunited to perform at Game 2 of the 2004 World Series before 50,000 wildly enthusiastic Boston fans and at the Red Sox home opener against the Yankees in 2005 (Since the early 1990's Dirty Water has been the Red Sox unofficial anthem and is listed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped Rock & Roll).

TRIVIA NOTES
The Standells retained a consistent core of Dick Dodd (a former Mouseketeer), Tony Valentino and Larry Tamblyn (brother of actor Russ Tamblyn). Prior to Dodd joining the band, Gary Leeds had played drums but left to form The Walker Brothers.

Shortly after the release of Dirty Water, Dick Dodd left the group for four months, and was temporarily replaced by Dewey Martin, who later helped to form Buffalo Springfield. Lowell George, who would go on to play with Little Feat, briefly played guitar in the band prior to their break-up in 1968.

Video Clips

Dirty Water

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Tony Valentino
Guitar, vocals
Larry Tamblyn
Vocals, Organ
Dick Dodd
Vocals, drums
Gary Lane
Bass
Dewey Martin
Drums
Dave Burke
Bass
John Fleckenstein
Bass
Gary Leeds
Drums
Lowell George
Guitar