Hey, Bob:

That’s ME drumming in the video of TIME WON’T LET ME!!  Some things are better left in he past, and when this video started showing up a few years ago, I was pretty embarassed.  I was 18 years old, the manager’s wife had cut my hair and given me the clothes to wear, etc.  I look like a refugee from THE ZOMBIES or MANFRED MANN (I guess it could be worse, eh?!)!  But I’ve gotten past the fact that I looked pretty geeky there (hell, I WAS pretty geeky at that age-maybe still am), and can now enjoy the video for what it is-a fun historical document.  Let me digress for a while…

In November of 1963, I joined TOM KING AND THE STARFIRES in Cleveland, Ohio.  I was barely 16 years old and this was my first rock band.  I carried my drums up three flights of stairs to Tom’s apartment, and the audition consisted of Tom looking at me and saying, "OK, kid, be at THE DOVE LOUNGE on Friday by 9:00 P.M."  That week in November was a life-changing week for me.  I joined the band, Kennedy was assasinated and I heard I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, all within a seven day period.  Big week, eh??!!

I worked with Tom and the band for about 19 months, and put in a good chunk of my 10,000 hours there.  We often played as many as six nights each week, usually until 2 or 3 in the morning.  The set list was heavy on R & B, lots of James Brown, Bobby Blue Bland, etc. and I view this period of my life as the time I learned the foundation of my musical background.  The guitarist (Walt Nims) had to show me what a "shuffle" was that first night!!  I stayed with the group until the summer of 1965, and in the fall, I went off to college at Ohio State.

I had a band in college and we were having a good time, covering Stones, Beatles, etc.  TIME WON’T LET ME was released in early 1966 and the record really blew me away.  I was jealous as hell.  It was flying up the charts when I got a call from Tom King.  Their drummer had been drafted and they were scheduled to begin the recording of their first album in a few days, followed by a promotional tour.  Tom asked if I would be interested in joining them.  Well, long story short, I did what every parent feared in those days…I quit college and joined the band!!!!  I drove back to Cleveland and we immediately began the recording of THE OUTSIDERS first album.  I wound up drumming on almost all the other songs. The moment it was done, we hit the road for a promotional tour, mainly in the Eastern US.  We were traveling in one station wagon, with all five guys, a roadie and all the equipment.  It took about 72 hours for the band to mutiny and then we were given a second car.  We did play Boston during that tour and in fact, we did meet and spend time with Al Coury then.  We also did the HULLABALOO TV show during this trip-what an incredible experience…New York City, Chad and Jeremy hosting (the bass player and I even backed them up on one song), Joe Tex, Bobby Fuller, the Hullabaloo dancers…pwhoa!! This video is from that performance. The tour was over in a matter of a few weeks and seems like a blur to me now.

Once back at home, a painful realization began to set in.  As  much as I was enjoying the success THE OUTSIDERS were having, the music we were playing was not the music I had been hoping to play.  My tastes were running to THE YARDBIRDS, American blues, etc.  So, after some soul searching, I left THE OUTSIDERS and went back to Ohio State.  I finished the school year and by the fall of 1966, I had started the JAMES GANG.

I learned a great deal from Tom King, about music, about life, about a whole lot of other things, and I would not trade that experience for anything in the world.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Bob.

Jimmy Fox

Bob, I knew Tom.  He sold most of his rights in that song for a few thousand $ and died broke and broken hearted.

He owned 50%. He sold it right before it was a hit. Say around 65.  The person that bought it didnt tell him it was just placed with Capitol Records. In other words he got fucked!  He sold it for $500. After a legal battle, he was able to get back his writers share of performance only. No mechanicals no sync no others. And no artist royalties either which would have been 1/5 share.

Based upon my experience in royalties I would guess the $ were not great in the last few years. But I am sure he gave up hundreds of thousands for $500.

Regards, Bob

Bob Levatino CPA

Grew up in Cleveland with the Outsiders and The Choir "It’s Cold Outside" playing every week-end somewhere, whether it was the Chagrin Armory or the VFW Hall in Maple Heights. The Choir was later joined by Eric Carmen, whose first band, "The Sounds Of Silence", I managed in high school. Also the Grasshoppers were big, featuring Benny Orzechowski (aka Benny Eleven Letters!), who went on to shorten his name to Ben Orr, move to Boston and form The Cars with Ric Ocasek.

Cleveland had great music and a great music scene in the late sixties and early seventies. Billy Bass invigorated it, first at Top 40 WIXY, and then at WMMS with Jeff Gelb, Shauna, Denny Sanders, Lynn Doyle, Martin Perlich and many, many others.

Ted Cohen

Bob … in the 1960s tom  king and I played in different bands in cleveland….. he was tom king and the starfires, we were ronny and the savoys, my group then became the twilighters and he became the outsiders with sonny geraci on vocals on capitol….we were on bell records with larry uttal….cleveland radio was kickin and breakin hits nationally…alan freed, tommy edwards, bill randle, joe mayer, and later billy bass, Gorman, kid leo, mike payne, ken Hawkins…..

the upbeat show had all national acts before they exploded, our local bands packed 200 to 1000 seat clubs at a buck to get
in and we worked for the door …..great $$$$ in the 60s…of course we had day jobs as well………. mine was the Columbia records warehouse, 30 bucks a week, with bill catino, marty mooney, frank dileo, the choir became the raspberries…the ojays, joe walsh, james gang the amazing glenn Schwartz later with pg&e.. robert lockwood bobby womack …leos casino, hank loconti and the amazing agoras. eddie Rosenblatt, eli bird, gary bird, carl maduri, tommy lipuma, Johnny musso etc…..and many others……..all Cleveland, all in some ways tom kings trying to make a name in show biz

……..respectable by the outsiders also a great record …. they were
credited  somewhere  with using horns ahead of b,s,t ,and Chicago two bands I was blessed to work with in the 60s and 70s……   

when people talk old school we didn’t read about it……. we lived it and did it    

steve popovich  

The Outsiders were from Cleveland where the Geraci family had the best pizza place on the Eastside.  

I was at Disc Records and remember having four foot stack of lps of their Capitol album

Best regards,
Bill Berger
Ring Cycle Music

When I worked at Capitol, I reached out Tom King to discuss the still-new technology of the CD. At the time, we were putting together a compilation around the Anheuser Busch "Spuds MacKenzie" character and wanted to include "Time Won’t Let Me".

"Wow, no one from Capitol has contacted me in twenty years" Tom said. He then bent my ear with stories about The Outsiders, Capitol, and music in general. Usually I would have invented an excuse for getting off the phone, but Tom was a nice guy and  impressed me with his enthusiasm for music – more so than many of current artists at that time.

We spoke frequently over the next few years, especially when Tom wanted to ask my opinion about the use of "Time Won’t Let Me" in other compilations and even movies.Tom was always in favor of getting as much exposure as possible for the song because he felt it kept the group’s name in front of the fans.

The irony is that now, I doubt more than 3 people at the label have ever heard the Outsiders…  

Tom Cartwright

I was six when the Outsiders brought out that song. Our babysitter would come over and bring a "Go Go Box" full of precious 45s, many of them with those illustrated and pictured covers on them. I still have a ton of mine, other kids having "outgrown them" and having handed them down to me. They gave me baseball cards, too, which I never outgrew. Good thing. I managed to sell a Tom Seaver rookie for $650 and some others, to finance my Wedding in 1990. Bad thing. I didn’t stay married. Even worse: I couldn’t collect the loss in the divorce proceedings. Better: haven’t been married, since, but have two great kids to show for it.

Your reference to the organ and horns was right on for that era. I listened to the Buckinghams and the Spiral Staircase with those in the background. I loved Peter and Gordon and Chad and Jeremy, too. Ed Sullivan liked them because they had "long hair" but wore nice suits. I keep them on my Iphone. I dug The Seekers. When I found out they were part of the Australian Invasion (it never had the impact that the British Invasion had, wonder why?), I would sit and listen to them on the Close and Play and wonder how I could make it to the down under. I wished I had. Guys with Australian accents who moved to the states got chicks. They thought they were professional tennis players (see John Newcombe).

I made a list of everything I had as a kid or didn’t get to get, that I wished I had: Schwinn Apple Krate, the Munster’s metal lunch box, the electric football set that vibrated the guys all over the field. I heard a vibration going on in my mom’s room. I thought she had an electric football game, too. But I never was in that kind of mood once I was finished. So I got on Ebay and started looking around. For less than $10 grand, I can get my whole childhood back again! Even the Rifleman first season DVD set, even Mannix and Marcus Welby. Who says money can’t buy happiness.

Rick Larson
Fort Worth, Texas