The “Golden Hits“ 

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Larry Hall

“SANDY“

(Terry Fell)

Strand 25007

No. 15    January 4, 1960

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Lawrence Kendall Hall was born June 30, 1940, in Hamlet, Ohio, to Woody Hall and the former Toto

Sizemore.  Woody worked days at the Douglas Aircraft factory and nights plucking guitar with the

Georgia Pickers; Uncle Bud “Cotton” Hall played with the ollie Pace Trio with Carol and Bob Summers,

the brother and sister to Mary Ford, legendary Les Paul’s wife.  Following in Pappy’s footprints,

Lawrence took took to the guitar early on and in ’57 won a talent contest sponsored by bandleader /

Capitol Record executive–and One-Hit Wonder–CLIFFIE STONE.

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“Not long after I won that,” Hall explained to Collectable Records’ Mark Marymont, “I was approached

by Terry Fall, with a song he wrote called ‘Sandy.’  I knew it was a great song and wanted to record it.”

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For $50–using Les Paul’s hand-me down equipment and Bob Sommers’ technical ability–Lawrence

recorded the lusting moaner for his mythical dream queen.  With copies pressed on his self-constructed

Hot label, Lawrence and Mama Toto ran up and down the West Coast in their TR3 sports car imploring

DJs to add the disk to their play lists.

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It was a great teen tune, and Larry sang it like he was smirking and twitching.  The New York-based

Strand label picked up distribution for the disk and acquired Hall’s contract.  Record number two was

an early and forgettable Burt Bacharach item called “A Girl Like  You.”  Unfortunately, by this point,

someone had reached the boy, smoothed out his rough edges, and cleaned him up; he sung this cha-cha

like a deboned Frankie Avalon.

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For the next few years, Strand Records spared no expense with Larry, with the notable Al Caiola and

Jimmy Haskell brought in to produce his efforts.  The label secured hit songwriters like Billy Page

(who would later create “The In Crowd”)  and the team of Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold, who had

written “A Big Hunk Of Love” and “Good Luck Charm”  for Elvis, “Because They’re Young” for Duane

Eddy, and “Fools Hall Of Fame” for Pat Boone.  An album–Sandy And Other Larry Hall Hits–now

highly collectable–to those into the obtuse–was issued.  But, it was all for naught; after a few more

singles for Gold Leaf, Larry checked out of the business.

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“I was getting pretty discouraged,” said Hall.  “The ’50s and ’60s weren’t a good time to be in the record

business.  It was hard to get any money out of the labels.  They’d never tell you how many records you

were selling.  I tried to find out, but the culprits moved too much.  They were too slippery.”

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After a time in the U.S. Marines, Lawrence returned to the business long enough to co-produce big hits

for Terry Stafford (“Suspicion,” #3) and Dobie Gray (“The In-Crowd, #13).   Said Hall, “It was still hard

to get any money… ”  Within months of the hits, Lawrence and family moved to Oregon where they have

remained operating a small cattle ranch in the Kings Valley area, near Corvallis.  “I didn’t get the money

I had coming,”  Hall said, “but nobody can take away all those memories.”

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A year after “Sandy” charted, the tune’s songwriter, Terry Fell, returned to the nation’s playlist when

BOBBY EDWARDS’ “You’re The Reason” (#11 ), which Fell co-wrote, became  a country-rock hit.