The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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SAFARIS  

“IMAGE OF A GIRL“

(Richard Clasky, Marv Rosenberg)    

Eldo 101

No. 6    August 1, 1960

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Sheldon Breier is now a criminal attorney.   Richard Clasky runs his own market research firm.   Marv

Rosenberg is Dr. Rosenberg, a psychologist with a hospital insurance company.   And The Safaris’ lead

voice, Jim Stephens, is a sales manager at a bottled-water company.

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They are still friends.   And they still sing together.   “Jim Stephens still has a great voice;” Dr. Rosenberg

said in an interview with Goldmine writer Randall C. Hill, “he hasn’t lost anything.”

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And after nearly thirty years, the Safaris are still hurting over what they feel to be bungled opportunities.

 “If we had been handled right we could have toured nationwide and been a much bigger success,” said

Rosenberg.   “We were young and pretty good looking, the lead singer had a great voice, and we had a hit 

record.”

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In the late ’50s Marv and Rich met at a party and quickly discovered that each had plans of become a

rock’n’roll songwriter.   “Ever since I was 11. I wanted to be a rock’n’roll star,” said Marv.  “My father would

say to me, ‘Ypu’re wasting your time!  do something constructive.”  Neither wrote nor read music but in

wink they had assembled something called  “Touch of Love.”   To flesh  out the front of the group  and to

warble the female sections  of the tune, Sandy Weisman was rounded up.  

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The threesome grabbed the name “the Enchanters” and triumphantly hawked their song to Orbit Records.  

Saleswise, “Touch” didn’t manage more than a twiddle.   Sheldon Breier was added and this persistent gang

of one-off wonders re-labelled themselves “the Dories.”   With their new tune,”I Love Him So”, they

convinced Herb Alpert and Lou Adler–recently successful with the cover version of “Alley Oop” by DANTE

& THE EVERGREENS–to let them have another crack at the charts.   Neither that Dore release nor “A

Lover’s Prayer”, issued under their third name, “the Angels,” on Alpert and Adler’s Tawny label, did more

than sell a teenie weenie pile of vynal.

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Sandy married and took fllght from the Angels.   And a friend of a friend of a friend, Jim Stephens, was

brought in to replace the groups departed lead voice.   A local disk jockey introduced the group to the

owner of Eldo Records.   The first record for Eldo–a label allegedly part owned by JOHNNY OTIS–was

“Image Of A Girl,”  was a song born of a blue funk Marv had experienced when his girlfriend  became

pissed at his over involvement in music and his under involvement in her.   ‘”You don’t have any time for

love me,”‘ she said to Marv. ‘”I can’t take this anymore.   Is it me or is it music?'”   She walked away and 

Marv in  the mist of an incredible down flopped on to the girls bed and thought to himself, ‘”Why can’t there

be a  girl to really love me for me?’   Well, she had this really loud clock in her room,” Rosenberg said, “and

there was a drip coming from the bathroom.   That formed the beginning of the song.   The rest just came

to me…I wrote the whole thing in about five minutes.”  In two takes, in the final ten minutes remaining in a

session and with Bobby Rey–a recording member of the HOLLYWOOD ARGYLES–pounding on two ends

of a wooden block to create that clock-like sound, “Image of a Girl”, one of the most haunty ’50s rock’n’roll

moments, was created.  

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In support of “Image” the Safaris got caught in some rock’n’roll theatre riots, terrible tours, hotel rooms

with roaches, a mere $25 per performance, per man.    Worst of all they reportedly received little in the way

of remuneration for their colossal hit.  “We each got a couple thousand dollars,” said merv.  “We were so

young and naive…”  

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After recording the follow-up, “Girl with a Story in Her Eyes,” Rich, Marv and Sheldon left the group to

acquire some college education.   One more Safaris single and a couple Jim Stephens solo singles were

issued but nothing sold well enough to chart.   Late in 1961 and then again in 1963 the original Safaris came

together to record two singles as “the Suddens,” but neither of these caused much of a stir.

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Nearly 30 years later, during the declining months of 1989, all of the original members reassembled in a

high-tech studio to record a variation on their lone hit, “My Image of a Girl (Is You).”  Given the state of pop

music, no media took notice.

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What became of that girlfiend that stimulated Marv to create his haunting hit?   “A month after the record

hit,” Rosenberg said, “she called me and said, ‘My mother and I are moving.   Would you be interested in

buying the bed you wrote that song on?'”