The “Golden Hits“
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GENTRYS
“KEEP ON DANCING”
(Allen A. Jones, Willie David Young)
MGM 13379
No. 4 October 30, 1965
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“We started in 1963. We were all in Treadwell High School [Class of ’65],” said Gentry guitar man Larry
Raspberry to Goldmine’s Randal C. Hall, “except Pat [Neal], the bass player. He was a man, 27, 28; married,
worked for the railroad.” Besides Larry and the “man,” the initial Gentry’s were comprised of Bruce Bowles
(vocals), Bobby Fisher (sax, piano, guitar), Jimmy Hart (vocals), Jimmy Johnson (trumpet, organ), and
Larry Wall (drums)–basically a sock hop, school function band of wanna be musicians. They came in third
place in the Mid-South Fair Talent Competition; got better and appeared on Ted Mack’s “Amateur Hour,”
and won top honors at the Memphis Battle of the Bands.
In 1964, producer Chips Moman thought he heard something in the Gentrys and signed them to his newly
formed Youngstown label. “Little Drops Of Water” sold less than modestly. “When we cut our second
record, it was the only time I had sung ‘Keep On dancing,'”said Raspberry.
“It was done as the flipside, so there was nothing to be lost with my not having a good voice. It took about
35 minutes from the time we decided to cut it until Chips said, ‘That’s the take.’ Our version ran only one
minute thirty seconds–too short even for a B-side–and Chips taped the beginning over and stuck it at the
end. It sounds as if the song starts all over again; really, what you hear is a ending took a considerable
amount long. “We went in after school one afternoon, around three-thirty; started recording at five and
recorded until midnight.” When the latter disk–the hastily dashed and patched B-side, in particular–
showed some sparks, Moman contacted MGM’s Jim Vienneau, acquired the waxing for national release.
Like many one-shot top 40 moments, “Keep On Dancing” was a fluke hit, a flipside; what the industry calls a
“throwaway.” A group called the Avantis–three black guys who modeled themselves after the Isley
Brothers, and who had toured with, and befriended, the Gentrys–had recorded the original version of “Keep
On Dancing” for the Chess subsidary Argo. “We very much changed ‘Keep On Dancing’ from the way the
Avantis did it,” said Raspberry, “but did keep the words and the background vocal part. Their version was
much like the Isley Brothers’ ‘Twist and Shout,’ mid-tempo, like a cha-cha.
All parties involved were surprised at the Gentry’s early success. “We were young kids,” Raspberry said.,
“and not great musicians. We didn’t know anything about tuning drums or even tuning guitars or how to
make things really sound good…Chip wanted us to be competitive with the musicians being recorded in
Nashville, and yet here he was with kids 17 years old who couldn’t play worth a darn.”
Despite it all, the Gentry name returned to the national listings several more times. “Spread It On Thick”
{#50, 1966) and “Everyday Have The Blues” (#77, 1966) sold moderately well, though it was clear that
momentum was being lost. Fisher and Johnson were gone by this point; Larry Butler was brought in from
Nashville to play the organ. Three further 45s appeared on MGM; three more on Bell, before what remained
of the Gentrys broke up in 1970.
“Our world broaden, when ‘Keep On Dancin” hit,” he said. “There’d only been the Watermelon Festival, or
the White River Water Carnival, or the Cotillion Dance in Grenada, Mississippi, for us, till then. Then–bam-
-we opened for Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beach Boys, Paul Revere; did ‘Shindig,’ ‘American Bandstand’ twice,
‘Where The Action Is’ least twice… We were a one-hit act.”
Hart, singing lead with a completely newline-up–Dave Beaver (keyboards), Mike Gardner (drums), Steve
Speer (bass), and Jimmy Tarbutton (guitar)–revived the group’s name for three chartings on the legendary
Sun label: “Why Should I Cry” (#61, 1970), “Cinnamon Girl” (#52, 1970), and “Wild World” (#97, 1971).
This version of the Gentrys also recorded for Capitol and Stax.
Jimmy Hart went on as the “Mouth of the South,” to become a successful wrestling manager with the World
Wrestling Federation. Rick Allen resurfaced in a later addition of the Box Tops. Bruce Bowles is a sales
rep at a Memphis radio station. Bobby Fisher is a civil engineer with the city of Memphis. Jimmy Johnson
is a physician. Pat Neal works for the railroad and moonlights with local country bands. Larry Wall is a
promo man with Columbia/Epic Records. Raspberry formed a hard-rock band called Alamo that recorded
one self-titled LP for Atlantic in 1970; he has since fronted the High-Steppers for at least four albums.