Eric & The Chessmen You Don't Want My Loving Kama Records Utica NY Garage Psych
Eric & The Chessmen – You Don't Want My Loving / Blue Skies Label:Kama Records (3) – 777 Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single Country:US Released:Nov 1966 Genre:Rock Style:Garage Rock Tracklist AYou Don't Want My Loving1:45 BBlue Skies2:00 Pause Unmute Remaining Time-0:10 Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen Companies, etc. Published By – Irving Berlin Music Published By – Kama Music Recorded At – Chadwicks Recording Studio
Publishers: A: Kama Music B: Irving Berlin Music Barcode and Other Identifiers Rights Society (A): BMI Rights Society (B): ASCAP Matrix / Runout (A Label Matrix): L-99-2 Matrix / Runout (B Label Matrix): L-99-1
Eric and the Chessmen were a well-known group from Utica, New York. They toured throughout upstate New York and into Vermont, and even had a stand at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City. They released only one single: the original song “You Don’t Want My Loving” by the band’s leader, Eric Thorngren, backed with a rocked-up version of “Blue Skies”, on Kama Records 777.
The band’s membership changed many times, so I’ll list some of the lineups below to the best of what I can gather:
Eric and the Chessmen at the Evening Inn, Colliersville, June, 1965 Eric and the Chessmen at the Evening Inn, Colliersville, June, 1965 As simply the Chessmen, the original lineup consisted of:
Eric Thorngren – guitar Tony Frontera – saxophone Jon Hynes – bass Butch DeAngelo – drums
By March 1965 the band consisted of:
Eric Thorngren – guitar & vocals Norm Knapp – guitar Dale Rider – bass Wayne Bohling – drums
Eric and the Chessmen Five Flys Club, Bennington, October 1966 Eric and the Chessmen Five Flys Club, Bennington, October 1966 When Norm Knapp took a leave of absence in 1965, Chuck Schoenley became the band’s first keyboardist:
Eric Thorngren – guitar & vocals Chuck Schoenley – organ Dale Rider – bass Wayne Bohling – drums
After Chuck Schoenley left the group to join the Rogues, Frankie Convertino became the keyboard player, then Fred Faccioli.
Slivers Matrassi replaced Wayne Bowling on drums by early or mid-1966.
Eric & the Chessmen Kama 45 Blue SkiesThe band featured on the picture sleeve to their 45 and probably on the recording is:
Freddie Faccioli – organ Eric Thorngren – guitar & vocals Dale Rider – bass Slivers Matrassi – drums
The sleeve at the top of this post seems to be very rare. The labels note “Recorded at Chadwicks Recording Studio, Chadwicks, NY”. For more on the Kama and related labels like Krishna and Sutra, see the final section of my post on the Roosters.
Eric and the Chessmen Audiodisc Acetate Heat WaveThe band had other recordings that weren’t released at the time. An atmospheric instrumental featuring organ and a reserved guitar solo called “Too Much” appeared on The Best of Twist-a-Rama: Crude 1965 Garage Sounds from the Mohawk Valley. There are also demos of “Wooly Bully”, “New Orleans” and “Heat Wave”.
The Chessmen continued in different forms into the late 1960s, eventually without any original members. Sometime in 1967 or 1968 Ted Alexander replaced Freddie Faccioli. Dale Rider left to join the Rochester group the Oxford Watchband – a group by that name had a 45 in 1969 on the Hand label, “Diagnosis (One Way Empty and Down)” / “Welcome to the World”.
Eric Thorngren joined the Brass Buttons and went on to a long career as a recording and mixing engineer.
I found this info on the band at the forum After Bebop a Lula: Utica Bands 50s 60s. There are many photos of the band in that thread, see these pages for some of them:
