Hey Roberto, been out of town so it took awhile to get to this. When I left the music business I just assumed that

we duked it out with the Medallions and they may have pulled some strings and won the battle it was approximately

17 years latter that I found out not only did our record get played all over the country but it sounds like it played more

than the Medallions.

 

From: tommy mann

Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2015 10:11 PM

To: Louis Davis

Subject: book

 

Hey Louis, hope things are going well for you. Several years ago through email I told Marvin about

a situation that happened in Nashville and Marvin said I should tell you about it because you had

been thinking about writing a book and you might find the information interesting. I said that I was

leery about bringing it up and didn`t want to end up being a casualty. Now that more time has gone

by and with diffusion about who the actual individuals are; I feel more at ease about telling you this.

If you would like to pursue writing a book about it, you have my permission. This is what happened.

 

Pat and I moved to Nashville in October 1979 and a few years later I`m reading the paper and there

was a very sad article about a 22 year old kid that came out of one of the studios on music row where

he worked, he had finished the work day, and a person wearing a mask of some kind came up to him

and shot him. The kid was wounded but managed to run down the street to get away but the shooter

followed him and stood over him and shot him dead. Several people saw this happen but with the mask

on nobody could identify him. The next day one of my friends said that the killing was strange and didn`t

make any sense. I said it makes perfectly good sense and that I new what happened, He said, what

happened? I said, “ Some person in the record business had spent a lot of money on a record and told

the kid; whose job it was to report on record sales and air play time on songs being released to the public,

to falsify the facts and report his record was doing great when it actually was not doing well”. My friend said;

you are full of it Tommy, nobody would do that. About 5 years ago etc. I was in Nashville and saw an article

about a murder case from long ago being solved. I saw a mention of the music business so I read it. It said:

A man came into the police station a few days ago and said he had information about an unsolved murder

that happened years ago. He told the police the man`s name and that he worked with him or for him, I don`t

remember which , but said the man had spent a lot of money on a record and wanted it to be a big hit but it

wasn`t. He talked to the kid and told him to report to Billboard, etc. that his song was a hit. The kid refused

to do that even after threats. So the man went to the studio and when the kid came out he murdered him.

The police said why din`t you tell us back then? He said; He would have killed me too. The police said; Why

are you telling us now? He said; He died last week. The case was closed. I called my friend and said; Do you

remember the murder a long time ago and he said yes. I said; did you see the article in paper and he said yes.

He said, How did you know what had happened? I said let me tell you.

I told him: Back in the sixties I had a band that had record that had been recorded by another group and we

were told in several places we played across the Southeast that kids called in said they liked our version of

the song 97% over the other version. I said great. One man in particular said; he had been told to report just the

opposite. When he said he would not do that ,the  man from the record company said “You can`t run your radio

station without  -------- records, if you don`t do as I say your station will  have a lot of problems, we are one of the top

record companies in the world. Maybe we can close your business. I said what can I do; he said your record company

has to put more money in it ( pay offs ). Their record went into the top twenty and ours didn`t. I went on about my

life and forgot about it. We moved to Nashville and I was working with a big company with a lot of contacts in

town and being in Human Resources was at a meeting with some music company executives. One of them became

really excited when he heard that I had been a member of a band in the sixties called the K-OTICS. He was hugging

me and asking all kind of questions about us, where we were from, size of band , etc. I said, While I appreciate

the interest, why is this so important to you? He ; “ YA`LL ARE THE BIGGEST BAND IN THE SIXTIES TO NEVER MAKE

IT TO THE PARTY”. I said I know there were some areas where we got a raw deal but I`ve moved on and never looked

back. He said; “No, you don`t understand; I finished college in 1965-66  and went to work with a company in the music

industry on the west coast. I remember the song, DOUBLE SHOT OF MY BABY`S LOVE coming out and both records

were played. My territory was from San Diego to Seattle. Your band, K-otics, version played twice as much as the

other version. Their version kept moving up the charts and I expected the K-otics version to over take them in the

charts. I was working in the area of the company that handled the charts and I would ask why the K-otics version

of DOUBLE SHOT wasn`t showing up? My bosses would just grin or shrug their shoulders and walk away. I was

just out of college and new to the company and naïve. It was only later that I understood what had happened to

the reporting of number of plays of songs, etc. we were turning in. It was  actually very simple : When reports come

in and two songs are listed, just put all plays under one song. All plays had to be reported once turned in so you

have to report something to have the correct air play time to BMI. If two groups have a combined plays of two

million and only one of the them gets credit that song will go twice as high as it should, while the song that gets

no credit goes nowhere.” He said; “I`m sorry you never got credit for millions of plays on the west coast, which

would have and should have pushed your record to the top of the charts.” Even though I knew we had been

treated that way in Atlanta, Ga. at the wholesale distribution of our record; sending the other version out

and not ours, even when ours was requested. I was startled that a high level corporation would internally

do that. My opinion was why not have both versions be a double hit! Get it, a double shot? In closing , when

people say about the hit record Double Shot, but the history books say; The Swinging Medallions. I say

“I don`t give a damn what the history books say”.

 

from Tommy Mann of the K-Otics:
We (K-OTICS) were playing at the Old Dutch in Panama City, This was the last week of May or the first week of June 1965. I finished college and left for PC that day, as I said in my interview with Garage Bands of the Sixties, my father was about to skin me alive because I was not going to work in one of the many College Grads training programs, Sears, John Deere, etc. He was at my graduation at Troy and I said bye and we were performing that night! After we had played a couple of nights we heard there was a band playing at the Old Hickory just down the road. We went to hear them and the place was a restaurant. There were only three guys there; John McElrath, Joe Morris and the lead guitar player. So you had Keyboards, Drums and guitar. They sounded really good and John was playing the Organ and an electric piano. I had not heard one before so I said then, that I had to have one in our band. John said they were waiting on the rest of the band to show up. There were only six people in the place other than us. He told us they were called the Medallions. The rest of the band showed up over the next couple of days and I wasn`t sure when they were going to stop! They ended up with eight members. The more players they added, the better they got and the bigger the crowds became. I told John that I thought they had a potential gold mine , he said why and I said I`m from the central part of Alabama and every summer there are thousands of kids from Al. etc. that come to the beach and have nowhere to go because they aren`t 21 and can`t get the clubs, like the Old Dutch, so they will love the Old Hickory Restaurant. They didn`t serve alcohol and there was no age limit. I believe it may have been the first Teen Club anywhere. During the week they played a song that they introduced as Double Shot and said they were in the process of putting it out on a record.

 John told me that it was supposed to be on DOT RECORDS within six months. We finished up at the Old Dutch and wished them luck and went on our way. About four months later we saw them again somewhere in south Georgia. I asked about their record release and John said DOT RECORDS wasn`t working out and he was looking elsewhere. I said:" good luck, I think the song is a hit". We saw them again a month or so later and they had not been able to find a way to get the record out. At that time I believe Kim and I said we were looking at recording it and I believe they may have been frustrated and said something like; go ahead somebody needs to. I still didn`t feel comfortable about it so I asked a lawyer friend to check the legality of it and he let me know about the Dick Hollerday version and said that any song that has been played on the airways was available for anybody to record and release as long as the writers were paid. Only then did I agree to proceed with Sam Phillips in Memphis. There, you have it Roberto!!

Here's a good 'un: 

Robert

There was good reason poor Glenn was a train wreck every Monday, if we had played a gig over the weekend. If there was a Friday gig, as well as a Saturday one, we skipped school altogether, and Kim Venable would drive down and collect us, and back to Tuskegee, before lunch. Kim was an only child, and his overindulgent father had built a small abode behind their main house for the sole purpose of letting Kim practice his drums in the privacy it provided. It also served as a place for the whole group to jam, and offered storage for instruments, and several beds, a shower, and a refrigerator for the beer that flowed nonstop.

His dad was into some sort of foundry/iron work there in Tuskegee, and had made the trailer we used custom, to fit exactly what was needed on the road, and Glenn and I were welcomed guests, either in the large home, or out back in that " Rumpus Room". His mother cooked exceptionally fine Southern meals, and we were expected at the dinner table with each of these. If the gig was close by, we came back to Kim's house; if not, it was the usual motels. By Sunday, everyone was blown out, so someone driving us back to Dothan was out of the question; off to the airport in Montgomery (30 miles away), and home on the most rustic, noisiest old airplane I've ever been on. It was some pre-WW2 thing, but a flight, for 11 bucks got us home around 10pm, with Glenn's mom collecting us in Dothan. Most of the time, I just spent the night there, and also arrived at school looking like an unmade bed, as well, if I went at all. Even teens have a breaking point, where sleep is involved.

Kim's parents treated us like their own, and were gracious, gentle folk, a kindness I'll never forget. Marvin and Tommy also lived in Tuskegee, with Ray Goss not far away in Tallassee, so we were off and running in no time flat. Most gigs during the school year were at Auburn, in one fraternity house or another, and an easy drive back to Tuskegee. How can I forget wading ankle-deep in spilt beer, loading the trailer, after one of those frat parties? The frat boys made sure we had a good time, too, but I was always saddled with the job of driving, so I had to remain somewhat sober. No one at any of the parties drank more than Tommy "Swampman" Mann, the singer, but we were used to that; he did it without fail, if alcohol was available. I recall gigs in dry counties where my first taste of "moonshine" happened, but a party was had, somehow, after each gig. The groupies and hangers-on always provided us with something, back in the motel of choice, and we never declined.

Now you know why Glenn Griffin slept during study hall, every Monday; he was part of the "Outer Mongolian Herd"

L. S. D.

California

9 April 2009

Mo' Tommy Mann @ this link  https://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/2019/02/from-april-25-1966-miami-news-from.html