Lou Rawls

 In 1966, the student body of AHS was treated to a concert the likes of which has not been seen since. The legendary Lou Rawls performed when his career had just exploded onto the scene with the hit, “Love Is A Hurtin’ Thing.” Born in Chicago in 1935, Rawls has gone on to record more than 40 albums and had numerous other chart hits including “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine.” In addition to his music career, he has had numerous acting credits and is perhaps best known to America as the host of an annual telethon that benefits the United Negro College Fund. His rich, deep voice has maintained its elegance through the years. To quote writer Bill Dahl, “he’s as cool as cool can be.”                                                   

The Bobby Fuller Four

On the same bill with Lou Rawls was this Los Angeles based foursome that scored a huge hit with “I Fought The Law (and The Law Won)” in 1966. Bobby Fuller was born in Baytown, Texas in 1942 and was heavily inspired by the music of the great Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. He moved to California in 1964 and immediately hooked up with producer Bob Keene. His second LP bore the title of his only smash hit. A blazing guitarist and prolific songwriter, Fuller was about to split up the band to go solo when he mysteriously died on July 18, 1966. Although ruled by the, at the time, inept Los Angeles Coroner’s office as a suicide, most believe that Fuller was murdered. The official cause of death was listed as gasoline asphyxiation. His bruised, battered, bloodied and gasoline soaked body was discovered by his mother at least 3 hours after his death. There were no keys in the car (in which his body was found), the windows rolled up and too many still unanswered questions to this day. His death remains one of the great mysteries in the entertainment field.

We Five

Some of the artists that have performed at AHS have long since faded into music history and from memory. The We Five is such a band. They formed in 1965 at Mt. SAC and consisted, primarily, of Mike Stewart (brother of Kingston Trio member John Stewart), Pete Fullerton, Beverly Bivens, Bob Jones and Jerry Burgan. They were a typical one hit wonder, scoring in 1966 with “You Were On My Mind”. They attempted to broaden their musical style afterward and found little success. During the 1971-72 school year they performed at AHS. They were originally to play the gym, but poor ticket sales relegated them to the Little Theater. One added note, in the early 80’s they attempted to revive their career and recorded a few tracks at a San Gabriel Valley recording studio co-owned by a friend of mine. Their attempt went nowhere. 

Loggins & Messina

Jim Messina, a member of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, in late 1970 interviewed a new singer songwriter just signed to ABC Dunhill records. His name was Kenny Loggins. Jim had been asked to produce Kenny’s first album. The two developed such a bond that the resulting album was not a Kenny Loggins album, but rather entitled “Kenny Loggins With Jim Messina Sittin’ In.” In the spring of 1971, Loggins and Messina performed one of their first concerts at AHS. The album was received so well that they decided to create a new entity called Loggins and Messina. They went on to record 9 albums together which included many hits. Their first album was played for nearly a month during snack and lunch breaks at AHS prior to the concert.  We have former Vice Principal, Dan Anderson to thank for booking Loggins and Messina. Evidently, during a conversation with several students in the mid 70’s, he discussed this and indicated that he was fully responsible for their appearance.   

The Music Machine

Another one hit wonder that played AHS (in the late 1960’s) was this garage-punk band. Most famous for “Talk Talk” in 1966, they were led by singer and songwriter Sean Bonniwell. His lyrics and vision drew rave reviews at the time, but the band was history shortly thereafter in 1967.

Hedge & Donna

During The 1970-71 school year the husband and wife folk duo, Hedge and Donna performed. They released 5 albums in the late 60’s and very early 70’s. Shortly after, they split professionally and personally. Hedge Capers may be a counselor in La Jolla. We have been unable to track down anything regarding his ex-wife, Donna. There is really no additional information to be gathered from anywhere.                                                     

The Hello People

One of the first art-rock groups to come out of the 1960’s, The Hello People combined the worlds of rock and roll and mime. Producer Lew Futterman assembled them in 1967 from an idea that originated from Marcel Carne’s film Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis). They performed at AHS in 1973.  In the early 1970’s they went on tour with Todd Rundgren and became a part of his touring group. They continued performing through the 70’s then disbanded after releasing 6 albums.

Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band

A genuine legend and pioneer of rock and roll performed in Arcadia at the Arboretum during the 1974-75 school year for a concert heavily promoted at AHS. Obviously, we all know of Rick Nelson and his family from the long running TV program “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Rock and roll music became acceptable to America’s parents largely thanks to Rick Nelson. He recorded literally scores of hits in the 1950’s and 60’s. As the British invasion took hold, many American acts faded from prominence including Nelson. In 1972, inspired by a poor reception at a concert where he mainly played contemporary material, he wrote and recorded “Garden Party”, his first hit (and last) in nearly a decade. Tragically, he died December 31, 1985 in a plane crash in Texas. Visit the official Rick Nelson website at www.ricknelson.com

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks

While we have had a number of one-hit-wonders perform at AHS through the years, during the 1974-75 year, we had a group that never, from what we can tell, had one at all, but nonetheless, sold a reasonable amount of records. Shortly, before playing AHS, the band made a guest appearance on the Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson. Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks developed a loyal cult following in the 70’s, but have been sporadic in his output over the years. The band has resurfaced in various forms in 1978, 1994 and again in 2000.

Miscellany

Through the years, many other acts/performers have appeared at Arcadia High that, for whatever reason, never found commercial success and that some of you may well recall from our High School days. Thus, there is no information available on them, but we did not wish to slight them in any way by not mentioning them. These included The Dave Loy Trio (1965), Stanford Red Vest Band with Pete Bandurraga (1964), Bob Morley (1976), John McGruder Combo (1977), Freedom Jam (1983), Crimson Bridge (1972), The Freemen (1966) featuring Ron Hobbs (AHS 1965) and many more whose name we don’t have at this time.