The Gants
Encyclopedia
The Gants were an American
garage rock
band of the 1960s.
, the group was originally known as The Kingsmen (but not to be confused with likewise-named Kingsmen
who had the hit "Louie, Louie") when the band got together in 1963 to play R&B covers and the kind of instrumental
s popularized by The Ventures
. Their original line-up was Sid Herring (lead vocals and guitar), Johnny Freeman (guitar), Vince Montgomery (bass guitar) and Don Wood (drums).
Several events combined to push the band out of the total obscurity of playing other people's songs at Greenwood, Mississippi
dances and into the relative obscurity of 1960s garage-rock history. First, Freeman had to quit, because his parents would not let him play out-of-town shows, and was replaced by Johnny Sanders. Since a name-change was called for they chose The Gants, after a popular brand of shirt with a button-down collar, which is also the French
word for "glove". At the same time, Herring, who some say resembled Peter Noone
of Herman's Hermits
and sounded like John Lennon
of The Beatles
, developed a great interest
in The Beatles and began writing original (if somewhat derivative) songs. In early 1965, The Gants were overheard by a U.S. tour coordinator for The Animals
while playing in a hotel ballroom and were chosen to open for that band's Florida
tour. This turned out to be a typical development for The Gants — playing the first set for more famous groups — but opportunities were limited with half the band still in high school and the other half in college, unwilling to drop out and face their draft board.
At this point, The Gants had a professional sound and a repertoire of original material and an even larger repertoire of covers, which were reflected in the choice of sides for their first single: (Bo Diddley
's) "Road Runner
" backed with (their own) "My Baby Don't Care", released on the Statue label in mid-1965. The record showed enough potential for re-release on a major label, Liberty Records
, in September, and it saw some modest chart success, reaching #46 on the U.S. pop singles chart
. Later that year, Liberty released The Gants' first album, Roadrunner, which supposedly featured Duane Allman
playing organ on "House of the Rising Sun" (it is most likely they meant his brother, Greg Allman, however). In January 1966 a new single was released, "Little Boy Sad", which included an early use of the wah-wah tube device later made famous by Joe Walsh
and Peter Frampton
. The band tried to get Liberty to release their recording of Them
's "Gloria" but the label refused. The Gants were later disgusted to see the song become a huge hit for The Shadows of Knight.
A definite pattern had been established: The Gants were able to record and make brief tours during vacations, but that was never enough. Radio stations gave up on their records when the band could not get away from their responsibilities at home for promotional appearances — and in the mid-1960s, radio airplay was the key to success. In 1966 and early 1967, several singles and two more albums were released, Gants Galore and Gants Again. Nothing went anywhere, except Sanders, who quit and was replaced by the guitarist he had replaced, Johnny Freeman. One more visit to California
in the summer of 1967 proved fruitless, and three of the (former) Gants headed back to Greenwood, leaving Sid Herring in Los Angeles
with a job as a staff songwriter for Liberty Records.
Despite their lack of hits, The Gants maintained a minor cult aura within the garage rock ethos and were not entirely forgotten. One of their songs, "Wonder" was included on the 1980 compilation album
, Pebbles, Volume 8
. In 2000, Sundazed Records
released Roadrunner! The Best of The Gants, with liner notes by Mike Stax; their single "Little Boy Sad" was included on Oxford American
magazine's Southern Sampler music CD. As of 2005, The Gants were performing together again: Sid Herring, Don Wood, Johnny Sanders, Johnny Freeman, and on bass Charles Hall, replacing Vince Montgomery, who died of natural causes in 2001 at his home in Clarksdale, Mississippi
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
band of the 1960s.
History
One of the few outfits of its kind to emerge from the Deep SouthDeep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
, the group was originally known as The Kingsmen (but not to be confused with likewise-named Kingsmen
The Kingsmen
The Kingsmen is a 1960s garage rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie", which held the #2 spot on the Billboard charts for six weeks...
who had the hit "Louie, Louie") when the band got together in 1963 to play R&B covers and the kind of instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
s popularized by The Ventures
The Ventures
The Ventures is an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 in Tacoma, Washington. Founded by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, the group in its various incarnations has had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. With over 100 million records sold, the group is the best-selling...
. Their original line-up was Sid Herring (lead vocals and guitar), Johnny Freeman (guitar), Vince Montgomery (bass guitar) and Don Wood (drums).
Several events combined to push the band out of the total obscurity of playing other people's songs at Greenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood, Mississippi
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Leflore County, Mississippi, United States, located at the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta approximately 96 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi, and 130 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. The population was 15,205 at the 2010 census. It is the...
dances and into the relative obscurity of 1960s garage-rock history. First, Freeman had to quit, because his parents would not let him play out-of-town shows, and was replaced by Johnny Sanders. Since a name-change was called for they chose The Gants, after a popular brand of shirt with a button-down collar, which is also the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
word for "glove". At the same time, Herring, who some say resembled Peter Noone
Peter Noone
Peter Noone is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor, best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s rock group Herman's Hermits.-Early life:...
of Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
and sounded like John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, developed a great interest
Beatlemania
Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success...
in The Beatles and began writing original (if somewhat derivative) songs. In early 1965, The Gants were overheard by a U.S. tour coordinator for The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
while playing in a hotel ballroom and were chosen to open for that band's Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
tour. This turned out to be a typical development for The Gants — playing the first set for more famous groups — but opportunities were limited with half the band still in high school and the other half in college, unwilling to drop out and face their draft board.
At this point, The Gants had a professional sound and a repertoire of original material and an even larger repertoire of covers, which were reflected in the choice of sides for their first single: (Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
's) "Road Runner
Road Runner (Bo Diddley song)
"Road Runner" is a song written and performed by American rock and roll performer Bo Diddley, originally released as a single by Checker Records in January 1960, and later released on the LP record Bo Diddley in the Spotlight. The song reached #20 on Billboard magazine's Hot R&B Sides chart, and...
" backed with (their own) "My Baby Don't Care", released on the Statue label in mid-1965. The record showed enough potential for re-release on a major label, Liberty Records
Liberty Records
Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.-1950s:...
, in September, and it saw some modest chart success, reaching #46 on the U.S. pop singles chart
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. Later that year, Liberty released The Gants' first album, Roadrunner, which supposedly featured Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
playing organ on "House of the Rising Sun" (it is most likely they meant his brother, Greg Allman, however). In January 1966 a new single was released, "Little Boy Sad", which included an early use of the wah-wah tube device later made famous by Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...
and Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
. The band tried to get Liberty to release their recording of Them
Them (band)
Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...
's "Gloria" but the label refused. The Gants were later disgusted to see the song become a huge hit for The Shadows of Knight.
A definite pattern had been established: The Gants were able to record and make brief tours during vacations, but that was never enough. Radio stations gave up on their records when the band could not get away from their responsibilities at home for promotional appearances — and in the mid-1960s, radio airplay was the key to success. In 1966 and early 1967, several singles and two more albums were released, Gants Galore and Gants Again. Nothing went anywhere, except Sanders, who quit and was replaced by the guitarist he had replaced, Johnny Freeman. One more visit to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the summer of 1967 proved fruitless, and three of the (former) Gants headed back to Greenwood, leaving Sid Herring in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
with a job as a staff songwriter for Liberty Records.
Despite their lack of hits, The Gants maintained a minor cult aura within the garage rock ethos and were not entirely forgotten. One of their songs, "Wonder" was included on the 1980 compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, Pebbles, Volume 8
Pebbles, Volume 8 (LP)
Pebbles, Volume 8 is a compilation album among the LP's in the Pebbles series. The music on this album has no relation to Pebbles, Volume 8 that was released on CD many years later.-Release data:...
. In 2000, Sundazed Records
Sundazed Records
Sundazed Records is a record label based in Coxsackie, in the Catskills of New York. It specializes in obscure and rare recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.Label founders Bob Irwin and his wife Mary started the label in 1989...
released Roadrunner! The Best of The Gants, with liner notes by Mike Stax; their single "Little Boy Sad" was included on Oxford American
Oxford American
The Oxford American is an American quarterly literary magazine "dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South."-First publication:...
magazine's Southern Sampler music CD. As of 2005, The Gants were performing together again: Sid Herring, Don Wood, Johnny Sanders, Johnny Freeman, and on bass Charles Hall, replacing Vince Montgomery, who died of natural causes in 2001 at his home in Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 20,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Coahoma County....
.
Members
- Sid Herring (vocals, guitar)
- Johnny Freeman (guitar)
- Vince Montogomery (bass)
- Don Wood (drums)
- Johnny Sanders (guitar)
Compilation albums
- I Wonder (1988)
- Roadrunner! The Best of The Gants (2000)
- Introducing The Gants (2005)
Singles
- "Roadrunner" / "My Baby Don't Care" (1965)
- "What's Happening" / "Careless" (1965)
- "Crackin' Up" / "Dr. Feelgood" (1966)
- "I Want Your Lovin'" / "Spoonful of Sugar" (1966)
- "(You Can't Blow) Smoke Rings" / "Little Boy Sad" (1966)
- "Drifters Sunrise" / "Just a Good" (1967)
- "Greener Days" / "I Wonder" (1967)
- "Another Chance" / "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" (as Sid Herring and The Gants) (1969)