The Royal Guardsmen
Encyclopedia
The Royal Guardsmen are an American rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
, best known for their 1966 hit single "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
"Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida based rock band, The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records...
".
Snoopy vs. the Red Baron
Originally known as the Posmen, the Ocala, FloridaOcala, Florida
Ocala is a city in Marion County, Florida. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 53,491. It is the county seat of Marion County, and the principal city of the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2007 population of 324,857.-History:Ocala...
-based sextet
Sextet
A sextet is a formation containing exactly six members. It is commonly associated with vocal or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
adopted their anglophile moniker during the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
, led by 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...
and other British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. The group was originally composed of Bill Balough (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), John Burdett (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
), Chris Nunley (vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
), Tom Richards (guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
), Billy Taylor (organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
), and Barry Winslow (vocals/guitar).
The Guardsmen's first single, "Baby Let's Wait", failed to make the charts, but their second offering, "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
"Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida based rock band, The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records...
", rode the Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
craze all the way to #2 in the Billboard Hot 100
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...
, remaining in the bestsellers for 12 weeks, with an eventual one million sale and a gold record
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
from the R.I.A.A.
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in February 1967.
Snoopy
Snoopy
Snoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
, the Red Baron, and aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
became recurring themes in their music, though they did have some chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
singles on other topics, including "Any Wednesday", "I Say Love", and the Top 40 hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"Baby Let's Wait", a re-release of their first single.
The original group split in 1969, but a band with some replacement players continued for another year. Two 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...
s and the original albums (doubled up) have been released on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
. Tom Richards died in 1979 and Pat Waddell became lead guitarist.
Today
The Royal Guardsmen made a comeback in December 2006, when they released a new Snoopy song, "Snoopy vs. Osama", which became a hit on The Dr. DementoDr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....
Show. Rick Cosner has been the alternate drummer since 2006, substituting for John Burdett as needed. The current band performs regularly around the United States.
Discography
ALBUMS:- Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron (1966) #44
- Return of the Red Baron (1967) did not chart
- Snoopy And His FriendsSnoopy And His FriendsSnoopy and His Friends is the 3rd album by the Ocala, Florida group The Royal Guardsmen.The group is best known for their hit recording of "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron", which was first released in 1966 as a 45rpm record single...
album (1967) #46- Also on Billboard's Christmas Album chart at #6 in 1967 and #19 in 1968
- Snoopy For President album (1968, re-released 1976) #189 in 1968, did not chart in 1976
- Merry Snoopy's Christmas (1980)
- Anthology (CD, April 1995)
- Best of The Royal Guardsmen (CD, May 1998)
- Snoopy Vs. The Red BaronSnoopy Vs. The Red Baron"Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" is a novelty song written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded in 1966 by the Florida based rock band, The Royal Guardsmen. The song was recorded at the Charles Fuller Productions studio in Tampa, Florida, and was released as a single on Laurie Records...
/ Snoopy & His Friends (CD re-release, June 2001) - Return of the Red Baron / Snoopy for President (CD re-release, June 2001)
SINGLES:
- "Baby Let's Wait" b/w "Leaving Me" (1966) did not chart
- "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" b/w "I Needed You" (1966) #2 US, #8 UK
- "The Return of the Red Baron" b/w "Sweetmeats Slide" (1967) #15 US, #37 UK
- "Airplane Song (My Airplane)" b/w "Om" (1967) #46
- "Wednesday" b/w "So Right (To Be In Love)" (1967) #97
- "Snoopy's ChristmasSnoopy's Christmas"Snoopy's Christmas" is a song performed by The Royal Guardsmen in 1967. It continues to be played as a holiday favorite on most "oldie" radio stations, however is also often played on radio stations playing a Hit Music format as well as Adult Contemporary format stations...
" b/w "It Kinda Looks Like Christmas" single (1967)- Charted on Billboard's Christmas charts three times: #1 (1967), #15 (1968), #11 (1969)
- "I Say Love" b/w "I'm Not Gonna Stay" (1968) #72
- "Snoopy For President" b/w "Down Behind The Lines" (1968) #85
- Original version contains intro mentioning real 1968 candidates; later re-issues omit this
- "Baby Let's Wait" b/w "Biplane 'Evermore'" (1968; re-release of first single) #35
- Some versions contain "So Right (To Be In Love)" as the b-side
- "Magic Window" b/w "Mother, Where's Your Daughter" (1969) b-side charted at #112
- "Snoopy For President" b/w "Down Behind The Lines" (1972; re-release) did not chart
- "Snoopy For President" b/w "Sweetmeats Slide" (1976; re-release) did not chart
- 1972 and 1976 re-issues do not include original 1968 intro (see above)
- "Snoopy's Christmas" b/w "The Smallest Astronaut" (1970?) b-side credited to Barry Winslow; did not chart
- "Snoopy vs. Osama" (2006) did not chart