Biography
Without the later prominence of Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, the Au Go-Go Singers would scarcely warrant discussion here, nor would the 1990s compact-disc reissue of their sole finished long-player. Their brief run as a unit supplied the setting in which the two musicians first collaborated formally, and it also created the indirect circumstances under which Neil Young initially encountered Stills on stage.
The nine-piece ensemble took shape largely by happenstance after an unsuccessful bid to mount an Off-Off-Broadway production. Texas-born Stephen Stills and Ohio-born Richie Furay had already been performing together in Greenwich Village clubs since early 1964, sharing bills and scenes with Zal Yanovsky, John Sebastian, Fred Neil, Tom Paxton, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty. Still searching for steady direction, they were joined by Furay’s college classmates Bob Harmelink and Nels Gustafson. A songwriter and aspiring producer named Ed E. Miller discovered them; Miller had already scored a major success with his composition “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down,” recorded by the Serendipity Singers. He merged Stills, Furay, Harmelink, and Gustafson with the existing Bay Singers—Mike Scott, Roy Michaels, Fred Geiger, and Jean Gurney—then added Michaels’s girlfriend Kathy King to form the nine-member collective.
The nameless group debuted in July 1964 in Miller’s revue America Sings, an ambitious attempt to trace the full sweep of American folk music. Despite favorable responses to individual performances, the show proved too demanding for audiences and closed after two weeks. Miller nevertheless secured the ensemble a contract with Roulette Records. The label, seeking to capitalize on the commercial momentum of the New Christy Minstrels and the Serendipity Singers, assigned the sessions to the production team of Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, known professionally as Hugo and Luigi.
Around the same period, club owner and promoter Howard Solomon, later noted for his work with the Blues Project, recruited the singers as the house act at his Club Au Go-Go and renamed them accordingly. When Roulette issued their album in the second half of 1964, the title read They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers.
Solomon’s bookings and a network-television appearance brought visibility, yet the income proved insufficient to keep the group intact. The New Christy Minstrels and Serendipity Singers commanded the top fees and headline slots; the Au Go-Go Singers remained several rungs lower, often serving as openers. A disagreement with Solomon transferred management to Jim Friedman, the music director Solomon had previously engaged. Under Friedman the act grew tighter and more engaging, but talent agencies avoided the ensemble because of its binding Roulette contract, whose owner Morris Levy carried a well-earned reputation as a figure with underworld ties.
The album itself became a liability. Although “High Flyin’ Bird,” featuring Stephen Stills on lead vocals, displayed a more restrained and convincing delivery than Barry McGuire’s contemporaneous style, most of the record sounded like diluted Serendipity Singers material. By late 1964 the folk revival was already yielding to British-inspired electric rock, further diminishing interest. A planned follow-up never materialized. Draft notices soon arrived for the male members, prompting several to return to college to preserve student deferments; Kathy King’s departure in late winter 1965 completed the dissolution.
At that moment an offer arrived for a short Canadian tour. Reconstituted as the Company under Roy Michaels’s direction and styled as a revival of the Bay Singers, the lineup comprised Michaels, Stephen Stills, Jean Gurney, Fred Geiger, and Michael Scott. In April the group played a Fort William, Ontario club shared with the Squires, whose members included Neil Young. Though professional collaboration lay months in the future, those performances marked the first intersection of Stills’s and Young’s paths and planted the seed that later grew into Buffalo Springfield.
The nine-piece ensemble took shape largely by happenstance after an unsuccessful bid to mount an Off-Off-Broadway production. Texas-born Stephen Stills and Ohio-born Richie Furay had already been performing together in Greenwich Village clubs since early 1964, sharing bills and scenes with Zal Yanovsky, John Sebastian, Fred Neil, Tom Paxton, Cass Elliot, and Denny Doherty. Still searching for steady direction, they were joined by Furay’s college classmates Bob Harmelink and Nels Gustafson. A songwriter and aspiring producer named Ed E. Miller discovered them; Miller had already scored a major success with his composition “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down,” recorded by the Serendipity Singers. He merged Stills, Furay, Harmelink, and Gustafson with the existing Bay Singers—Mike Scott, Roy Michaels, Fred Geiger, and Jean Gurney—then added Michaels’s girlfriend Kathy King to form the nine-member collective.
The nameless group debuted in July 1964 in Miller’s revue America Sings, an ambitious attempt to trace the full sweep of American folk music. Despite favorable responses to individual performances, the show proved too demanding for audiences and closed after two weeks. Miller nevertheless secured the ensemble a contract with Roulette Records. The label, seeking to capitalize on the commercial momentum of the New Christy Minstrels and the Serendipity Singers, assigned the sessions to the production team of Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, known professionally as Hugo and Luigi.
Around the same period, club owner and promoter Howard Solomon, later noted for his work with the Blues Project, recruited the singers as the house act at his Club Au Go-Go and renamed them accordingly. When Roulette issued their album in the second half of 1964, the title read They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers.
Solomon’s bookings and a network-television appearance brought visibility, yet the income proved insufficient to keep the group intact. The New Christy Minstrels and Serendipity Singers commanded the top fees and headline slots; the Au Go-Go Singers remained several rungs lower, often serving as openers. A disagreement with Solomon transferred management to Jim Friedman, the music director Solomon had previously engaged. Under Friedman the act grew tighter and more engaging, but talent agencies avoided the ensemble because of its binding Roulette contract, whose owner Morris Levy carried a well-earned reputation as a figure with underworld ties.
The album itself became a liability. Although “High Flyin’ Bird,” featuring Stephen Stills on lead vocals, displayed a more restrained and convincing delivery than Barry McGuire’s contemporaneous style, most of the record sounded like diluted Serendipity Singers material. By late 1964 the folk revival was already yielding to British-inspired electric rock, further diminishing interest. A planned follow-up never materialized. Draft notices soon arrived for the male members, prompting several to return to college to preserve student deferments; Kathy King’s departure in late winter 1965 completed the dissolution.
At that moment an offer arrived for a short Canadian tour. Reconstituted as the Company under Roy Michaels’s direction and styled as a revival of the Bay Singers, the lineup comprised Michaels, Stephen Stills, Jean Gurney, Fred Geiger, and Michael Scott. In April the group played a Fort William, Ontario club shared with the Squires, whose members included Neil Young. Though professional collaboration lay months in the future, those performances marked the first intersection of Stills’s and Young’s paths and planted the seed that later grew into Buffalo Springfield.
Albums