Biography
Michael & the Messengers earned their lasting renown through an explosive garage-rock cover of the Reflections’ “(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet.” Their tangled backstory proved so intricate that it demanded an entire volume—Gary Myers’ Wisconsin rock chronicle Do You Hear That Beat—to clarify the sequence of events. Founded in Winona, Minnesota in 1962 by Greg Jeresek (later known as Greg Jennings) under the simpler name the Messengers, the lineup never actually included anyone called Michael; the original members also comprised guitarists Greg Bambenek and Roy Berger, keyboardist Chip Andrews, and drummer Jim Murray. As Winona’s first rock & roll ensemble, the Messengers distinguished themselves with matching olive-green blazers onstage and swiftly built a loyal regional audience, issuing their initial 45 “My Baby” on the Soma label in 1965. Bambenek soon departed for college, after which guitarist John Cader joined; the group persisted until Jeresek himself moved to Milwaukee for further studies. There he assembled a fresh Messengers configuration featuring singer Jeff Taylor, guitarist Peter Barans, keyboardist Jesse Roe, and drummer Augie Jurishica. At the urging of disc-jockey acquaintance Paul Christy, the musicians cut a high-energy version of Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” inside their living-room studio; Christy then secured its release on the USA label in early 1967, where it climbed into Chicago’s Top Five. While supporting the Dave Clark Five, the Messengers caught the attention of Motown scouts and thereby became the label’s first white rock signing; consequently they abandoned further promotion of “In the Midnight Hour,” prompting Christy and USA to draft an entirely new touring unit from the Leominster, Massachusetts band the Del-Mars—vocalist Wayne Beckner, guitarist Tom Fini, bassist Ron Gagnon, keyboardist Jack DeCarolis, and drummer Paul Cosenza. Rebranded Michael & the Messengers, this second aggregation recorded its own urgent reading of “In the Midnight Hour,” issued on USA later that year; the single climbed to Number 116 on the national pop charts. Meanwhile the original “Milwaukee Messengers” lineup, as collectors later termed them, moved to Motown’s Soul subsidiary and released “Window Shopping,” which peaked at Number 132. Michael & the Messengers returned to USA by summer with “(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet,” an impassioned blue-eyed soul treatment of the Reflections’ original that reached only Number 129 yet achieved lasting visibility through its inclusion on the first Nuggets anthology. Two further singles—“Run and Hide” and 1968’s “Gotta Take It Easy”—appeared before Michael & the Messengers’ recording activity ceased, although assorted lineups continued performing across the Midwest well into the next decade. The original Messengers, for their part, mounted their own rock opera The Evolution of Love and resurfaced on record in 1969 with the privately pressed “I Gotta Dance.” A self-titled album followed on Motown’s Rare Earth imprint; despite the 1971 single “That’s the Way a Woman Is” reaching Number 62, the Messengers disbanded shortly thereafter.
Albums
