Biography
Mid-1965 saw the Cherry Slush coalesce as a Saginaw, Michigan garage band whose original lineup featured vocalist Danny Parsons, guitarist Mark Burdick, bassist Art Hauffe, keyboardist Brian Bennett, and drummer Dick Coughlin. Previously billed as the Wayfarers and then the Captives, the group recruited local legend Dick Wagner—of Detroit sensations the Bossmen and the Frost, and later a sought-after session player—to produce its debut single, “She’ll Be Back,” in late 1966. That record stirred regional interest and led the band to Cleveland, where it cut the follow-up, 1967’s “I Cannot Stop You,” a regional smash across southeast Michigan reported to have sold more than 75,000 copies. After guitarist Gene Bruce replaced Burdick, the Cherry Slush tracked its third single, “Day Don’t Come,” at Chicago’s famed Chess Studios; another local blockbuster, it nevertheless stayed confined to the Detroit scene. In late 1968 the group cut its final release, a cover of the Beatles’ “Birthday,” before dissolving the following year. Wagner’s WMG label issued the anthology Looking Back in 2001, rounding up every Cherry Slush single. The summer of 2002 brought the first reunion in 33 years when Parsons, Bruce, Hauffe, Bennett, and Coughlin performed together at a Wagner tribute held at Saginaw’s White’s Bar.