Biography
In 1966 the Cyrkle registered on the charts with little apparent promise beyond a pair of hits, “Red Rubber Ball” and “Turn Down Day.” Their bright, buoyant fusion of folk, pop, and rock, together with the chance to complete two full-length albums, illustrates the high standard of recorded music between 1965 and 1967, when even secondary ensembles could still offer genuine pleasure. Paradoxically, a band later associated with only those two singles was regarded at the time as an attractive and strategic acquisition, enjoying varying degrees of access to the managerial and artistic orbits of both the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.
Brooklyn native Tom Dawes, a former folk performer who had earlier belonged to the Ironwood Knights, and Albany-born Don Dannemann met while students at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1961 and promptly organized a campus group called the Rhondells, a name unrelated to the Rhode Island-based Bill Deal & the Rhondels that later recorded for a Pennsylvania label. The Rhondells concentrated on faithful renditions of then-current hits by the Four Seasons and similar leading acts, as well as straightforward, dance-friendly rock & roll. They distinguished themselves from most fraternity bands through the meticulous attention Dawes and Dannemann brought to their arrangements, each musician possessing a keen ear for harmony and structure. Although listed officially as the bassist, Dawes quickly demonstrated an ability to dissect vocal parts of any ensemble he encountered and, after teaming with Dannemann, began composing original material. Their performances earned them engagements at the more reputable venues in Atlantic City, still a favored East Coast resort before casino legalization. During a 1964 summer residency at the Alibi Lounge they were noticed by Nat Weiss, an entertainment attorney whose association with Brian Epstein had suddenly elevated his profile that same year. Weiss helped secure the Beatles’ high-profile New York appearances at Carnegie Hall in 1964 and Shea Stadium the following year.
By late 1965 Weiss had taken a serious interest in the expanded lineup that now included drummer Marty Fried and keyboardist Earl Pickens. He arranged club engagements for them in Greenwich Village and oversaw the replacement of the dated name Rhondells with the Cyrkle, a spelling variation reportedly proposed by John Lennon at Epstein’s request and echoing the inventive orthography already popularized by the Byrds and the Beatles. While performing in the Village the group came to the attention of musician Barry Kornfeld, a friend of Paul Simon, who had just returned from England with an abundance of new songs and limited time before beginning an album project.
As 1966 opened, word-of-mouth from their live shows, where a concise folk-rock approach was on display, began to generate industry interest. The years spent refining a tight ensemble sound, combined with Dawes’s earlier folk experience, proved advantageous. Weiss’s ties to Epstein further strengthened their position, since numerous labels were then eager to share in the commercial momentum generated by Epstein’s roster, which included Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, and Cilla Black.
At that juncture Dannemann was required to fulfill a brief obligation with the United States Coast Guard, placing the band temporarily on hold. What appeared to be a setback instead produced an extraordinary opportunity: Dawes, now loosely affiliated with Simon & Garfunkel, joined their touring band as bassist. In that role he became familiar with virtually every song in Simon’s catalog, including two numbers co-written with the Seekers’ Bruce Woodley, “Red Rubber Ball” and “Wish You Could Be Here.” Upon the Cyrkle’s reunion, “Red Rubber Ball” was recorded immediately. With Epstein and Weiss applying maximum leverage, Columbia Records signed the group and issued the single in April 1966. It climbed to number two during the spring and secured the band a place on the Beatles’ 1966 summer tour, their final scheduled series of concerts. The members, who had begun casually as college musicians and only months earlier had performed for modest Village crowds, suddenly found themselves in arena settings.
That same spring producer John Simon oversaw the recording of the album Red Rubber Ball, preserving the lyrical folk-rock texture of the hit single. The LP reached number 47, and a follow-up single, “Turn Down Day,” appeared in early summer, peaking at number 16 and marking the group’s last entry on the pop charts. Despite subsequent personnel shifts—Earl Pickens departed for medical school and was succeeded by Mike Losekamp—the band issued a second album, Neon, in 1967, although its cover presented them as a trio. While containing several engaging tracks, Neon lacked the immediate appeal of its predecessor and, without another hit single, the Cyrkle’s commercial prospects steadily declined. During their remaining active period they cut ambitious material such as “Red Chair Fade Away,” an early composition by Robin and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and Dawes and Dannemann continued to demonstrate songwriting skill. Brian Epstein’s death in the summer of 1967 removed whatever residual industry support remained.
Around the same period Dawes sold an original jingle to an advertising agency for a five-figure fee, an amount more readily obtained than comparable earnings from live performances more than a year after their last hit. The precise sequence of the group’s dissolution is unclear, but Dawes left in early 1968, followed shortly by Losekamp and Dannemann. In their final weeks together the band supplied music, including several psychedelic pieces, for an independently produced film that later appeared as the sexploitation feature The Minx. Losekamp subsequently played with other ensembles, while Dawes and Dannemann established successful careers composing advertising jingles. Dannemann’s company, Mega Music, also created scores for several prominent children’s television programs of the 1970s and 1980s. Fried became an attorney and Pickens a physician. In 1981 Dannemann briefly returned to recording with his wife on the single “I Did It for You,” a tribute to John Lennon. The Cyrkle reconvened for a 1986 benefit tied to Hands Across America but have not performed together since. Their catalog continues to be reissued, particularly the two chart singles and occasional psychedelic tracks such as “The Words,” which appeared on Psychedelic Archives, Vol. 6. In the late 1980s Columbia inadvertently included an alternate mix of “Red Rubber Ball,” lacking the organ and foregrounding the guitars, on a various-artists compilation. The 1991 collection Red Rubber Ball gathered most of their accessible Columbia recordings onto a single disc. In 2002 Sundazed Records licensed the complete Cyrkle catalog, unearthing numerous previously unreleased selections and finally according the band the recognition it had long merited.
Brooklyn native Tom Dawes, a former folk performer who had earlier belonged to the Ironwood Knights, and Albany-born Don Dannemann met while students at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1961 and promptly organized a campus group called the Rhondells, a name unrelated to the Rhode Island-based Bill Deal & the Rhondels that later recorded for a Pennsylvania label. The Rhondells concentrated on faithful renditions of then-current hits by the Four Seasons and similar leading acts, as well as straightforward, dance-friendly rock & roll. They distinguished themselves from most fraternity bands through the meticulous attention Dawes and Dannemann brought to their arrangements, each musician possessing a keen ear for harmony and structure. Although listed officially as the bassist, Dawes quickly demonstrated an ability to dissect vocal parts of any ensemble he encountered and, after teaming with Dannemann, began composing original material. Their performances earned them engagements at the more reputable venues in Atlantic City, still a favored East Coast resort before casino legalization. During a 1964 summer residency at the Alibi Lounge they were noticed by Nat Weiss, an entertainment attorney whose association with Brian Epstein had suddenly elevated his profile that same year. Weiss helped secure the Beatles’ high-profile New York appearances at Carnegie Hall in 1964 and Shea Stadium the following year.
By late 1965 Weiss had taken a serious interest in the expanded lineup that now included drummer Marty Fried and keyboardist Earl Pickens. He arranged club engagements for them in Greenwich Village and oversaw the replacement of the dated name Rhondells with the Cyrkle, a spelling variation reportedly proposed by John Lennon at Epstein’s request and echoing the inventive orthography already popularized by the Byrds and the Beatles. While performing in the Village the group came to the attention of musician Barry Kornfeld, a friend of Paul Simon, who had just returned from England with an abundance of new songs and limited time before beginning an album project.
As 1966 opened, word-of-mouth from their live shows, where a concise folk-rock approach was on display, began to generate industry interest. The years spent refining a tight ensemble sound, combined with Dawes’s earlier folk experience, proved advantageous. Weiss’s ties to Epstein further strengthened their position, since numerous labels were then eager to share in the commercial momentum generated by Epstein’s roster, which included Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, and Cilla Black.
At that juncture Dannemann was required to fulfill a brief obligation with the United States Coast Guard, placing the band temporarily on hold. What appeared to be a setback instead produced an extraordinary opportunity: Dawes, now loosely affiliated with Simon & Garfunkel, joined their touring band as bassist. In that role he became familiar with virtually every song in Simon’s catalog, including two numbers co-written with the Seekers’ Bruce Woodley, “Red Rubber Ball” and “Wish You Could Be Here.” Upon the Cyrkle’s reunion, “Red Rubber Ball” was recorded immediately. With Epstein and Weiss applying maximum leverage, Columbia Records signed the group and issued the single in April 1966. It climbed to number two during the spring and secured the band a place on the Beatles’ 1966 summer tour, their final scheduled series of concerts. The members, who had begun casually as college musicians and only months earlier had performed for modest Village crowds, suddenly found themselves in arena settings.
That same spring producer John Simon oversaw the recording of the album Red Rubber Ball, preserving the lyrical folk-rock texture of the hit single. The LP reached number 47, and a follow-up single, “Turn Down Day,” appeared in early summer, peaking at number 16 and marking the group’s last entry on the pop charts. Despite subsequent personnel shifts—Earl Pickens departed for medical school and was succeeded by Mike Losekamp—the band issued a second album, Neon, in 1967, although its cover presented them as a trio. While containing several engaging tracks, Neon lacked the immediate appeal of its predecessor and, without another hit single, the Cyrkle’s commercial prospects steadily declined. During their remaining active period they cut ambitious material such as “Red Chair Fade Away,” an early composition by Robin and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and Dawes and Dannemann continued to demonstrate songwriting skill. Brian Epstein’s death in the summer of 1967 removed whatever residual industry support remained.
Around the same period Dawes sold an original jingle to an advertising agency for a five-figure fee, an amount more readily obtained than comparable earnings from live performances more than a year after their last hit. The precise sequence of the group’s dissolution is unclear, but Dawes left in early 1968, followed shortly by Losekamp and Dannemann. In their final weeks together the band supplied music, including several psychedelic pieces, for an independently produced film that later appeared as the sexploitation feature The Minx. Losekamp subsequently played with other ensembles, while Dawes and Dannemann established successful careers composing advertising jingles. Dannemann’s company, Mega Music, also created scores for several prominent children’s television programs of the 1970s and 1980s. Fried became an attorney and Pickens a physician. In 1981 Dannemann briefly returned to recording with his wife on the single “I Did It for You,” a tribute to John Lennon. The Cyrkle reconvened for a 1986 benefit tied to Hands Across America but have not performed together since. Their catalog continues to be reissued, particularly the two chart singles and occasional psychedelic tracks such as “The Words,” which appeared on Psychedelic Archives, Vol. 6. In the late 1980s Columbia inadvertently included an alternate mix of “Red Rubber Ball,” lacking the organ and foregrounding the guitars, on a various-artists compilation. The 1991 collection Red Rubber Ball gathered most of their accessible Columbia recordings onto a single disc. In 2002 Sundazed Records licensed the complete Cyrkle catalog, unearthing numerous previously unreleased selections and finally according the band the recognition it had long merited.
Albums
Revival
2024
Dance With Me Tonight
2024
We Thought We Could Fly
2023
Minx Soundtrack
2003
7 Up the UnCola / Their Hearts Were Filled with Spring / Sigma Stomp / Waiting in the Rain
2002
The Minx (Original Soundtrack)
1970
Neon
1967
Red Rubber Ball
1966
Red Rubber Ball (A Collection)
1966
Singles
