The Premiers

The Premiers stood among the numerous Chicano garage outfits active across southern California in the mid-1960s and earned lasting notice as the creators of the frat-house staple “Farmer John.” Lawrence Perez handled guitar and his brother John played drums when the group first assembled in the early years of the decade; rehearsals took place at the family home in San Gabriel. Their mother arranged an audition for entrepreneur Billy Cardenas, who responded favorably to their style and saw commercial promise in the prevailing “Louie, Louie” craze. Cardenas therefore steered them toward Richard Berry’s “Farmer John,” another R&B gem comparable to the Kingsmen’s hit, and brought neighborhood girls into the studio to supply spontaneous audience sounds that would evoke the Beatlemania surge of early 1964. Faro issued the resulting single, which Warner Bros. later picked up; it climbed to number 19 during the summer and prompted the full-length release Farmer John Live, again captured with fans supplying the ambient crowd. The band stayed with Faro for several additional singles issued between 1965 and 1967, a handful of them overseen by Larry Tamblyn of the Standells, yet none achieved comparable national traction. Military conscription soon scattered the members. Three decades afterward the Premiers reconvened in the studio, once more featuring the Perez brothers alongside guitarist George Delgado.