Biography
Bob Keane, the founder and head of Del-Fi Records, originally performed under the name Verrill Keene. His entry into the music business occurred during the 1940s, when he worked as a clarinetist and led a large jazz ensemble. In 1966, still using the spelling Keene, he set out to produce a fresh collection of jazz pieces that fused orchestral swing with rock rhythms while combining distorted guitar tones, string sections, and choral vocals. He enlisted Gene Page to handle the writing and scoring of four selections—“Norwegian Wood,” “Velvet Waters,” “Night Scene,” and “An Afternoon Affair.” Lawrence Page, Gene’s father, had composed the latter two numbers, and Barry White, then serving as an A&R executive for Keane’s Bronco imprint, supplied the drumming on both. “Norwegian Wood” appeared first as a Lighthouse single credited to The Verrill Keene Orchestra, a project that drew on Keane’s actual middle name. Jack Stern soon supplied four more pieces—“Hideaway,” arranged by Paul Moer, along with “Peas and Corn,” “Salt Water Taffy,” and “Heartbreak”—and Keane added the standard “Adios, Marquita Linda.” He next issued the Mustang single pairing “Hideaway” with “Peas and Corn.” These recordings were gathered into the album An Afternoon Affair, which Showtown—an imprint bankrolled and distributed by Capitol—released in the autumn of 1966. The front-cover photograph presented Keane in the guise of a stylish bachelor seated on a bedroom floor before a bed occupied by two scantily clad models, while additional models appeared on the rear sleeve. Sales proved modest, as the vogue for such “bachelor pad” recordings had already peaked several years earlier, and the LP soon disappeared from circulation. Thirty years later, in 1996, Del-Fi resumed operations as a reissue concern and brought the album to compact disc for the first time, appending the April 1967 single “Lilly’s Back.” Song titles were altered as well: “Peas and Corn” became “Hot Pink,” and “Hideaway” was retitled “Chanelle’s Theme” in honor of Keane’s young daughter. In the accompanying notes, Garrick H.S. Brown portrayed Verrill Keene as Bob Keane’s “mysterious twin image” and credited the project with launching a “Sensualist” jazz movement through an instrument called the “Libidotron,” said to induce an intense state of sexual euphoria. Keane continued to invoke the Verrill Keene identity when promoting later Del-Fi compilations such as Del-Fi Beach Party, Del-Fi Pool Party, and Jungle Jive during the closing years of the decade.
Albums