Graham Chapman - Gee I’m Gonna Miss You (1968)

The Improper Bostonians - Gee I’m Gonna Miss You (1967)

(Bill Walsh - Joe Ahern [Thomas J. Ahern])
 USA
Original version

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Single on Boston label Minuteman [MA 211] November 1967 then on Coral December 1967.

This quartet from Lynn in Greater Boston had a residency at the Ebb Tide, a nightclub in nearby Revere Beach. They released four singles on Minuteman 1966-67, about a third of the label’s total output. 

The line-up was Dick Jeffrey (lead guitar), Pat O’Connor (drums), Peter O’Connor (rhythm guitar) and David Peterson (bass).

A newspaper profile of the band from December 1966 recounts their “wild time in New York City” recording tracks for their October 1966 debut single and their about-to-be-released second single.

The notable singer-songwriter Chip Taylor had been present at those sessions and lent his guitar to Peter O’Connor for some special effects. Taylor had also recorded a Minuteman single in New York, as Just Us, a duo with Al Gorgoni [MA 203]

Bill Walsh, Minuteman’s owner or president, co-wrote Gee I’m Gonna Miss You with Thomas J. (Joe) Ahern. It was produced by Walsh with the label’s vice president Barry Richards, one of five Improper Bostonians tracks they co-produced.

Four of the six original Improper Bostonians tracks were composed by Bill Walsh with Thomas J. (Joe) Ahern, and another two were written by Walsh alone.

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Improper Bostonians?
Probably baffling to outsiders, Improper Bostonians would have been recognizable in Boston as a variation of Proper Bostonians, meaning the well-established upper-crust families of Boston, also known as Boston Brahmins. Cleveland Avery in The Proper Bostonians (1947) explains, Everywhere the Proper Bostonian goes in his city he is likely to find that the magic of the Family Name pronounced will open virtually all doors …

Hence, Improper Bostonians, a variation not unheard-of in Boston. It’s not hard to find old newspaper stories that use improper Bostonians whimsically, or when reporting unruly or unacceptable behaviour from Bostonians: supporters of the Red Sox baseball team (1967), fans of visiting movie star Elizabeth Taylor (1964), and a gang of armed robbers (1950). There was an Improper Bostonian room at Boston restaurant Your Father’s Mustache in the 1960s, an Improper Bostonians Cat Club in the 1980s, and a Boston lifestyle magazine The Improper Bostonian (1991-2019).

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The Minuteman label
This Boston label released 11 singles 1965-67.*

As noted above, at least 3 of those appear to have been recorded in New York, including 2 by local band The Impossible Bostonians, which raises the question of whether Minuteman’s premises at 1040 Tremont Street included a recording studio.

Across the 22 sides:
• Minuteman’s owner/president Bill Walsh wrote or co-wrote 6, produced or co-produced 8.
• Vice president Barry Richards co-wrote 2, co-produced 7, arranged 1.

Minuteman’s biggest success was I Can’t Grow Peaches On A Cherry Tree [MA 203] by Just Us, a duo comprising Chip Taylor and Al Gorgoni, the successful producing and songwriting partnership. Their best-known compositions are probably Wild Thing and Angel In The Morning (Taylor) and I Can’t Let Go (Taylor & Gorgoni).

I Can’t Grow Peaches was first released by Minuteman late in 1965, then as a reissue by Colpix that charted #34 Billboard, #41 Cash Box in 1966. Taylor and Gorgoni did not write that one, but the next Minuteman single, by The Doorway Through [MA 205], carried writing and production credits to Taylor and Gorgoni on both sides. They released further singles and an album as Just Us on the Kapp label 1966-67.

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Don Thomas’s Minuteman A-side Turn Her Around [MA 200] credits his regular collaborator Barry Richards as his co-composer, co-producer and co-arranger. Also credited as co-writer is Don’s sister Jean who released her own Minuteman single as Jeannie Thomas [MA 206] with a co-writing credit to brother Don.

Barry Richards was a singer himself who released some records on various labels, but most of his career credits are for producing or arranging.

Jean and Don Thomas were both known for their session work, Don as a guitarist, Jean as a backing vocalist. Aficionados will especially know Jean for her work with Bob Crewe and her membership of The Rag Dolls.

To end this chain, He’s A Character, the B-side of Aleta Diehl’s Minuteman single [MA 201] is written by Barry Richards with Denny Randell, the Bob Crewe associate who co-wrote The Rag Dolls’ Dusty, their much-loved answer to The Four Seasons’ hit Dawn.

* One outlier is a later single by Media, Forever / I Love Broadway, possibly from the mid-70s, with the same label name and artwork but different parent companies and numbering [1714].

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See also my blogpost Obscure Originators (38): The Improper Bostonians.

Selected sources, further reading:
1. The Improper Bostonians from New England Music Scrapbook [archived].
2. Profile of Improper Bostonians by Anne Marie Sikora in “Singing Groups On The Rise”, The Nashua Telegraph, 31 December 1966, p. 3 (possibly syndicated).
3. Prague Frank’s sessionography data showing New York recording of I Can’t Grow Peaches… by Just Us for Minuteman. Frank gives 1966 for this, but 45cat has a Dec 1965 release with a Billboard review in its issue of 1 Jan 1966.
4. Liner notes to Misty Lane LP Leaving It All Behind (2000) which anthologises the Improper Bostonians’ track Victim Of Environment, the B-side of Gee I’m Gonna Miss You.
5. Barry Roberts profile and discography at Discogs.com.