(Gary Zekly - Mitchell Bottler)
New
Zealand
#3 NZ
Single on His Master’s Voice March 1969 by popular New Zealand band from the Hutt Valley area, formed 1967, disbanded 1971. Produced by Howard Gable.
Spinning, Spinning, Spinning (1968, #1) and The Grooviest Girl In The World (1969, #3) were the highest charting out of five Top 20 singles for The Simple Image 1968-69. See also Shy Boy, the B-side of Spinning, Spinning, Spinning.
In the core line-up were vocalist-guitarists Barry Leef, Ron “Cass” Gascoigne and Harry Lek. On drums was Alan Gordon, later replaced by Gordon Wylie (1968) then Wayne Allen (1969). In 1969 Doug Smith replaced Barry Leef who had left to work in Australia, and keyboardist Bruce Walker also joined.
The band worked in Australia from 1969, picking up a residency at prominent Sydney club the Whisky Au Go Go. Barry Leef, who had been with NZ band Retaliation in Sydney, rejoined The Simple Image.*
Barry Leef followed a long and successful musical career in Australia. After The Simple Image disbanded he sang in Perth rock band Bakery (formed by ex-members of NZ’s Avengers). The Barry Leef Band, first formed in the 1970s, was still playing live classic rock gigs well into the 2020s. As a session singer, Leef has recorded many familiar jingles for TV and radio. His website is at barryleef.com.au and his Facebook page is active with posts of recent performance videos (2024).
*My brief summary of the band’s personnel is gleaned from Bruce Sergent’s Simple Image page and AudioCulture’s illustrated history of the band. Both are essential reading if you want to dig further.
(Gary Zekly - Mitchell Bottler)
Germany
Single on Vogue by band from Cologne known also as The Tony Hendrik Five, led by prolific singer-songwriter-producer and label and studio owner born Dieter Lünstedt in Bad Bederkesa, 1945.
Further reading: Tony Kendrik articles at German and English Wikipedias.
(Gary Zekly - Mitchell Bottler)
USA
Original version
#78 USA
Single on UBI November 1968 by band from Houston, Texas with four founding members who had known each other in high school. They had previously used the names Six Pents, The Sixpentz, and Fun and Games Commission before setlling on The Fun And Games.
The Grooviest Girl In The World was also on the band’s one album, Elephant Candy (1968) produced by Gary Zekley with most songs written by Zekley and Mitchell Bottler as well as a composition each from band members Joe Romano and his brother Rock Romano.
Rock Romano (b. 1945) is a visual artist, audio engineer and studio builder and owner who has been in numerous bands, notably a legendary Houston live party band Dr. Rockit and the Sisters of Mercy which he helped form at the end of the 70s. His life’s work has merited a detailed Wikipedia article.
Joe Romano (1949-2017), the band’s bass player, had a varied musical career. As the short biography at Discogs.com outlines, as well as writing and performing he became the music director for the Texas Theatre Foundation, writing three original musicals for children, and was later a contributing songwriter for Sesame Street and the Children’s Television Workshop.
Sources: 1. The Fun And Games Wikipedia article is short but it covers the essentials. 2. The Gary Zekley page at Discogs includes a couple of useful links. 3. Discographical and biographical data at Discogs, linked from the text.
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2024. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…