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Rod McBrien interview

Q6.
Who is Ted Daryll?

Ted Daryll - a great friend and a great songwriter. ("She Cried", Jay & The Americans' first hit was also Ted's first hit.) We met in 1966 at Roulette Records. Ted was a staff writer for Big 7 Music, a division of Roulette, when I was hired to run Roulette's in-house recording studio. We became fast friends and shortly thereafter formed The Eastern Scene. The group's first and only release, "Let's Be More Than Friends Tonight" on Amy Records was written by Ted. "Baby You're Everything" was the first Daryll-McBrien collaboration. The song was written for, and recorded by, The Joe Cuba Sextet. That would have been in 1972 or 1973. And until this year, that was the only song we had ever written together. We're currently producing a new project together and are writing most of the songs being recorded. Good stuff.

Q7.
Tell us about The Casualeers.

The Casualeers were one of the all-time-great singing groups and were from my hometown, Amityville, New York - the 'Friendly Village' on Long Island, forty miles east of New York City. Arnold Davis, Ollie Johnson, Peppy DuBois and Mike Furr - who played drums with me in the junior high school orchestra - comprised the group. My lifelong friend, Neal Hollander, was the group's manager. This was a complete hometown venture.

John Giametta and I wrote a song called "Dance, Dance, Dance." We were convinced the song was a smash and we just needed the right artist to record it. We talked with Neal about the possibility of producing the song with The Casualeers and he loved the idea. He set up a rehearsal with the group and we taught them the song. We knew we had the right artist.

I convinced my good friend, George "Shadow" Morton of The Shangri-Lasfame, to put up the money so John and I could go into the studio and produce the record. The record was released on Roulette Records.

The following year, 1967, John and I wrote and produced two more records with The Casualeers: "You Better Be Sure," backed with "Open Your Eyes" followed by "Come Back To My Arms," backed with "When I'm In Your Arms." This time, thanks to a deal struck with Ernie Maresca, the sides were released on Laurie Records.

The Casualeeres "Dance, dance, dance" (UK)	The Casualeeres "You betta be sure"	The Casualeeres "When I'm in your arms"

Q8.
Tell us about John Giametta.

John Giametta is a great songwriter and was my first writing partner. As you can see from my discography, we wrote many songs together. John is also one of the founding members of The Valrays, Salt Water Taffy and The Eastern Scene.

John and I have been the best of friends for about a hundred years now. We were so close back in the early years of The Valrays, we joined the U. S. Coast Guard Reserves together under the "buddy plan." Some buddy plan! I went to boot camp two months before John did. But we did finish our tour of duty together because we were both in the Coast Guard Band.

Our first two singles as The Valrays on Cameo Records were written and produced by John Linde and Pete Antell, but our next release on United Artists Records, "It Hurts Doesn't It Girl," was written and produced by John and me. We also produced all releases by The Casualeers and Salt Water Taffy together, as well as writing almost all of the songs recorded.

Q9.
Can you tell us about arranger Meco Monardo?

I met Meco shortly after I arrived in New York City. My friend, Charlie Brockner - bass player/arranger - introduced us. Meco and Charlie had gone to Eastman School of Music together. Meco was a hot-shot trombone player, new in town and anxious to break into the business as an arranger. And I was struggling to make my mark as a songwriter and producer. We were both pretty much just starting out, but I had a few projects lined up. In our early days of working together when I was putting together a production on spec - meaning no money - Meco would write an arrangement for me and overdub all the trombone parts to make a brass section. "Dance, Dance, Dance," by The Casualeers and "It Hurts Doesn't It Girl," by The Valrays were the first two real jobs - meaning we got paid - we worked on together.

Meco was my arranger of choice for several years. He's a verytalented arranger and contributed greatly to many of my productions. We also produced several records together including "Next Year (Bashana Habana)," by Joy on the Kama Sutra label and "More Than You Know," by Corky Hale on Bell Records. And, of course, Meco went on to produce hits with Gloria Gaynor and his own instrumental hit of the "Star Wars Theme." I was also a featured singer on Meco's production of The Star Wars Christmas Album on RSO Records as well as the single, "Summer '81," by The Cantina Band on the Millennium label.

Q10.
Were The Valrays a part of Salt Water Taffy?

The last group of guys to record as The Valrays was John Giametta, Bob Musac, Phil Giarratano and me. Three of us, John, Phil and I went on to become founding members of the Salt Water Taffy along with Janie Brannon and Kathy Butler Weinberg.

l-r: Rod McBrien, Benny Palmeri, Bob Musac, John Giametta	l-r: John Giametta, Rod McBrien, Bob Musac

story goes on ...
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Rod McBrien interview

Interview : Kunihiko Sano(VANDA)
Traslation : Shin Iwai,Tsutomu Fukuhara
Owners of pictured record: Kunihiko Sano(VANDA), Tetsuya Ishiyama

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