The Tangents - Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?

There is something I love about this version of Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go? It's so very aggressive, so very straightforward, so very Los Angeles. And for good reason, The Tangents hailed from the city of angels and played the clubs on and off of The Strip often. Terry Topolski, Bob Shelton, Warren Brodie and Jim Janesick recorded their version of Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go? for the Hollywood based Impression label in the Spring of 1966, about the same time The Leaves put out their third version. I see that Dino Valenti was still getting writing credit despite him not really writing the song.

Impression Records put out some kick ass stuff like The Sloths and The Dirty Shames.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Pied Pipers - Hey Joe

From Youngstown, Ohio, we have The Pied Pipers with their 1966 release of Hey Joe on the not-so-infamous WAM Records. As with most things Ohio garage rock, the good people at Buckeye Beat have done a nice write up on The Pied Pipers. Check it out if you can.

The Pied Pipers hailed from Cardinal Mooney High School and were founded by Les Moro, Pete Pompura, Lenny Krispinsky, and singer Dennis Sesonsky. Not sure why he gets "vocal" billing where the writer credits should go on this disc. The Pied Pipers' version, like the Hazards' version yesterday, clearly owes a lot to The Leaves seminal third recording of the number.

Check out the pics of Sesonsky on stage. Seems to be of a different time and place than anyone else in those pictures. All photos were lifted from the Buckeye Beat site. It would seem these photos were taken in '68 with a slightly modified line-up.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Stillroven - Hey Joe

Rolling out a ton more of Hey Joe in the next couple of days so we are doubling, even tripling up on our daily posts. How cool is that?

The Stillroven hailed from the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale, Minnesota where they all attended Robbinsdale High School. The teen band was Phil Berdahl, Rock Peterson, John Howarth, Dave Dean and Danny Kane. They released their version of Hey Joe on local label, Falcon Records in May of 1967. It was subsequently picked up for national distribution by Roulette Records a month later.

The Hazards - Hey Joe

From Richmond, Virginia, home to Nitro-Retro Blog, comes The Hazards with their take on Hey Joe. This version is clearly inspired by The Leaves' third version of Hey Joe, right down to the bridge and the misattribution of writing credit for the song. 

According to the music site, Garage Hangover, The Hazards were Andy Hrabovsky, Sonny Salisbury, Alan, Sidenburg and Greg Ellerson of John Randolph Tucker High School. As well as Stanley Bernstein and David Moore of Thomas Jefferson High School.

The kids released their take on Hey Joe in 1967 for the local label, Groove Records.

The Swamp Rats - Hey Joe!

More Hey Joe today. This time from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where the meanest, nastiest, dirtiest, loudest garage band to ever walk the Earth released their take on Hey Joe in 1966 on the local label, St. Clair Records.

By the way, the Flip-Side of this single was featured in our Louie Louie love fest back in 2012. Check it out here.