In 1963, Barry & The Tamerlanes had a #21 hit with a well-crafted song titled 'I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight'. Sadly, they proved to be another 'One-Hit Wonder' affair but that does not tell the whole story. Read it now.

Barry was in fact California-based Barry De Vorzon whose career goes back to the mid-fifties. At the time, he was under contract to RCA Victor and cut four singles for them in 1957 and 1958. These were nice teen rockers which fitted in well with those, also on RCA, by Nick Venet and The Twin Tones. He then switched to Columbia ; four more 45's were issued between 1959 and 1961. However, his writing skills were rapidly developing and that's how he made his mark in the muisc business. Here are some of the first songs he wrote or co-wrote for others : 'Dreamin' and 'Girls' (Johnny Burnette - Liberty 55258 and 55345 respectively), 'Just Married' (Marty Robbins - Columbia 41143), 'Hey Little One' (Dorsey Burnette - Era 3019) and 'Treasure Of Your Love' (Eileen Rogers - Columbia 41214). Around 1962, Barry and a partner founded the Valiant label. Shelby Flint had the first release (and the first hit, albeit a minor one) on the new imprint : 'Angel On My Shoulder'. He would stay with the label until 1966.

The big break came in 1963 when Barry discovered The Cascades, a vocal quintet from San Diego, California. In the December 1, 1989, issue of my favorite US mag, 'Goldmine', an interview of De Vorzon by Stu Fink was published and revealed that The Cascades were originally called The Coastlighters ; he renamed them The Cascades after a brand of dishwashing soap ! Comprised of John Gummoe, Dave Wilson, Eddie Snyder, Dave Stevens and Dave Zabo, the group (once described as 'a clean-cut bunch of skin diving mountaineers who specialized in soft, pretty, summery sounds' by UK music writers, Phil Hardy & Dave Laing) missed the Charts with their first Valiant single ('There's A Reason', #6021) but they scored a Top 3 hit with the second, 'Rhythm Of The Rain' (#6026) - a catchy John Gummoe composition which emphasized their smooth harmonies. The song was a Top 5 hit in England. There were many cover versions, especially in France by Sylvie Vartan and Richard Anthony. Two similarly sounding singles followed, featuring songs co-written by De Vorzon and Bodie Chandler. 'Shy Girl' was one of them which, coupled with 'The Last Leaf', achieved some degree of success.  The other was 'I Wanna Be Your Lover'. An album was released on Valiant (V 405), compiling almost all their singles plus a few more tracks, which made for a very pleasant but ultimately too 'polished' listen. From there, The Cascades went to RCA Victor where 'For Your Sweet Love' was a lesser hit in '64. They went on to record for Charter (the excellent 'My Best Girl', another John Gummoe composition, in 1964), Liberty (1965), Arwin (1966), Smash (1967), Probe (1968) and UNI (1969) where they had a last small hit, 'Maybe The Rain Will Fall'. They had somewhat come full circle, at least as far as the weather was concerned ! [See the following discography for more details]

In the aforementioned interview, Barry De Vorzon confessed that he formed his own group, Barry & The Tamerlanes, in order to record a song he had originally co-written for The Cascades. The Tamerlanes were fellow songwriters, Bodie Chandler and Terry Smith who had met while attending UCLA ; the song in question, a Chandler-De Vorzon composition, was 'I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight' (Valiant 6034) - an overnight smash which almost crept into the Top 20. In terms of singing and production, it perfectly epitomized the sound of US Pop Music in 1963 : bright and breezy. Clearly, the production values were in full evolution and yet, there was still a direct link to the music of the '50s - like the 'I Wonder, Wonder...' bit, reminiscent of the unforgettable 'Book Of Love' by The Monotones (Argo 5290 ; 1958). And the group's sound had much more of a 'teenage feel' than that of the more 'adult-sounding' Cascades.

Alas, follow-ups to the hit - all of them, very nice medium tempo Chandler-De Vorzon efforts - didn't meet with success. 'Roberta' (#6040) was probably too much like its predecessor to click and its flip, 'Butterfly', co-written by Barry with someone named Crawford, featured a celeste solo close to the one in 'Rhythm Of The Rain'. 'Lucky Guy'  (#6046) was nothing special but I found 'A Date With Judy' (#6050), with its brass arrangements, very well performed. Before calling it a day as a group in 1964, Barry & The Tamerlanes put out a last single on Valiant (#6059) which truly should have been better received than it was. The main side was a bouncy remake of an old but influential song from 1954, 'Gee', originally by The Crows (Rama RR-5), featuring handclaps and a good organ solo. Moreover, Chandler's & Smith's rather bland harmonies were richly augmented by those of (I think) P. F. Sloan & Steve Barri. But the flip, 'Don't Cry Cindy', is one gorgeous number, with an almost religious feel at times, due in part to the organ backing and solo, and a real beautiful ending, 'à la Brian Wilson'.

Most of these sides, plus a few others such as their own cover of 'Rhythm Of The Rain', appeared on their Valiant LP (V 406). For my part, I got acquainted with most of that stuff thanks to a Japanese compilation album titled 'The Cascades vs Barry & The Tamerlanes', released by WB in 1985 as part of their interesting
'30th Anniversary Of Rock & Roll' series (P-11579). It's clear that all those songs blend beautifully well together on album. However, I don't understand why only four of the Cascades songs appear in true stereo (the last two Valiant singles in fact) : the other four (including 'Rhythm Of The Rain') as well as the whole Barry & The Tamerlanes side (all their Valiant singles minus 'I Don't Want To Be Your Clown' and 'Pretty Things') are, surprisingly, mono only. However, the sound is excellent and the cover cleverly designed. It's a good starting point to investigate De Vorzon's music and Valiant label.
One interesting discovery came courtesy of Ronnie Salyer (a collector from Richmond, Virginia) : the version of 'Don't Go' (the original flip of 'I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight') included in that Japanese compilation is not by Barry & The Tamerlanes but by Danny & The Memories, who also cut it for Valiant.

Among countless other credits, Barry De Vorzon co-wrote 'All You Had To Do (Was Tell Me)' with Chris Montez, a song which became Montez's first record (Monogram 500, 1962). Along with Perry Botkin, Jnr., he also co-wrote 'Bless The Beats & Children' which was recorded by The Carpenters on what surely accounts for their best effort, the 1972 album, 'A Song For You' (A & M).
In 1965, De Vorzon discovered a six-man outfit called The Association who would soon prove to be destined for stardom. They had five singles on Valiant, featuring two big 1966 hits : the controversial 'Along Comes Mary', and 'Cherish'. Following the release of their second LP in 1967, 'Renaissance', Barry De Vorzon decided to sell his Valiant label to its distributor, Warner Bros - at a good profit, added Stu Fink in 'Goldmine'!
In later years, he wrote what may be the biggest-selling TV theme of all time, nanely 'Theme From S.W.A.T.', and in 1976, 'Nadia's Theme', which he had co-written again with his longtime friend, Perry Botkin, Jr., was used during the coverage of that year's Olympic Games, shooting to #8 on the US Charts.
All in all, that's an enviable career which produced some inoffensive but at the same time, lasting pop music.