Guestbook - Volume 24

January 2009 to December 2009

Date: Mon Nov 2, 2009
From: Ralph Skikus
Subject: The Ventures on Sandcastle V.I.

I just recently found your site and I must say it is GREAT! I started playing guitar in the early 60's and was soon in awe of the "Fabulous Ventures"! Along with another guitar player and a drummer we played mostly 'The Ventures' songs at many gigs and never needed a singer, because the music sang for itself!!

Thanks to you for continuing the legacy of The Ventures! I found a lot of information that I did not know about the group.

Thanks Again for the wonderful job you did here!
Ralph Skikus

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Ralph, thanks for your kind words about my Ventures site. I'm glad you found it useful and informative. I try to keep it up-to-date when new Ventures recordings or news becomes available. Were you able to see them at Epcot in April 2008 and/or 2009? They put on some great shows and gave the fans the chance to meet them at "meet and greets" at their hotel both years.]

Date: Tue Oct 27, 2009
From: Jim Clary
Subject: A Request for Information on a Movie

Good morning Mr. van Beverhoudt,

I found your site on science fiction movies and found it very interesting and informative, and appreciate your time and effort in compiling it. I have been looking for the title of a move that I saw in the 60's or possibly in the 50's (yep, I'm that old, 71 in January - and love science fiction). I saw the movie at a drive in in Florida. It involved robots that had been produced to perform menial tasks as well as become companions to man. They were given an R designation, i.e. an R50 was for menial work, with limited capacity, while an R70 would be suitable as a human companion. As I recall, the human race was dying out because of reproduction problems, so the robots (they were making their own by now) endeavored to produce robots with human qualities to preserve the race. They produced R98s which looked like human and were not aware that they were even robots, and the ultimate goal (achieved at the end) was to produce an R100 robot, which could reproduce. I imagine that the movie would be considered kind of funky by today's standards, but I rather enjoyed it and would like to track down the title so that I could search for a copy somewhere. Have you ever come across this movie? I would like to thank you for your time and consideration.

Warmest Regards,
Jim Clary

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim, I'm not familiar with that movie, but it sounds like one that I would very much enjoy seeing. I did some googling to see if I could find something that matched your description, but didn't have any luck. If you are able to track down the name of this film, please let me know.]

Date: Sun Aug 16, 2009
From: Charles Myers
Subject: Ventures Info

Arnold,

I'm not a Ventures fanatic by any means but, I do like their music. Here's some info on the Ventures based on my personal collection of Ventures recordings. Thought you might want it for your discography.

Ventures In Space LP was reissued by Capitol Records on the Liberty label as LN-10190. It only had 10 tracks. The track listing is:

Out of Limits
He Never Came Back
Fear
Exploration In Terror
War Of The Satellites
Penetration
Love Goddess Of Venus
Solar Race
The Fourth Dimension
The Twilight Zone

Walk, Don't Run, Vol. 2 LP was also reissued by Capitol on the Liberty label as LN-10188. It too only had 10 tracks. The track listing is:

The House of The Rising Sun
Diamond Head
Night Train
Peach Fuzz
Rap City
Walk, Don't Run '64
Night Walk
One Mint Julep
Pedal Pusher
The Creeper

The following albums were released on Open Reel tape. Next best thing to a CD back in those days. I'm sure there were more than what I have here. These are just what I have in my collection.

The Ventures Play "Telstar" and "The Lonely Bull", released under the Liberty label, STL8019-C. Duplicated by Magtec at 7½ ips.

Where The Action Is, released under the Liberty label, STL8040-C. Duplicated by Greentree Electronics Corp, a Bell & Howell Co. at 7½ ips.

Golden Greats, released under the Liberty label, STL8053-C. Duplicated by Sterotape, a Division of Magtec at 7½ ips.

$1,000,000 Weekend, released under the Liberty label, STL8054-C. Duplicated by Magtec at 7½ ips.

Hawaii Five-O, released under the Liberty label, STL8061-B. Duplicated by Greentree Electronics Corp, a Bell & Howell Co. at 3¾ ips.

More Golden Greats, released under the Liberty label, STL 8060-B. Duplicated by Magtec at 3¾ ips.

10th Anniversary Album, released under the Liberty label, STL35000-F-DP. Duplicated by Bell & Howell Magnetic Tape Co. at 3¾ ips.

Only Hits, released under the United Artists label, UST147-PDP. Duplicated by Sterotape, a Division of Magtec at 7½ ips.

One last item, on the page where you have Ventures related links, the link you have for Ace Records over in the UK is bad. It should be http://www.acerecords.co.uk/ And, yes it appears One Way Records and See For Miles Records have gone by the wayside. I did find a reference that One Way was bought by MCA but I can't find any info on their website about the label.

Happy listening.
Charlie Myers

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlie, thanks for those additions to the Ventures discography and the correction to Ace Records' web address. I just updated the appropriate U.S.A. discography pages.]

Date: Sat Aug 8, 2009
From: Mitchell
Subject: Sandcastle VI

Hello Sandcastle,

I came to you site by way of sports car racing. I like it.

I just read the intro and am responding to say that I like the low-tech presentation. I have been exposed to a little research on vision, and the affect of a moving image on attention/distraction and comprehension. I can understand that the sponsors want my attention, but too many web sites that are not selling anything are caught up in this trend of moving and flashing distractions. Even the news and weather on TV use moving backgrounds, much to my dismay.

In addition, I feel compelled to comment on the magnitude of the content. Do you sleep at night? Or do you research and write 24/7?

Otherwise, before I end I will alert you to one mistake. Your Auto Racing Classics, Shelby's Cobras page shows D. McDonald winning the 1964 August USRRC race. I'm sure you know, he had a fatal accident in May - there must have been someone else driving his #97 that day.

Best Regards,
Mitchell

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Mitchell, thanks for pointing out that mistake in the Cobra U.S. race records. I didn't catch that before, but certainly knew that Dave MacDonald was tragically killed at the Indianapolis 500 in 1964 along with Eddie Sachs. I tried to find support for who actually drove the Lang-Cooper in that August 1964 race and can't find anything. So, maybe it was just a slip (several slips) of my fingers on the keyboard. I removed that entry until/unless I can find information on the results of that USRRC race.]

Date: Sun, May 17, 2009
From: Wes Britton
Subject: Nokie Edwards Interview

On Tuesday May 13, Wes Britton interviewed former Ventures lead guitarist Nokie Edwards on the online radio show, “Dave White Presents” over KSAV.org. Now, that program along with the other interviews, music, and comedy sketches are available for 24/7 access at:

WWW.audioentertainment.org/dwp

Simply go to the “Past Programs” link and click onto the show for May 13. We hope you enjoy the very insightful conversation!

Wesley Britton
WWW.Spywise.net

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for that link, Wes. Note to readers - the Nokie Edwards interview starts about 10-15 minutes into the program, after the "Chef Pierre" segment, and lasts about 15-20 minutes. Enjoy.]

Date: Sun, Apr 12, 2009
From: John Gray
Subject: Ventures UK Releases

Hello Arnold,

I enjoyed looking at your Ventures' discography and I hope you won't mind me sending you the following correction about the 1972 LP "Joy: The Ventures Play the Classics." On the UK release, the track "One Fine Day" was omitted because, to include it would have infringed copyright (something about a 50 year rule). The track was included on the later See for Miles CD release because by then, it was out of copyright.

Also, you may be interested to know that in the UK, there were two albums released on 3-inch reel-to-reel tapes in 1965 and 1966 -- "On Stage" and "Where the Action Is." There may have been others but I'm not aware of any.

[EEDITOR'S NOTE: John, thanks for the correction to the Ventures U.K. discography. I've made the correction. Also, thanks for the info on the two reel-to-reel tape releases.]

Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2009
From: Paul L.
Subject: Ventures "Super Hits" CD by Evergreen Records

Hello,

I stumbled onto your site while trying to find out some info on a CD that I purchased in a thrift store. The CD I purchased is called "Super Hits" by Evergreen Records, and it was manufactured in West Germany. What I'd like to know - is this an out of print CD as well as being an import? I'm just trying to determine how much the CD may be worth. I looked on Ebay, and haven't been able to locate a copy for sale.

So during my search online, I happened on your site. One thing that I may be able to help you out with - as far as the info that you have on the release - is the year it was released. You have two question marks where the years are, and I just thought that I'd let you know it was released in 1988.

Cheers,
Paul

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Paul, thanks for sending me the issue year on that "Super Hits" CD. I must warn you, though that this is one of a long list of reissue CDs, commonly known as "Red Dog" or "Black Tulip" recordings, that are not authentic Ventures recordings. All of the James Bond-related tracks are actually by a separate band formed by drummer Mel Taylor during the 1970s -- Mel Taylor and the Dynamics. Except for Hawaii Five-0, the rest of the non-Bond tracks are by some unknown band, but not by The Ventures. These "Red Dog/Black Tulip" recordings usually come out of Germany or Holland, and are discussed in the 2008 biography of The Ventures called "Walk Don't Run: The Story of The Ventures" by Del Halterman. That book is available from: www.lulu.com/content/725111.]

Date: Sat, Mar 7, 2009
From: montfordmb
Subject: The Ventures

Hi Arnold,

Hope that I am not highjacking a thread but I have a question about the Ventures Golden Greats album cover, the girl on the front is it Susan Kelly who was in Playboy in the 60's and was she ever married to one of the Ventures? I have looked every were and cannot find the answer, it is a trivia question between a bunch of us.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: According to page 154 of the 2008 Ventures biography "Walk Don't Run: The Story of The Ventures" by Del Halterman, the model on the Greatest Hits cover was 19-year old Chris Cranston. She was in two issues of Playboy. First, she was in the September 1968 issue "in recognition of her appearance as a Ziefield girl in the Barbara Streisand movie Funny Girl." She was also the Playgirl of the Month in the April 1971 issue. I do not believe that she was married to any member of The Ventures. Maybe you're thinking about the model on the Walk Don't Run, Volume 2 cover. According to page 112 of the biography, her name was Nancy Bacon, and she was married to Ventures co-founder Don Wilson. BTW, you can order a copy of the Ventures biography here: http://www.lulu.com/content/725111. I highly recommend it to all Ventures fans.

Date: Mon, Mar 2, 2009
From: Alan Kato
Subject: Ventures Discography Hi

For Ventures singles, The "Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records, 1950-1975" (Neely) notes that the Liberty 545xx series is a reissue series. They only list 3 Ventures 45s with those numbers, and those are with indeterminate dates.

So, in the case of "Classical Gas/Hawaii Five-O", from the Joel Whitburn books and elsewhere (sources online), I think you will find originals of both songs are from 1968. Mason Williams wrote and was first with "Classical Gas"; I believe it entered the charts in the summer of 1968. The Hawaii Five-O television program using that theme song premiered in Sept. 1968, and the Ventures version showed up in very late 1968 IIRC. So I feel Liberty 56068 was very likely first, with Liberty 54571 released after the album appearance of "Classical Gas". I think it extremely unlikely that the Ventures could be first for both songs at the same time.

Unfortunately, you may have to review dates of other records in the Libert 545xx series.

Still, all in all, a great site. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Alan Kato

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Alan, thanks for that information on the Ventures singles. I don't remember my original source for the entries on the Liberty 545xx series 45s, but I do know that it didn't indicate that this was a reissue series. I've updated the discography page based on the information you provided. Issue dates for those 45s is uncertain, so I'll have to try find it from other sources.]

Date: Sat, Feb 21, 2009
From: Pete Downs
Subject: Ventures Discography

Hi Arnold,

Great site! Just to let you know that the UK CD, Castle 228427 - 1994 has the same 27 tracks as the Tridex TDX1001/2 CD.

I have also noticed that I have the Mexican EP that you need a track listing for Hawaii Five-0 EP: Liberty EL65109. They are: Hawaii Five-0, Galveston, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, Dizzy.

Best wishes,
Pete

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Pete, thanks for sending me those discography updates. I'll add them to the discography pages later today.]

Date: Sat Feb 21, 2009
From: Bill Rayner
Subject: A Ventures Enquiry

Hello. I was wondering if you could tell me if a song by The Ventures was a single or if it has had an alternative title. The song is "Spanish Armada."

Thanks for your help.
Bill

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Bill, as far as I know, "Spanish Armada" doesn't have an alternate title, at least not on any Ventures recordings. It was originally performed by Mel Taylor with a band he had outside The Ventures. The song was on the single: Spanish Armada b/w Bang Bang Rhythm that was issued in 1966 on the Warner label in the U.S. and the Toshiba label in Japan. The song was also included as a bonus track on the CD reissue of the Mel Taylor album In Action, which was issued in 1996 on the Warner label in Japan. The Ventures later performed "Spanish Armada" as a tribute to Mel Taylor (after his death in 1996) on the Japanese album Wild Again II: Tribute to Mel Taylor (Toshiba-EMI, 1997) and reissued on the U.S. album New Depths: Wild Again II (GNP Crescendo, 1998). I hope this information is helpful to you.]

Date: Sun Feb 15, 2009
From: Richard Bouffard
Subject: LP Album Cover (Sunset SUM-1116)

Hi Arnold,

I am a Ventures fan and I have just about all the Ventures LP albums released in the U.S. I noticed that you have "Running Strong" listed in your Discography but don't show the album cover for it. I am attaching one for you to use on your website if you so chose. Let me know what you think.

Richard

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Richard, thank you very much for the scan of the "Running Strong" album. The reason I didn't include this and other albums from the Sunset label in my Graphic Chronology is because those were basically all reissues of songs that were already included in the regular line of Dolton/Liberty albums. But I do appreciate your sending me the album cover art, which I'll keep in my personal cover art library.]