Merrell Fankhauser's - Radio and publication correction for "Calling From A Star" Book release

Hi Kenny,

I appreciate the plug for the book but it wont be out by next month, hopefully in November, I will let you know.

Also the part about Wipe Out : I was only seventeen when I joined The Impacts, and our album was out 8 months before The Surfaris version of the song. Our LP was recorded Sept. of 62' and was in stores in L.A. by end of Oct. 62. The Surfaris single didn't come out till end of May 63', and they had the same producers ! In fact Richard Delvy who ended up managing The Surfaris and co produced and published them, was in our session and was learning the music biz from the other older producer Tony Hilder who produced us and other groups on Del Fi.

Later when Delvy worked with The Surfaris and signed their Wipe Out single to Dot, he was asked by Dot to give them an album, he went in the studio with his group "The Challengers" and some studio musicians and recorded an album that included a version of our "Blue Surf", and gave it to Dot as by The Surfaris ! He then took the money and ran..... That's the true story that's in my book, history must be correct ! The Surfaris were only on two songs on the album !

Next Tuesday I go in for a biopsy on an anomaly on my chest wall they noticed in a recent CT Scan, want to make sure its not related to the Melanoma on my shoulder... Sure wish you had made it to the Palmdale gig... You are always welcome here.
Hope this finds you doing good.

Best,
Merrell

Merrell Fankhauser's "Calling From A Star" Autobio coming to a book store near you

 

ARROYO GRANDE, CA (IFS) --  Internationally renown rock superstar, Merrell Fankhauser is releasing his new autobiography "Calling From A Star" this next month.  

From the book "Vinyl Knights" by Kenneth Howard Smith, "Merrell was eighteen years old at that time, and had been recording up the coast with a group called the Impacts.  They had recorded this album called "Wipe out", surf music and stuff.  The Beatles had been in the United States for almost two months now, and the Beach Boys were right up there with them.  "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris was going to the top of the charts, and Merrell was telling everyone that he had wrote this song.  Well, no one believed him at all.  I just happened to be shopping at a local Woolworth store, and they had just received a bend full of cut-out records, and sure enough, there were ten albums from this group the Impacts on Del-Fi Records, and there was Merrell Wayne Fankhauser's name as big as life."

 

You can get the story from KDTN Radio One's Blogtalk Show.

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Walking The Line with Johnny Cash from Dyess Arkansas to memphis Tennessee

MEMPHIS TN (IFS) -- This is Elvis Week in Memphis, TN. This is were 500,000 people from all over the world pour into Memphis to celebrate Elvis' musical holiday week, that includes the greats like Cash, Carl Perkins, Sam Philips, and the many other artists that created the birth of rock music. I happen to watch to many documentaries on the birth of rock music. It gives me a heartburn, when other journalists use words like "Southern Rock", and crazy stuff like that. It's like saying "Rock, Rock". It was also doing the recording of Wilson Pickett's version of "Hey Jude" that Greg Allman's guitar solo created the birth of the Allman Brothers Band and "Southern Rock." So here's to Elvis week in Memphis and to a recording industry icon that shaped the business of music, with RCA Records and paying Sam Philips $36,000 for his masters and a life on the silver screen. Special thanks goes to Colonel Tom Parker for pushing the envelope.