From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Aug 31, 2002  2:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Dean Beard
 
DEAN BEARD

Born 31 August 1935, Santa Anna, Texas
Died 4 April 1989, Coleman, near Abilene, Texas

Singer / pianist.
Dean Beard was on the edge of fame a few times, but never seemed
to get over that major hurdle. He recorded a session at Sun, three
singles on Atlantic and toured briefly with Elvis Presley (on his first
Texas tour in 1955), as well as being a member of the hit instrumental
group The Champs.
Dean's first two releases were on the Fox label in Abilene in 1955.
Inspired by Elvis, he headed for Sun Records in Memphis with his
guitarist James Steward. They wrangled an audition with Sam Phillips
who teamed them with Bill Black's younger brother Johnny on bass
and Johnny Bernero on drums on a make-shift session. "Rock Around
the Town", "Don't You Lie To Me" and "What Can I Do" were recorded
at this time. Sam showed a lot of interest and set up a time for them to
come back and cut a master session. They came back with sax player
Jimmy Seals and cut "Rakin' and Scrapin'" as well as rerecording some
of the earlier tunes. However, Dean evoked the jealousy of Sam Phillips
by dating Sun employee Sally Wilbourn who would later end up as the
second Mrs. Phillips, and none of his Sun recordings were released at
the time. A remake of "Rakin' and Scrapin'" was released on Atlantic.
Dean had formed The Crew Cats in early 1957, a group that included
drummer Dash Crofts and saxist Jimmy Seals. When Dave Burgess,
the leader of The Champs, was looking for a new sax player to replace
Chuck Rio, his eye fell upon Jimmy Seals. Part of the deal was that
Beard and Crofts would also join The Champs. The trio joined the Tequila
hitmakers and their photo appeared on the second Champs album.
While with the Champs and contracted to the Challenge label, Dean
also recorded several songs under his own name. After his departure
from the Champs (allegedly he was fired after pocketing part of the cut
meant for Seals and Crofts), Dean returned to Texas and formed a new
Crew Cats group. He continued to record for a variety of small labels,
but didn't score any hits. In 1978 he quit performing for health reasons
and towards the end of his life he found religion.

CD: Dean Beard, Rock Around The Town (Encore 193587). 30 tracks
from a wide variety of labels, 1955-1964.