From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Aug 7, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Ron Holden
 
RON HOLDEN (By Wayne Jancik)

Born 7 August 1939, Seattle, Washington
Died 20 January 1997. Roarito Beach, Mexico

When Ron Holden was 18 years old and en route to a stay in jail,
he met the man who saved him from musical oblivion. Officer Larry
Nelson had just finished fingerprinting Ron when he heard Holden's
doo-wop echoing off the jailhouse walls. Nelson told Ron that he was
about the quit the force, that he was thinking of doing something in the
music field, and that Ron should look him up when he got out.
Holden and his Thunderbirds had been playing a teen sock hop that
night. During a break, the guys in the band had taken a ride with a
half-pint of I.W. Harper and what Holden described to Goldmine writer
Steve Propes as "one of them funny little cigarettes". When the police
pulled them over, Ron was the only one over 18.
Once free as a bird, Holden made plans to stop over at Officer Nelson's
house. Nelson had decided to cut some tracks on Ron, and when Ron
arrived at Nelson's home, there were microphones, a tape recorder, and
a marching band waiting in the living room. For 20 hours, Holden and the
kids in the band struggled to nail down what was to become Ron's big
moment, "Love You So" (# 7 in 1960). To complicate matters, there was
a barking dog in the house.
With the "perfect" take in the can, Nelson set up Nite Owl Records and
pressed some copies. The disk started to take off locally, and Ron and
Larry met with Ritchie Valens' discoverer, Bob Keane of Donna/Del-Fi
Records. Keane, as Holden told Goldmine, "had a briefcase full of contracts,
a big green cigar, and a pocketful of money. He said, "We're gonna make
this record a hit - now." We said, "Hey, now you're talkin', that's what we
want."
Unfortunately, Holden's subsequent records for the Donna label made use
of studio pros like Rene Hall, Plas Johnson, Earl Palmer and Darlene Love
and her Blossoms - musicians who could never play, as Holden put it,
"a little bit out of tune", like that marching band had done on "Love You
So". Ron moved about cutting singles for Eldo, Rampart, Challenge, VMC,
and Now. It's alleged that he even got the opportunity to record a one-off
single (as half of Rosie & Ron) with Rosalie Hamlin of Rosie & The Originals,
but nothing further charted.
For some years in the '70s, Ron Holden emceed at Art Laboe's Oldies but
Goodies club in L.A.
Ron Holden died of unknown causes, in Mexico, January 20, 1997. Ron's
Thunderbirds had reportedly been among the first bands to play Richard
Berry's classic of the century, "Louie Louie". Ironically, Berry died just
hours before his friend.

(From: Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders. Revised
and expanded edition. New York : Billboard Books, 1998, page 94-95.
Reproduced with permission.)

CD: Love You So (Del-Fi 72111). 11 tracks. The highlight is the original
B-side of "Love You So", the great rocker "My Babe".