Dick [ Lory ] Glasser
A salute to
Dick Glasser from PJ Proby
A message to Pat Shannon
I am a former Artist that was
produced by Dick Glasser in the early 70's. I would like
to get in touch with his Brother Pat, whom I also have a
song published with since 1975 but can't seem to
locate........Do you know how I can get in touch with
Pat.......????
I have exhausted all avenues I can think of to regain
communication with Pat .
Thank you for you time and attention to this inquiry.
Sincerely,
William Anthony Olive aka Billy Olive
Please email Billy @ [email protected]
I am pleased to print
the following story of young Dick Glasser sent to
me by the legendary DJ Jack
Gale. Please be
sure to visit his website. It's lots of fun ! ~
Spike
"Come visit the crazy
world of Jack Gale" @ JACKGALERADIO.COM
Here's some unknown
facts on Dick Glasser. I was a morning disk
jockey on WSRS in Cleveland, Ohio back in 1954.
Had a record company called Triple A Records with
a national hit "Oh Happy Day" by Don
Howard. A 17 year old lad who was a car washer
for a used car lot in Minerva, Ohio brought me an
acetate of a song he had written and recorded
called "Angels in the Sky". It was just
him with an organ backround. I loved it and
released it on Triple A Records in Cleveland.
That kid was Dick Glasser. Pee Wee King, who was
a country music star, was in Cleveland doing a TV
show. He heard me play Dick's record and called
me. He said he could get Tony Martin to record
that song on RCA Victor if I would split the
publishing with him. I said if he could get the
Tony Martin record, we had a deal. Tony recorded
it on RCA with Henri Rene's orchestra two weeks
later. He performed it on "The Perry Como TV
Show" Pee Wee called and said RCA would give
it a big push if we take Glasser's version off
the market. I talked to Dick, and he said he
wanted to be a writer anyway, so the deal; was
done. Later, Pee Wee took Dick to California, and
he went to work for Pee Wee's publishing company,
Ridgeway Music. Glasser went on from there to
produce major acts on Reprise and Warner, and the
rest is history. Now you know the rest of the
story. I don't know about his brothers, but I do
know he had a sister who also sang and made
records under the name of Joanie Armstrong. ~ Jack
Gale [email protected]
Thanks Tony Brickwood [
Australia ] for the following info:
"Dick's
Hit Single 'Handsome Guy' made the top ten here in Oz,
around May 1960. I still recall the lyrics..............'there are
those who'd have - us drift apart - they're the ones who
also want your heart - but the thought of losing you -
still tears my heart in two - but if it should break
again - how could I stand the pain, etc. Wonderfull stuff !.
Cheers" ~ T.B.
Dick Glasser was born in Virginia in
1936. He produced records for the Ventures and Vogues
among others. Dick had 3 brothers that recorded under the
name "The 3 G's" and another brother that
recorded under the name of Pat Shannon. "
I'll bet their mother had a tough time remembering all of
those names!" ~ R.S.
Ron also informed me of an
interesting fact that I did not know. Another vinyl album
was released of Dick's recordings titled "Handsome
hits and rockin' bits" Rebel #
1002. It featured the same cover as Revival's "Cool
it baby" except the photo is much
clearer and larger. The back of the album has a small
picture of Dick and The 3 G's complete
with liner notes. The song listing can be found at the
bottom of this page. Thanks my good friend for the info.
My friend Bear Grove has just
added some new Proby/Glasser goodies. Check out his great
links below! For more excellent info about Glasser and PJ
Proby visit  ! All great
sites!
Many thanks to my friend Jan
Sonesson [ Sweden ] for giving me the info on Dick's
single on the Silver label ~ Teri/To
be a girl that's noticed . I would
love to hear this one!
Your Dick Lory Discography lists a
Columbia single "Crazy Little Daisy." The flip
is listed as unknown. The correct flipside for that
single is "Don't Be A Fool For Love." Both
titles were included (next to each other) on all three
CD/LPs you cited. My father bought me that record in the
late '50s--God knows why, since I'm sure he never heard
of Dick Lory before. I was about 4 years old at the time
and still remember it. Haven't seen that copy or any
other since the early sixties. Ken Ackerman
|
Hi Spike! I sent
several e-mails to you when I first found your
page this spring but now, I hope, things will
work so I get through to you. In the
late seventies Swedish television showed a 1957
amateur film of Scandinavia´s first rocker to
make it into the big-time. He was called
"Rock-Ragge" and his group was called
"The Four Comets" and apart from
Scandinavia he also had releases as far away as
France. Well, in that short movie he
started it all by telling his group; "Let´s
rock´n roll, boys!" and then bursted into a
hot piece of rock´n roll. And the tune? Well, it
was Dick Lory´s "Ballroom Baby", which
also was one of the songs of his first EP.
Recently I made a call to Rune Furén who was his
lead guitar-player in "The Four
Comets", and when I asked him about the very
first recording date he started to hum
"Ballroom Baby". Well, ever
since the late seventies when I found out
that little about Dick Lory, I have wanted to
learn more. And I can´t say I know that much
today either but his first outing was
"Midnight To Daylight"(a favorite of
mine)/"Everything But You" which was
followed by "Ballrom Baby"/"Cool
It, Baby" (1956). In 1957-8 he had a
couple of releases on argo as Dick Glasser as
well as a third one as Dickie & The Gees(Argo
5288). I strongly believe that "The
Gees" in fact were his brothers Ted, Jerry
and Bob also known as "The Three
Gee´s". Another reason for me thinking so
is that Dick next went to Colombia to record just
like "The Three Gee´s".
Please visit The Rockin´country Style
site to find out more about when the records of
Dick Lory were revued in Billboard http://els51.law.emory.edu/rcs/index.htm
All the best Åke Roos , Östersund
, Sweden ake. [email protected]
Hi, again Here is
just about everything I know about Dick Lory´s
records that is missing in your discography.
"Midnight To
Daylight"/"Everything But
You" Dot #15484 Billboard rev.
56/aug.25 "Ballroom
Baby"/"Cool It,
Baby"
Dot#15496 Billboard rev. 56/oct.27
"Crazy Love"/"Love
Me"
ARGO 5279 Billboard rev. 57/oct.07 "Baby Bye
Bye"/"Foolish
Tears"
ARGO 5288 Billboard rev. 58/feb.14th (Releases as
by "Dickie & the Gees").
"Crazy Little Daisy"/"Don´t Be A
Fool For Love" Colombia #41276. Billboard
rev. 58/Dec.01 "Crazy
Alligator"/"That´s Is What I´m Gonna
Do" Colombia#41472. "Jeannie´s
Bikini"/"Leave Me
Alone"
Colombia#41680 "Lover´s
Dreamland"/"Time Can
Change"
Colombia#41762 "Home
Again"/"I Got Over
You"
Liberty 55529 "I Will"/"I Catch
Myself
Crying" Liberty
55707 My information is from the superb
liner notes of the album "Handsome Hits
& Rockin´Bits" which I bought back in
1984. I´m pretty sure it is an Australian label
(Rebel Records). And the Billboard rev. dates
information on some of the releases is
thanks to Terry Gordon´s Rockin´Country Style
website. In 1967 Lory was still recording
as Dick Glasser & Co. on Warner Brothers but
I have no titles or record numbers. It
makes me sad to know that Dick Lory is no longer
among us. I would have loved to tell him of his
importance for me to become a rock´n roll fan as
a teenager in the late 70´s as his
"Ballroom Baby" (though it was a cover
version) had been a very big hit as i mentioned
in my first letter to you, selling well in excess
over 30000 copies in Sweden. It was that
very first EP on DECCA by Swedish 19-year
old rocker "Rock-Ragge & His Four
Comets" recorded on November,28th 1957
that really opened up the doors for rock´n roll
in Scandinavia. And it is sure a great version
too, and I hope you will get to hear it some
day. Dick Lory´s original version of
"Ballroom Baby" was never released in
Sweden but copies were sent to the
record company. Rock-Ragge, whose real name is
Ragnar Nygren, made two versions; one, clocked at
1.42(not released) and the second clocked at
1.40. Earlier this year former bandleader
PeeWee King died aged 86, I think. I hardly know
anything about him but there were connections
between him and Dick Lory. I guess Dick sang
in the group as titles like "Ballroom
Baby" and "Catty Town" is featured
in Pee Wee King´s box set on Bear family.
Well, that´s all for now Åke Roos,
Östersund, Sweden
Hi again, It´s
been a while since last time you heard from
me but I have just realized I forgot to tell
you that Dick Lory first started as a song-writer
and a succesful one too! In 1955 his very first
effort, "Angels In The Sky",
became a million seller for "The Crew
Cuts". Later Dick recorded the song himself
on Colombia Records. In
1957 Gene Vincent recorded a Dick Glasser
song, "I Got It", which was
released as the b-side of his hit "Dance To
The Bop", but I´ll tell you it is just as
good as "Dance To The Bop", and
could have provided Gene Vincent with another hit
had Capitol released it as an A-side. Gene
Vincent´s recording of "Tear Drops" is
also an interesting piece of work from the pen of
Dick Glasser. Gene
Vincent recorded the song at Capitol Tower on
January,11 of 1961 but it was never to be
released in US and was released in England
in 1963 only as a LP-track for the album
"The Crazy Beat Of Gene Vincent" . But,
at least in my ears, this song is quite similar
to "The Pain Is Here" which Dick
recorded himself. My opinion is that these
two songs are the very same song with
different lyric and a slightly slower tempo in
Gene Vincents version. At
this recording date Scotty Turner (who had been
the lead guitar player in Tommy Sands group The
Hawks) played lead guitar. Åke Roos,
Sweden
Spike,Dick Lory was a great
talent. In this country [Australia] he is best
known for his Top 10 hit from 1962,"Handsome
Guy/The Pain Is Here" on Liberty. Colin Duff
[email protected]
Spike, The album
"Handsome Hits..." on Rebel was an
Australian bootleg from the early 1980s.Some
friends of mine (who wish to remain anonymous)
were responsible for putting it together [ 500
copies ]. Various CDs have been mastered from
this boot LP, including "Catty Town"
(which is a Dutch boot). In the early 1990s, the
Australian Columbia/Sony label issued a number of
CD compilations called "Hard To Get
Hits". It was intended that "Handsome
Guy" by Dick Lory be included on one of
these CDs but EMI in the US couldn't (or
wouldn't??) find the master tape. As a result,
"Handsome Guy" has never been legally
reissued since 1962!! Colin Duff - Sydney,
Australia
|
My email service deleated all of my
emails [ again ~ 4th time] before I had a chance to print
all of them out. Could Hubcap,Doug,Cherril,Ken,and
everyone else that have been waiting for me to return
your email please email me @ mailto:[email protected] . Thanks ~
Spike
|
He had all the trappings of a pop/rock
superstar-the looks ,the song writing talents,and the
unbelievable voice. He had everything but a major hit in
the United States although he had a smash hit with
"Handsome Guy" in Australia making the top 10
list. He was one of those rare artists that could jump
from one vocal style to another and not miss a note, with
music ranging from rock to country, much like PJ Proby.
Glasser's version of "Hello Walls" is among the best
country recordings ever produced. His singing voice has
been compared to the late great Johnny Burnette. Although he is gone ,
Dick's music will live on forever. 
