Early Years
During their peak years, from late 1960 to Summer 1963, The Bel-Airs had two drummers who played gigs with the band alternately, original Mouseketeer, Dick Dodd (Eddie & the Showmen and The Standells) and a local school friend named Richard Delvy. Delvy saw value in publishing, promoting and recording and began a career of managing and producing surf music. He then ultimately recorded numerous Southern California bands in the latter part of the 1960s. Since the 60's Delvy has produced many different musical artists and has made music management his lifelong passion.
The year before The Bel-Airs breakup, Richard Delvy left The Bel-Airs to form a new band called The Challengers. The only band member he brought from The Bel-Airs was keyboardist Jim Roberts. Delvy then recruited Randy Nauert (bass guitar), Glenn Grey (lead guitar), Don Landis (rhythm guitar) and Nick Hefner (saxophone). They played at many high schools and many local dances and clubs. They eventually earned enough money to rent a recording studio "World Pacific" to start recording. In about three and a half hours, they had an album titled "Surfbeat". Saxophonist Nick Hefner played on only one track. Surfbeat was released in January 1963 on Vault Records and quickly went up the charts. Just months earlier, The Beach Boys released a vocal single called "Surfing Safari" Some months before The Challenger's "Surfbeat" release, surf music icon Dick Dale's first album "Surfers Choice" was released. "Surfbeat" contained songs that were early influences on surf rock, including songs first recorded by The Fireballs and Duane Eddy. In the early years Rick Griffin contributed cartoons of the band that appeared on their albums and a fan oriented "Challengers Band Cartoon Book". He later became well known for his work creating psychedelic poster art later in the 60's. The original group released a second album titled "Lloyd Thaxton Goes Surfing With The Challengers" with the benefit of being associated with the popular teen television show host.
Read more about this topic: The Challengers (band)
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