The Challengers (band) - Years of Success

Years of Success

The Challengers moved on and continued to record albums. During the recording of their third album "On The Move", Hefner, Grey, Roberts and Landis all left the band. Richard Delvy and Randy Nauert remained. Art Fisher and Ed Fournier filled two guitar spots and Phil Pruden came in on saxophone. Delvy, Fisher and Fournier also contributed to song compositions for the group. In 1964, they released their hit album K-39. The title track became a big hit and is one of their best known songs. The group continued their successful career, recording several albums a year, shocking by today's "one album every two years" pattern. They also had their own TV show called "Surf's Up" hosted by Stan Richards in '65-66 and appeared frequently on another dance show called "Hollywood A Go-Go" hosted by Sam Riddle in '65-66. Saxophonist Phil Pruden left the group starting with the release of "California Kicks" in 1966 making The Challengers a four piece guitar driven group for the remainder of their run. During this time the group and surf music popularity overseas in Japan and other countries was exploding. This led to the creation of four more groups with members from The Challengers. The Surfriders, The Good Guys, The Clee-Shays and The De-Fenders all produced albums for these foreign markets. In addition The Challengers produced some tracks for the car & hot rod music scene that was gaining popularity in the US on the heels of the surf craze. Delvy could see a music trend coming and capture it at just the right time. Although primarily an instrumental band, the group added vocals to the following albums as all band members could also sing:

At The Teenage Fair
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
A Go Go
Light My Fire

In the mid to late 1960s, as music changed, so did The Challengers. They began recording more pop-oriented music, like an instrumental version of "Kicks" by Paul Revere & The Raiders, "Light My Fire" by The Doors, "The Man from U.N.C.L.E" from the TV show and many others. By 1967, they had gone the way of most other surf bands and stopped performing live, but still continued recording and releasing albums. Their album "Billy Strange And The Challengers" brought the collaboration of another fine guitarist from the GNP Crescendo label to work with The Challengers. A 1970 greatest hits release of the band was fittingly titled "Where Were You In The Summer Of '62?".