Toddler steps

Lee, Sam, and Andy, the Lee Arlano Trio

The Lee Arlano Trio was a regular on the jazz and dinner club circuit, working the western United States from California to Colorado. Austin's Club Seville at the Sheraton Crest Inn (now the Radisson Hotel) was one of the Trio's regular stops. During a KAZZ-FM live remote broadcast from the Club, the trio made a solid impression on Sonobeat co-founders Bill Josey Sr. and Rim Kelley (Bill Jr.). Lee Arlano, his brother Andy, and Sam Poni were formally-trained musicians and seasoned performers, and they played great pop standards and jazz favorites that included many of Bill Sr.'s favorites. Through Club Seville manager Don Dean, who was a friend of the Joseys and an avid supporter of KAZZ's live broadcasts, Bill Sr. arranged to record the Lee Arlano Trio at the Club on an afternoon before it opened to the public.

By the time the Arlano session was scheduled in early summer '67, KAZZ's chief engineer Bill Curtis was confident that his overhaul of Sonobeat's homemade mixer had solved the distortion problem, and, to make sure, he participated in the session as a co-engineer, soldering iron in hand. The Arlano session was completed with minor technical difficulties (the soldering iron came in handy for some quick fixes to the little mixer), and the Joseys enthusiastically selected two tracks from the session for Sonobeat's first release.

At about the same time, Rim broadcast the Sweetarts, one of Austin's most popular fraternity-oriented rock bands, on a KAZZ-FM live remote from the Club Saracen in downtown Austin. In 1966, Rim had played the Sweetarts' Vandan single (So Many Times) on his KAZZ top 40 program and had seen the group perform at the Austin Aqua Festival Battle of the Bands, but he was truly impressed with the 'Tarts tight, professional performance on the remote broadcast and with the audience's enthusiastic reaction to the group. The Joseys scheduled a recording session with the Sweetarts and then sought a venue in which to hold the session. The Sonobeat archives indicate the basic tracks were recorded in July '67 at the popular Swingers Club in North Austin. The session yielded the instrumental tracks for A Picture of Me and Without You, both Ernie Gammage compositions. Several days after the instrumental session, the vocals and additional percussion were overdubbed at KAZZ-FM's studios in the Perry-Brooks Building in downtown Austin. As a bonus, the Sweetarts performed their own compositions, providing an opportunity for Sonobeat's embryonic sister company, Sonosong Music Company, to launch its publishing activities. Sonosong became a BMI publisher affiliate to match Ernie's personal BMI affiliation as a composer.

Sonobeat's first single and first custom picture sleeve

Another decision the Joseys made was to release as many singles as they could commercially justify with custom picture sleeves, but they elected not to print generic sleeves -- those featuring only the label's logo. The custom picture sleeves served the dual marketing purposes of distinguishing Sonobeat's 45s from others in plain or generic sleeves in record store bins and boosting the recognition value of the local talent Sonobeat recorded. Sonobeat's first picture sleeve was for its first release, the Sweetarts' A Picture of Me. Rim designed the sleeve using a photo supplied by the band. The sleeves were printed by Powell Offset Service in South Austin, the same printer that had printed KAZZ-FM's hit lists, distributed weekly to the station's listeners through local record stores.

Bill Sr. conducted phone interviews with mastering and pressing facilities all over the U.S. and finally selected Houston Records, Inc. His decision was made on a combination of Houston Records' assurance that it had the capability to master 45s at half-speed and would press the records with virgin vinyl, convenience (just 160 miles away), and reasonable pricing. The Joseys drove the Lee Arlano and Sweetarts master tapes, blank record labels, and Sweetarts' picture sleeve to Houston, where the lacquers were mastered in sequence, Lee Arlano's first, and test pressings made. The Joseys were disappointed with the test pressings, which didn't seem to have the fidelity or stereo separation of the master tapes, and sent the Sweetarts' master off to highly respected (and far more expensive) Bob Fine Mastering in New York. Comparing the test pressings from Houston Records and the NY company, and not hearing significant differences, the Joseys elected to stick with Houston Records and placed the initial order for the Sweetarts and Lee Arlano Trio singles to be manufactured.

Although the Joseys self-distributed Sonobeat's releases to record stores in Austin and nearby towns, they couldn't cover all of Texas or the surrounding states. They engaged an independent distributor, who worked out of his home in Austin. Later, Sonobeat distributed regionally through H. W. Daily Company in Houston, Santone Record Sales in San Antonio, and Jay Kay Distributing Company in Dallas.

Next: Off and running