Retooling for “cool”

The history of “The Ohio Express” is complicated if not bizarre: the band began as a construct of producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz via their Super K Productions, which had a close alliance with national record labels Cameo, Kama Sutra, and Buddah. The Ohio Express’ first credited hit, Beg, Borrow and Steal, was actually recorded and released in 1966 by New York band The Rare Breed but got no traction with the public and flopped. It was then re-released in 1967 under The Ohio Express name even though at the time there was no actual band by that name. The second time around, the single became a bona fide national hit under the fabricated Ohio Express moniker, likely due to aggressive marketing that The Rare Breed had not received. Next, Mansfield, Ohio-based Sir Timothy and the Royals was pressed into service by Super K (which also produced hot ’60s top 40 acts Crazy Elephant, Music Explosion, 1910 Fruitgum Company, The Lemon Pipers, and Shadows of Knight) and rebranded as “The Ohio Express”. It was in this first actual lineup of the band, recording for Cameo Parkway Records, that Doug Grassel made his appearance, having been a founding member of Sir Timothy. Under Super K, The Ohio Express cranked out one bubblegum pop hit after another, initially for Cameo Parkway and then for Buddah, but Super K constantly used studio session musicians and other bands to record the singles and albums that bore The Ohio Express name, much to the annoyance of those who remained from the band’s origins as Sir Timothy, and who had been touring North America on behalf of Super K. Frustrated with Super K, Grassel defected, organizing a new incarnation of The Ohio Express with Bruce Knott on drums, Scott Steelman on bass, and Doug Wimmer on keyboards and lead vocals. Grassel’s unit toured Canada, the U.S. midwest, and Texas out of an old school bus, operating independently of Super K and Buddah, sanctioned by neither and ignored by both. Eventually arriving in Austin in 1970, Grassel’s Ohio Express played a gig here and a gig there, occasionally jamming with local bands at many of Austin’s hottest nightclubs and music halls.

While touring, Grassel’s Ohio Express began experimenting with a new musical direction, steering itself away from Super K’s bubblegum groove. The band’s new sound was a rock-jazz fusion with a touch of arena rock, a logical progression from the trendy pop rock the previous Ohio Expresses had pioneered for pre-teen record-buyers.

Entering 1970, Sonobeat co-founders Bill Josey Sr. and Rim Kelley“Rim Kelley” was the pseudonym used by Sonobeat co-founder Bill Josey Jr. as a radio deejay in Austin, Texas, during the 1960s and as a Sonobeat producer from 1967 to 1970. seemed to bump into The Ohio Express all around Austin, including at downtown Austin’s hippie music hall, The Vulcan Gas CompanyThe Vulcan was Austin’s first successful hippie music hall, opening in 1967 in an old warehouse at 316 Congress Avenue and closing in 1970. Its better known successor was Armadillo World Headquarters.. Eventually the Joseys introduced themselves to members of the band. Hoping to produce a hit single with the nationally-established and well-known Ohio Express, Bill Sr. offered to record the band, and Grassel agreed. According to Rim, the resulting sessions, which he produced with Bill Sr. and engineered, had a weird, magical vibe, yielding three original songs: Sweet Genie, Beauty So Deep, and Greyhound Shuffle, all written by Grassel. Although both had long running times, Sweet Genie (3:50) and Beauty So Deep (5:15) were strong candidates for a Sonobeat stereo 45 RPM single release, but it turned out Super K and Buddah owned the names “The Ohio Express” and ”Ohio Express” (“The” was dropped from the band’s recording name with the release of the single Mercy in 1969, but not from the touring groups’ name), so Sonobeat put its tentative release plans on hold while Grassel discussed the situation with Super K and Buddah execs.

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In March 1970, anticipating Grassel would be able to sort things out with Buddah and clear the way for Sonobeat’s release of the band’s Sonobeat material, Rim created a set of mono trial mixes designed for AM radio airplay. But soon it became clear Buddah wouldn’t agree to let Sonobeat release the recordings under “The Ohio Express” name, so Grassel and company considered renaming themselves “January”. Eventually, though, the tracks were relegated to the vault, which is unfortunate, because Grassel’s new incarnation of The Ohio Express was a solid commercial experiment blending pop jazz with a strong base of power rock that was pretty, um, yummy.

In 1971, Scott Steelman returned to record at Sonobeat as a member of Columbus, Ohio-based progressive rock band, Synthesis, which sounded nothing like The Ohio Express. Later in life Scott shifted from composing and performing to painting. In 2013, after years of continuing to tour as The Ohio Express, Doug Grassel succumbed at age 64 to fibrosis of the lungs.

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