Sonobeat Artists
Sweetarts
Beginnings
July 1967, Austin, Texas. A typical toasty Central Texas summer. For months, Sonobeat co-founders Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr. had been planning the launch of a new, Austin-based record label, gathering recording equipment and holding practice recording sessions. Bill Jr., a deejay at Austin’s KAZZ-FM., who used the air name “Rim Kelley”, and Bill Sr., KAZZ’s general manager, knew all the top local music venues – Jade Room, Club Saracen, Action Club, IL Club, Swingers A Go-Go, and The New Orleans Club – where they frequently hung out, looking for the “right” rock band to record for Sonobeat’s first commercial release. Two months earlier, in May, using an Ampex 354 tape deck and microphones borrowed from KAZZ, the Joseys held practice recording sessions with Austin semi-psychedelic band Leo and the Prophets, recording the band in the parking lot at Lake Austin Inn, and recording another hot Austin rock band, Sweetarts, at Club Saracen in downtown Austin; however, neither session produced useable tracks because of audio mixer distortion. By July, the Joseys were finally ready for a real recording session, again with Leo and the Prophets, this time using Swingers Club in north Austin as a remote recording studio. But the Prophets had only one finished song, so their session failed to yield a flip side for a commercial 45 RPM vinyl release.
Waiting in the wings
Backing up a moment to fall 1963, Dwight Dow and Ernie Gammage had just started at The University of Texas, Dwight as a junior transferee from North Texas State UniversityNorth Texas State University became The University of North Texas (UNT) in 1988. Its main campus is located in Denton, Texas, just north of Dallas-Ft. Worth. and Ernie as a freshman. During rush, the two connected with Austin musician Charlie Hatchett (who later became a legendary Austin band booking agent) to form cover band The Fabulous Chevelles (not to be confused with another Texas band that formed almost ten years later, The Fabulous Thunderbirds). The Chevelles played all the regular Austin music venues and University of Texas fraternity parties. The money was good and helped Dwight and Ernie pay their way through college. But by 1965, the two had moved on to co-found the Sweettarts – note that the original spelling of the band’s name mirrored, but as one word, the spelling of the popular candy Sweet Tarts, which had been introduced in 1963. The new band – at the time nameless – got a call during rehearsal from a frat party booker who asked who they were. Dwight, munching Sweet Tarts at the time, as a joke gave the booker that name. It stuck.
When Dwight and Ernie formed the ’Tarts, they recruited two African-American musicians and promoted the band as “The Sweettarts – half black, half white. You gotta hear ’em, they’re outta sight”. But that first incarnation of the band didn’t last long, largely because The University of Texas fraternity party scene, which generously subsidized Austin rock bands every weekend, was unsure whether the ’Tarts were a rock & roll band or a rhythm & blues band, so bookings began to dry up. Version two of the Sweettarts featured the line-up that initially recorded and released the single So Many Times, in 1966, for Dallas-based Vandan Records. Perhaps, after the Vandan release, it was a call from Sweet Tarts manufacturer Sunline’s trademark attorneys that resulted in a change in spelling of the band’s name to Sweetarts, with just one “t” in the middle, or perhaps it was just a smart tweak to make sure the band’s name was spelled correctly in night club newspaper ads and on club marquees.
When the Sweettarts’ Vandan single came out, it was well promoted nationally and, although it didn’t make the national charts, it was a bona fide regional hit and naturally sold well in the band’s hometown, Austin. KAZZ, at the time the only FM station regularly playing top 40 music anywhere in the U.S., happily played singles by Austin bands, including those by Leo and the Prophets, The 13th Floor Elevators, and... the Sweettarts. In 1966, KAZZ afternoon deejay Rim Kelley pretty much played the grooves off So Many Times and in February 1967 hosted a KAZZ live remote broadcast that featured the band performing at Club Saracen in downtown Austin. At that broadcast, the Sweetarts came off as a tight, virtuoso unit, playing original material alongside familiar Beatles and Otis Redding covers. But it was the band’s crowd-pleasing performance of its original song Without You that convinced Rim to offer to record the Sweetarts for the start-up Sonobeat label.
Tonight, happening sounds... the Sweetarts... and, well, they’re great.”
The 1967 sessions
The Swingers Club in North Austin, where the Joseys recorded Leo and the Prophets, proved to be a good make-shift remote studio with plenty of floor space and good acoustics, so Sonobeat returned there for a July 18, 1967, afternoon session with the Sweetarts. That session produced the basic instrumental tracks for what became Sonobeat’s first release. A week later, in a late-night session at KAZZ-FM’s downtown Austin studios, Rim combined the instrumental backing tracks with vocal, tambourine, and shaker overdubs on a mix-down from KAZZ’s Ampex 354 quarter-inch 2-track tape deck to its Ampex 350 2-track deck. KAZZ’s facilities presented both a challenge and an opportunity: the station’s offices and studios were on the 10th floor of the Perry Brooks Building. The north and south sides of the 10th floor were divided by a tunnel-like hallway. KAZZ occupied offices on one side of the long hallway, facing Austin’s classical music station KMFA-FM on the other side. For the Sweetarts overdub session, Rim set up a mike for vocals in the hallway just outside KAZZ’s office entrance and another mike at the far end of the hallway to capture its natural reverberation. He threaded the mike cables into the KAZZ production room, then coordinated with KAZZ’s deejay (KMFA didn’t broadcast late at night) to avoid recording when the deejay was announcing on-air. Between each take the band members gathered in KAZZ’s production room to listen until all agreed on the takes that were keepers.
I’m telling you, the seasons are endless.
That winding ol’ road... is secretly bendless...”
The 45 RPM stereo single
Ernie Gammage’s A Picture of Me is an innovative and well-crafted pop tune by any standard, with a lot going for it: thoughtful lyrics, Ernie’s solid lead vocal, an infectious beat, a tight band performance with an unusual four bar break – probably influenced by the Beatles’ We Can Work It Out – and polished backup harmonies that dramatically end the song on a minor chord.
Without You, also a Gammage original, is an equally impressive and solid rock romp with a good bit of country influence, punctuated by Tom Van Zandt’s Farfisa organ riffs, Pat Whitefield‘s clever bass break, and a neat little hi-hat trick courtesy of Dwight Dow.
As good as both songs were, though, there was never any doubt in producer Rim Kelley’s mind that A Picture of Me would be the single’s “A” side.
When both the Sweetarts and Sonobeat were satisfied with the vocal overdubs, Bill Josey Sr. drove the master tape – along with the master tape for Sonobeat‘s first jazz single, by the Lee Arlano Trio, recorded a week before the Sweetarts’ sessions – to Houston, Texas, where Houston Records, Inc., pressed 1,000 to 1,500 copies of each single. Packaged in a black and white picture sleeve, the Sweetarts’ stereo 45 RPM single was released throughout Central Texas during Labor Day week in 1967. The Lee Arlano Trio single was released a week later.
A Picture of Me
Recording and release details
45 RPM stereo single
“A” side: A Picture of Me (Ernie Gammage) • 2:25
“B” side: Without You (Ernie Gammage) • 2:17
Catalog number: R-s101
Single-sided black and white picture sleeve
Released week of September 4, 1967*
*Release date is approximated using best information available from the Sonobeat archives and public records
Produced and engineered by Rim Kelley
Basic tracks recorded at Swingers Club, Austin, Texas, on July 18, 1967
Vocals and percussion overdubs recorded at KAZZ-FM studios, Austin, Texas, on or about July 25, 1967
Recorded using...
- ElectroVoice 665 dynamic microphones
- Ampex 350 and 354 quarter-inch 2-track tape decks
- Custom 6-channel portable stereo mixer
- 3M (Scotch) 201 tape stock
Between 1,000 and 1,500 copies pressed; labels of 50-100 copies overprinted with “PROMO” and “NOT FOR SALE”; A Picture of Me side of promo copies also overprinted with a to indicate the side radio stations should play
Lacquers and master plates manufactured by Location Recording Services, Burbank, California
Vinyl copies pressed by Houston Records, Inc., Houston, Texas
Label blanks and picture sleeve printed by Powell Offset Services, Austin, Texas
In the dead wax...
- A Picture of Me: LH-3510
- Without You: LH-3511
- “L” in the matrix number identifies Location Recording Services, Burbank, California, as the lacquer mastering facility and “H” identifies Houston Records as the pressing plant
Unreleased recordings
Lady (Ernie Gammage) • 2:54
Summer Sunshine (composer unknown) • 3:50
Produced and engineered by Rim Kelley
Recorded at Sonobeat’s home-based Western Hills Drive studio, Austin, Texas, on July 9, 1969
Recorded using...
- ElectroVoice 665 dynamic, ElectroVoice Slimair 636 dynamic, and Sony ECM-22 electret condenser microphones
- Scully 280 half-inch 4-track and Ampex AG-350 quarter-inch 2-track tape decks
- Custom 10-channel portable stereo mixer
- Fairchild Lumiten 663ST stereo optical compressor
- Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton 9-band graphic equalizer
- Custom steel plate stereo reverb
- 3M (Scotch) 202 tape stock
Sonobeat promoted A Picture of Me as the first monaural-compatible stereo 45 RPM single in the U.S., although some major labels previously had dabbled in, then abandoned, stereo singles. The Sweetarts’ single also was packaged in a picture sleeve, an unusual extra expense that small regional labels typically eschewed but that was part of Sonobeat‘s marketing plan. Although the Sweetarts’ single was distributed only in Austin and Central Texas record stores, the Joseys considered their first release a success particularly because, somewhat unexpectedly, it picked up a national review in music industry trade journal Cash Box. The single also was San Antonio, Texas, radio station KTSA’s “pick hit of the week” (as reported in the September 17, 1967, edition of the San Antonio Express and News) and a featured pick of the week by San Antonio’s top rated rock station KONO (as reported by record and radio trade journal Record World in its October 7, 1967 issue).
The Sweetarts entered the 1968 Austin Aqua Festival Battle of the Bands, appearing August 9th in the Austin City Coliseum among only 12 finalists culled from over 50 competing acts. The ‘Tarts won first place and took home a $500 cash prize (worth over $4,500 in 2024 dollars).
The boys in the band
Performing on the Sonobeat single
- Dwight Dow (drums)
- Mike Galbraith (vocals and percussion)
- Ernie Gammage (guitar and lead vocals)
- Tom Van Zandt (keyboards)
- Pat Whitefield (bass)
Joining after the Sonobeat single
- Ronnie Hudgins (drums)
- Randy Thornton (vocals)
- Steve Weisberg (guitar and vocals)
The 1969 sessions
The Sweetarts returned to Sonobeat in July 1969 to record new original material. These sessions occurred during a musical transition for the ’Tarts, who in mid-’68 added vocalist Randy Thornton and guitarist Steve Weisberg and began a transition from top 40-style frat rock to rhythm & blues and experimental original material. The 1969 sessions focused on Ernie Gammage’s ballad Lady, recorded in multiple versions. There’s debate about a second song attributed to the Sweetarts in the July ’69 sessions: Summer Sunshine is a complex, highly crafted tune and performance with instrumentation that largely parallels that of Lady, but Ernie Gammage didn’t sing lead. The label on the session master tape in the Sonobeat archives credits Summer Sunshine to the Sweetarts, but no one in the band has recalled composing or recording it. Perhaps it’s a Steve Weisberg or Randy Thornton song. We’re left with an air of mystery and uncertainty about Summer Sunshine, which we can’t say definitively is a Sweetarts recording but that we’ll continue to attribute to the ’Tarts unless we find convincing evidence to the contrary.
In addition to the Sweetarts new sound, the 1969 sessions, recorded at Sonobeat’s Western Hills Drive studio, were technically superior to the 1967 sessions. By 1969 Sonobeat had built a small studio on the lower level of the Josey family’s split-level home in northwest Austin. The home-based studio included a drum and vocal isolation booth. Between the Sweetarts’ 1967 and 1969 sessions, Sonobeat acquired a top tier half-inch 4-track Scully 280 tape recorder and an array of professional microphones, including a matched pair of Sony ECM-22 electret condenser mikes, and built a 10-channel custom solid state stereo mixer and massive steel plate reverb. In January 1969, the Joseys delivered their master recordings of Johnny Winter’s The Progressive Blues Experiment album to Liberty Records in Los Angeles, to whom they’d sold the commercial rights, and visited Liberty’s Hollywood recording studios, where they nabbed a stash of Liberty Recorders tape box labels. Weeks later, back in Austin, they used one of the labels to document the Sweetarts’ 1969 sessions, thinking Sonobeat might be able to sell this new batch of Sweetarts recordings to Liberty, too. But work on the second Sweetarts single ended with little completed due to the band’s ongoing personnel changes, and before the sessions were completed the band regrouped as Fast Cotton. The timing wasn’t right to shift the sessions to the band’s new incarnation as Fast Cotton, but that moment arrived in 1970, so the second round of Sweetarts tapes were shelved.
The 2013 and 2014 reunions
Sometimes great bands take long breaks: on March 13, 2013, during SXSWSouth By Southwest, also known as “SXSW” or “South By” and whose name was inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock thriller North By Northwest, began in 1987 as a local music festival and since has expanded to cover feature films and interactive media on an international scale. SXSW pretty much takes over Austin during The University of Texas spring break every March. in Austin, the Sweetarts reunited at Tom’s Tabooley/Antone’s Records for only their second performance since disbanding in 1969 to form Fast Cotton. Rim Kelley introduced the ’Tarts at the 2013 event. On February 9, 2014, the Sweetarts reunited once more, also at Tom’s Tabooley/Antone’s Records, to support Ricky Stein’s book signing event (for his History Press edition of Sonobeat Records: Pioneering the Austin Sound in the ’60s). In March 2014, Sonobeat Historical Archives reissued restored and remastered versions of A Picture of Me and Without You, on iTunes and Amazon Music. The band took a final bow with an appearance on July 26, 2014, at Saxon Pub in Austin with fellow Austin bandmates Lavender Hill Express to help celebrate the digital reissue of all three Lavender Hill Express Sonobeat singles.
Sweetarts bass player Pat Whitefield died in Austin, Texas, at age 72 on August 5, 2019, following brain surgery on July 3rd to remove a glioblastoma.
Watch Ernie Gammage’s recollections of the Sweetarts and Sonobeat on Austin Music History’s YouTube channel.
Listen!
50th anniversary digital reissue
For its 50th anniversary digital reissue of the Sweetarts’ single in 2017, Sonobeat Historical Archives commissioned Colin Leonard at SING Mastering in Atlanta, Georgia, to remaster A Picture of Me. Colin’s impressive mastering credits include albums and singles by Alessia Cara, Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Bryson Tiller, Echosmith, Leona Lewis, Migos, Icona Pop, Mastodon, Kimbra, Indigo Girls, and Gucci Mane. A Picture of Me is available on Apple Music in a sparkling Apple Digital Master edition, remastered by Colin, using his patented using SING Technology, directly from a high resolution 88.2 kHz/24 bit transfer from Sonobeat’s original analog session master tape. Sonobeat Historical Archives remastered Without You in-house, also using an 88.2 KHz/24 bit transfer from the original analog session master tape.
A Picture of Me
50th anniversary (2017) digital reissue of the 1967 single
Restored and remastered from the original analog session master tape
Without You
50th anniversary (2017) digital reissue of the 1967 single
Restored and remastered from the original analog session master tape
More on the band members
Dwight Dow
Drummer Dwight Dow‘s hometown is tiny Wink, Texas, which happens also to be the hometown of ’60s rock icon Roy Orbison. Wink is about 400 miles west of Austin, not far from the Texas-New Mexico border. Dwight picked up his drumming skills as a member of his high school band and during his senior year in high school was a member of hometown trio The Madcaps. Dwight started college at North Texas State University (alma mater of Pat Boone, Roy Orbison, Don Henley, and Norah Jones and now known as the University of North Texas), then transferred to The University of Texas to begin his junior year majoring in architecture. A chance meeting with Ernie Gammage and Charlie Hatchett led the three to form The Fabulous Chevelles and, a couple of years later, Dwight departed with Ernie to start the Sweetarts. Married during his senior year at The University of Texas, Dwight continued on from the ’Tarts to its successor band, Fast Cotton (he’s even credited with naming Fast Cotton after a greyhound racing dog), but with a child on the way, Dwight hung it up when Fast Cotton disbanded early in 1971. Dwight left music behind to pursue a career in architecture and residential construction, remaining in Austin.
Mike Galbraith
Singer and percussionist Mike Galbraith is a Houston, Texas, native. While in junior high, Mike performed in The Blue Notes, a sextet that was good enough to be invited to audition for the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, one of the most popular 1950s TV variety shows, along the lines of The Ed Sullivan Show. Mike and fellow Houstonian Ernie Gammage became close friends at Lamar High School, but Mike started his college education at Texas Tech in Lubbock, in northwest Texas, while Ernie headed up to The University of Texas in Austin. Transferring to The University of Texas in 1964, Mike roomed with Ernie and occasionally took the stage to sing with Ernie’s band, The Fabulous Chevelles, but Mike never formally joined that trio. Nor was Mike an official member of the Sweetarts at its forming; it was only later in ’65 that Mike was invited into the band as both singer and roadie. In 1969, as the Sweetarts broke up to form Fast Cotton, Mike moved back to Houston, but in ’71 he returned to Austin to complete his undergraduate degree at The University of Texas, then headed back to Houston in 1972, where he still lives. Mike left his music career behind after the ’Tarts, focusing on construction project management.
Ernie Gammage
Lead guitarist, singer, and songwriter Ernie Gammage hails from Houston, Texas. He started playing guitar in junior high, inspired by ’50s rock and rhythm & blues artists, especially Little Richard, Jimmy Reed, and Otis Redding. Ernie moved to Austin in fall ’63 for his freshman year at The University of Texas, where, during rush week, he met Charlie Hatchett, who had already been in modestly successful Austin bands. Ernie and Charlie hit it off and agreed to form The Fabulous Chevelles, with Charlie on guitar, Ernie on bass (this was a new instrument for Ernie, but Charlie told him “it‘s easy; it’s only got four strings”), and Dwight Dow on drums. Although the Chevelles were a highly sought after frat party band and played all the local night clubs, they did what most other local bands did at the time: performed covers of the then-current top 40 hits, particularly those by the Beatles. But Ernie had a knack for clever lyrics and musical hooks, and the Chevelles began to play some of his original tunes. By the time Ernie and Dwight left the Chevelles to form the Sweetarts, Ernie had plenty of originals ready to go. It was two of his originals that the Sweetarts recorded in 1966 for Dallas-based Vandan Records and two more the ’Tarts recorded in ‘67 for Sonobeat. After completing his B.A. in Business (with an emphasis on finance and insurance) at The University of Texas, Ernie did a semester in law school that he had trouble putting his heart into, but through it all he continued to perform in band after band, all in Austin, taking a break in the early ’70s to relocate to England for a couple of years. Back in Austin following England, Ernie jumped right back into music while also holding down “regular” full-time jobs, among them director of the annual Austin Aqua Festival. He retired in the 2000s from his position as Director of the Texas Wildlife Expo at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. But he wasn’t really retired and has continued to perform gig after gig in and around Austin, presently as a member of The Lost Austin Band. While in England in the early ’70s, Ernie got into the visual arts, creating dozens of unique paintings that he now offers as glicée prints on canvas at his many showings in and around Austin.
Tom Van Zandt
Keyboardist Tom Van Zandt was born in Lima, Peru, where his father was stationed during the waning years of the Second World War. When WWII wound down, the Van Zandt family returned to Tom’s father’s hometown of Ft. Worth, Texas, which Tom found to be swarming with Van Zandt kin, due to his prolific great grandfather, one of Fort Worth’s founders, and his three wives and 14 children. One of these relatives is Tom’s third cousin, legendary Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt, who grew up in Houston rather than Fort Worth. Tom’s mother, who as a teenager was a featured singer with some of the best known big bands of the era, taught Tom piano, and he was hooked. As a freshman at The University of Texas, Tom made the rounds of all the popular frat parties, where The Fabulous Chevelles frequently performed. Convinced the bands were having more fun than the partygoers, Tom bought a Wurlitzer electric piano and formed a band with an atrocious pun for a name (we’re not going to repeat it here) with some of his fraternity brothers. Though admittedly not particularly good musicians, the band garnered a reputation as a raunchy but fun party act. Approached by Ernie Gammage as Ernie was departing the Chevelles to form the Sweetarts, Tom jumped at the chance to join a more legit band and the rest, as they say, is history. Tom continued from the Sweetarts into its successor, Fast Cotton. Graduating from The University of Texas with majors in Government and History, Tom then entered The University of Texas law school, graduating after four years with a J.D. degree. But with a low draft number – it was still the Viet Nam conflict era – Tom decided to serve his country by joining the Peace Corps, serving for three years as Legal Advisor to the Ethiopian Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources. Returning from Africa, Tom headed for Wisconsin to pick up another post-graduate degree, this one in Water Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. A year-long stint in Washington, D.C., working for the Smithsonian on a federal environmental study provided some political excitement and an opportunity to sample some of the great jazz and R&B around the D.C. area. But Wisconsin called him back to take a job as director of an environmental outreach program for U.W. and (mainly) to be with his grad school roommate and now wife, Sandy, who was finishing up another graduate degree. After three years of this, the brutal Wisconsin winters had taken their toll, so tom and Sandy returned to Austin, where Tom’s appreciation for and occasional participation in Austin’s great musical banquet blended with his career in environmental consulting. Austin also is the birthplace of Tom and Sandy’s two sons. Notwithstanding his professional career, Tom continued to play gigs with old and new friends in Austin until, in the mid-2010s, the wear and tear of setting up, tearing down, and staying up late persuaded him to shift his musical energies toward songwriting. Tom’s still in Austin and now retired from the environmental consulting firm he and Sandy founded more than 30 years ago.
Pat Whitefield
Pat Whitefield was born in Dallas, Texas. Unlike his Sweetarts bandmates, Pat moved to Austin a couple of years before starting college, initially playing with fledgling rock band the Night Owls. When he enrolled in The University of Texas, Pat majored in German and math. When we interviewed Pat in 2017, in connection with the 50th anniversary digital reissue of the Sonobeat Sweetarts single, he vividly recalled sitting next to Charles Whitman the spring semester before Whitman became infamous as The University of Texas Tower Sniper, on August 1, 1966, killing 17 and wounding 31 before himself being killed by Austin police. So vivid was Pat’s memory, he recalled the class he and Whitman shared as “Calculus Proved by Analytic Geometry”. Pat wasn’t one of the original Sweetarts but was invited into the band when it reorganized from its rhythm & blues-inflected “half black, half white” origin into a straight-up rock band. Joining the band, Pat was assigned bass guitar, an instrument he’d never played before. Like Charlie Hatchet had told Ernie when Ernie took up bass for The Fabulous Chevelles, Ernie told Pat, “Here’s a pick, here’s a Kay bass, and you’re playing bass now.” From that moment on, bass stuck with Pat through his long career in Austin music. Marrying at age 22 changed the equation for Pat, and, six years after his first child was born, forced him to augment his music career with a series of “serious” jobs, including working as a UNIX systems administration. But Pat never really gave up music and continued to play, focusing on traditional blues, right through until his untimely death – following brain cancer surgery – in August 2019. Pat played his final gig with The Little Elmore Reed Blues Band only a couple of days before his brain surgery in June 2019.
Our thanks to Sweetarts co-founder Ernie Gammage for providing photos of the band and to all members of the Sweetarts for participating in our digital reissues of A Picture of Me and Without You.
Trivia
Sonobeat was dissatisfied with the sonic quality of the initial set of Sweetarts test pressings it received from Houston Records. Houston Records outsourced lacquer mastering and electroplatingThe vinyl record manufacturing process begins by transferring audio from the master tape to a lacquer-coated aluminum or copper disc using a cutting lathe; the next step is electroplating the lacquer disc to create the “father” or master plate from which multiple sets of “mother” plates and stampers are produced. The stampers are used by the pressing plant to manufacture the vinyl disc copies. to a number of different suppliers and itself was only a pressing plant. The lacquers and master plates for the Sweetarts single were manufactured for Houston Records by Location Recording Service in Burbank, California. Before giving Houston Records the green light to start pressing, as an experiment, Sonobeat shipped the Sweetarts master tape to high-end Fine Recording in Manhattan. Fine was renowned for its customized Scully lathes and high-powered Westrex cutting heads that produced pristine high fidelity lacquer masters. Fine crafted new lacquers and master plates for the single and shipped them to Houston Records for a fresh set of test pressings. Surprisingly, there were no noticeable differences between the two sets of test pressings. Sonobeat decided to let it go for the time being, assuming that the deficiencies were caused by Houston Records’ pressing facilities or the quality of the vinyl it used rather than by the lacquer mastering, an issue that Sonobeat would revisit in 1968.
Ernie Gammage’s first composer royalty statement from Sonosong (Sonobeat’s music publishing arm), dated in February 1968, showed sales of 627 copies of the Sonobeat single during its first four months of release. Ernie’s royalty for each composition was one cent per copy sold, so he received $12.54 total, equal to about $113 in 2024 dollars.
As an example of art coincidentally imitating art, country star George Jones released a top 10-charting single in 1972 entitled, yep, A Picture of Me (Without You).