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The Stories Behind The Songs
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For more information, e-mail paul@paulpayton.com.
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Presence 4502 and 4503 are The Fabulous Dudes’ total released output to date. (There are many additional unreleased demos as well, mostly originals and a few covers. We anticipate that some will be released along with new recordings on "...The Kids Would Go Wild!", a new CD currently "under construction.") “Davilee”/ "Go On" is out of print, and will not be re-pressed in the 45rpm format. “Davilee” is as close to a “hit” as the Dudes have had, receiving more concentrated airplay around the country, but “Ding Dong Darling”/“Bette Blue Moon” remains in print in the 45 rpm format. Both records have actually made (a token gesture of) money, considered an accomplishment in this niche genre.
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The history of “Davilee” is one of those tales of coincidence and “what if.” A group of friends used to sing it in the halls of New Rochelle (NY) High School in the early 60’s, but it was never recorded. I’d always loved the song, and felt it was an undiscovered hit, so when I ran into the writer, Pete Skolnik (now an attorney in New Jersey), at our 25th reunion, I asked him to sing it for me and send me the lyrics. Shortly thereafter, it was recorded and frequently played, in demo form only, on local collectors’ shows in central Connecticut. I also sent Pete a copy, but never heard from him. Then, out of the blue, after a year-and-a-half of airplay on WWUH in Hartford, Pete called; he had never played the tape I sent him, but heard our version of “Davilee” for the first time while picking up his daughter from a prep school in a Hartford suburb. He had been surfing the FM dial, and out of 30-plus possible signals landed on me telling the first part of this story on the air and then playing the song. Talk about coincidence! “Davilee” finally came out on record two years later, when I had more time to devote to the record company due to an injury that put me on hiatus from my job for the summer. The rest is (a footnote to) history.
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“Bette Blue Moon” (two syllables, as in Bette Davis) was written for my wife, the inspiration for most of my happy music. On a vacation on Sanibel Island, Florida before we were married, Bette and I drove past J. N. “Ding” Darling State Park (he was a famous naturalist and illustrator, by the way). “There’s a song in that name,” I said. “Don’t you dare,” she responded. Of course, the song just had to be written--and was. In addition to commercial sales, the 45 was a favor given to guests at our wedding in 1994. Both sides are uptempo and happy--as are we.
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Paul Payton
updated May, 2005
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