July 25: Tom Dawes of The Cyrkle- "Red Rubber Ball," "Turn Down Day," "Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz" - was born on this date in 1944...

... he died on November 4, 2007 at the age of 64. The cause was a stroke after carotid artery surgery.

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The Cyrkle's bass guitar player and co-lead singer Thomas W. Dawes was born in Albany, N.Y. He formed The Cyrkle along with guitarist and singer Don Dannemann while both were students at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. The other members were Earl Pickens on keyboards and Marty Fried on drums.

The group was originally a "frat rock" band called The Rhondells but were later discovered and managed by Brian Epstein, who was better known as manager of The Beatles. Epstein's business partner was New York attorney Nathan Weiss, who was told about this band in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Labor Day in 1965 by Shaun Weiss. He became their manager and renamed them The Cyrkle. John Lennon provided the unique spelling of their new name, which is a reference to the circular roundabout located in downtown Easton. They were produced by John Simon.

In the summer of 1966, they opened on fourteen dates for the Beatles during their U.S. tour. On August 28, they headed the opening acts performing prior to The Beatles at Dodger Stadium. The other artists who appeared were Bobby Hebb, The Ronettes, and The Remains.

Before touring with The Beatles, The Cyrkle had a successful engagement at the Downtown Discothèque in New York City. They were also on the bill for the final Beatles concert at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966. The Cyrkle is best known for their 1966 song "Red Rubber Ball," which went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It was co-written by Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel and Bruce Woodley of The Seekers. It was released on the Columbia record label.

According to Dawes, Simon offered it to The Cyrkle when they were opening for Simon and Garfunkel on tour. The song's tracks were recorded in stereo, with the bass, lead guitar, and percussion on the right track, acoustic guitar and electric organ on left, and the vocals on both. The band had one more Top 20 hit, "Turn-Down Day," later in 1966. After the release of their debut album, Red Rubber Ball, they recorded a second album, Neon, in late 1966, and a movie soundtrack, The Minx, in 1967. They followed that with various singles that didn’t do well.

 

After cutting soundtrack material in 1967 for cult film The Minx (released in 1969), the Cyrkle disbanded.

Both Dawes and Danneman became professional jingle writers after The Cyrkle disbanded. He wrote 30 to 40 in the 1970s and '80s, his wife estimated, a number of them immortalized in pop culture. Aside from his work for Alka-Seltzer and 7Up, some of his catchier tunes were on campaigns for L'eggs hosiery ("Our L'eggs Fit Your Legs)" and American Airlines ("We're American Airlines, Doing What We Do Best)." The 7Up jingle, which he wrote, was recorded by his band and submitted as a demo in a company jingle contest for rock groups. Danneman wrote jingles for Continental Airlines and Swanson Foods. He penned the original 7Up Uncola song.

BONUS!!

When Mr. Dawes met his wife, Ginny Redington, she was a competitor in the jingle business. They later collaborated on a number of advertising tunes, including music for the familiar "Coke Is It," the McDonald's catchphrase "You, You're the One," and, for American Airlines, "Something Special in the Air." In 1977,

Dawes also produced the band Foghat.

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