So apparently… some inquiring minds want to know about the RCA single “Hold On” that Peach and Lee did back in 1972 and how that all came about. Or more aptly… what the hell went wrong?! Well… here’s the true story straight from one of the horses mouths. (As memory serves of course. : )
In the later part of the 60’s maybe 68 or so…Larry and I were recording at a small studio in Omaha Neb. One of the songs we recorded was “Hold On To What You’ve Got”. It was just one of many, but people who had heard it thought it was pretty strong and definitely different for that time period.
Several months went by and eventually that very same studio called us to say there was a talent scout from LA who had heard our tapes and was interested in talking to us. That talent scout was none other than Michael Z. Gordon who had a hit in the early 60’s with The Marketts and “Out Of Limits” which he wrote and produced. We spoke with Michael and he was pretty convinced he could get us a record deal. What?? Really??? Alright… now we’re talkin’. We signed an exclusive contract with Michael and his agency Dimension Music and back to LA Mr. Gordon went.
He shopped the tapes around LA for awhile and he finally got a bite from RCA Records. After negotiations (which Larry I had no knowledge of how the record business worked at that time) we signed an exclusive 1 year contract with 4 renewal options. The details of which are now sketchy but I think our mothers actually had to co-sign because we weren’t old enough. Crazy right?
RCA flies us to LA.
We recorded 2 or 3 songs at the RCA Studios in LA and before the sessions were even completed… RCA headquarters in New York called RCA west and complained. RCA East didn’t like what they heard, didn’t think the sessions were going well and demanded they send us to New York and record the songs there.
RCA flies us to New York
So… RCA West flies us to New York and we start recording at RCA Studios East all over again from scratch. In hindsight I don’t remember ever hearing any of the sessions from LA and I’ve often wondered what they might sound like today. Anyway, we recorded 3 songs in New York …“Hold On” , “It’s Better” and “So Badly” with Dewey Martin on drums as we had no drummer at the time.
RCA flies us to Omaha
RCA East then flies us home to Omaha.. and we wait and we wait and we wait some more. Eventually we get one box in the mail from RCA.. open it and there are a stack of Peach and Lee singles. “Ok it’s actually happening… we’ve actually have a record out!” We’re on our way. Ahh…sweet success!
Little did we know that excitement would be short lived… because within a few of months we received “releases” from our contract in the mail with little or no explanation. As in turns out RCA Records had big internal corporate problems in the early 70’s and lots of producers, managers and agents were fired in 1972. As a result many of the new artists including Peach and Lee were released from their contracts and many ongoing projects were shelved or dropped like hot potatoes.
To this day I have no idea how many Peach and Lee singles were pressed or if any radio stations across the country ever even played our record. (Save for one and that’s another story) I do know that the single is so rare that the last time I tried I couldn’t find a copy. If you look on the internet today for “Hold On” by Peach and Lee you will find photo’s of “Promotional Copies” that state right on the yellow label “Not For Sale”. The original non-promotional labels were and odd burnt orange color.
“NOT FOR SALE” is Ironically the title of our new double album from Reminder Records and is a whopping 51 years after “Hold On” was released. Oddly enough many of the songs on this new album would have probably been on the first Peach and Lee album from RCA had there actually been one. Strange right? So… bottom line is Never Say Never. ..Arlis