Hi everyone. I’m Greg Burnett. The former lead singer of the City Squires. I’m the guy in the front row on the right. You may remember me from the sixties in The Greater Cleveland Area. Or maybe not. But either way, I think you’ll find the story I have to tell pretty interesting.
First, let me explain why I decided to tell this story. Some years ago my wife was working in Cleveland on a consulting assignment and, in a conversation with the concierge at her hotel, she mentioned that her husband had been in a band in Cleveland in the sixties. He asked my name, and when she told him she was shocked that his response was, “Oh my God, he was the lead singer for the City Squires. I loved those guys!” In September of 2016 I was at a wedding reception in Medina, Ohio and my daughter mentioned to one of the guests that I had been the singer in the City Squires in the sixties, and she was floored when he asked her if she would introduce me because he loved the band. It was then that I decided to put something together where old fans could reminisce, and maybe my seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren could see that grandpa rocked.
Anyway, welcome to, what I hope will be, a pleasant trip down memory lane as seen through my eyes with the help of my best friend, collaborator, and founder of the group, Jim Brickner. I hope you enjoy it and will tolerate any inaccuracies in my memories caused by the passing of many years.
The City Squires got its roots in a group called The Jaguars. It was started in 1963 by Jim Brickner (when he was 13 years old) on guitar and Roland Solomon (12 years old) on bass guitar. The original band included Jim, Roland, and Tom Sitzler (drums). Tom Kent (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) joined the band shortly thereafter and Tom Sitzler left just as quickly. Dale Zack, a schoolmate of Tom’s, replaced him on drums.
The band played out frequently and soon became interested in recording. At the time another Cleveland band called the Baskerville Hounds had become very popular and was doing some recording so Jim contacted their manager (Jimmy Testa) who signed the group up to manage them. At that time the name of the group was changed to the City Squires. In early 1965 Testa booked them some recording time at Audio Recording in Cleveland. They recorded three songs; an arrangement of Little Richard’s “Jenny Jenny”, an instrumental that Roland had written called “Russian Ho-Ho”, and “Laurie”, which was one of Testa’s tunes. Testa released “Jenny Jenny” and “Russian Ho Ho” on his Tema label.
Unfortunately, the record didn’t do well, but the group could at least say they had made records and had become familiar with what recording was like. By then the group was building a following and was playing at a lot of different venues in the Cleveland area. Testa and the band returned to the recording studio and recorded two more songs; “I Want Your Girl” (written by Jim Brickner), and “Parma Polka”(written by Jim Brickner and Roland Solomon). “Parma Polka” was inspired by a popular Cleveland movie host called “Ghoulardi”. At that time we had not yet learned about political correctness and the hurtfulness of ethnic slurs. Because a great many people of Polish descent had settled in Parma, Ohio, Ghoulardi thought it would be amusing to tell ethnic jokes targeting the Polish community. “Parma Polka” was not a slam on the Polish community, but did emphasize the presence of a great many people of Polish descent living in Parma. The song was never pressed into a record, but the acetate (demo recording) found its way into Ghoulardi’s musical library and was frequently played on his show. Even after Ghoulardi left for Los Angeles, his replacement, “The Ghoul” (Ron Swede) continued to use it into the 80’s. I really wanted to make “Parma Polka” available here, but Jim Brickner told me he would kill me if I did!
