SAL VALENTINO ON THE BEAU BRUMMELS’ VERY SPECIAL LEGACY
Singer Sal Valentino, who has experienced some very humorous times during his 60-plus years in the music business, recalls a show he was doing in the early ’80s with Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken. “It was in New York during the middle of the winter. I had a bad cold, so I was walking around backstage with long thermal underwear. So, here I am with this young Asian band getting ready to go on, looking at me like, ‘Who is this old guy!’ After the show, we all went to this West Village place that I think Steve Van Zandt had a piece of that looked like something straight out of Saturday Night Live, you know... ‘cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger...’ The place was a little scary, but we had a good time.”
To the average casual ’60s music fan, the name Beau Brummels might only evoke memories of a pair of Top 20 hits, “Laugh, Laugh” and “Just a Little.” However, to others who are more familiar with the band’s recorded output, there is a wealth of some of the best music of that very special era. An extremely comprehensive eight-CD box set, Turn Around: The Complete Recordings 1964-1970 (Cherry Red), compiled and annotated with 228 newly remastered tracks by renowned archivist Alec Palao, puts their Autumn and Warner Bros. recordings in perspective, showcasing the gorgeous haunting vocals of Valentino and the superb songwriting of Ron Elliott, in a variety of styles that encompassed rock, classical, folk, Cajun, bluegrass, country and psychedelia.
The original band consisted of Valentino, lead guitarist-composer Elliott, rhythm guitarist-harmonica player Declan Mulligan (who recently passed due to complications from Parkinson’s disease), bass player Ron Meagher and drummer John Petersen, who died in 2007. “John, more than any of us,
