Once upon a time – in the mid-1960s – there was a musical group made up of young men in their early 20s. Actually, there were about a million such bands in the mid-1960s. This article is about one of them.
The band formed at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, which the members of the band were attending. They called themselves the Rhondells.
Before long a young entrepreneur from England named Brian Epstein “discovered” the band. Epstein was known for finding and managing talented groups. His biggest discovery was a quartet called the Quarrymen who later changed their name to the Beatles!
Epstein renamed his new band “The Circle.” None other than Beatle John Lennon convinced everyone involved to change the spelling to “Cyrkle” to give it a little added pizazz.
Before too long, Epstein had The Cyrkle “opening” for the Beatles – playing a few songs before the main attraction would take the stage. He also found a young songwriter named Paul Simon to co-author a song for the band.
Simon, of course, eventually attained icon status in rock music circles as the creative force for a highly successful duo called Simon and Garfunkel. Art Garfunkel was the lead singer of the pair while Simon wrote the songs.
The song Simon co-wrote for The Cyrkle was a little upbeat ditty called “Red Rubber Ball.” Released in May 1966, the song zoomed up the charts to No. 2. It sold over 1,000,000 copies and was, therefore, certified as a “gold” record.
A few months later, The Cyrkle had another hit with “Turn-Down Day” which peaked at No. 16. Both of these songs were featured on the band’s first album, which also sold well, landing at No. 47 on the album charts.
But as fast as it blossomed, the magic was gone. During the next year, The Cyrkle released four more singles that hit only the bottom half of the “Hot 100” singles charts. Their second album was only a modest success, too.
Before long, the band “dis-band-ed” – as we will see next week.
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