The Hollywood Stars discuss first album of new material since 1977

In recent years there have been archival, live and EP recordings from The Hollywood Stars, but not a full-length album of all newly recorded material until now with Starstruck. Goldmine discusses one-third of the fifteen songs from the new album on Rum Bar Records with founding vocalist Scott Phares, who left the group in 1974, and bassist Michael Rummans, who joined the band in 1976. In the ‘70s, the group which songwriter and producer Kim Fowley assembled, recorded three albums: Shine Like a Radio in 1974 but not released until 2013, Sound City, which was not released until 2019, and their sole major label recording, a 1977 self-titled album. We also talk about opening for The Kinks in 1977, a pair of the early Hollywood Stars songs which ended up being covered by Alice Cooper and KISS, and we feature a classic flip side.

GOLDMINE: Welcome to Goldmine. In addition to your self-titled album that I saw in record stores in the ‘70s, there were two other albums you recorded but were unreleased until recent years. Two songs from what was planned to be your debut album made it onto other ‘70s albums that I am familiar with. In my senior year of high school, I interviewed Alice Cooper, who had gone solo with Welcome to My Nightmare, featuring the Top 40 ballad “Only Women” and concluding with his version of your song “Escape.”

SCOTT PHARES: We were working with Kim Fowley, shopping around record deals in late 1973 through early 1974. We saw producer Bob Ezrin and he liked the songs but told Kim, “If this band ever breaks up, please send me these songs. You’ll make more with these songs than you ever will with the band.” That ended up being true as the band made no money. Mark Anthony and Kim had co-written “Escape” which Bob used for Alice’s album.

GM: I remember talking to my friend Eric Singer at our senior prom about some of our favorite acts, and we agreed on Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath, but he threw in one not on my list at the time, KISS, and years later, he went on to drum for all three acts and he is still a member of KISS. The KISS album, that was new at that time, which Eric has called the definitive KISS album, was Destroyer, including your song “King of the Night Time World” on the first side, between a pair of popular flip sides, “Detroit Rock City” and “God of Thunder.” A decade ago, I watched Eric and the group perform “King of the Night Time World” fittingly on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

SP: Yes, that’s another composition from Kim and Mark that did well with another Bob Ezrin produced album. For us, our 1974 version of “King of the Night Time World” is one of our best streaming songs by far. My son is affiliated with movies, television, and reality shows, with a music background, so he deals a lot with music managers and current artists. He told me that two of the guys from Foo Fighters love the band and Pat Smear especially loves “King of the Night Time World.” So, we are well known for that song and can never get away from playing anywhere without playing it.

GM: In 1977, Peaches Records & Tapes opened on Cleveland’s west side. It was huge and seemed to have everything new, including your Arista album. I had heard The Kinks’ “Juke Box Music” song on WMMS FM from Sleepwalker, their debut album for Arista, and bought it in the year that the two Arista bands were on tour together.

MICHAEL RUMMANS: Yes, that was the only full tour we did. Both albums came out at the same time, and they wanted to promote them together. In fact, in addition to The Kinks’ single and our single, the people at the label issued a special single of The Kinks’ “Sleepwalker” on the A-side and our “All the Kids on the Street” on the flip side and written on the 45 jacket was, “Two hits are better than one.” I still have a couple of those records.

GM: “All the Kids on the Street” is catchy and I enjoy the bass on it. The recording has wonderful harmonies and reminds me of a blend of Sweet and Grand Funk.

MR: In the second version of The Hollywood Stars, something like Sweet is what Mark Anthony, the leader of the band at that time, was going for. Unfortunately, Clive Davis wanted us to be more like Bay City Rollers which is not the direction we wanted to go.

SP: There are two recorded versions of that song. There is one on the original Sound City album and then one on the Arista album. When we perform it live, we do a combination of the two, and is still one of our most popular songs to play live.

MR: In the mid-‘70s, we played a show at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood and this big, ostentatious guy named Neil Merryweather came up to us afterward in the dressing room and said, “You guys are stars and I want to record you and make a hit record.” It was like something out of the movies. He took us to Sound City studios in the San Fernando valley and we recorded our second album there with the intent of releasing it. We got a music attorney to shop the album around to the labels and Clive Davis at Arista was interested but he wanted to pick his own producer with his own vision. He chose Harry Maslin, and we re-recorded the album at Cherokee studios. It was a disappointment for us. It felt more watered down. We wanted a power pop sound but that’s what they wanted.

GM: That explains the sound of the flip side “All for Love” with a touch of Pablo Cruise which is more yacht rock than power pop, but I love it, and the congas add a nice touch.

MR: That was a good one.

The Hollywood Stars

Fabulous Flip Side: All for Love

A side: All the Kids on the Street

Billboard Hot 100 debut: May 14, 1977

Peak position: No. 94

Arista AS 0241

GM: Another favorite of mine is “Stay the Way You Are.”
MR: That is even more of a pop ballad, and I found out decades later that it was a minor hit in South America.

GM: You mentioned Kim Fowley. He is a co-writer of one of my favorite songs on the new album, “Shortage of Love” with a ‘70s sound and great guitarwork. Is that an older song?

SP: Yes, Kim and I wrote that song back in the original Hollywood Stars days. We even did a demo of it when we were shopping the band around to Columbia for what would have been our first album, but we shelved it in favor of another song at the time. I dredged this back up about a year ago. George plays that improvised guitar solo with an e-bow. Kim’s lyrics were original, painting vivid pictures. I enjoy Mike’s cello on this song too. He played cello in college.

MR: After college, in 1973, I was rooming with Mark Anthony. He said that he was in a new band called The Hollywood Stars that Kim Fowley put together and that they were going to be playing a show at the Whisky a Go Go. So, Mark got me into their debut show at the Whisky and the one song that still stands out in my mind was their performance of “Shortage of Love.” When Scott brought in songs for the new album, and this was one of them, I said that we had to do this old unreleased one.

GM: “Taxi Driver” is certainly a catchy song, and the recording is so crisp.

SP: “Taxi Driver” is a popular song of ours. One thing that stands out to me about the album in general is that it is very clean. We didn’t layer on tons of sounds. Almost everything is as close to live as possible without a lot of overdubs. I recorded the song “Taxi Driver” in the ‘70s when I left The Hollywood Stars and was part of the band Hero on Mercury. We redid it and made it more Hollywood Stars-ish.

GM: “Can’t Do It Right” reminded me of another group you shared the stage with a bit in the past, the New York Dolls.

SP: We just opened our set with that song when we played The Viper Room mid-month for the CD release party. 

GM: You had a song called “Merry-Go-Round” on the 1977 Arista album and now you have “This Merry-Go-Round” on the new album, a totally different song, with a very steady beat from Terry’s drums and Mike’s bass.

MR: That song impresses me. It sounds a bit old school but is still relevant as a power pop song with a great message and the creative song structure works well.

SP: Mike’s bass playing on this song and throughout the album is outstanding.

GM: I am also drawn to Mike’s bass on “Walking with an Angel” which has a nice bounce. The structure of the lyrics and verse melody initially reminded me of “I Go to Pieces,” moving it along nicely.

SP: George had the chords and got together with a friend of his, Colin Carter, and wrote the verses and chorus. Jeff and I wrote the bridge afterward. It was a team effort that took us quite a while to get the right Stonesy kind of groove.

GM: I am pleased to share your old and new music with our Goldmine readers.

MR: Thank you for doing that. Our music and new rock and roll are no longer mainstream on the radio like hip-hop is these days, making this style of music now more of a niche. I remember when I was growing up, my friends and I would also drift from mainstream radio and seek out old blues or jazz artists who felt real emotion those songs.

SP: I feel like it is a separate genre and there are a lot of us older musicians who went off and had some other career and have now come back to music, and there is an appeal beyond our age group. In fact, the first or second gig when the band got back together in 2019, we played a little bar, and it was a late-night crowd, arriving around 11 p.m. We played one set for people in their twenties or thirties, and surprisingly, they knew our songs and were enthusiastic. We are seeing lots of young people who know our songs which initially stumped me. I think there are groups of people looking for something like this which isn’t being played on mainstream radio. It was great talking with you. Thank you and Goldmine for the article and taking the time to listen to and enjoy our music.

Related link:

hollywoodstarsband.com

Fabulous Flip Sides is in its tenth year

goldminemag.com/columns/fabulous-flip-sides

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