[tazzboy]

Thanksgiving 1961--Bobby's recorded debut. The single did well locally, going to number 2 on El Paso's radio station KELP and selling over 3,000 copies, giving Bobby no end of encouragement. He formed his own band, drafting brother Randy in but requiring him to learn the bass if he wanted to be involved, since Bobby's abilities on the guitar were now clearly at a 'professional' level.

For his second single, Bobby wanted to take another step into the big leagues and set up a session at Norman Petty's legendary NorVaJak Studios in Clovis, New Mexico; no doubt Bobby was going for the sound Petty had provided for Bobby's idol (and fellow Texan) Buddy Holly's classic tunes like "Not Fade Away", "Peggy Sue", "That'll Be the Day", "It's So Easy", and "Oh Boy!". Bobby's second single (also on Yucca) paired Bobby's "Gently My Love" with "My Heart Jumped" (a cover recommended by producer Petty) but despite the contracted 'professional' sound and sales of over 8,000 singles Bobby was unsatisfied with the tracks.

Deciding he could do at least as well on his own, he set up a studio in his parents' house. This primitive studio was Bobby's salvation; the tapes that have emerged are surprising clear and well-produced. Bobby obviously agreed, and encouraged by the success of his first do-it-yourself move at independence, he issued his third single on his own Eastwood label, pairing covers of Eddie Cochran's "Nervous Breakdown" and Holly's "Not Fade Away"--the results compare favorably with the originals both in terms of performance and recording.

Never satisfied with the speed of his career's progress and perhaps tiring of promoting his music at high school dances, Bobby lined up a month of shows out in California, an opportunity Bobby used to haul his singles and tapes around to the various Sunshine State-based record labels.

The only encouragement he found was at Bob Keane's Del-Fi records (best known for its Ritchie Valens and surf music capitalization), where Keane listened to Bobby's tape and told him to come back when he had something that would knock him out.

Back in El Paso, Bobby continued his D.I.Y. streak by opening an all-ages club (with financial support from the Fuller family) called "Bobby Fuller's Teen Rendezvous", and increasing his record-label activities by launching Exeter Records, which released three Bobby Fuller singles in 1964 as well as records by other El Paso acts such as Los Paisanos (who issued the only full-length LP to appear on the label) and the Sherwoods. Bobby's second Exeter single was the most successful of all the Exeter releases: his original version of the Crickets' "I Fought the Law", backed with his own "She's My Girl".

The single went to number one in El Paso and Tucson, but despite this success Bobby was obviously feeling constrained by the limitations of the local market. He called a band meeting to discuss their future, with the intention of planning a move to California to pursue the elusive music industry connections they were so obviously lacking in Texas, despite distribution on the Exeter "I Fought the Law" single by VeeJay (best known for issuing the first Beatles singles in the USA and milking it past the point of legality when the money started coming) and a fourth single ("Saturday Night"/"Stringer") issued by Todd Records, a branch of the music publishing company that had signed Bobby's publishing.

All the members of the band were up for the move excepting drummer Dalton Powell, who had a wife and baby boy in El Paso; after replacing him with DeWayne Quirico, they packed up their green Chevy van with their equipment and headed for Hollywood, California in November 1964--accompanied by Bobby and Randy's mom Loraine, driving alongside in her Oldsmobile.

Upon arrival, they took their latest batch of tapes and discs over to the Del-Fi office again, and this time Keane signed the group, giving them full access to the on-site Del-Fi studio and creating the Mustang Records imprint for the band's music.

They started playing the South California clubs as soon as they could, and quickly attracted attention from Hollywood clubgoers as well as bigger fish like Keith Richards (who reportedly checked the band out when the Stones were staying nearby), Casey Kasem (who booked them for his Teen Dances), and Phil Spector (who sat in with the band, playing piano and guitar, while scouting them out for his Philles label).

Oddly enough, despite all the musical activities of the past, the band hadn't settled on an appropriate name. Most of the D.I.Y. singles had been issued under Bobby's name alone, but the move to California had been accompanied by an all-for-one-and-one-for-all pledge for the band and a promised four-way split of all monies.

The first Del-Fi single was issued under the most common alternate name (one which appears in several surviving advertisements from El Paso) Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics; the second was put out as the Shindigs in an attempt to snag a job as house band on the new ABC TV show Shindig.

While the band toiled away in the studio, Keane decided the Bobby Fuller Four was the most appropriate name, much to the chagrin of the other band members. He also began intruding more upon the Fuller recording sessions.

Bobby had clear ideas about the sound he liked and wanted, having learned through hard-won experience what was and wasn't appropriate for his music, but Keane, as the record label head wanted input into the process, often tarting up the Four's tight, powerful live sound with extraneous percussion overdubs in an apparent attempt to target the dance audience.