When I was asked to do my first road gig in Fall 1977, I couldn't wait. The
Memphis Rockers were a new band who had a gig backing crooner Al Raitano.
We'd be playing in Louisiana for a couple weeks then head for three
upstate New York destinations for six-night-a-week hotel engagements thru the end
of the year. Then, it was onward to Michigan for a few weeks in January. I had
always wanted to make a living playing music full-time, and here I was doing it! We
dressed in our tuxes every night, and played some schmaltzy and some not-so-
schmaltzy tunes. Al Raitano was a really good singer, and between our dance sets
we would back him for two shows. One of the shows was a 'stump the band' 50s set,
where Al would take requests for any song from the 50's and we'd play an excerpt
from the request. It was fun and it kept us on our toes...ya never knew what the next
song was going to be. Al's other show featured him singing popular songs from
artists he could closely emulate. There were songs from Tom Jones, Englebert
Humperdinck, Boz Scaggs, Lou Rawls and a host of other Adult Contemporary
singers. I had always avoided playing that type of music up to that point in my life,
but now I was a mercenary and played what I was paid to play. And I enjoyed it...the
other musicians were good players, the songs had interesting chord changes and
arrangements, and Al was a good guy and had a good voice.
Even though I had been playing guitar seriously for ten years, I was the least
experienced musician in the band. And listening back to old tapes, I had
definitely not yet learned to temper my playing to match the subtleties of what
was happening around me. But somehow the rest of the guys put up with my
over-playing and we jammed on.
Shortly after the January 1978 gigs in Michigan, we parted ways with Al and went
out on our own. More to this story…stay tuned.