The Fender IV - You Better Tell Me Now The Sons Of Adam Randy Holden

http://www.coolhand-records.com/surfin-nuggets1-13.html The Fender IV - You Better Tell Me Now Imperial 66061 1964 Baltimore Maryland. Pre The Sons Of Adam. Excellent surf garage band. Bruce Miller, Jack Ttanna (Joe Kooken), Randy Holden. Written by Joe Cookin-Randy Holden. Produced by Doane & Smith. Their managers Bill Doane and Ozzie Smith. An underrated rock band who was a regular fixture on the Los Angeles music scene of the mid-60s, The Sons Of Adam emerged from a surf combo called The Fender IV. The story begins in Baltimore, Maryland, when Randall ‘Randy’ Holden (b. Monday, July 2, 1945, Greensburg, Pennsylvania), a widely regarded lead guitar player who had previously played with a couple of local cover bands called The Montereys and The Iridescents, formed a new group with Joe Kooken (b. Thursday, December 4, 1941, Pottsville, Pennsylvania - d. Monday, August 22, 2022, while he was asleep during the night at his home in Bangkok, Thailand, for food poisoning) on rhythm guitar, the late Michael Vaughn ‘Mike’ Port (b. Thursday, December 14 or Monday, December 18, 1944, Baltimore - d. Monday, September 22, 2014, in the heart of the ghetto in Baltimore, on the street, penniless, in his sleep of a heart attack) on bass, and Sonny Lombardo on drums. “At age 17 Randy Holden was already a better guitar player than most guys ever get,” recalls Joe Kooken about his new bandmate. “But he played surf music!! He liked The Ventures!! I was in Walker’s Music Store one day, and I heard a salesman named Roland (a pretty good guitar player in his own right) talking about Randy. He said, ‘I called him up and asked him what he was doing, and he said he’d learned three Ventures songs that day.’ He said it like it was a bad thing. Poor lame Randy. Wasting his talent on The Ventures. I was stunned. He learned three Ventures songs in one day??? Who was this guy?? I had to meet him. It turned out he lived right around the corner from me. So did Mike Port. I loved The Ventures. So did Mike Port.” Originally, the four kids called themselves the Fendermen. “That was Randy's idea,” adds Kooken. “He reasoned that with that name, we would get a quick sponsorship from Fender when we got to California.” The Fendermen #1 (Summer 1963 – November 15, 1963) 1) Randy Holden lead guitar, lead vocals 2) Joe Kooken rhythm guitar, lead vocals 3) Mike Port bass, lead vocals 4) Sonny Lombardo drums Summer 1964: unknown recording studio, in or around Los Angeles, California In the course of shopping around their 4-songs demo, the band and their managers met a local record producer, Russ Regan, who really liked them and got them a record deal with Imperial Records. At that point the band entered “the recording studio Russ had just built (I think),” recalls Joe Kooken, and they recorded a couple of new songs, an instrumental written by Randy Holden, ‘Mar Gaya,’ plus their first vocal number, ‘You Better Tell Me Now,’ co-written by Holden and Joe Kooken. “We cut ‘Mar Gaya’ that immediately became a top prioriy because we all thought, even Russ, that was the hit,” also recalls Kooken. Both songs, produced by Doane & Smith, were released shortly thereafter as their debut single and later, in 1997, were also included in the aforementioned Holden’s CD, ‘Early Works '64-'66 Featuring The Fender IV - Sons Of Adam.’ The Fender-Menn IV shortened their name to The Fender IV, and released only in the US their debut single, 'Mar Gaya / You Better Tell Me Now' (Imperial 66061).

Added 12 Aug 2026