Salute
to Dick Glasser - from P.J. Proby
Wrote
“Angels
in the Sky” when he was 15 and working as a fireman in
his
home town. The day it was on the radio, recorded by Tony
Martin,
he
went crazy at the station telling all the boys that he wrote the song,
and
they
didn’t believe him.
He
sang with his brothers in the group - The Glasser Brothers -
before
they
split up to go their separate ways as solo artists, except for three
of
the
brothers who them formed “The Three G’s”.
“I
Will” was written by “Dickie” (as we all called him), for his sister
to
show
her how much he loved her, they were very close. Vic Dana had
a
small
hit with it, Bobby Vee had the international hit. I also put it on
my
album
as I was the first to ever sing it as a demo for Dick, but was
too
small
time in ‘59 to be considered for a record release by Liberty. I
was
not
even signed as a singer to the label then. They signed me in
‘61.
Dickie
recorded my song “Handsome Guy”, at the same time he
produced
my other number I penned at the same time “Clown Shoes”
with
Johnny Burnett. He also sang a lot on my demo’s like I did
his.
Dick
registered me on Liberty Records under the name Sharon
Sheeley
gave
me right there in his office in the summer of ‘61, as my name
up
until
then was very popular in Hollywood as Jett Powers, but with
the
wrong
people, i.e. the cops and for the wrong reasons, i.e. jailed
each
weekend
for disorderly conduct, i.e. night club puch-ups. So Sharon
gave
me
the name P.J.Proby and Dickie signed me up - the rest is
history,
except
for me that is!!
Dickie
produced all my Metric Demos, the sessions were always a
small
group
of us. Unknown players that Dick put together to form the
Metric
team,
they were:-
Myself-
vocals/Dick - vocals
Glenn
Campbell - guitar and vocals
David
Gates - Bass and vocals and airangements
Jimmy
Burton - guitar
Tommy
Ailsup - guitar
Leon
Russell - keyboards
Glyn
D. Harden - keyboards
Randy
Newman - keyboards
Jimmy
Smith - keyboards
Hal
Blane - drums
Jerry
Allison - drums
Sandy
Nelson - drums
Herbie
Alpert - trumpet
Earl
Palmer - sax and arrangements
Darlene
Love - girl backing vocals
Sharon
Sheeley/Jackie de Shannon - girl backing vocals
How’s
that for a line up - all went on to become successful in their own
careers.
Dickie
always knew where to find Glenn Campbell when he needed
him
-
on the golf course. His favourite sport also.