Royal Knights 45 RPM - Sweet Revenge / Yes It's Me

$

35

Royal Knights - Yes It's Me / Sweet Revenge. Fireball 200661 45 rpm monoraul record. Released mid 1960s. This is the third and final release by this extremely talented surf band from Lewiston, Maine. Condition: Record is mint, and comes directly from the recording studio archives. Comments: The Royal Knights of Lewiston, Maine consisted of 4 members. They included Eddy Boucher (band leader, song writer and lead guitarist), Paul Boucher (drums and lead singer), Guy Matthews (rhythm guitar), and Bob Matthews (bass) who was replaced after the first record by Ronnie Morin. In each of their three 45 rpm releases, one side offered a classic surf instrumental, and the flip side featured a pop vocal. Except for the first record which covered two songs by the Fireballs (the band's favorite group and the inspiration for naming their label The Fireball Record Co.), the other songs are all original material. "Yes It's Me" and "Sweet Revenge" were both written by Eddy. A fourth acetate was cut but never released. One of the unissued songs was recently unveiled in a PBS news magazine program featuring the band. Much confusion still exists about this particular Royal Knights. The 2001 edition of the Osborne Price Guide to Records includes three separate listings for bands by this name. The first listing includes one of the Fireball label records but also lists two additional titles that were recorded by a totally different band. The Lewiston group initially released "Chief Whoopin-Koff" and "Long Long Ponytail" as Fireball FL-101. It was issued with a red label. The second record included "Knight-Mare" (instrumental) and "Forever Little Girl" (vocal) which was Fireball FL-103/104, issued on a yellow label. The third record included "Sweet Revenge" (instrumental) and "Yes It's Me" (vocal) and was issued as Fireball 200660/661 with a yellow label. All of these records were extremely limited pressings, perhaps about a 1000 copies each, and sold commercially only in Maine. Copies have sold in Goldmine and at collector shows for as high as $300. Incidentally, the unreleased acetate featured "Seven Veils of Arabia" (instrumental) and "It's A Lie" (vocal). Look forward to seeing all of these songs re-issued some day in a compact disc compilation. For now, they are available only in the vinyl 45 rpm format. The band nearly achieved stardom several times. They were the regular house band for a weekly televised Portland, Maine teen dance program. They were offered a recording contract by a Swedish label and turned it down, only to find out later that some of their music from the Ace Recording Studio tapes was issued in Sweden anyway. The songs "Sweet Revenge" and "Yes It's Me" were also released without the band's permission on a Pepsi-Cola flexi-disc. The story behind it is unknown, but it appears the Ace Recording Studio of Boston must have felt they had some ownership of the songs and thereby sold certain rights of release to Pepsi. The band members never even saw or heard of the flexi-disc until the PBS producer showed them a copy during the 1995 interview, over 30 years after it was issued. The band was also considered for a role in a teen "beach party" movie but their meeting with executives was cancelled when anti-war marches broke out that day in Boston. The Vietnam War ended their chances for stardom when Ronnie and Guy were drafted into the U.S. Army. The band's musical talent and achievements have been touted by garage/surf music writer and publisher Arem Heller who was quoted in the PBS documentary as saying "The song 'Sweet Revenge' is a killer, killer instrumental cut. A lot of people have never heard this song, and someday it's going to be re-issued on a compilation. Then there'll be a lot of people scratching their heads wondering where this came from."