[Harp-L] dick gardner review- One cool Cat!!!

[randysinger <randy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

DICK IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


> One cool Cat
> Pioneer Press - St. Paul,MN,USA
> Dick Gardner achieved his dream when he became a member of the 
> Harmonicats, the all-harmonica trio who scored a top hit. The man ...

One cool Cat
Dick Gardner achieved his dream when he became a member of the 
Harmonicats, the all-harmonica trio who scored a top hit.
BY DON BOXMEYER
Pioneer Press


The man in his Cottage Grove basement workroom softly caresses a rich, 
deep D-flat out of the 2-foot brass stick he has pressed to his lips, 
and "Peg O' My Heart'' fills the room.

"That was my song,'' says Dick Gardner, who was a 13-year-old Newport 
lad when "Peg O' My Heart'' catapulted a trio of Chicago musicians to 
instant stardom in 1947. Dick had been playing the harmonica since he 
was 7, and when he heard the enchanting "Peg'' for the first time, he 
knew that he would, that he must, someday become a Harmonicat.

"That was my dream,'' says Dick. "They were the ones, the BIG ones.''

The Cats were originally just three guys playing mouth organs in 
Chicago nightclubs, but then they dreamed up a way to revive the old 
melody "Peg O' My Heart'' by employing a microphone and a speaker in a 
men's tiled washroom to cause an echo-chamber effect.

"Peg O' My Heart," using that simple little echo-chamber business, 
eventually would sell more than 20 million recordings and become one of 
the largest-selling single recordings in history, right behind Bing 
Crosby's "White Christmas."

The original Harmonicats, formed in 1944, included leader Jerry Murad, 
Don Les on bass and Al Fiore on the chord harmonica.

Meanwhile, Dick Gardner went to school in Newport, and his 10th-grade 
class photo even shows an eager-looking young guy with a harmonica 
sticking out of his shirt pocket. By 1959, Dick had formed his own 
local trio, the Harmonica Hi Hats with Jerry Kellerman and Bob 
Sullivan. They played such well-known places as the Venetian Inn, 
Maguire's Supper Club, the Camelot and the Minnesota State Fair 
Grandstand.

"Nice bistros, smoky places, prisons, fairs, church functions and 
anyplace else for a few dollars,'' Dick once wrote.

And when the Harmonicats came to Rochester, the Hi Hats were invited 
backstage to play for them. He didn't know it at the time, but this was 
Dick's audition, and in 1971 he was drafted by Jerry Murad to replace 
Don Les on the bass. Dick, for the next 22 years, was a Harmonicat.

"Leave all your other instruments at home," Jerry told Dick. "You're 
the bass guy." As such, Dick was the Cat with the double-decker brass 
Dagwood Bumstead sandwich, the big "corn on the cob" mouth organ that 
captured all the rich, deep low notes.

While "Galloping Comedians" was Dick's favorite song to play, some of 
the Harmonicats' most-remembered recordings included "Cherry Pink and 
Apple Blossom White," "Try a Little Tenderness" and "William Tell 
Overture." In all, the Cats recorded more than 450 tunes over the 
years.

"I escorted Kate Smith onstage for her final performance,'' Dick 
recalls. "We ate ham sandwiches backstage with Bill Cosby, I once found 
Dom DeLuise's little dog, I loaned Bobby Vinton my white shoes in 
Saskatoon and fixed Roger Miller's dressing room TV set in Reno.

"The harmonica,'' says Dick, "has been very good to me. I must have 
played 'Peg' 12,000 times and never got tired of it.''

When Dick retired from the Harmonicats in 1993, the group's long, long 
run was essentially over. In 1996, Dick underwent successful triple 
bypass cardiac surgery. That was a bad year for the original Cats: 
Jerry Murad and Al Fiore both died in 1996, just one year before the 
50th anniversary of their historic success with "Peg O' My Heart."

After living in Chicago for many years, Dick moved back to Minnesota in 
1984. He lives in Cottage Grove, where the harmonica is still a major 
part of Dick's life. In excellent health now, Dick teaches harmonica 
one night a week in Edina.

"As far as performing, I just do show-and-tell things. I don't 
advertise, or else you get, 'You're invited to a big party. Bring your 
harmonica.' "

He also repairs harmonicas, a surprisingly busy little retirement 
hobby. Dick has about 1,000 customers from all over the world who send 
their instruments to him, mainly for cleaning. Harmonicas are like 
horns without spit valves, and gradually the inner workings become 
encrusted with all sorts of bronchial effluvia.

"I clean them all up, rebuild them, tune them and send 'em back.''

In case you think the harmonica is a dead instrument, the Hohner 
company of Germany, which dates to 1823, when Mathias Hohner introduced 
the little oral accordions, sells 30 million harmonicas a year.

"When you get one of these things,'' says Dick, "you're soon gonna get 
two or three more. The beauty of the harmonica is that most players are 
self-taught and you can play all by yourself, except that to harmonize 
with someone else is such a thrill.

"And a harmonica doesn't need batteries!''

Listen to the Harmonicats' 'Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White'
 (Windows Media file)


Click link to enter Website:  http://www.randysinger.com

We don't stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop 
playing!
  George Bernard Shaw