The Hangmen were an American rock band from Rockville, Maryland, who were active in the 1960s. In an effort to distinguish themselves from other American groups and establish a closer affiliation with the popular British Invasion, they lured Scottish vocalist Dave Ottley to join the group. Eventually they became the most popular band in the Washington, D.C., area, having a huge regional hit with "What a Girl Can't Do", that appeared on Monument Records, but was recorded by an earlier local group, the Reekers, whose membership included two future Hangmen, Tom Guernsey and Bob Berberich. The single was nonetheless credited to the Hangmen.
The song became so popular in the region in that on one occasion the band was greeted with near "Beatlemanic" adoration from fans, whose enthusiasm on one occasion erupted into a near riot. The group followed-up with the single "Faces", which featured a more aggressive sound. Ottley shortly thereafter departed from the band and was replaced by Tony Taylor.
Now with Taylor, the group traveled to Nashville to record the album Bittersweet, which displayed a more eclectic and relaxed approach, despite its closing song, a raucous version of Van Morrison's' Gloria". The album's opening cut, a sitar-embellished version of "Dream Baby", was simultaneously released as a single. After subsequent lineup changes, the Hangmen changed their name to the Button. As the Button, they taped an unreleased set of songs for RCA Records in New York, but changed their name to Graffiti and recorded briefly for ABC Records.
History
Origins
The Hangmen were founded in 1964 by bassist Mike West and rhythm guitarist George Daly at Montgomery Junior College in Rockville, Maryland. In 1965 they recruited fellow Montgomery students guitarist Tom Guernsey and drummer Bob Berberich previously from a band called the Reekers, who were on indefinite hold after two members Joe Triplett and Mike Henley departed for college. Guernsey, who had been the Reekers' leader and principal songwriter, was reluctant at first to leave his former band for The Hangmen, but later changed his mind and joined. The Hangmen now needed a vocalist and, wishing to project an image that would be in line with the British Invasion, guitarist George Daly contacted the British Embassy asking for a British singer. He was first referred to a female vocalist, but she, in turn, introduced the group to Dave Ottley, a hairdresser for Vincent Hair Stylists, who had been in the United States for two years. Ottley was from Glasgow, Scotland, though some newspaper articles covering the band at the time suggested that he was from Liverpool, a town popularly noted for its being the hometown of The Beatles. The first news story about the band appeared in the Washington Evening Star on April 3, 1965, mentioning their appearance in a battle of the bands at the Shirlington Shopping Center in which they lost to the local band the Shadows. In
Contract with Monument Records
In early summer of 1965, the Hangmen's managers, Larry Sealfon and Mike Klavens, played a track to Fred Foster of Washington, D.C.'s Monument label that had been recorded by the Reekers and written by Guernsey called "What a Girl Can't Do". The Reekers' manager Lillian Claiborne released Guernsey from his former band's contract, and Foster signed him. Monument released the Reekers’ recording of "What a Girl Can't Do", as well as "The Girl Who Faded Away", which is also generally understood to be recorded by the Reekers, both under the Hangmen's name. Though some accounts attribute the recording of "The Girl Who Faded Away" to the Hangmen, Chris Bishop of Garage Hangover asserts that those viewpoints are likely mistaken—pointing out that the released version of the song is likely the same recorded performance as the Reekers' acetate that was earlier recorded at Rodel Studio in Georgetown, but with only a shorter faded-out ending on the Hangmen's release (in 1966 the Hangmen recorded a substantially different version of the song for their LP, Bittersweet). Under the assumption that both recordings preceded the Hangmen, Guernsey and Berberich were the only two members of the Reekers that played on the cuts as the Edgewood sessions were done after Triplett and Henley left that group.