Off Air

005: The Cyrkle Revival

From left: Don Dannemann, Pat McLoughlin

Interview and Editing by Eve Mikkelson & Arzu Oran
Interview 3/19/24

Our board members Eve and Arzu had the pleasure of interviewing Pat McLoughlin and Don Dannemann, two of the members of the iconic 1960s rock band The Cyrkle. Known for their Top 40 hits "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn-Down Day," The Cyrkle made a significant mark on the music scene. Pat and Don shared their inspiring journey of reuniting the band and releasing their Revival album, along with fascinating anecdotes from their memorable experience touring with The Beatles during their 1966 US Tour.    

Hi! Hello!

Pat: Do you mind if I drink coffee during this?

A big hello, we were wondering if you guys wanted to introduce yourselves?

Don: I’m Don Dannemann, original founding member of The Cyrkle. It is really a thrill to be participating in this revival. Kudos to our record company.

Pat: My name is Pat McLoughlin, and I’m in the revived version of The Cyrkle, primarily because of my great looks. *laughs* Look at Don, he’s about ready to spew his coffee! We reunited the Cyrkle back in 2016, started performing in November of that year, and except for Covid we have been pretty much active throughout the years.

You’re super special guests for our station because you have all this history. So you started in the 60’s right?

Pat: Yes, that’s right.

And now you’re planning on releasing a new album in just a few days! When is that album coming out?

Don: It comes out on March 22nd.

Is this the first time you’ve released something new in a while or have you been releasing new things a lot?

Don: Well we actually released our own version of this new album. When we did it, it was sort of like “well we will play it in concerts,” but this is for real an actual record company putting it out there.

Pat: And prior to that, when the band did its very first performance as a revived band, we filmed that show and we put that out as an album about a year later called “Full Cyrkle.” That’s been available gosh dang maybe five years. It’s the first album since the Cyrkle stopped being a band back in the 60’s, and nobody really recorded the Cyrkle live back then touring, even with The Beatles. We are happy to have that out now.

So what sort of music should we expect on this new album and are there any particular tracks you’re excited about?

Don:“Goin’ Steady With You” and when I wrote it, I had no idea how it should sound as a recording. I thought, “Okay. What if Bobby Darin or Bobby Rydell did it? What might it sound like?” That was kind of the orchestration that I went for. Then out of the blue I found that record that was pressed right at the studio.

We thought: “Hey, why don't we start the album out with that scratchy record and just edit it right into the final recording?” So, that's actually me at 16 years old singing the beginning of this song and then it goes into current. And you can tell by the title “Goin’ Steady With You” it would not be considered a current song by today. But that was how we talked at the time.

Pat: Yeah, if we asked you out and you started dating us regularly, you would be “going steady with us.” I don't think that happens today, Don. *laughs* But, how cool is it to hear a 16 year old Don Dannemann kick off The Cyrkle album?

Yeah, that's super cool! Bringing it all together as one.

Pat: Hey Don, may I ask you to share about “We Thought We Could Fly”? Because that is a magical story to me.

Don: So, “We Thought We Could Fly.” There was a photographer that has become a friend and almost part of the band. One day he sent me a song without any explanation, and it was a nice song but I had to ask, “Why are you sharing this with me?” He told me it was a song recorded by a fellow named Andrew Sandoval in 2002, who was friends with my bandmate Tommy Dawes, deceased now in 2007. Tommy actually sings the harmony parts on “Red Rubber Ball,” [a previous Top 40 hit for The Cyrkle]. So I listened to this song and lights went off in my head. I thought, “Gee, I wonder if we could pull off something like that.”

Are you familiar with the Beatles song from 1995, “Free As a Bird?” Well, I was able to go even further in that I took Tommy's vocals, and I was able to manipulate them in such a way that I could write a new song that honored our history. So I actually got to sing one last time with my bandmate, Tommy Dawes, using those vocals and the song basically is a loose chronology of our history

We met at a freshman mixer, we started to play together, we became the real hot band on campus at Lafayette College in 1964. Then we went our separate ways until 2007 when we were going to start a band and he died. So there's an emotional component. Of course, It doesn't sound anything like “Red Rubber Ball” because it's not supposed to. I tear up when I talk about it still and it gave me a chance to sing with Tommy Dawes one more time. When the band does it live now it's fun for me because the band is now doing all the harmony. The band does a wonderful job, and in person it’s a nice thing to do.

Pat: And it's a good song too, Don, that's the other thing. You haven't really mentioned that.

Don: Yeah, I will take that. Now the next one!

Pat: I'm even gonna go back further. I've talked to Don over the years about the success of the two signature songs. One is called “Red Rubber Ball.” In Don’s words, it has something called “magic.” None of us can figure out what magic is or where it comes from but in a moment it will appear.  People still respond in a magical way every time they hear it.

Now we move the calendars ahead and I have uncovered this song that was a big hit in England but did not appear over here in the United States. It was on the charts for one week and it just didn't go anywhere. But I sent this song to Don saying “This song feels like it’s got magic.” Don’s wife knew it and she was really enthusiastic about pushing this song forward. So then we went into the studio to actually cut the song and magic appeared.

From there, we sent it to a friend of ours named Joe Mirrione who is a promoter and is a really good guy for our band. He's been behind us from day one. So Joe liked the song and he had a relationship with Charlie Calello. You're too young to know him, but in his day he was a sensational producer. He produced Frank Sinatra and Neil Diamond. You know that song, Sweet Caroline? That’s Charlie Calello. And Joe got Charlie Calello to do the horn arrangement. So where we envisioned horns, now we got horns.

Don: But wait, you're still leaving something out.

Pat: Oh, how good a singer I am. I forgot to tell you that!

Don: Yeah, right. Charlie Callello was actually The Cyrkle's second producer back in 1967. Our first producer was John Simon and then we moved on to Charlie Calello. Now Charlie Callello is going to do some horn parts on our new recording, and he had worked with us already back in 1967 so it was very cool.

Pat: It’s amazing that this happens. Here's Calello who did The Cyrkle albums back in the 60’s back again 50 some years later, doing one more song with us.

Don: Then the third single, which will be released some time in another month or two, “We Were There.” It’s basically a song I wrote that acknowledges the fact that we were a band that had 2 hit records at the same time that the Beatles were happening. We toured with the Beatles on the whole 1966 American Tour. Holy cow!

Pat: It’s a very good song too, but a great story because the last 24 live shows that the Beatles did in the US, The Cyrkle was the opening act.

Wow!

Pat: In my opinion there's never been an act like The Beatles since. Never will be. You guys might not have the full appreciation of how brilliant that band is both live and in the studio.

Don: Well, I know one part of the lyrics is “I never heard that sound before. Like a railroad train slamming through the door and things will never be the same anymore.” That's what it was like to hear the Beatles for the first time.

Oh my goodness. Do you have any stories from the time you toured with them?

Don: Well when we got invited on the tour I was actually in the Coast Guard Reserve. I had a 6 month reserve obligation and I was going to get out a month after the tour started and they were actually going to have to replace me because I wasn't gonna make it. Out of the blue, The United States government decided that we have to get on the Beatles tour. I'm kidding around, but that is what it felt like. They changed the requirement from 6 to 5 months. That got me out in time to do the tour, and that’s just my first thing.

So we are on the plane going from New York to Chicago, which was the first concert. I'm sitting next to Tommy Dawes and Nat Weiss towards the front of the plane. The Beatles were behind a wall in the back. We kept looking because even though we had two hit records at the time we were huge Beatles fans as much as anybody else. Finally the door opens and there's Paul! He is shaking hands and you can tell he is really nice. Nat Weiss knows him through the manager, and he introduces us. “Don Dannemann of The Cyrkle, meet Paul McCartney.” We shake hands, say things like “we love you, we can’t wait to play with you,” before Paul disappears behind the wall again. Tommy and I spent the rest of the trip analyzing every word. “Why couldn't we have been cooler?”

Don: So, the first show was in Chicago and it was a hockey arena indoors. We were very nervous about the acceptance of our performance because we're opening for the Beatles! You know? We're guessing “Are they going to boo us?” but it turned out very positive. Everybody whooped and hollered and cheered.

So now I was standing backstage and I could see into the audience a bit. The Beatles finally came down and my first impression is: “This is royalty now emerging.” They were totally elegant. They started playing, and the place was pandemonium. There was a woman standing next to me and she was just crying. I mean, it was so emotional.

The next impression that I wanna share is a picture of The Wizard of Oz. He's in a little booth backstage and he has an electronic console in front of him with little buttons, and those buttons control little electric shock machines on the chairs of the audience. He's pushing buttons randomly. I just see girls popping out of their sheets in the audience. Over there, over there, over there, over there. It was an amazing, mind-blowing event.

That's all so incredible. I love that you both are such storytellers.

Pat: Well thanks! Don, since we are telling stories, tell them about the fact that the Beatles opened for The Cyrkle in St. Louis.

Don: In St. Louis, it was about to rain and we were about to go on. As we're just about to walk out on stage they yank us back. “We gotta get the Beatles on before it rains.” Show is finished, it was fun, they did their normal thing. It’s not raining yet and they come to us now, saying “You’re going on.”

You gotta be kidding. So we went on, and a lot of people were slowly shuffling out. But, a good percentage stayed and cheered and whooped and hollered. So in the end we felt okay about it.

Pat: That show sold out 45,000 seats in St. Louis. Don kind of modestly said that two-thirds of the 45,000 left, which could be disheartening but still 15,000 people stayed! That's a huge crowd by even today's standards.

Don: Let's see, shall we share something else?

Pat: I mean, you were there for the Beatles last show.

Don: Sure, let's go there. So this is the last show at Candlestick Park.

Pat: Last show of The Beatles of all time. This is their last ticketed event.

Don: We were just hanging around backstage and George was walking around taking pictures. We asked “You don't think there are enough people taking pictures of this?” And he told us, “You know, I think maybe we're not going to play anymore. We're getting tired of playing in person. It's noisy, we can't do what we want. We're looking to branch out and do stuff that maybe we couldn't even do in person. I just want to have some personal memories of this.” That was that. So, we got kind of an early glimpse that they weren't gonna play anymore.

Pat: I'm gonna ask a question that I don't think you've ever been asked. When they got to the United States, there were a lot of protests and they were worried somebody might actually hurt them. Do you recall either backstage or in private anything about their concerns with what could happen?

Don: I remember there were discussions about that. But I can’t say we were afraid or felt like we needed to hide out or anything like that. It was more like “Well, people are pissed at us, so we’ll just move on.” Nothing major went on backstage that we were participating in.

Pat: Well, there you go. That's exclusive for you, ladies.

Now, you've shared so many stories about your time in the 60s, let's bring it back into more recent years. You've been playing live shows again since 2016 as you said, so 8 years ago now?

Pat: Yeah, our first live show was in November of 2016. We were really just beginning when COVID-19 hit. We fell all the way to the bottom and had to work back up, which we're doing now. We're leaving on Saturday, Don! I'll see you in Puerto Rico!

We're going to be going on a flower power, rock and roll cruise. We're going up with many, many acts that we are excited to see. The Yardbirds was an act that we've never worked with but they were huge in England. We get to take our wives, and it is really a working vacation. We went on this cruise before back in 2019 you are never really off the clock. In a good way.

Don: It was really cool because of the atmosphere. There’s maybe 2000-3000 regular passengers and every one paid good money to participate in the music experience that was offered. There’s a whole bunch of original acts, plus a lot of cover acts. There's 60’s music all over the place going on constantly. The band would go down for breakfast, and people would feel very comfortable just sitting down with us. They want autographs, they wanna ask questions, or take pictures. It was a very simpatico atmosphere. I mean, how cool is it to have people that think you're good, you know? Enough to want to come up and talk to you.

Don: So, we have this amazing revival that we're doing and we had an amazing origination. One of the things that I've gotten in the revival is all the people that come up to us and share what “Red Rubber Ball” meant to them.

When we did “Red Rubber Ball” and it was a big hit,  I remember thinking at the time that it was just cute, but now during this revival people come up and the first typical thing is “Can you sign my 45 record of ‘Red Rubber Ball’? I've had it since 1966. It's all scratched but it was my favorite song.” That’s always great.

A guy came up to me once and shook my hand and he explained “‘Red Rubber Ball’ got me through my divorce. I had the worst divorce but I would wake up in the morning and that song would come on air. [The lyrics,] ‘I think that everything is gonna be alright, yeah the worst is over now, the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball.’ It just made my day.”

But the biggest one was when a Vietnam vet came up and he said, “I want to tell you, we had ‘Red Rubber Ball,’ on a little battery operated tape recorder in Vietnam. I can't tell you how many battles that song got us through.” We teared up and hugged and it was the most amazing thing for me.

What I realized with all these meet and greets is that “Red Rubber Ball”, had a wonderful effect on thousands and thousands of people. Most of whom I will never get to meet, but some of whom I do and I get to share that with. I have concluded that “Red Rubber Ball” is one of the premier feel good anthems of the 1960’s.

That is all so touching. What really brought you guys back together?

Pat: I tried to bring the band back together with my central Ohio band where I live. I found his old bandmates through work, but I could not find Don. Over seven months trying to find him. You should tell, Don, how were you hiding?

Don: For some inexplicable reason with Pat doing all sorts of internet programs and stuff Pat couldn't find me. I occasionally get fan mail from as far as Russia and Poland, all those people found me.

Pat: It was finally through some circumstantial thing, someone found me and actually got me and Don to talk. Before that I bothered a lot of men named Don, it was a real pestering job.

Don: Yeah. So this revival has been a really cool thing to happen, and Pat was the sort of architect of it. And at 80 years old, I still get to be a rocker on stage.”

Pat: Don dances, he jumps. Not so crazy about those jumps, Don. I just worry about you landing wrong. So far so good. The nice thing is I think people see us and for a few moments in time they are 17 again.

That’s lovely! We have one last question, could you tell us more about the soundtrack you made for The Minx. I think one of the tracks off it was sampled by TV Girl which is more of an indie band that our generation is more familiar with. That song is how I got introduced to The Cyrkle as well.

Don: Yeah I can give you a quick Minx thing! Basically, the group was actually in the process of breaking up. We got really good at recording, but somehow that magic didn’t quite maintain. Basically, we thought it was over. Then a friend of the manager, Nat Weiss, was producing this movie called “Squeeze Play.” Nat suggested The Cyrkle do the music for it, and we did! When “Squeeze Play” was all done, it was thought to be such a lousy movie that they basically just had to sell it. They re-shot a few erotic scenes and changed the name to “The Minx.” If you listen to the soundtrack, there’s no song called “The Minx'' but the theme song is called “Squeeze Play.” The original title is where that song came from.

We actually are in the movie, too as the band. There are 2 disco scenes. One is the scene in the afternoon where the characters are in the disco talking and we're setting up as a band in the background. And then the other is when they're dancing at night and you can see us play. We are playing a song called “Murray the Why” which is a takeoff – there was a DJ in New York called Murray the K.

Well, I guess we will wrap up here with a final quick question. We’re a Brooklyn school. Are you planning on playing in New York City anytime soon?

Don: I was born in Brooklyn!

No way!

Don: Let’s see, the last time we played in the New York area…

Pat: We just came out of COVID and we did 3 shows in the New York area.

Don: One was Lakewood, New Jersey. There was one in Tarrytown in Westchester County, like suburb just up in New York. Then one in Long Island.

Pat: Now we hope to come back. If we do, we want you guys to come. It'll be good, particularly if you like that 60’s sound.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.