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Dick Clark of
ABC Bandstand poses with Myron Lee and The Caddies
during Clark's 1963 Caravan of Stars national tour.
Pictured (from left) are Clark, Jerry Haacke, Joel
Shapiro, Myron Lee, Fred Scott, Curt Powell and drummer
Stu Perry (front). (Credit: Submitted photo/Dell
Rapids Tribune)
| Myron Lee and the Caddies subject of new
book
By Chuck Cecil,
guest
Posted online: July 14,
2004
A new book has been
released about South Dakota’s best-known rock and roll band
and its leader, who is considered the father of rock and roll
music in the state.
Chuck Cecil of Brookings, a
retired South Dakota newsman and former owner of Prairie
Publications, has teamed with Myron Wachendorf of Sioux Falls
to write Myron Lee and the Caddies: Rockin’ ‘n Rollin’ Out of
the Midwest.
Wachendorf changed his name to Myron Lee
while still in high school, after he formed the band in 1958
with several classmates. He picked “Lee” because he was a fan
of popular singer Brenda Lee and “so people wouldn’t get us
confused with a polka band,” he said.
“The Caddies for
a band name sounded clean-cut,” Lee said, and was also picked
because members of the band had summer jobs as caddies at
Sioux Falls golf courses.
Lee’s band was the first
successful rock and roll group in South Dakota after the new
sound gained in popularity following release of the movie
Blackboard Jungle that had a theme song by Bill Haley and the
Comets called “Rock Around the Clock.”
Myron Lee and
the Caddies entertained for the next 34 years in venues
throughout North America and especially at dance halls across
the upper Midwest.
The band got its first break in
1958 when it was hired to play at the Stardust Club in east
Sioux Falls. Soon they were also playing at the Sioux Falls
Cabana Club.
Wachendorf and the others had to have
notes from their mothers so that they could perform in
establishmentswhere liquor was sold, and to remain out after
curfew.
They were soon invited to accompany a big
accordion band to a dance at the Groveland Park Pavilion near
Tyndall, to play when the big band members took their breaks.
The Groveland dance hall crowd was so taken by Myron
Lee and the Caddies that dancers booed when the big band
members returned to the stage. The dancehall manager George
Beringer recognized the emerging popularity of the new sound
and hired Myron Lee for a return engagement.
As the
band gained notoriety, it attracted the attention of national
signing stars and big names in the music business. Buddy Knox,
who wrote and recorded the number one hit “Party Doll,” hired
the band to accompany him on the first ever rock and roll
coast-to-coast tour of Canada by American artists.
After the Canadian tour, Fargo, N. D. singing star
Bobby Vee picked Myron Lee and the Caddies to be his band on
tours throughout the nation. The Sioux Falls group also caught
the eye and ear of Dick Clark of ABC Bandstand fame.
Clark hired the band to back up popular musicians on
his famous Caravan of Stars that toured the nation by bus.
After the initial tour in 1963, Clark hired The Caddies for a
return engagement in 1965.
Myron Lee also recorded 13
records, including one he wrote called “Rona Baby,” that
climbed to number 10 on the top 40 charts.
After the
invasion of The Beatles music from England, the popularity of
rock and roll waned, but later made a comeback and Myron Lee
and the Caddies were again touring dance halls, pavilions and
nightclubs throughout the upper Midwest.
In the book,
Lee recalls some of the experiences at dance halls and
pavilions in South Dakota and the Midwest, from the Hollyhock
in Hatfield, Minn., to Ruskin Park near Forestburg, and dozens
of other ballrooms that were Saturday night dancing
destinations.
In the book he talks about the changing
music preferences and dancing styles, and about the rise and
fall of the street dance.
The book includes over 60
photographs of Myron Lee and the Caddies performing with the
big stars of the day, from the Everly Brothers to the late
Conway Twitty. Cecil said he was amazed at the name
recognition throughout South Dakota of the band.
“Just
about everyone I talked to who was over 30 years old not only
knew of Myron Lee and the Caddies, but had a story to tell
about attending a Myron Lee dance when they were younger.”
Cecil said that Myron Lee and the Caddies is probably
the best-known South Dakota musical group ever.
What
is unique, Cecil said, is that because of the band’s
longevity, several generations danced to the music of Myron
Lee and the Caddies.”
The book is available at Lewis
Drug Stores in Sioux Falls, Cover to Cover or from Enterprise
Book Company, Brookings. | |
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