King Harvest

This page is maintained by the original members of King Harvest.......Below is our "official" biography................................................... ............................................................ .......................................................KING HARVEST RECORDED THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN CLASSIC HIT - "DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT" (written by Sherman Kelly)- AND LATER RECORDED AND TOURED WITH THE BEACH BOYS........................................................ .....................BIOGRAPHY:It all started in Ithaca NY in the mid-60s, when the four core King Harvest members showed up at Cornell University for a superior education and found a college where there were 53 fraternities – that’s 53 opportunities to play fraternity parties, and for musicians, too much to let pass by. And so, the four eventual members of King Harvest - Eddie Tuleja ( guitar and vocals ), Ron Altbach ( keys), Dave Robinson ( keys, bass and lead vocals ) and Rod Novak ( bass, vocals and sax ) put their various pre-med and pre-law and architecture and art history and who knows what other potential careers in second place to their first love – playing rock and roll..........................................After several years of calculus mixed with beer and unmentionable contraband, first Ronny, then Rod, then Eddie and finally Dave ( by now :”Doc:” or the good Doctor) made their way to Paris. First it was Ronny’s studying music seriously, then Rod motoring and hitchhiking around France decidedly unseriously, then Eddie seduced by Ronny’s promise of rock and roll jobs and fine French women, and finally Doc at a time when King Harvest was really ready to begin rolling. The band had recorded under various names in the French capital – a country album called E Rodney Jones and the Prairie Dogs with Rod up front, another E Rodney Jones album of classic American country and traditional songs, an album of originals, and, after winning a rock and roll contest using the name King Harvest for the first time ( a classic – Eddie, Ronny and French counter culture star Jacques Higelin, walking down the street , see a sign for a 10,000 franc prize, go home, practice the Band song The Weight, and win the contest ) and with French bass player Didier Alexandre now on board, the heart of the Dancing in the Moonlight album, with Wells Kelly on drums, and Paul Harris on organ visiting from the US. ............................................Then things took a turn a bit toward the serious, with the band being asked to write and perform songs for the soundtrack to a film, Le Feu Sacre, which went on to represent France at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971. Jackie Lombard, who went on to become one of the top concert promoters in France, was the band’s publicist and booked King Harvest into the Whiskey-a-Go-Go for the duration of the festival. Ringo Starr, Maurice Gibb, and other luminaries stopped by, and King Harvest really was on its way, it seemed. Coincidentally, Doc had finished his stint as a member of Buffalongo back in NY City, and was ready to come join his buddies in Europe. And, as luck would have it, Wells Kelly came back to France, armed with his brother Sherman’s song Dancing in the Moonlight, recorded as a single by Buffalongo for United Artists with Sherman singing lead..............................................Everything looked great. King Harvest, minus Wells, who had left again to be a big time drummer in the US rock scene and was replaced by a series of drummer friends from the Cornell scene , with the band finally settling on Steve Cutler, an American drummer living in Paris at the time, was booked to open for BB King at the Olympia in Paris. Despite confusion over 220 volts vs 110 and blowing out amplifiers, King Harvest won over the crowd. The band teamed with its producers Pierre Jaubert and Jack Robinson to record a new version of Dancing in the Moonlight, that was to be released by Fantasy Records in the US. And, Ashley Kozak, manager of Donavan, invited the band to come to London to audition for him at the Speakeasy. All was good, and then…..................................................... .................. .In succession, first the Speakeasy gig didn’t go well and Kozak passed, and then Fantasy refused to release Dancing in the Moonlight. And that, as they say, was that. At least for the time being. Rod left for the US, Ronny moved to London. Doc and Eddie teamed up with David Montgomery and Tony Cahill, formerly of Python Lee Jackson, and stayed in Paris gigging....................................Now, in the summer of 1972, Jack Robinson decided that he would not take no for an answer, and traveled to the US with Pierre Jaubert to first lease the master of Dancing in the Moonlight to tiny Perception Records, and then to talk with DJs on the West Coast. Jack literally broke the record personally.................................................. .......Then, having a nascent hit on his hands, Jack set out to find the band members. Ronny was easy – he was on a tour playing classical music on the West Coast. Rod was in Boston. But Doc and Eddie – not so easy. They were on a large sailing vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, transporting “merchandise” from Africa. Jack tracked them down in the South of France, rented a speedboat, and shouted out to them – you guys have a hit!!!...................................................... ..........................So, the band got back together. Dancing in the Moonlight moved up the charts, eventually reaching number 13 on Billboard. Doc and Eddie came back to the US, and the band settled Ronny’s upstate NY hometown, Olcott NY, where they rehearsed and readied a second album as well as a tour of the East Coast. Welcomed by the entire township, King Harvest practiced in the basement of the local Methodist Church, and played gigs at local bars. The band now consisted of its original four members, plus Sherman Kelly................(www.shermankelly.com) .....................as an additional vocalist and keyboard player, Tony Cahill and David Montgomery over from Paris on bass and drums. The band’s second single, A Little Bit Like Magic, was released by Perception, and a tour started, with Jay Leno, yes, the Jay Leno, as opening act. Somewhere along the way, Perception ran out of money, pulled all promotion spending, and A Little Bit Like Magic never made it into the top 40. And, as the tour fizzled, King Harvest and its members drifted apart in the summer of 1973........................................................ ...........................But that wasn’t the end. Rod went to work in NYC for the band’s manager, and Ronny went to work as a keyboard player for the Beach Boys. By the fall of 1974, King Harvest was back on the drawing board, with an offer by Jim Guercio, famed producer of Chicago’s albums ( and owner of Caribou Ranch, the recording studio of choice in the 70s. Jim was also manager of Chicago and the Beach Boys) , and with a competing offer from A&M records. The group, back to Rod, Doc, Eddie and Ronny chose A&M, and its album, King Harvest ( with borrowed Beach Boy drummer Bobby Figueroa), was released in the fall of 1975 featuring guest appearances by Carl Wilson, Mike Love, and Peter Cetera of the Beach Boys and Chicago and a jazz solo appearance by the great Charles Lloyd. Plans were in the works for King Harvest to open shows for the Beach Boys, but politics played their ugly hand, and once again King Harvest was frustrated on the brink of success..................................................... ....................However, later in the 70s all four found themselves working in various parts of the Beach Boys organization, playing onstage, recording, and staying in the game. And, though they never duplicated their great hit Dancing in the Moonlight, the bond of friendship lasts to this day. As one of their A&M songs predicted, "Old Friends, When the Story Ends, We'll Still Be Good As Gold".