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Sal Valentino was one of the great voices in American rock. As the lead singer of
the Beau Brummels he was, for a time in the mid-'60s, a fixture on AM radio, his voice associated with such hits as "Laugh Laugh" and "Just a Little," and he subsequently became a songwriter as well.
Valentino, along with songwriter/guitarist
Ron Elliott, was one of the co-founders of the band, and his friendship with
Elliott went back more than a decade before the band was formed. Born
Salvatore Spampinato, he grew up in the North Beach section of San Francisco, and attended the same elementary school, St. Peter & St. Paul's, as
Elliott. His interest in music in those days, and until he entered Sacred Heart High School, was subservient to his love of baseball, instilled in him by his athlete father, who had known the DiMaggio brothers Joe, Vince, and Dominic as a semi-pro player. In high school, however, he'd been squeezed out by the competition and turned to football instead.
He crossed paths with
Elliott, who was much more serious about music, at St. Peter & St. Paul's. But apart from a few school productions, they generally moved in different orbits.
Spampinato did occasionally work with a friend -- guitarist Bob Gradek -- doing country songs, and he was a big fan of
Lefty Frizzell,
Merle Travis,
Hank Williams, and
Ernest Tubb. He cut a single, "I Wanna Twist" b/w "Lisa Marie," for the local Falco Records label, and they insisted that he choose a more commercial name to put on the record, and his father suggested "
Sal Valentino," the latter name coming from Pat Valentino, a boxer whom the elder
Spampinato had worked with. The record wasn't a huge hit, but it did well enough to get
Valentino a string of appearances on a local television dance party circa 1961-1962.
Valentino did have some intermittent contact with
Elliott in those years, mostly steering other musicians his way, but eventually they started bouncing around the idea of working together, and began working out a sound in rehearsal. Then, in 1964, fate took a hand.
Valentino had an offer to play a regular gig at a club called El Cid, and needed a band -- he called
Elliott, who got drummer
John Petersen, rhythm guitarist/singer Declan Mulligan, and bassist Ron Meagher together. The gig didn't last long, but
the Beau Brummels did well enough to get hired by club owner Rich Romanello for a steadier, more lucrative engagement at a San Mateo club called the Morocco Room. It was there that the group was spotted by DJ and music entrepreneur
Tom Donahue and signed to his Autumn Records label. The release of "Laugh Laugh" followed in the fall of 1964, and "Just a Little" reached the Top Ten early in 1965.
Valentino handled the lead vocals, backed by Mulligan -- who also sang lead on some cuts -- and, to a lesser degree, Meagher. It was Mulligan who apparently pushed the group's sound in the direction of
the Beatles' music, with high harmonies and a heavy British beat-influence, whereas
Valentino, to the extent that he was lead singer, takes credit -- with
Elliott -- for pushing them in the direction of what became known as folk-rock, which was at the core of the sound of their two biggest hits.
When Mulligan left (or was fired -- it depends upon whom you ask), it was just
Valentino and Meagher on vocals, and the results were even better on their second album,
Beau Brummels, Vol. 2.
Valentino and, to a lesser degree, Meagher, rose to the occasion, delivering a string of powerful singing performances -- one of them, "Sad Little Girl," hauntingly beautiful -- on what was in part a rush-released, unfinished album.
Perhaps it was a result of the contact with
Elliott, who composed all of the band's material, but
Valentino soon started writing songs, a few of which were recorded by the group, but only one of which -- the catchy "That's Alright" -- was released, on their second album. Instead,
Valentino began recording his originals as demos, with
Petersen and Meagher and guitarist Don Irving; ironically, Irving would replace
Elliott as the guitarist in the touring version of
the Beau Brummels. He and
Elliott were probably closer than any of the other group members, but
Valentino; in a 1996 interview with Jud Cost for the notes for the San Fran Sessions box,
Valentino claimed to have talked to
Elliott very little about anything, and one has to wonder exactly what the internal dynamics of the group were --
Elliott was increasingly alienated from the others, as the principal songwriter and the most reluctant to go on tour (a result of his diabetes), and
Valentino was the dominant personality on-stage.
Eventually, after Irving left, the band stopped touring. They'd ceased charting records in any case, and were seemingly playing for ever-decreasing fees, so the sacrifice wasn't as great as the decision might sound. It was at this point that
Valentino and
Elliott joined creative forces as songwriters and producers of their own music, first veering into a folk-flavored brand of psychedelia and then returning to country music, the one early musical love that they had in common. Their collaboration resulted in the group's two biggest critical successes,
Triangle and
Bradley's Barn. After that,
the Brummels -- really just
Elliott and
Valentino -- splintered, though they continued to work together on each other's projects.
Valentino cut three singles for Warner Bros. with
Elliott contributing to the music, while
Valentino worked on
Elliott's solo album,
The Candlestickmaker.
Valentino later formed and led
Stoneground, a large San Francisco-based ensemble with which he recorded three LPs in the early '70s, and also participated in various efforts, with
Elliott and Mulligan, to revive
the Beau Brummels as a recording or performing unit during the 1970s and 1980s. An injury in 1993 would sideline him temporarily and once again spark his interest in singing and performing. Since his return to performing,
Valentino has led his own
Sal Valentino Band as well as reuniting with
the Beau Brummels. He was also a part of precocious singer/songwriter Jackie Greene's 2003
Dylan tribute project, Positively 12th and K, which displayed quite clearly that he had lost none of his former style.
In March of 2006,
Valentino delivered his first ever solo album,
Dreamin' Man, which featured songs recorded over several years with his longtime collaborator
John Blakeley. A few months later, he released yet another solo album,
Come Out Tonight, showcasing a mix of covers and originals. Two years later, he returned with this third solo effort,
Every Now and Then, which included a cover of
the Beau Brummels' 1965 hit "Laugh, Laugh." ~ Bruce Eder & Wade Kergan