- Included in the Blog Summary List.
- My article on Milan the Leather Boy for Ugly Things magazine, as published in 2012.
Article on Milan for Ugly Things (as Published)
MILAN
by Martin Winfree
Most garage rock fans know Milan by a handful of singles that he released as “The Leather Boy” in 1967, and also by his involvement as producer and songwriter with the 1969 psychedelic album The Head Shop. I was first introduced to Milan’s music on the 1983 LP Pebbles, Volume 11. When I got the later Pebbles, Volume 10 CD, which also includes several Milan songs, the liner notes gave a hint of the breadth of his career but, intriguingly, nothing about his identity.
In 2009 a retrospective album called Hell Bent for Leather appeared featuring 20 tracks drawn from a seven‐year period. The LP was a bootleg of French origin. Again there was no information on the man himself, beyond a reference to the Wikipedia article that I had written in 2006‐2007. For someone with so many recordings to his credit, Milan is among the most mysterious figures in all of garage/psychedelic rock.
Fortunately, in the process of working on his Wikipedia page, I have been able to piece together some of his story. In October 2009, I made contact with Milan’s younger sister Darinka (Dara) and her husband Ricky Gould, who were able to fill me in on some of Milan’s back story. Dara’s family has been trying to get the word out about Milan’s great talent for years. Until I told them, they had no idea that Milan already had a substantial fan base in the garage rock community (and probably had no idea that what I am calling the garage rock community even existed). They have distributed YouTube videos, family photographs, and Ricky’s own videos and remixes of Milan’s songs on what must be hundreds of posts on their Facebook pages. I am dedicating this article on Milan to my friends Dara and Ricky, without whom I would never have gotten the whole story.
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Milan is a remarkable man from a remarkable family. He was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia on December 15, 1941, as Milan Radenković, the son of Mila Radenković and her husband Radaslav Radenković. His name has been anglicized as Milan Radenkovich (and sometimes Milan Radenkowich), though I have never seen the surname on records attributed to him. He adopted his father’s stage name and changed his name to Richard Rodell (nicknamed Rick and Dicky) while he was still in high school in Miami Beach, Florida.
Milan’s father, Radaslav Radenković – the son of the police chief of Belgrade, Petar Radenković – first began traveling to America during World War II to perform for the troops, where he used the name “Ray Rodell”. By the late 1940s, he was beginning to appear as “Rasha Rodell”. He received favorable notices in 1948 in Billboard Magazine for an appearance at New York’s Penthouse Nightclub. In the 1950s, as Ray Rodell, he had a regular show on NBC radio.
After he and his family settled in Miami Beach, Rasha performed as a popular folksinger, guitarist and bandleader who worked for tips, using the name Rasha Rodell (sometimes Rascha Rodell, presumably on his European dates). Newspapers of the day describe him as a “strolling guitarist and romantic baritone” who was often accompanied by an accordion and a piano; he headed a six‐piece band in Palm Beach for a time. He could sing in 11 languages and was also an accomplished painter who had regular showings in area art galleries. By the early 1970s, he had relocated to California, where he owned a beer bar and café in Hemet called The Inn Between; a wedding there of two people who met at the bar made news across the nation in 1971.
Rasha struggled over the years to achieve success, and was often written up in the society and show‐biz columns in Miami Beach and Palm Beach newspapers. Milan’s first public musical performance was with his father at the famed Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.
Milan showed his athletic prowess by pitching for a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Chicago White Sox while he was still a teenager. Shortly afterward, he headed for New York City, where he was based for his entire career, moving easily among the big shots of the major record companies for nearly a decade, when the Brill Building was one of the hubs of America’s music industry.
The family tradition is continuing among Milan’s nephews, the sons of Dara and Ricky Gould. Their oldest son Derrick Gould goes by the name “Dee Reck” and has 15 compositions to his credit in the “dubstep” genre; he is currently a student at Florida Atlantic University. Milan’s namesake, Aaron Milan Gould is 19 and has a beautiful voice; Dara reports that he can scream just like his uncle did in “One Track Mind“. The younger children, Ricky Rasha Gould and Skyler Gould are talented as well.
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Milan’s first release was in 1962, “Santa’s Doin’ the Twist” b/w “Swing a Little Longer.” The single was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the twist: a dance that anyone can do but that no one can do particularly well. “Santa’s Doin’ the Twist” ends with Santa saying “Merry Twistmas, Everybody!” Far from sounding like someone’s first try at a recording, both sides of the record are surprisingly assured and professionally rendered.
The record was evidently a one‐off for the Migon label: There wasn’t really a catalogue number, just the date of release with “A” and “B”. Milan, as Rick Rodell, was shown as the songwriter for both sides; in fact, among all his recordings, his only cover was of the Donovan song “Jersey Thursday”.
Milan’s second single, “Innocence” was released in early 1963 on End Records; by this time the label had been acquired from its founder George Goldner by Roulette Records, which was controlled by the notorious recording industry mogul Morris Levy. Though it did not make the charts, Milan evidently made an impression on Levy with this recording.
Lou Christie had just released his second single on Roulette, “Two Faces Have I”; and it would prove to be a bigger hit than his debut single “The Gypsy Cried”. At Levy’s insistence, and during the middle of a tour, Christie went into the studio and recorded Milan’s song “How Many Teardrops” on May 16, 1963, with George Goldner and Nick Censi as producers. The new single moved quickly up the charts but, owing to Christie’s induction into the US Army and corresponding removal from the music scene, stalled at #41 on the Cash Box charts on June 22, 1963 and as high as #46 on the Billboard Hot 100 (in July 1963). In October 1963, the song reached #8 on the charts in Israel.
Milan was involved with another Morris Levy‐related project the following year, writing “You Did it to Me” for the American Beetles, which was issued by Roulette in 1964. While assuming the total Beatles sound and clothes and hair, the American Beetles (originally called the R‐Dells or Ardells) were actually a fine garage rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida – Milan’s neck of the woods, as it happens. There are indications that Milan had further involvement with the band, who went on to record several more singles, but I have not been able to verify this.
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In 1964 Milan moved to a different record label, 20th Century Fox Records, and recorded his first and only album. I Am What I Am is something of a time capsule. It is an album that might have been recorded by somebody like Bobby Vinton, Paul Anka or Bobby Rydell; but for listeners today it has the advantage of being comprised of unfamiliar songs that are definitely of the period, but which have not been played to death for 50 years on oldies radio stations. Add the something extra that comes from a man singing his own songs and not someone else’s, and the result is an unexpected treat from a bygone era.
The album was produced by Budd Granoff, who’d had a storied career in show business, beginning as a Broadway press agent representing the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante and Doris Day. Following his marriage to Kitty Kallen, one of the most popular singers of the 1950’s, his activity in the music industry was mainly related to managing her career. Today he is best known for his work with Chuck Barris in creating game shows like The Gong Show and The Newlywed Game.
Granoff also wrote the liner notes for Milan’s album, which describe him as “a darkly handsome, six foot, 160 lb twenty year old” (he actually turned 22 in late 1963); they continue: “Milan is popular music . . . he lives it, loves it and understands it and refuses to allow the tendency to copy whatever happens to be in the top ten at the present time to influence his work.”
Though the record company released two singles and presumably made the usual efforts at promoting the album, the record‐buying public passed it by. Had the album been released just one year earlier, when Lou Christie nearly took one of Milan’s songs to the Top 40, it might have been a different story.
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In 1965 and 1966, Milan issued three more singles, this time in the name of the World of Milan. These songs represent a transition toward the garage rock sound for which he is best known, and away from Milan’s first love: the melodic American pop music that probably represented in his mind an updated continuation of the music that his father sang over the course of his career.
The first World of Milan single was issued by ABC‐Paramount in 1965: “Cry, Lonely Boy” b/w “Luva‐Luva” – Milan really loved double word song titles. While I have not heard the A side, “Luva Luva” is a pleasant love song featuring harmonica flourishes.
Two further World of Milan singles appeared in ’66 on Brunswick. The first, “Follow the Sun,” was written for his younger sister Dara. He would always tell her to follow the sun when they were on the beach in Miami. The B‐side, “Crying in the Rain” (not to be confused with the Everly Brothers song of the same name), is reminiscent of “How Many Teardrops”. Like “Luva Luva”, both are well‐crafted pop songs with a fast beat.
Once he got his garage rock legs, Milan hit it out of the park with the third World of Milan single, “One Track Mind” and “Shades of Blue.” While “Shades of Blue” is similar to the earlier World of Milan tracks, “One Track Mind” is a pure rocker with a pounding drum beat, a nice guitar figure, and frantic vocals.
Milan really hit his stride with his next endeavors: the four superb Leather Boy singles that were released in quick succession in 1967. Three are in the name of The Leather Boy and they were preceded by another single credited to “Milan (the Leather Boy),” just in case anyone missed the connection.
These songs celebrated motorcycles and the joys of leather at a time when Harley‐Davidson was practically in receivership. In “I’m a Leather Boy” and “(Leather Boy) On the Go,” Milan added the sounds of real motorcycles in the background (almost continuously in the case of the latter song). By way of contrast, he seemed to be looking out for his listener’s inner life with “You Gotta Have Soul” and “Soulin’”. Best of all is the dreamy psychedelic masterpiece “Shadows”, the flip side of “I’m a Leather Boy”.
MGM played up the motorcycle connection in a big way by having Milan ride from city to city on his motorcycle – a 1960 Harley – during the promotion of the records. Also Milan often took the stage on a motorcycle at concert and television appearances, a stunt that was unheard of previously. Both MGM singles were issued with picture sleeves showing Milan clad in motorcycle leathers, and he was also photographed, looking suitably nonplussed, posing with MGM record company executives – several of them mounted on motorcycles – in front of a dealership. The company even took out a full‐page ad in the April 8, 1967 issue of Cash Box Magazine headlined “All America is Hell‐Bent for The Leather Boy.”
It looked as though Milan’s efforts in the recording industry were beginning to pay off. The Leather Boy made several appearances on television – for instance, on The Rick Shaw Show (a local Miami TV showcase for South Florida rock and roll) – and in prominent musical venues, such as a Christmas show at the Ambassador Theatre in Washington, DC.
The final single released under the Leather Boy name was a cover of Donovan’s “Jersey Thursday” backed with his own “Black Friday,” released on Parkway in 1967. Copies are impossibly rare.
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Beginning in 1967, Milan oversaw the releases of a host of singles by bands like the Unclaimed, the Licorice Schtik, and the Downtown Collection. His eclectic tastes showed in his work with an obscure girl group, the Chanters and a bubblegum pop band called Ice Cream. Tracks by all of these groups appear on Side Two of Hell Bent for Leather.
As with several of the singles where Milan appears as songwriter, producer and/or arranger, there are questions as to whether the band was just one more disguise, like the Leather Boy. However, the Unclaimed (no relation to the LA outfit formed by Shelley Ganz in 1979) appears to have been a ‘real’ group, based out of Buffalo, NY, and led by one Gurf Morlix, who went on to have a successful career in country music. Released on Philips in 1967, the Unclaimed’s “Memories of Green Eyes” was written by Milan for his long‐time girlfriend, model Maria Goode. The single was produced by Artie Kornfeld, who also co‐arranged the record with Milan.
Not to be confused with a group of clarinetists called Licorice Schtick (though that is rather unlikely), the Licorice Schtik released a single on Dot: “The Kissin’ Game” b/w “Flowers Flowers”. The latter song was named for one of Milan’s father’s paintings, also called Flowers. Milan did all of the honors on this disk: He wrote and arranged both songs and also produced the session.
Less is known about other Milan‐related bands, like the Chanters, the Downtown Collection, and Ice Cream. Milan arranged both sides of the Chanters’ single and wrote the A‐side, “Bongo Bongo.” The disc was issued by MGM in 1967, during the same period as that label’s two Leather Boy singles. The Downtown Collection single appeared in 1968 on the obscure Strobe label. Milan produced both sides of the single and wrote the B‐side, “Sunshine.” (Like “Follow the Sun”, this song was written for his sister Dara).
An obscure group called Ice Cream recorded Milan’s “The Chewin’ Gum Kid” around 1968, an unusual song about chewing gum interfering with a couple’s kissing. According to one source, the band was from Cleveland. For this record, Milan worked with Peter Schekeryk Productions. Schekeryk (who passed away in early November 2010) would shortly meet and marry Melanie Safka and manage her career. Milan and Melanie became good friends, probably through this connection.
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The Head Shop album, released in 1969, is probably of greater interest to UT readers. In 1967 Milan had become good friends with another professional musician named Max Ellen, who lived in the same apartment building, after they met in the laundry room. Max came to America from Hamburg, Germany on the last boat of refugees to arrive before Pearl Harbor (barely two weeks before Milan’s birth). He is an accomplished violinist who went on to back such artists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Stevie Nicks, Lenny Kravitz, and Whitney Houston.
Despite disparate musical backgrounds, Max and Milan decided to try to work together on a new type of music: moving the nascent style of psychedelic rock to a new level of proficiency and bringing in musical influences from both jazz and classical. Using a band that had been known variously as the Aladdins and the Household Sponge, and with a working title of the Underground Tunnel, the result was a fascinating psychedelic experiment called The Head Shop. The title is named for a prominent case that Milan’s grandfather had been involved with as the police chief in Belgrade.
The band started out with Danny Prosseda and Drew Sbordone singing on street corners in Brooklyn in the early 1960’s. Later members were Joe Siano as the vocalist and also on sax, Geoff Wright on organ, and Billy Hayes on drums. As the Household Sponge, the band released a single on Murbo (#M‐1017), “Scars” b/w “Second Best,” in August of 1967.
After Milan heard the band, he brought in Jesse Luca to handle the drumming, and he used his contacts in the recording industry to line up free studio time at Capitol Records so that he and Max Ellen – now given the sobriquet “Maxim” – could leisurely work with the band on refining the concept and laying down the tracks.
Joe Siano’s vocals are among the liveliest and most soulful on any psychedelic album of the 1960’s, and the complex arrangements include many sounds and instruments that are unrecognizable. According to Geoff Wright, Milan told him that the opening sounds on “Heaven Here I Come” were from satellites.
The outstanding song on the album is Milan’s “I Feel Love Comin’ On,” featuring jazz guitarist Larry Coryell, previously a member of Seattle’s Dynamics. Most of his solo was improvised while Milan praised him from the recording booth. Milan also assisted Coryell in getting his debut album out on Vanguard in the same year as the Head Shop album. The other original songs, such as “Listen with the Third Ear” and “Heaven Here We Come” are also album highlights.
In addition to writing or co‐writing most of the songs, Milan produced the album with Maxim and was the rhythm guitarist on several tracks. He provided the scream near the beginning of the album and, with Danny Prosseda, the “oh’s” on “Where Have All the People Gone”.
Milan was also responsible for the design for the album cover; it features multi‐colored cubes arranged in a 17 x 17 grid, with the nine central cubes removed and replaced with a picture of a shrunken head. He must have had a different kind of “head shop” in mind from the ones where incense and rolling papers are sold! Some of the cubes are numbered and lettered also, and the shapes sort of flatten out toward the edges. Apparently the swirling colors are not supposed to form a particular shape, but they are a lot of fun to study, comparing the upper and lower quadrants with one another.
The album was ultimately released in the summer of 1969 through a friend of Milan who was an A&R manager at Epic. After his friend left Epic, the record company didn’t seem to know how to promote the album – no 45’s were ever released, for instance – and the band began to drift apart.
The Head Shop album has been reissued on CD by two different German labels: Synton in 1998 and World in Sound in 2004. The latter CD is still in print and includes seven bonus tracks: the two Licorice Schtik songs, one by Downtown Collection, and both sides of the Household Sponge single mentioned above. Also, there are two songs where the artist is unknown: a Milan song called “Groovy Feelings”, from a single released in the name Breeze, and a Max Ellen song called “In Central Park.” The Synton CD had four bonus tracks, probably the same ones by the Household Sponge and the Licorice Schtik.
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Since the release of the Hell Bent for Leather album, three more 45’s have surfaced where Milan had some involvement. The Doughboys were from Plainsfield, New Jersey and grew out of a band called the Ascots that was started in 1964 by Mike Caruso (bass), Richie Heyman (drums), and Wally Kirchofer (guitar). After the addition of Mike Farina (guitar) and Myke Scavone (lead vocals) from a rival band called the Apollos, the band changed its name to the Doughboys. When they won a Battle of the Bands contest in 1966, they got a recording contract with Bell Records and released two singles. Milan’s song “Candy Candy” was the B‐side of the second single “Everybody Knows My Name” (Bell #878). In the summer of 1968, the Doughboys became the house band for the celebrated Café Wha? in Greenwich Village. After the band broke up, Myke Scavone formed Ram Jam, and the band had a major hit in 1977 with Leadbelly’s “Black Betty”. The Doughboys reformed in 2000 and have been going strong ever since, releasing two albums.
The other two singles were released on Flower Records, an obscure record label that also featured the single released under the name Milan (the Leather Boy); Jeff Lemlich of Limestone Records located them. A one‐sided single by a band called High Voltage of the song “Plastic People” was produced and arranged by Milan. This is not the same song that was recorded by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, though it was likely inspired by it to some extent. The other record, “Groovy Feelings” was released under the name Breeze; the “B” side, “Jersey Thursday” was produced and arranged by Milan and Shelley Coburn. This Donovan song would also be released by Milan himself as his final Leather Boy single.
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The career of this highly versatile recording industry professional was cut short by his death at age 29. Over the years, I have seen several reports about Milan’s death; some sources mention brain cancer and others a brain tumor, while still others claim that Milan wrecked his beloved motorcycle. Sometimes the sources add that this occurred while the Head Shop album was being put together; and several of the songs on that album, like “Infinity” and “Heaven Here I Come,” do hint at Milan’s knowledge of his own mortality. Actually, according to his sister Dara, Milan suffered brain damage as compilations of a serious automobile accident in 1966 while he was returning from the Hamptons on Long Island. Milan’s condition deteriorated over several years until his untimely death on March 14, 1971, several months shy of his 30th birthday.
He leaves behind a trove of astonishingly diverse recordings, and there is little doubt that he would have been able to navigate the musical trends over the past several decades just as readily. Milan had supreme confidence in his abilities as well; according to his sister Dara, the title “Opera in the Year 4000” reflected his belief that people would still be playing his music then.
Simply by listening to them, the dates that many garage rock and psychedelic rock songs were recorded can often be pegged to a particular year, or even a particular month. Milan’s records defy such easy chronological matching, and even his earliest songs still sound fresh.
If measured by the numbers alone, Milan could be judged a failure. None of his own records ever made the charts; and the best he could do with songs that he wrote, arranged and produced for others was to almost crack the Top 40 once, with Lou Christie. Yet there is more to the world of music than having a hit record. The fact is, Milan had the goods, and those who worked with him knew it, so he was able to get up to bat again and again. Milan released more than 30 songs during his own recording career and probably assisted in one way or another with that many songs for other musicians. A dozen or more major record companies had Milan’s name on their releases at one time or another, and the same is true of several smaller labels.
Hopefully this article, and the Hell Bent for Leather album, can mark the beginning of a greater appreciation for this enigmatic figure in the garage rock universe, even though it is 40 years overdue. There are undoubtedly other records that can be unearthed that have Milan’s fingerprints on them, and these can be added to the discography that follows.
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DISCOGRAPHY
Singles (As a Recording Artist)
- Milan with His Orchestra: “Santa’s Doin’ the Twist” b/w “Swing a Little Longer”; Migon (#1962) – 1962
- Milan: “Innocence” b/w “Winter Time”; End (#1123) – 1963
- Milan: “I Am What I Am” b/w “Over and Over Again”; 20th Century Fox (#487) – 1964
- Milan: “Runnin’ Wild” b/w “Angel’s Lullaby”; 20th Century Fox (#552) – 1964
- The World of Milan: “Cry, Lonely Boy” b/w “Luva‐Luva”; ABC‐Paramount (#10718) – 1965
- The World of Milan: “Follow the Sun” b/w “I’m Cryin’ in the Rain”; Brunswick (#55292) – 1966
- The World of Milan: “One Track Mind” b/w “Shades of Blue”; Brunswick (#55298) – 1966
- Milan (The Leather Boy): “You Gotta Have Soul” b/w “My Prayer”; Flower (#100) – 1967
- Breeze: “I Get Groovy Feelings” b/w “Jersey Thursday”; Flower (#F-1) – 1967
- High Voltage: “Plastic People” (B-side blank); Flower (#F-2) – 1967
- The Leather Boy: “I’m a Leather Boy” b/w “Shadows”; MGM (#K‐13724) – April 1967
- The Leather Boy: “On the Go” b/w “Soulin'”; MGM (#K‐13790) – August 1967
- The Leather Boy: “Jersey Thursday” b/w “Black Friday”; Parkway (#125) – 1967
Album (As a Recording Artist)
- Milan: I Am What I Am; 20th Century Fox (#TFM 3149/#TFS 4149) – 1964
Singles (As a Songwriter, Producer and/or Arranger
- Lou Christie: “How Many Teardrops” b/w “You and I (Have a Right to Cry)”; Roulette (#R‐4504) – 1963
- The American Beetles: “Don’t Be Unkind” b/w “You Did It To Me”; Roulette (#4550) – 1964
- The Chanters: “Bongo Bongo” b/w “Free as a Bird”; MGM (#K13750) – 1967
- The Unclaimed: “Memories of Green Eyes” b/w “Jingle Jangle”; Philips (#30430) – 1967
- Ice Cream: “The Chewin’ Gum Kid” b/w “Epitaph to Marie”; Capitol (#P‐2321) – 1968
- The Licorice Schtik: “The Kissin’ Game” b/w “Flowers Flowers”; Dot (#17131) – 1968
- The Downtown Collection: “Washington Square” b/w “Sunshine”; Strobe (#351) – 1969
- The Doughboys: “Everybody Knows My Name” b/w “Candy Candy”; Bell (#878) – 1967
Album (As a Songwriter, Producer and/or Arranger)
- The Head Shop: The Head Shop; Epic (#BN 26476) – 1969
Retrospective Album
- Milan the Leather Boy: Hell Bent for Leather; LS (#LS‐001LP) – 2009 (vinyl only)
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