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• Included in the Blog Summary List and the Threatened Wikipedia Articles.
• The Starfires is an American rock and roll band, founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1958. It is considered a predecessor band to the Outsiders.

The Starfires (Cleveland Band)

Garage Rock Band

Origin:	Cleveland, Ohio U.S.
Years Active:	1958–1965
Genre:	Rock and roll
Label:	Pama Records
Associated Acts:	The Outsiders · Climax · James Gang
Past Bandmembers:	Tom King Mert Madsen Walter Nims Howard Blank Dennis Slifko Tony Sawyer Jim Fox Sonny Geraci Ronnie Harkai Al Austin Richard D’Amato

The Starfires is an American rock and roll band, founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1958, by Tom King when he was aged 15. The band is sometimes identified as Tom King and the Starfires. King is best known as the original bandleader of the Outsiders; however, it was only at the insistence of Capitol Records that the band’s name was changed when they created their breakout hit “Time Won’t Let Me“.^[1] (This is not the same band as the Starfires, a 1960’s Los Angeles garage rock band best known for their track, “I Never Loved Her”.)

CONTENTS

History

Post Break-Up

Bandmembers [2]

Albums

References

History

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The Starfires were formed by Tom King at Shaw High School in Cleveland in 1958, and remained a popular local band through the mid-1960’s. Their forte was rhythm and blues instrumentals, with occasional vocals by King. Also, his uncle, Patrick Connelly owned a record company, Pama Records; and the band (along with at least one single by Tom King individually) produced several sides over this period, notably “Stronger than Dirt” (which charted locally) that was based on a well-known jingle for Ajax Laundry Detergent. Ronnie Harkai was a member of the Pilgrims, a popular Cleveland rock band in the early to mid-1960s, prior to joining the Starfires. King had a tonsillectomy, limiting his singing, so he added a new lead singer – Sonny Geraci – and changed the band’s sound somewhat to match the musical tastes of the period. This led to the eventual creation of the Outsiders.

Jazz saxophone player, Tony “The Big T” Lovano also played with the Starfires on numerous gigs throughout Cleveland. Tony (deceased) was the father of Grammy Award-winning sax player, Joe Lovano.

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Post Break-Up

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Sonny Geraci and Walter Nims were among the founding members of Climax. Jimmy (Jim) Fox and Richard Kriss’s brother, Tommy Kriss, were the founders of James Gang.

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Band Members^[2]

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• Tom King, guitarist, vocals
• Walter Nims, lead guitar
• Howard Blank, drums
• Dennis Slifko, saxophone
• Mert Madsen, bass guitar, harmonica
• Richard Kriss, lead guitar
• Tony Sawyer, saxophone (joined in the early 1960’s)
• Ray Miller, lead guitar (early 1964)
• Jimmy Fox, drums (played with the Starfires for a short time while attending college)
• Sonny Geraci, lead vocals (joined in 1964)
• Ronnie Harkai, drums (joined in 1964-during which time the Starfires transitioned into the band, the Outsiders)

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Albums

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• Roots of the Outsiders (1996); Collectables Records #COL 0695

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References

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1. Bruce Eder, Allmusic, and also the source of the other unreferenced material.
2. Bruce Eder, op. cit.

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This page was last edited on 23 June 2020, at 20:58 (UTC).

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