THE IDES OF MARCH
on
PARROT RECORDS
15. LIKE IT OR LUMP IT &
16. NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT
= Epitome 7195
SS-5054-01A / -01B
(THE SHON DELS UNLIMITED)
14. I'LL TAKE YOU BACK
= Original 'B' side of 01.
(THE SHONDELLS)
01. YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN &
05. I'LL KEEP SEARCHING
= Parrot 45-PAR-304
DC 4711 / 4712
First listed on a WLS Chart May 27, 1966
Peak #7
= Harlequin 660412
SS-6790-01A / -01B
Cinderella Productions
Arranged & Conducted by Dutch Wenzlaff
under the personal supervision of M. Considine
Billboard June 4, 1966
THE IDES OF MARCH
YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN
(Prod. by Mike Considine)
(Writers: Millas-Peterik-Borch)
(BMC, BMI)
Exciting debut for the group
on this teen lyric rouser
that could go all the way.
Flip: "I'll Keep Searching"
(BMC, BMI)
Parrot 45-PAR-304
UK London single HLU 10058
THE I'DES OF MARCH
You Wouldn't Listen
NME ad & review July 1, 1966:
SHOP WINDOW
..."I'm fascinated by the harmonic blend of the I'DES OF MARCH in the mid tempo "You Wouldn't Listen" (London), but the material is very ordinary..."
04. ROLLER COASTER &
08. THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM
= Parrot 45-PAR-310
DC 4724 / 4725
First listed on a WLS Chart August 26, 1966
Peak #19
Billboard review
August 27, 1966
12. SHA-LA-LA-LA-LEE &
03. YOU NEED LOVE
= Parrot 45-PAR-312
CL 7607 / 7608
13. MY FOOLISH PRIDE &
07. GIVE YOUR MIND WINGS
= Parrot 45-PAR-321
CL 7633 / 7634
Cash Box review
May 20, 1967
10. HOLE IN MY SOUL &
02. GIRLS DON'T GROW ON TREES
= Parrot 45-PAR-326
CL 7672 / 7673
06. ONE AND ONE DOES NOT MAKE THREE,
09. THE SUN AIN'T GONNA SHINE ANYMORE &
11. I'M GONNA SAY MY PRAYERS
= Unreleased Parrot
17. HOLE IN MY SOUL
= 10. (Stereo)
18. GIRLS DON'T GROW ON TREES
= 02. (Stereo)
Not on CD:
IDES OF MARCH
Kapp K-992
Nobody Loves Me /
Strawberry Sunday
K-11736 / 11737
1969
Ides of March
Sundazed CD Reviews
Goldmine
December 15, 2000
by John M. Borack &
Ugly Things #19, June 2001
HOUSTON
ON two
BRUCE WESTBROOK
04/26/2000
Houston Chronicle
MUSIC - "Ideology," The Ides of March (Sundazed): The United Kingdom and California may have dominated rock in the mid-'60s, but Chicago spawned many worthy, if largely unsung, bands, from the Cryan' Shames and New Colony Six to the Lemon Drops and Ides of March.
A new CD from the last has 18 spirited, highly melodic garage-pop tracks whose potent hooks are served by elaborate vocal arrangements.
Yes, boys in musical groups once played as well as sang, back before today's phase of warbling quintets who wouldn't know one end of a guitar from the other.
The Ides didn't score any big hits, but they flirted with stardom via catchy tunes such as "You Wouldn't Listen" (which peaked at No. 42 on Billboard) and the rock-solid "You Need Love," whose guitars and vocals echo "Last Train to Clarksville."
Composer, guitarist and lead singer Jim Peterik went on to form Survivor, another vocal-driven rock group whose '80s hits included "High on Love" and "Eye of the Tiger."
Grade: B+
NEW YORK NOW
LISTEN UP
JIM FARBER
03/21/2000
New York Daily News
The Ides of March, "Ideology" (Sundazed) 3 Stars - One of the better Brit-pop groups of the mid-'60s came from America's Midwest. The Ides of March made sparkling Beatles-style pop
between '65 and '68, and fans of the Mersey Beat can't go wrong with this compilation of the band's best.- J.F.
WEEKEND PLUS
Peterik finds new vehicle for songs
Dave Hoekstra
01/14/2000
Chicago Sun-Times
Jim Peterik and World Stage 7:30 p.m. Saturday Norris Center, 1040 Dunham, St. Charles Tickets, $12.50-$16.50 (630) 584-9599 Jim Peterik has written some of power pop's most memorable hooks. With the Ides of March he had a national hit with "Vehicle," and when he was in Survivor he wrote the Grammy-winning "Eye of the Tiger."
Peterik also gained national recognition by writing or co-writing the 38 Special hits "Hold on Loosely" and "Caught Up in You." But surprisingly, the songwriter with such a punchy sensibility has limited vocal range. That's what gives the Jim Peterik and World Stage project an interesting spin.
Peterik's World Stage CD - due out next month - features duets with Buddy Guy, Johnny Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Don Barnes of 38 Special, Kevin Max of D.C. Talk (together they tackle "Eye of the Tiger") and old running partners Dennis De Young of Styx and Kevin Cronin of R.E.O. Speedwagon.
Peterik will play his "World Stage" material Saturday at the Norris Center in St. Charles. Confirmed guests include Barnes, Cronin, Henry Paul of Blackhawk, Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger (he's the guy who sang the dramatic lead on the 1983 hit "Sister Christian"), Cathy Richardson and a surprise guest. Each guest artist will also do a hit from his or her own catalog. Expect Richardson to reprise Janis Joplin's "Ball and Chain" from her role as Joplin in the hit musical "Love, Janis."
Peterik and his singing partners will be backed by a band that includes Richardson's drummer Ed Breckenfeld and guitarist Joel Hoekstra (no relation to this writer) and former Dick Holiday bassist Clem Hayes. Radio personality Steve Dahl and Peterik will reprise the Brian Wilson hit "Your Imagination," co-written by Wilson, Dahl, Joe Thomas and Peterik.
"It's a really neat sound when you team two voices together," Peterik said from his Burr Ridge home. "I remember listening to (Cream's) `Sunshine of Your Love' growing up and going, `Hey, that's (Eric) Clapton; hey, that's (Jack) Bruce.' It's neat to hear the different textures of the voice and when they blend together it kind of makes a third voice. I'm an OK singer, but my range stops at about G. Most of the guys I called could take the range far beyond where I could."
One of the "World Stage" standout tracks is a bawdy blues duet with Buddy Guy on "Vehicle," a Top 10 national hit in 1970. The new version is more tempered than the original, which lends space to Guy's racing guitar parts.
"Buddy never heard the original, which is kind of funny," Peterik said. "He said, `I didn't listen to those stations back in 1970.' I've got a jukebox in the basement and I have the song on the jukebox. I took him downstairs and he said, `Hey, that's pretty good.' He liked it on its own terms.
"We did it at 11 o'clock in one morning. I'm still pinching myself. He wanted to warm up and I'm thinking, `I'm a kid from Berwyn, sitting here jamming with Buddy Guy.' The song ended up with a nice bump 'n' grind to it."
DeYoung and Peterik sing the Barnes-Peterik rocker "To Miss Somebody," and Cronin and Peterik duet on their jangly anthem "Between Two Fires." Peterik, Cronin and De Young came up together playing at mid-1960s teen clubs such as the Blue Village in Westmont and the Cellar in Arlington Heights (where the precursor band to the Ides of March was Batman and the Boy Wonders!).
"Some of our favorite times are talking about those days," said Peterik, 49. "We're showing our age, but there must have been 20 teen clubs in the Chicago area. There was such a rich band scene. The Ides of March were competing in a good way with the Cryan' Shames, the Buckinghams and the Mauds - and of course early R.E.O. Speedwagon and early TW4, which became Styx.
"There was an immediacy to that music, and that came across. Very simple. Not a lot of overdubs. There was a sound that came out of Chicago. It was a little bit square, maybe by the yardsticks of the coasts. There was a lot of harmony and melody, some horns. But if you went to the West Coast, people would talk in hushed tones about the New Colony Six like they were something really special. We took them for granted because they were from here."
Be on the lookout for "Ideology (Best of the Ides of March 1965- 67)," an 18-track Ides of March compilation, due in April on Sundazed Records. "They found an old stack of masters at PolyGram," Peterik said. "Apparently Parrot (the label the Ides shared with English artists such as Tom Jones and Van Morrison's Them) was absorbed by PolyGram. They did a wonderful cleanup job."
Since Peterik left Survivor in 1996, he's been spending every six weeks in Nashville songwriting with Bob DiPierocq (formerly married to Pam Tillis, he co-wrote the Tillis hit "Cleopatra, Queen of Denial") and Skip Ewing. With country radio sounding more like pop, Peterik should find a niche in Nashville.
"Usually I carry a notebook around, and I jot down phrases," he said. "Some of them are title-worthy; others are things that sound good for a line of a song. I don't write well when I sit down at a piano. I write well when I'm going to the grocery store. Little snippets of melody come in my head. I don't know where they come from. I can write the simple hooks, but sometimes I like to put the hooks a little deeper. Nothing against extremely ecnomical hooks.
"I've got a song I haven't released yet called `Zig Zag' that I wrote with Rick Neilsen (of Cheap Trick). That gets in and gets out and doesn't take any prisoners. I still like those songs."
Berwyn's Jim Peterik plays in St. Charles Saturday flanked by a host of guest artists.
MORE ON
THE IDES OF MARCH
HERE & HERE
Lou Christie &
The Tammys
Egyptian Shumba