Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

The Impacs: King Goes Garage Surf

King wasn’t the only independent label in the early rock era to dabble in various sounds and musical genres; nevertheless, it’s still pretty hard to beat King for its sheer stylistic breadth.  While never really considered much of a “rock” label, King nevertheless signed another Beatle-sounding group (besides Them) called The Impacs, who – judging by the Fender guitars on their two King album covers – look like they might also have a little west coast surf in their sound.

King LP 886

The Impacs first recording session on December 10, 1963 yielded 28 songs, of which 12 (including “Cat Walk”; “The Grab”; “Hamburger”; “Ambush”; “Love Struck” & “The Breeze”) would remain unreleased.  One more round of recording on May 12-13, 1964 would yield eight more songs, all of them seeing light of day as single and/or album tracks.  All recording was done “principally” in Miami.

An avid collector of 45s once described The Impacs as “surf rock” within the context of “pre-65 garage” music.  Of the five King 45s released, only one is available for preview, however, on YouTube, but it’s classic — “Your Mama Put the Hurt on Me:

“Your Mama Put the Hurt on Me”

The Impacs (1964)

I suspect the B-side, “Cape Kennedy Fla,” and album track, “Music for a Space Station,” are both instrumentals, as I know “Kool It” and “Zot” both to be.

Vic Waters — Lead vocals

Jay Lee Angello — Lead guitar

Chuck Kaniss — Rhythm guitar & vocals

Tony Brown — Bass

Bobby Barnes — Drums & vocals

*

The Impacs –

King Discography

King 45 #5851 “Two Strangers” b/w “Jo-Ann” [1964]

King 45 #5863 “Shimmy Shimmy” b/w “Zot” [1964]

King 45 #5891 “Kool It” b/w “She Didn’t Even Say Hello” [1964]

King 45 #5910 “Ain’t That the Way Life Is” b/w “Don’t Cry Baby” [1964]

King 45 #5965 “Your Mama Put the Hurt on Me” b/w “Cape Kennedy Fla” [1964]

King LP #886 Impact [1964]

King LP #916 A Week-End with The Impacs [1964]

Categories in this Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All Categories
Archives