Felony was an American new wave and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, in the early 1970s by brothers Jeffrey Scott Spry (Lead Vocals), Joseph Anthony Spry (Guitars and Vocals), brothers Danny Sands (Piano and Keyboards) and Steve Sands (Sound Engineer).

History

After a period playing shows and making music business connections in the Los Angeles scene, Felony appeared in the horror b-movie '' Graduation Day'' (1981), playing their song "Gangsters of Rock."Issues Magazine
/ref> Soon after, they signed with producers/managers Don Rubin, formerly of pop group The Ivy Three, and

Artie Kornfeld Arthur Lawrence Kornfeld (born 1942) is an American musician, record producer, and music executive. He is best known as the music promoter for the Woodstock Festival held in 1969. Kornfeld is also known for his collaborations with Artie Kaplan. ...

. Live shows mixed by sound engineer Steve Sands, who is also credited as second engineer on the debut album “The Fanatic” During the developmental stage of Felony, Jeffrey Spry left the band briefly to be the singer with

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Proto-Punk Proto-punk (or protopunk) is rock music played mostly by garage bands from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. The phrase is a retrospective label; the musicians involved were generally not originally associated wit ...

Hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

legends,

Ron Asheton Ronald Franklin Asheton (July 17, 1948 – c. January 6, 2009) was an American musician , who was best known as the guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter for the rock band the Stooges. He formed the Stooges along with Iggy Pop and his brother, ...

(of

Iggy & The Stooges The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, was an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dav ...

) and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson (of

The MC5 MC5, also commonly called The MC5, is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The original line-up consisted of Rob Tyner (vocals) Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), and Dennis ...

) in a short lived super-group (based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

) that was called " The New Order" (preceding the English new wave group of the same name). He quickly returned to Felony and continued working with his brother Joe and the other members of the band. Felony went into the studio and emerged with single "The Fanatic," which became a hit on Los Angeles radio station

KROQ-FM KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The stat ...

with help from program director

Rick Carroll Rickey Floyd "Rick" Carroll (September 15, 1946 – July 10, 1989) was a program director (PD) for influential radio station KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, California, United States, where he introduced the "ROQ of the Eighties" format. The format w ...

. The song peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1983. It became a key track in the development of the

Modern Rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

radio format. "The Fanatic" was included in the influential 1983 ''

Valley Girl A valley girl is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the 1980s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, fr ...

'' soundtrack, which also featured Modern English's "

I Melt With You "I Melt with You" is a song by the British new wave band Modern English. The song, produced by Hugh Jones, was the second single from their 1982 album '' After the Snow''. It became the band's most successful single, largely in the United ...

". Felony also performed the track on ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...

''. A video was made from "The Fanatic" "The Fanatic" video was shot in Hollywood, California, in 1983 and aired on MTV. The Fanatic video includes a cameo of Jeffrey Spry with his first wife, SAG actress, Lucrecia Sarita Russo. The band, which now included Jeffrey on lead vocals, Joe on guitar, Danny Sands on piano/keyboards, Louis Ruiz on bass and Arty Blea on drums, recorded their first full-length album, also called ''The Fanatic'', which was released in 1983 on

Scotti Brothers Records Scotti Brothers Records (typically spelled Scotti Bros. Records) was a California-based record label founded by Tony and Ben Scotti in 1974. Their first success was releasing singles and albums from teen pop star Leif Garrett. They later helped ...

with distribution by

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

. It included the single and nine other tracks that helped define the trendy-but-never-huge power-pop new wave sound of the early 1980s. Felony's second single was 1983's "

The Pied Piper The Pied Piper of Hamelin (german: der Rattenfänger von Hameln, also known as the Pan Piper or the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany. The legend dates back to ...

," which producer Kornfeld had written with Steve Duboff in the 1960s and which had been a hit for

Crispian St. Peters Crispian St. Peters (born Robin Peter Smith; 5 April 1939 – 8 June 2010) was an English pop singer-songwriter, best known for his work in the 1960s, particularly hit record, hit songs written by duo The Changin' Times, including "The Pied Piper ...

and

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

. "Kristine" from ''The Fanatic'' was also a single in 1983. The band recorded songs including "All the King's Horses" and "She's My Little Girl" for a second album on Scotti Brothers that never materialized. The original chemistry was never recaptured, and in 1985 EM-HI released Felony's sophomore effort ''The Vigilante'', which featured a more traditional rock sound. The title track got a lot of radio play and was number two in the

KROQ Top 106.7 Countdown of 1985 The KROQ Top 106.7 Countdowns is an end-of-year countdown that lists the top "106.7" songs on the Los Angeles station KROQ as voted by listeners. The countdown started in 1980, and ran every year until 2009. Since 2009, the list has been compiled ...

." ''The Vigilante'' also featured the track "I'm No Animal," which appeared on the soundtrack of 1986's Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Felony's final album, ''In the Name of Rock-n-Roll'' was self funded and produced by Joe and Ron Merenstein. Negotiations between Felony and a record label for release of this work stalled because of the label's unwillingness to give Joe production credit. The band disbanded and the Spry brothers went their separate ways each working on new projects. Jeffrey Scott Spry committed suicide on March 9, 1992. March 10, 1992 was the re-release of the Fanatic. Joe formed his latest band, Kanawormz, with bass player

John Avila John Avila is an American bassist and music producer, best known for being in the new wave band Oingo Boingo from 1984 to 1995. Career Avila co-founded the music group ''Food for Feet'' in 1981, and played with them until 1991. In 1984, he ...

Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo () was an American new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and written material for in the ye ...

fame. The supporting members of Kanawormz have changed over the years, but Joe continues to create music and is now working on the fifth CD set for release at the end of 2023. "The Fanatic" was featured in the 2011 film "Take Me Home Tonight".

Discography

"Gangsters of Rock" from '' Graduation Day'' (1981) "The Fanatic"
Year: 1983
Tracks: The Fanatic/The Girl Ain't Straight
Label: Rock 'n' Roll
Catalog #: 3497
Formats: 7", 12" ''The Fanatic''
Year: 1983
Tracks: 1. The Fanatic, 2. No Room in Heaven, 3. One Step, 4. Positively Negative, 5. Aggravated Man, 6. What a Way to Go, 7. Kristine, 8. The Girl Ain't Straight, 9. Teaser, 10. 666 Beware.
Label: Rock 'n' Roll
Catalog #: 38453
Formats: LP, CS, CD "Pied Piper"
Year: 1983
Tracks: Pied Piper (long), Pied Piper (short)
Label: Rock 'n' Roll
Catalog #: 04220
Formats: 7" "Kristine"
Year: 1983
Tracks: Kristine, Kristine
Label: Rock 'n' Roll
Catalog #: 03999
Formats: 7" Catalog #: Q-999
Formats: LP, CD

Compilation appearances

''Valley Girl Soundtrack''
Year: 1983
Tracks: The Fanatic
Label: Rhino/WEA
Catalog#:
Formats: CD, CS ''

Richard Blade Richard Blade (born Richard Thomas Sheppard; May 23, 1952 in Bristol, England) is a British-American Los Angeles-based radio, television, and film personality from Torquay, England. He is best known for his radio programs that feature new wav ...

's Flashback Favorites, Vol. 3''
Year: 1994
Tracks: The Fanatic
Label: Oglio Records
Catalog#:
Formats: CD, CS ''Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80s, Vol. 11''
Year: 1995
Tracks: The Fanatic
Label: Rhino/WEA
Catalog #:
Formats: CD, CS ''Alternative 80's Hits''
Year: 1998
Tracks: The Fanatic
Label: Rhino
Catalog #:
Formats: CD

Television appearances

''American Bandstand''American Bandstand: Irene Cara / Felony - TV.com
/ref>
First Aired: Saturday April 30, 1983
Tracks: The Fanatic, What a Way to Go
Episode Number: 2534
Season Number: 26

References

External links

*http://www.helenrosemarketti.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2011_March_Tamara-Rawlings-Spry.pdf {{Authority control Musical groups from Los Angeles Scotti Brothers Records artists