Norman Knowles is a surf musician, band leader, and record producer from California. He is the composer of several classic surf songs, including as co-writer of the surf classic "

Church Key A church key or churchkey is an American term for various kinds of bottle openers and can openers. Etymology The term in the beverage-opening sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gath ...

", which was a hit for

The Revels ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. He also has been involved in band management, managing another surf band,

The Sentinals The Sentinals were a surf rock band from San Luis Obispo, California (1961–1965). The band is notable for a Latino influence in some works, such as "Latin'ia" (1962). Notable band members included Tommy Nuñes, drummer John Barbata (later of T ...

. Knowles has made a significant contribution to the surf genre.

Background

Knowles' compositions include "

", "Intoxicate", and " Six Pak". He also produced "Latin’Ia" by

. He was responsible for the first recorded release by The Impacts. He co-owned a record label with

Tony Hilder Anthony J. Hilder (1935 - April 26, 2019) was an American author, film maker, talk show host, broadcaster, news correspondent and former actor. In the late 1950s to the mid-1960s he was also a record producer, producing music mainly in the sur ...

. The label, Westco Records was located in Morro Bay.''The Illustrated Discography of Surf Music, 1961-1965'', Compiled by John Blair
Page 71
/ref> As well as being the saxophonist and the band leader being of The Revels, he was also a both a member and manager of another surf rock act, The Sentinals. Having become tired of travelling and not making much money, Knowles got out of performing. He moved into management and booking acts. In 1989 and at the age of 50, he was working as an Amtrak ticket agent He had his own 200-acre ranch near King City in central California.

Career

1950s to 1960s

Between 1959 and 1961, Knowles was leading The Revels. They were originally called Gil Serna and The Rockets. When he changed their name to The Revels, the group's career took off. He had success with a composition. Besides his co-composition with

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, the classic "

" (which was a hit for The Revels), he co-composed "Six Pak" which was also a California hit. Knowles got his inspiration for the song from Darnold's taking four seconds to drink a beer. Along with The Revels, Knowles provided music for the Kent Mackenzie directed 1961 film, ''The Exiles (1961 film), The Exiles'' which was about Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans living in Los Angeles. Years later he recalled some of the tracks they recorded for the film which included "It's Party Time" and possibly "Revellion". He stated that the song "Commanche" that was written for the movie was cut out. In 1962, The Sentinals released "Latin Soul" bw "Christmas Eve" on

Era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

3097. The A side was composed by Robert Hafner and the B side, a joint composition by Hafner and K.C. Reeth. Along with Tony Hilder, Knowles produced both sides. This was just one example of the Hilder, Knowles, Hafner involvement. In 1963, ''Surf Mania'' by The Surf Teens was released. In addition to producing the album, the album contained five compositions by Knowles. In 1966, Knowles was out of the music business and became branch manager of an oil company. The company folded during the 1973 fuel crisis.

Later years

He played on the '' California Live'' album by

Merrell Fankhauser Merrell Wayne Fankhauser (born December 23, 1943, Louisville, Kentucky, United States) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s with bands including the Impacts, Merrell & the Exiles, HMS Bount ...

which was released in 1991. Along with Sam Eddy and Tony Hilder, Knowles worked with Bob Irwin of

Sundazed Sundazed Music is an American independent record label based in Coxsackie, New York. It specializes in obscure and rare recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s. In 2000, Sundazed had a staff of 15 and two mixing studios, including a vintage audio ...

to aid in the 1994 release of ''Intoxica! The Best Of The Revels''. Irwin had done the same with another surf producer John Hodge for a release by The Pyramids. In 1995, he was a member of the reformed version of The Centurians and they played at the 1995 Pier Fest at Huntington Beach. In 1997 Knowles played on the ''Bustin' Surfboards '97'' album for The Tornados, on the track "Devils Tail". He recalled the difference in the recording session as it was back in 1962, compared to how it was in 1997.

Influence

Among the musicians that have been influenced by Knowles is Bill Swanson, sax player for surf band, The Eliminators.

Management

Not long before The Impacts, a Del-Fi act had their California surf hit "Latin’ia", Knowles offered to manage them. In 1962, Knowles had introduced the group to

. By 1963, Knowles was managing The Sentinals, who at that time, according to the '' San Lus Obispo Telegram-Tribune'' were fast becoming as big a draw as the Four Seasons in the Valley area.

Record Producer

His label, Westco was in operation from around 1962 to 1965. The main purpose of the label was to have recordings played on air and to sell them to the larger record companies. In the late 1990s, the

Bacchus Archives Bacchus Archives is a record label that has often released previous unreleased recordings. Some of the recordings it has released, includes recordings by artists such as The Controllers, Evan "Funk" Davies, The Dils, Peter Miller and Bob Thompso ...

record label got in touch with him about the Surf Teens' album he produced in 1963. The album was released on the budget

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * ...

label and was distributed by the

rack jobber A rack jobber (also known as a rack merchandiser) is a company or trader that has an agreement with a retailer to display and sell products in a store. The outlets for the products would be ones that traditionally do not stock such products such as ...

s at their usual outlets. Due to the budget type release of the original, there was no info on the record or the cover about the band. There was a rumor that Knowles had some unreleased recordings of the group which turned out to be true. The record was re-released on vinyl as a limited edition of 500 pressings.Independent Label Distribution, September, 2014
''COMING OUT ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2014'', THE SURF TEENS, ''Surf Mania, LP''
/ref>

Partial production list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knowles, Norman Living people Record producers from Los Angeles Surf music record producers Songwriters from California American male writers Year of birth missing (living people)