Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends was an American

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...

band of the early 1970s. It was founded by D'Andrea (Danny) Bennett and Daegal (Dae) Bennett, both sons of legendary singer Tony Bennett; they comprised the

rhythm section A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm sec ...

. Other members included Curtis Fried, Gordon Javna, Jon Yaffee, and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist

David Mansfield David Mansfield (born September 13, 1956) is an American musician and composer. Mansfield was raised in Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Newton Mansfield was a first violinist in the New York Philharmonic. David played guitar, pedal steel guitar ...

. The band had a modest local following in northern

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and was the opening act for Gram Parsons at

Max's Kansas City Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Decembe ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Their music was oriented towards lighthearted, catchy songs. The group's name evoked, as ''People'' magazine commented, "a line of bathtub toys".http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20064236,00.html People Magazine - Quacky Duck—a Hot New Group from the Suburbs The band was signed by

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

for $75,000 and released the album ''Media Push'' in 1974. The single "The Barnyard Song" received a smattering of airplay on WNEW-FM and the band had a national television appearance on '' The Mike Douglas Show''. Nevertheless, they failed to gain a substantial audience and were dropped by Warner Bros. Mansfield went on to a very successful career with

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

The Alpha Band The Alpha Band was an American rock band, formed in July 1976 from the remnants of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. Entry for ''The Alpha Band''. AllMusic. Accessed May 21, 2009. Band members were T-Bone Burnett, Steven Soles, and David Mansf ...

, and as a session musician and composer. The failure of Quacky Duck helped convince Danny Bennett that his talents lay more in business than in being a musician; as a result he later became Tony Bennett's

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and played a key role in resurrecting his father's commercial career in the 1980s and early 1990s. Dae Bennett went on to become a

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

. Gordon Javna became a writer and editor and oversees the popular ''

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader ''Uncle John's Bathroom Readers'' are a series of books containing trivia and short essays on miscellaneous topics, ostensibly for reading in the bathroom. The books are credited to the Bathroom Readers' Institute, though Uncle John is a real pers ...

'' series of trivia books. Fried plays bass in the Austin, Texas rock band, Cole Fried Fish.

Members

*D'Andrea (Danny) Bennett *Daegal (Dae) Bennett *Curtis Fried *Gordon Javna *Jon Yaffee *

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

References

{{Authority control Musical groups from New Jersey