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70s Disco ban out of South Florida.
Hemlock was formed in South Florida by Louis Lowy in the early-seventies. We did covers at the time and became extremely popular in this region, playing many, many proms, clubs and high society parties. Around the mid-seventies we made some personnel changes and decided to write and record our own material.
Also around this time Warner Brothers Studios and Mike Curb Records (which was distributed by Warner Brothers), held a nation wide contest looking for original music bands. We submitted a song called Sweet Sweet Music (written by Gene Rivera, Louis Lowy, David Roppolo). We eventually beat out over 3.000 bands to win the contest. Mike Curb records signed us to a record contract, flew us out to California and we recorded Sweet Sweet Music along with a newer song our lead singer Ysauro Hernandez had written called Disco Break.
Disco Break became the A side and Sweet Sweet Music became the B side. The record company released it in both 7 inch and 12 inch though 12 inch seems to be the one circulating around. To Warner Brothers, Mike Curb and our delight the record sold about 50,000 copies and made the top of the dance charts in Philadelphia, Washington and the New York area. It was also on the Rate a Record portion of American Bandstand.
The producer Jerry Steiner, was also very pleased and asked us to score the musical soundtrack for a movie called Swap Meet, which was basically a teen sex-ploitation action comedy, which included Danny Devito and Rhea Pearlman. We wrote about ten songs for the soundtrack and released about three records from that session including Body Rhythm which Warner Bros remixed as a 12 inch single hiring Richie Rivera who just did the mix of Anita Wards Ring My Bell. We also released Drive Me Crazy, Look At Me Now and a few others.
Around this time the band (being the naÔve kids we were) thought we could do better by going our separate ways, which we did and that ended our recording contract. Swap Meet can occasionally be found on ebay, along with our records. You can also find info on the movie at imdb.com.
Hemlock Photo
Front Row L-R
Ken Combs/Dan Hertlien
Middle Row L-R
Louis Lowy/David Roppolo/Frank Lendzion
Back Row
Ysauro Hernandez
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