Tom King and his brother-in-law, Chet Kelley, co-wrote a song called "Time Won't Let Me" and recorded it on their own. The song blended the group's core sound to brass and horn sections in what was a fairly complex arrangement. On the strength of the recording, the group was signed by Capitol Records, but the label insisted that the band take a new name. King had been forced to abandon Pama Records, the label for which the Starfires had cut a dozen tunes and was owned by his uncle, who accused his nephew of being an "outsider" to the family. "Time Won't Let Me" was issued in January of 1966, rising to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over a million copies. An infectious slice of classic American Pop, it introduced a series of similarly excellent Top 40 songs, that included "Girl in Love" which went to #21 in the Summer of 1966.
By the Spring of that year, Capitol was ready for the group to record their debut album and Tom King called up Jimmy Fox, who had been the drummer for a slightly earlier line-up of The Starfires, to play on those sessions. Fox had left the group to attend college, but he came back to play on the album. In the wake of his brief reunion with his band mates, Fox decided to forego college in favor of forming a band of his own, which would find their own success as The James Gang.
The sessions for some of the songs that would be on the group's second album, "Outsiders #2", had already taken place, and one of them, a version of the Isley Brothers number, "Respectable" was pegged as their third single, released in July of that year. The song rose to #15 nationally in the Summer of 1966, followed by "Help Me Girl" which stalled at #37 when it was successfully covered by Eric Burdon And The Animals. Only six months after their big break, bad luck seemed to follow The Outsiders. They had access to a song called "Bend Me, Shape Me" ahead of anyone else, but turned it down as a single release, thus allowing The American Breed to rack up a $5 hit in 1968. The group's third L.P., "In", released in April of 1967, never charted and none of the group's subsequent singles reached the Top 100.
A single called "Gotta Leave Us Alone" rose to number 121, which apparently was sufficient to get the band a tentative go-ahead for a fourth album. By that time, King and Kelley had begun working with a Cleveland-based songwriter named Bob Turek, and the group's line-up had shifted somewhat. Mert Madsen had decided to get married and get off the road, and was succeeded on bass by an ex-member of The Starfires, Richard D'Amato. The intended fourth album was scrapped partway through and instead, a concert album, entitled "Happening Live", appeared in its place. As was quite common in the mid-sixties, the producers went back to the multi-tracks of the originals and removed the over dubbed strings, brass, and horns, and simply added crowd noise to the existing recordings. The L.P. sold poorly and turned out to be the last for The Outsiders.
By 1968, with band members coming and going, Tom King quit the group and Sonny Geraci was left to keep the band alive. In tandem with Walter Nims, the pair attempted to record, but a law suit was launched over the right to use the name The Outsiders, which King won in 1970. Geraci and Nims went on to form a new group called Climax. Their first effort was a Nims written tune called "Precious and Few", which went to #1 nationally and was awarded a Gold record in 1971. Climax toured the world and appeared on the current television shows of the time, The Smothers Brothers, Hulabaloo, Shindig, Where The Action Is, and American Bandstand. The song "Rock and Roll Heaven" (a hit for the Righteous Brothers) was written originally for Climax and Sonny Geraci by their keyboard player, John Stevenson, although their version failed to sell. Further releases by Climax also flopped and Geraci returned to the Cleveland area, performing a night club act for casinos, cruises and corporate parties.
By 1980, Geraci had retired from music and went to work for his family's home improvement business. Another Outsiders' album called "30 Years Live" was released in 1996 by a re-formed band that featured original guitarist Tom King, but minus Sonny Geraci. Predictably, it failed to gain any attention. After twenty-five years away from the music business, Sonny Geraci started to perform again and in 2007 toured under the name Sonny Geraci And The Outsiders. Into 2011 and 2012, they still had a full slate of shows booked across the United States. Sadly, Geraci suffered a brain aneurysm in April, 2012 and never fully recovered. He passed away on February 5th, 2017 at the age of 70.
For More, Be Sure To Read Gary James' Interview With Sonny Geraci
