Luke Halpin Singing Star

(Published in 16 Magazine, Apr 1966 issue; transcript provided by Alan R)


YOU SEE HIM every Saturday night on "Flipper", but now you are about to see him as you have never seen him before! Yes, an entirely new and even more attractive and exciting Luke Halpin is coming your way. And here is how it all came about:

Since he can't remember WHEN, Luke has harbored a secret longing to become a recording star. But it wasn't until recently that he was able to do something about this burning desire.

Actually, about two years ago Luke took up the guitar -- that is, he bought himself a guitar. Ten months ago, Luke became friendly with a cat named Stan Krall, who HAPPENED to be a guitar teacher. Luke immediately began to take lessons.

"Finally," Luke recalls, "I called up my manager, Rose Clark, and told her Stan and I had worked out some material that we thought might be good enough for a demonstration record. In no time at all, Rose called back and told me that she had spoken to someone at MGM Records and that arrangements had been made for Stan and me to go to Nashville and cut a RECORD!"

All Stan and Luke remember about their first night in Nashville was that it was cold and that they stayed up all night working on their material -- perfecting it.

The next day they went to MGM's Nashville studios and met Rick Hall, their A&R man. They had three pieces of material -- "Sunshine Girl", "Almost Persuaded" and "Big Louie". Once again they worked all night improving their renditions of the tunes.

On their third night in Nashville, Luke and Stan cut their recordings. After listening to the best bands of each tune over and over again, they -- along with Rick -- decided that "Sunshine Girl" was the very best. So that is how Luke and Stan's new single recording for MGM was born. Luke says, "I never did anything like it before. I loved recording and want to do more. I hope this record is a hit, but if it isn't -- we will still keep on trying."

(NOTE: the single "Sunshine Girl" b/w "Big Louie" was not successful.)