The mysterious HEAD AND THE HARES fascinates while remaining very elusive. The fact that a 1990s garage revival band borrowed the name and also covered one of their songs does make the task more difficult. But we now have a bit of a lead...
Playing at least since mid-1965, Head and the Hares was formed by students from the Boston, Massachusetts area. Charles Cirrone (vocals? bass?) and Ray Gomez, Jr. (guitar) attended high school in Everett, MA while Joseph Oliveri (drums) was in Revere, MA.
These three guys were all 17 in Sept 1965. The other members, if there were any, are not known, but in the case Charles played bass, the band could very possibly have been a trio.
Seems the "Head" loses a bit of "Hare".
The event that originated the band's name?
(The Boston Evening Globe - Sept 8, 1965)
In Sept 1965, the three members were photographed at Louis D'Assisi's barber shop with D'Assisi cutting Charles Cirrone's hair, his high school having apparently ruled that he had to get rid of his long hair or be expelled.
The band self-funded and self-released one single in May 1966. The A-side, "I Won't Come Back", was written by Ray, while the flip side, "One Against The World", was co-written by Ray and Charles.
The single was pressed by Decca Custom Records in New York. Unfortunately, according to TeenBeat Mayhem, a defective mastering or stamper causes slushy sound reproduction playback on all copies.
Hear both sides:
No trace of a gig could be found. The band possibly disbanded at the end of the school year.
Despite being a classic to my ears, "One Against The World" only found its way on the original New England Teen Scene LP in 1983, plus on one Wyld Sydes CD and now remains uncomped for decades.
Charles David Cirrone kept up with music later in life, also playing saxophone, and passed away on June 30, 2024 at Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln, Massachussets. See his obituary HERE.
________
Some 1966 yearbook pics of Ray Gomez and Charles Cirrone HERE.
This article was adapted from Vernon Gravely's work of research on Paul Mace, who kindly forwarded me his book as well as the acetate songs and pictures of the band. Useful links to his work can be found at the end of this post. Special thanks to Jake as well for the above acetate (his channel HERE).
New York, NY - 1964: the British Invasion strikes and an overabundance of teen bands immediately fills the air with guitar sounds and vocal harmonies. Young PAUL MACE, then a teen Broadway/TV actor and future co-star of The Lords Of Flatbush (1974) with Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler, is no exception...
Born on April 4, 1950, in New York City, Paul Nicholas Mace appeared at a very young age in TV shows. IMDb lists his first credited role when he was 12 years old but he had appeared many times before as a small boy on various TV shows, including with Zippy the Chimp. Everyone was immediately charmed by his ease and natural ability to act which soon propelled him to the stage.
10-year-old Paul Mace, rehearsing for
the Broadway play 'The Wall', circa Sept 1960.
Music was also deeply rooted in his family, his father being a professional voice teacher, and at the age of eight, Paul had become a member of the boys’ chorus of the New York Metropolitan Opera. In 1958, he made his stage debut in Tosca, singing the Shepherd Boy’s solo, leading him to appear in several Broadway shows in the early 1960s.
As well as singing and playing the violin, Paul had learned from his father to play the piano. Despite his family's penchant for classical music and the great composers, Paul also liked modern pop music. In 1962, he got rid of his violin, bought his first guitar and learned everything by himself.
Paul Mace, ca 1966 with The Hobbits
When The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, everything was turned upside down. Paul and his cousin Ed were amazed and immediately loved it. Ed recalled that Paul’s musical ear picked up their songs very quickly. Paul and Ed would seeThe Beatlesat their return show at Shea Stadium in August 1966 and got to see supporting acts likeThe CyrklesandThe Remains.
As to ensure him a proper education in parallel of his acting career, Paul attended the Professional Children's School, where he soon befriended Barry Pearl, another Broadway child actor. Barry loved the Beatles as much as Paul, and learned guitar from him.
Barry Pearl, 1969.
"Paul was a master guitarist," Barry recalls, "and he was self-taught, I believe. He taught me bar chords, for instance. The very first song was ‘And I Love Her.’"
Paul and Barry started to write some originals together, one of them called “Ezra Death”: “Live so long . . . Then you die / You can’t go on, I’ll tell you why / You pass above the earth, or be-low your mind / Until you realize that you’ve become EZRA DEATH.”
Don Scardino, ca 1967.
Barry soon started to play guitar in a band called The Mugwumps, formed by Don "Donnie" Scardino (guitar), and two other students of the Professional Children's School, Rod "Roddy" Hausen (bass), and Iano "John" Valentino (drums). Don's girlfriend's mother came up with the name when telling them about the 1800s political movement of the same name.
Don was already an accomplished teen actor and, around that time, had the opportunity to screen test for a show that would eventually become The Monkees (Screen Gems actually started holding auditions in New York City several months before they held the Los Angeles auditions that resulted in the final casting). Don brought The Mugwumps to the audition. They played a few tunes, and he actually got the job. Unfortunately, he was already under contract with another show that wouldn't release him, which prevented him from joining.
The Hobbits recording at Lynn Oliver studio, 1966.
Rod Hausen, John Valentino and Paul Mace.
Shortly after, Paul was brought in as third guitarist but the quintet didn't last long. Despite being the best of friends, Paul and Barry would often argue and fight, and Barry eventually decided to leave. In addition, it wasn't long until another New York band with the same Mugwumpsname (featuring future members of The Mamas And The Papas and The Lovin' Spoonful) signed for a single with Warner Bros. in August 1964.
The kids were then forced to change name and opted for The Hobbits. The band rehearsed at Paul’s father’s mansion home on West End Avenue. Despite his dislike of modern pop music and guitars, Paul's father was very supportive. The band preformed mostly at high school dances, and were able to record some demos (likely in July 1966) at Lynn Oliver Studios, 250 89th Street, above a movie theater around the corner from Paul’s apartment. Lynn Oliver was a big band drummer. He founded the studio in the late 1950s and operated it for the next three decades.
Seven songs were recorded, including five originals: "Without Love" and "All in Vain" (written by Scardino), "Green Midnight" and "My Kind of Woman" (written by Mace) and "Happy Again" (written by Hausen). Two covers were also taped: "Thirsty Boots" by Eric Andersen and "You Don’t Have To Tell Me" by Peter & Gordon.
The line-up for the recordings was: Don Scardino (rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals); Paul Mace (lead guitar, lead and backing vocals); Rod Hausen (bass and occasional backing vocals); and John Valentino (drums). Paul and Scardino shared the lead vocals, with Paul handling the lower parts and Scardino the higher. "All in Vain," one of Scardino’s songs, has a Zombies-esque feel to it, and though it sounds like an electric piano is heard, it's only Paul's guitar sent through a lot of reverb according Scardino. Other influences can be heard in Paul's "Green Midnight", a sweet, heartbreaking ballad in which the influence of the Byrds' "Here Without You" is strong.
When Don set to transfer his acetates to a digital format, "My Kind Of Woman" had been lost. And that's when the impossible happened: when Vernon Gravely contacted me about The Hobbits, the title of the lost track seemed to ring a bell. I checked my files, not hoping much for my guess. After all, so many song could bear that title...
And yet the hunch was right: I actually knew someone who had found that acetate with the lost song, only three years ago! What makes it even more astonishing is that I made this connection on July 13, 2026—exactly 60 years to the day after the date found on the acetate: July 13, 1966!
However the acetate was credited to The Young 'Uns, a name Vernon had never heard before. Asked about it, Don recalled they had been called that way before becoming The Hobbits, though the other way around sounds more probable as Paul referred to his band as The Hobbits in a letter from January 1966 and the acetate was cut in July at Dick Charles; in addition, another Hobbits band, formed in 1965, started to make some noise in mid/late-1966 in New York, likely prompting Don and Paul's band to change their name again.
One way or the other, Don positively identified the recording as being the right one. Of all their songs, it's their most garage rock one, a sort of proto-psychedelic number with fuzz breaks in a "Eight Miles High" kind of way. Paul was then only 16, and his musical abilities are impressive. (I hope to include the song in a compilation in a near future.)
"It's Paul's song, music and lyrics," Don recalled, "he's singing lead and I'm singing harmony. It's also me playing the 'raga' guitar, all the rage for a moment back then, and Paul hitting a fuzz-tone pedal to play the corresponding riff. Fuzz was also the rage because of George Harrison's playing it on "Think For Yourself" on the 'Rubber Soul' LP. Great cut."
The Hobbits recording, 1966.
Paul and Don.
"I continued to do a lot of songwriting demos at Dick Charles." Don added. "It was a very busy place in midtown and I knew it because my Dad, who was a bass player (and later a band leader) did tons of recording there. A lot for the Don Kirschner stable of writers, I recall."
In a letter he wrote to his music teacher in January 1966, Paul tried to put words on what was happening musically:
I've been exploring the endless realms of folk-music, trying to seek out something that a vast number of teenagers as well as the other generation can latch on to and eventually understand the meaning behind the lyrics. [...] The Hobbits, my group, after a year and a half got hold of something different. I can't really explain it, but it was a kind of folk-rock, that wasn't played, it was felt. With every audience we played for, there was a weird rapport between the group and the audience, and we were no longer performing, we were conveying love and countenance through a groovy medium... our music.
Now, [Don and I] have been writing constantly. Our music is the kind Leonard Bernstein would dig; breaking away from standard progressions, etc. Our lyrics are seldom psychedelic, but often satirical. [...] The lyrics can be accepted easily by the pot-heads, and with a little more thought, by people when they are straight.
Paul also cites the lyrics of one of his songs, "Walls Of Blue", that remained unrecorded:
Is it hard to keep hold of the one you love,
When she's stumblin' 'round societys walls of blue.
Essence of my life is none that compares to you
Lying down in shades of love, and walls of blue
Wanting you and my battle will be won
Then you'll love me and we'll return to our walls of blue.
"It's not my better composition, but it is calm and tender; just what this society needs." Paul added.
The Hobbits were friends and more or less in competition with another band called The Live Wires, featuring Dennis Kirby (the son of Durward Kirby) on lead guitar. Both bands would often play together, as well as backing a girl quartet called The Young Darlings, which they would help put their shows together and played clubs in New York. All three bands were child actors, attended PCS or were linked one way or the other to show business.
The Hobbits aka The Young'uns disbanded at some point in 1967 as the members went in separate directions.
Besides his band activities (possibly prior), Paul also recorded a demo as a duo with another one of his friends, Harris Parker. It was a cover tune, though the title and recording are now lost in time. The guys had an acetate made and Harris recalled that Paul made a label up to stick on it: "Paul went around telling people he got a record contract. It was embarrassing as hell. It was like, ‘Everybody can see that you hand-drew the label, man – what are you doin’?’ But, that was Paul."
The Hobbits recording, 1966.
John and Rod.
It was also in the mid-60s that Paul got into the growing drug counterculture. He was introduced to marijuana and occasionally took LSD. It was unfortunately the beginning of a long and difficult period for Paul.
After the demise of The Hobbits and The Live Wires, some members of both defunct bands (but not Paul) gathered for a while as December's Children until they pursued other goals.
Don Scardino put out a pop/bubblegum single called "Movie Day" on Kapp in 1968, produced by Al Capps. In 1970, he played the lead role in the movie "Homer" and one of his songs was featured in the soundtrack LP along with the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Lovin' Spoonful and Led Zeppelin. He would have a respectable career as an actor for several years before turning to directing and producing, mainly in theater and television, receiving an Emmy Award (producing) and nomination (directing) for episodes of the 30 ROCK series.
Rod Hausen (1951-2004) would become an accomplished pianist, arranger and teacher, working with the likes of Tony Orlando, B. J. Thomas, Engelbert Humperdinck, Pat Benatar, Richard Belzer and Jamie deRoy. Not much is known about John Valentino, though Scardino heard several years ago that he had passed away.
Paul continued with acting, appearing alongside Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler and Perry King in The Lords of Flatbush (1974). Barry Pearl also stuck with acting, his best-known role being that of Doody in the movie Grease (1978).
Paul Mace - 1966
Though he enjoyed a prolific acting and singing career from the ages of 8 to 22, Paul developed around 1968 a devotion to the Church of Scientology that put major strains on his familial relationships since Paul's father was gay and Scientology didn't approve of that. It also interfered with his acting career, causing him to take a five-year hiatus after The Lords of Flatbush.
He returned to the big screen when Stallone offered him a role in Paradise Alley in late 1977, after which he relocated to California and pursued his show business career with renewed vigor. Sadly, any aspirations of making a living with his craft came to an abrupt end when he was killed in a motorcycle accident in August 1983 at the age of 33.
____________
Many thanks to Vernon Gravely, Don Scardino and Jake.
If you are interested in reading more about Paul Mace, you can find Vernon Gravely's very interesting and exhaustive book The Forgotten Lord: The Story Of Paul MaceHERE and HERE, either digital or paperback. Thanks for reading.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
