Liar Liar – The Ultimate One-Hit Wonder – Johnny Mystery – Xperience Monthly

Liar Liar.

It’s sometime in 1965 and an eight-year-old kid is making his First Communion. It’s a big thing. You get gifts. I’m that kid and I’m about to get something that will open up the world to my young ears. No more will my contact to rock n roll be restricted to just the car radio or Shindig on Thursday night. It’s about to get serious. I open up the top of a shiny little box to find my first transistor radio!!! This is a momentous occasion, not only getting the gift but for what I hear when I first turn it on.

It seemed like forever, walking the two blocks or so to my house. I was wanting to run home, but the rest of my family just had to talk to everybody on the way back. We knew all the people in the neighborhood. It was different times. Finally, we’re home and instead of joining the party, I install the 9-volt battery in this little box with a one-inch speaker and out comes the coolest song I had ever heard up to that time. I’m already familiar with the British Invasion, just like all the other kids but this was different. The creepy Munsters like organ sounded like a roller rink from a horror movie. There were screams. There was a reverb drenched guitar line, following the keyboard line. There was a falsetto vocal singing, “Liar, Liar pants on fire, your nose is longer than a telephone wire.” It was my first encounter with “Liar, Liar” by The Castaways.

The Castaways came from some far-off land called Minneapolis. In those times, the Minneapolis/St. Paul area played host to hundreds of bands and enjoyed a thriving scene. Forming in 1963, Bob Folschow on guitar, Dick Roby on bass and Dennis Craswell on drums, set out to conquer the teen clubs and frat party scene with a good deal of success. Like all the other area groups, they played the pop songs of the day but the thing that would set them apart from everybody else would happen when they took on an organist. Enter James Donna….

As James tells it, he was hanging around the house, noodling with the family Wurlitzer when he came up with the riff and chord progression for Liar,Liar and Dennis Craswell shows up and starts helping with the lyrics. It took about two hours and suddenly they got a new tune. The other members loved it and when they started playing it live, the crowd ate it up. It wasn’t long before they got busy in a recording studio. The big label in town was Soma Records and they convinced them to release it. Liar went straight to number one in the Twin Cities and thanks to Soma’s distribution and promotion, it went nationwide in a very short time, climbing to number 12 on the Billboard charts! Soma Records also produced another Top 40 around the same time with “Run, Run, Run”, by another local group called The Gestures. That record is also worth checking out.

Soon they found themselves on tour and television. The Castaways went from pizza parlors and teen dances to playing 10,000 seat venues and opening up for The Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher and The Loving Spoonful, just to name a few. The business almost never works like that today but back then, YIKES! Talk about a whirlwind experience. They even found themselves performing “Liar, Liar” in the beach movie,” It’s A Bikini World.” Watch for it on TV, late…. If this whole thing sounds like the Tom Hanks film, “That Thing You Do”, it’s probably no coincidence.

Their follow up record, “Good-Bye Babe” was something of a flop. I personally don’t blame them for it not being a hit, because it really was a good song as was the flip side,” A Man’s Gotta Be A Man.” The public is fickle but “Liar, Liar” is a hard record to follow. Lenny Kaye included it on the” Nuggets” compilation in 1972 and called it a perfect record. It really is. Clocking in at 1:52, it was one of those go-to records for coming in and out of the top or bottom of the hour on radio. DJs loved it.

As so often happened with bands in the 60’s, the draft and getting married, broke up The Castaways. Drummer Dennis Craswell did end up in a group called Crow, who had a substantial hit with “Evil Woman Don’t Play Your Games with Me”, which was also covered by Black Sabbath.

Years go by and Liar gets a second life, being used in films such as “Good Morning, Vietnam”, “Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels” and was also covered by Debbie Harry in the Movie “Married To The Mob.” As a result, the band, with James Donna has reformed somewhat and continues to perform in and around the Twin Cities area today. They are even available for private parties. Imagine getting these guys to play at your birthday! James has also recently published a book called, ”Liar, Liar, From Garage Band to Rock Stars…The Story of Minneapolis Band The Castaways.” The boys were also inducted into the Iowa Rock Hall of Fame in the early 2000s.

It’s also interesting to note that it took another 20 years for Minneapolis to produce another national act to the record buying public. You’ve all heard of Prince, right? To think it all started with that little two-minute song.

Ok guys, you know what to do. Hit the record shops!