Buckeye Beat

Home
Bands and Performers
Labels
Venues
Works
Radio
TV
News
About the site
Contact Us

Euclid Beach Band


Cleveland, 1978 - 82

"There's No Surf In Cleveland".The winter of 1977-8 was one of the worst in Cleveland history, topped off by the late January "Blizzard of '78". According to other sources, somtime during the long hard winter, Rich Reising, who worked for the Scene magazine, and Jim Girard, the Scene's editor, were talking about a lyric in an Eric Carmen song (not sure which one, apparently it was unreleased) about no surf in Cleveland, and decided to write a song about it. Reising had been in Magic, the band that played on Carmen's first and most successfult LP, and Girard had played in Harlequin Colour. Girard was a big fan of the Beach Boys and together they wrote a Beach Boy styled song using the above as the theme and title.

Reising and Girard collected some local musicians and completed the recording, with help from Carmen. Somewhere along the way it was decided to release the song through the Scene and donate the proceeds to charity. In order to complete the record release, they needed a 'band' name so in regards to Cleveland's much loved and still much missed Euclid Beach Park amusement part (closed for good in 1969) the group became the Euclid Beach Band and the group recorded a Ventures/surf style instrumental for which they used the name of an EBP ride called "Laugh In The Dark" as the B side.

The record was a pretty big hit in the summer of 1978, selling out and getting a lot of play on WMMS. Somewhere along the line, Steve Popovich from Cleveland International records, at the time swimming in money from the huge success of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell", got interested in releasing the record on his label. Meanwhile, the demand for the 45 created a demand for a real band, so Rich and Jim recruited some local music veterans and played a few shows (including one or more TV appearances). 

Popovich got the band a deal to release a full LP so they regrouped in NYC and recorded the LP, which came out in the spring of 1979. Momentum from "NSIC" was waning, so a second 45 called "I Need You" (written by Eric Carmen) was released. It got some action, but not enough to convince everyone that the band would be a long lasting concern. A third Epic/Cleveland International 45, "End Of The World" was not successful. In late 1979 the group (although it's not known to us who was in the group by now, besides Rich Reising) released a special Christmas record. A final EBB 45 was released in 1982, again with Rich Reising as the songwriter. The song "Headlands" was a tribute to a park outside of Cleveland. 

Jim Girard continued as editor of the Scene for several years. He passed away in 2006.

Discography
There's No Surf In Cleveland / Laugh In The Dark - Scene 45001/ Epci 50584, 1978
I Need You / Hard To Say Goodbye - Epic 50676, 1979
There's A Moon Out Tonight / There's No Surf In Cleveland - Epic 50741, 1979
End Of The World / You Make It Easy - Epic 50782, 1979 
LP - Euclid Beach Band - Epic 35619, 1979
Santa's First Stop / Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree ; It's  A Brand New Year - no label, 1979
Headlands / Summer's Almost Over - Kriminal 45001, 1982