the Impossibles

Celina, 1961-2

Celina and St. Marys are two cities within a few miles from each other, on the shore of Lake St. Marys. The lake is only a few miles from the Indiana border. The two cities managed to have a bit of a music scene, with the Impossibles as the leaders.

The band included Ron Brewer on bass, Jimmy "Keys" Hullinger on piano, Dino Linetz on vocals, Don "Dee" Jones on guitar, Gary Stemen on drums, and Donald "Dub" Sheets on lead guitar. Brewer was from Wapakoneta, Stemen from Convoy, Linetz from Van Wert, and the rest from Celina.

The band played their local towns, as far out as Lima, which is where the posted newspaper picture was published. 

The band recorded two 45s of original songs. Hullinger and Jones combined with another local resident, Dickie "Dee" Flaugher, to create their own record label, Key-Dee records. The label was from Celina but a couple years later the location was St. Marys. The record was pressed by the short lived Fremont record pressing plant, which used a year date for the first two numbers. The 61 suggests the record came out in 1961 but copyrights were dated March 1962.

The band recorded a second 45 in 1963, the date based on newspaper mentions. The record was released as Phil Celina and the Impossibles, on the Kip label. The label was based in Nashville and released a number of 45s on Kip and Kippo. The sound is in the teener rock sound.

There is some missing pieces to how the band ended up with the first record on a Nashville label who released only country records afterwards. The Tom-Cat publishing for the Kip release was also used for a couple more Key-Dee 45s. The owner of Tom-Cat was  Tom "Cat" Reeder from the Washington DC/Virginia area, a career DJ who also ran the Ka$h country label. Artists can have their songs published by operations all over the country but there was some relationship between the Impossibles/Key-Dee and Reeder. It's also a mystery why the Impossibles did not release the record on Key-Dee but somewhere with the Reeder connection the band likely saw the chance to record for a label that had some promotion and distribution.

April 1963 notice

The last notice we could find on the Impossibles was from 1965. They were probably getting older and not interested in following the new music trends.

We don't know what this 1963 ad from a Delphos club was saying. There are listings for Bobby Taylor and the Impossibles playing in Delphos. That would seem to be the same group. This ad suggests there was an impostor Impossibles...not impossible for two Impossibles bands to exist.

Not much else is known. Jimmy Hullinger and Dub Sheets passed away some years ago.

Discography:
I Miss Them / My Heart's Up For Sale - Key-Dee 6199, late 1961/early 1962
Itty Bitty Esaw / Somewhere, Someday - Kip 1001, 1963