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the Other Ones / Players IV / Frank Gari


Cleveland, 1966

Frank Gari (Garofalo) was a pop singer and songwriter, originally from New York, who moved to Cleveland around 1964. He had already scored a couple moderate hits with the songs "Utopia" and "Princess"

We don't really know what brought him to Cleveland but he jumped into jingle writing (Ohio Bell), formed a production company, Nintondo Productions, and was invovled in a few local records. 

In 1966 he recorded a couple songs, as lead singer, on a 45 that was pressed twice, one pressing as the Other Ones and another pressing as the Players IV, although based on a mention of the record in the Plain Dealer, the Other Ones came first. The A side was supposed to have been "The Girl In The Shade Of the Striped Umbrella" (recorded previously by the Four Preps) but it was the flip side "The Two Of Us" that has received more attention, mainly for some plays in the 1970s UK Northern Soul scene. The songs were written by Artie Resnick/Kenny Young and Joey Levine, respectively.The ID of the backing band is not known but they sound like studio musicians who would have played on Frank's jingles. There was a short lived teen band from Mentor called the Other Ones (with Ron Ilkanich pre-Wild Things) but it's obviously not a teen band playing on the records. Maybe that's why the band name was changed to Players IV.

The Other Ones record seems to have been the only record Frank sang on during his stay in Cleveland. In 1970 he composed (and sang, it sounds like) the well remembered "Catch Five" ad for WEWS TV Channel 5, his most well known creation in his North Coast residency.

He moved back to the east coast in the early 70s and a few years later, came up with the "Hello.." ad campaign which originated from Milwaukee and was used by over 100 (says Wikipedia) markets in North America. He is singing on the original version.

Discography:
The Girl In The Shade Of The Striped Umbrella / The Two Of Us - Knoll 500, July 1966