The band played out frequently and soon became interested in recording. At the time another Cleveland band called the Baskerville Hounds had become very popular and was doing some recording so Jim contacted their manager (Jimmy Testa) who signed the group up to manage them. At that time the name of the group was changed to the City Squires. In early 1965 Testa booked them some recording time at Audio Recording in Cleveland. They recorded three songs; an arrangement of Little Richard’s “Jenny Jenny”, an instrumental that Roland had written called “Russian Ho-Ho”, and “Laurie”, which was one of Testa’s tunes. Testa released “Jenny Jenny” and “Russian Ho Ho” on his Tema label.
Unfortunately, the record didn’t do well, but the group could at least say they had made records and had become familiar with what recording was like. By then the group was building a following and was playing at a lot of different venues in the Cleveland area. Testa and the band returned to the recording studio and recorded two more songs; “I Want Your Girl” (written by Jim Brickner), and “Parma Polka”(written by Jim Brickner and Roland Solomon). “Parma Polka” was inspired by a popular Cleveland movie host called “Ghoulardi”. At that time we had not yet learned about political correctness and the hurtfulness of ethnic slurs. Because a great many people of Polish descent had settled in Parma, Ohio, Ghoulardi thought it would be amusing to tell ethnic jokes targeting the Polish community. “Parma Polka” was not a slam on the Polish community, but did emphasize the presence of a great many people of Polish descent living in Parma. The song was never pressed into a record, but the acetate (demo recording) found its way into Ghoulardi’s musical library and was frequently played on his show. Even after Ghoulardi left for Los Angeles, his replacement, “The Ghoul” (Ron Swede) continued to use it into the 80’s. I really wanted to make “Parma Polka” available here, but Jim Brickner told me he would kill me if I did!
