Sounds of '68
In 1967, George Fogelman (aka George Mann) secured a nightly gig at the Catamaran Hotel as warmup act for the Dr. Michael Dean show(a Las Vegas performer). He recruited myself(aka Doug Lynn), Jeff Dalrymple(aka Jeff Dale), Jim Moran, and Vicki Palmer - all students at SDSU at the time.
Sherry Harris later replaced Vicki as lead vocalist, and the group(primarily a Sergio Mendez/Brasil '66 cover band) continued at the Catamaran and later the Gaslight Room (minus Sherry) at the Midway Chuck Wagon. Dark night (Mondays) at the Catamaran, we would play on the hotel riverboat, the Rueben E Lee.
In addition to being the warmup act on it's own, occasionally the band back various Vegas acts, including Roberta Lynn(the Lawrence Welk show), Louie Prima, Local guy, and even the Marquis Chimps(yes, they were monkeys - look it up).
The other club downstairs in the Midway Chuck Wagon was the Longbranch Saloon featuring Danny Salmas, which is where I got my some of my initial influences from his organist Kelly Dunn, who I would watch on my breaks and spend some time with after hours learning how a real B3 organist did it(I was playing a B3 upstairs and kind of knew what I was doing on it, but had no previous B3 experience at the time - I was playing bass lines, but no pedals yet).
It was at the Midway Chuck Wagon where we were "discovered" by Dave Lyons and his girlfriend who worked at Capitol records, and whisked off to LA to try to secure a recording contract. That almost happened, but that's another group, and another story.
