The OffBeats on Broken Records

 

The Offbeats in Lo-Fo
Broken Records Present (LP)

01763 - side one
01764 - side two

 

Strike Three With The Offbeats
Broken Records GWB 7734 (EP)

CP-2008
Strike Three
The Ohio River Monster
Can't Help Lovin That Man

CP-2009
Kluzewski's Last Movement /
Bbba Baaa Bbblack Sheep Blues /
Don't He Ever Stop

The Offbeats

It looks like a musical prank concocted by high school students, probably from Ohio. The Offbeats recorded two records in 1959 : first the album and then the EP.  There is some variations in the composition of the group. Hubie Gardiner, Teddy Bayer and John "What's This Knob Do?" Eilers (sound engineer) are on both records. For detailed credits, see the back covers above.

Dave Swigert, pianist on their LP but not present on their EP, later played with The Starlighters on Lee Records(Slow And Easy / One Way Express). He penned both songs, though credited to Ray Pennington (under his Ray Starr pseudonym here).

Rick Penta on Broken

 

  Cover by Paula Gula

Rick Penta

40359 – My Story Changes

40360 – You Need A Sunshine

Broken Records

Fairlawn, Ohio

Kim Hartz, Arp & Backing Vocals
Greg Tomanek, Drums

 

Recorded At Brittain Square Sound, Monroe Falls, Ohio

Engineered By Eric Broviak

1979

Rick Penta, owner of Rick Penta Furniture Designs

(Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal)

Building custom guitars plucks at heartstrings of furniture maker, (Nov. 30, 2008)
by Mary Beth Breckenridge, Beacon Journal staff writer

 Penta's father, Phil, was a master carpenter who built houses. From the time Penta was a toddler, he said, his dad would take him along with him to job sites. He'd give the boy a red hammer, a box of nails and some wood, and let him pound.

That interest grew when Penta took woodworking classes at Copley High School. And he still has that red hammer.

''That hammer is going to be buried with me,'' he said.

Not too long after he was driving nails to occupy himself while his father worked, he discovered music. He was 7 at the time, and his older brother, Joe, was playing in a band. It inspired him to take up the guitar, an instrument he studied for eight years.

Penta made some recordings and just missed out on a big record deal when his contact at the record company was fired. By that time, though, he had a fiancee, and the musician's life seemed too difficult for someone who wanted to raise a family, he said.

Rick Penta had a previous record issued on Rusty York's Jewel label ("Hit The Road", Jewel #737, 1977).  "You And The Bell" and "Babe" from that album can be heard HERE   And "Suzi Mesciline " is on YouTube.