Not to be confused with a British rock group from the same era, the American 'T-Bones' group began in the early 1960's as a fairly loose affiliation of
Los Angeles-based studio session musicians, known primarily for surf instrumentals.
Guitarists Judd Hamilton and brother Dan Hamilton, bass player Joe Frank Carollo,
multi-instrumentalist
Tommy Reynolds, and drummer Gene Pello solidified as a performing group after the
T-Bones single 'No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)' (based on a melody from an
Alka Seltzer TV commercial and recorded by a slightly different line-up) became a hit in 1965.
The band performed live together and released several more 45s and a few LPs over the next couple of years, but when their radio airplay and hit singles began to dry up, they disbanded in 1967 following a concert tour of Japan.
By the end of 1970 however, the old band had morphed into the new group Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds ▼ and were all over American Top 40 radio airwaves the following summer with their hit 'Don't Pull Your Love'.
From the LP
'Shapin' Things Up'
(Sunset/Liberty Records, 1966),
listen to:
The T-Bones - The "In" Crowd
(click for audio)
See also:
- Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds at All Music.Com
- For those interested in hearing the rest of the T-Bones' swingin' 'Shapin' Things Up' LP, you might click yourself over to a 'Beatles' Era' post at:
A Beatles' Hard-Die's Site.
- Click here for this entry and all the previous 'In Crowd of the month' posts together on one page.
Not to be confused with a British rock group from the same era, the American 'T-Bones' group began in the early 1960's as a fairly loose affiliation of 
The band performed live together and released several more 45s and a few LPs over the next couple of years, but when their radio airplay and hit singles began to dry up, they disbanded in 1967 following a concert tour of Japan.
