whathappenedtothemermaids

[whathappenedtothemermaids]

Don’t you dare take care of me

I’m a girl! No baby, you see

Call me honey, baby, darling but know

In the morning I’ll let you go-o-o-oh

 Time gives those of us who live in the present the luxury of watching the past unravel.

 We know the end of the naïve starlet lies in the grimy twist of leopard-print satin sheets. We know the path the young actor takes when he first becomes acquainted with “candy.” When it comes to self-destruction in the entertainment class, the routes are clear and scenic.

 This dark truth applies to the story of The Mermaids, though the doom spelled out for these girls came in the form of the drug called Love.

 “Bobby was just crazy about that girl,” Lenny Wellfleet once told Singbeat! magazine about singer Bobby Valentine and her sister, Lori Wellfleet. “Any girl alive would’ve been lucky to feel that kind of fire off a man.”

 “Fire” truly was the word for Bobby’s love for Lori. Bobby, once considered a clean-cut, everyman sort of American Boy, took a different tone when he was calling for Lori.

 “He always seemed hungry to me,” Lana Wellfleet has been apocryphally quoted as saying. “He always seemed like the candy store had just run out of chocolate.”

 Jealousy amongst the sisters has long been catalogued, and, some would say, improvised by those hungry for drama in a trio that was rich with it when it came to those outside of their family circle.

  Still. Think on these words from Lori Wellfleet herself, as quoted from Dreamtones Magazine, ’62:

 “Love is a drag,” Lori says, sucking on a “rare” cigarette. “It sneaks up on you, clobbers you, then when you come to it orders a steak dinner and leaves you with the bill. Still, “ Lori arches that trademark brow of hers. “You pay. And you pay and you pay and you pay. You know? Even if you’re the gal. You’re the gal who settles the check.”

[whathappenedtothemermaids]

Introducing Bobby Valentine

“Bobby Valentine was just the sweetest kid. So much talent, too. The real fans know it was Bobby who found those girls. Not his rattlesnake brother. Summer of ‘62 I think. Bobby was on vacation somewhere in Cape Cod. My cousin used to have a house over in Sandwich, real nice. We went there summers growing up. That’s why I ever even gave a damn about The Mermaids. Pretty girls ain’t nothin’ but competition to other pretty girls, you know. But those Mermaids were Cape Cod girls. They were alright.

Bobby, he knew my cousin from school. He told my cousin one day he was out walking on the beach, making up some new songs. He was a big deal already then. The Bobby Valentine. Just came out with that record about dancing at heaven’s door, that dumb song. Well he was out walking, making up music. And what happens? He hears this beautiful voice singing along with him. Harmonizing, or what you call it. He was just walking around, singing a song, making it up off the top of his head, and some girl he couldn’t see was just…singing along with him! Singing along with a song nobody knew. Not even Bobby knew it yet. So he goes follows the sound to find these beautiful girls on the beach, singing along with his song!

They did more than sing together that day, if you know what I mean. That song was his big hit that summer. “Lovin’ On the Beach,” if you couldn’t already guess. Shame what came of that boy. He was the better-looking brother, my hand to god. He was a good boy before Johnny got under his skin. And did he give me a night to remember the summer before he met those girls! Only I didn’t get a song out of the deal.”

-Cookie LaGrange, self-proclaimed “Queen Teeny Bopper,” in the 37th issue of fan publication, The Bobby Valen-times.

[whathappenedtothemermaids]

From the Pages of Songalong

Some publicity images from The Mermaids’ issue of Songalong magazine, 1963.

Happier times for The Mermaids.

Is Lana scheming here?

Lenny gives the camera some of her trademark “eyes.”

Lori.

All photos by Eddie Rockaway, a photographer who worked for years and years out of Woods Hole on Cape Cod.

[whathappenedtothemermaids]

Let’s Surf Out to Forever Every Day

Can you send this letter to the bottom of the sea?

Tell him I found someone better, no need to wait for me

The sand is hot now, baby, but it doesn’t burn my feet

‘Cause we’re dancing, yeah, all through the night!

Girl groups aren’t exactly known for their lyrical genius. If ever there was any, it usually found itself firmly lodged in a song’s hook. Which was usually the song’s title. Which is usually all anyone ever remembers when the sands of time have eroded the finer features of an artist’s work. But, in the words of prolific producer, Johnny Velvet...

“These girls got feeling that’ll eat your heart out.”

The feeling most commonly expressed by Lana, Lori, and Lenny Wellfleet was one of longing. Whether it was for “A Love To Call My One and Only” or just to dance (yeah) all through the night, the Wellfleet sisters wanted, and they wanted bad. A sampling of the singles The Mermaids churned out before they burned out proves that:

“Wanting You is Not a Crime”

“Longing for A Little Longer”

“Let’s Surf Out to Forever Every Day”

“Life wasn’t so hot for us before,” Lana (left) was quoted as saying in the girls’ cover issue of Songalong magazine. Known for her keen eye for opportunity and take-no-prisoners attitude on the path to grab it, Lana had a hunger that fed the group’s success. “Now that we’re at the top, it’s like we’re kids at the candy store. We want to eat it all!”

“I get my kicks from kissing,” added Lenny (right), the notorious flirt of the group. “Kissing is my candy.”

It wasn’t necessarily sister Lori’s, even though she was undoubtedly known (and marketed) as The Mermaids’ great beauty.“It isn’t easy being a pretty girl,” Lori (center) cautioned in the pages of Songalong. “Sure, lots of boys want to take you out. But they don’t want to talk, if you know what I mean. They just want to look at you, and that’s a real snore. Give me a guy with some dare in him. That’s a guy for me!”

Of course, this issue of Songalong came out in the middle of The Mermaids’ brief heyday- still a bit of time before guys with dare in their personality would prove a key factor in their undoing- as well as the inspiration for their most notorious song.

[whathappenedtothemermaids]

What Happened to The Mermaids?

The 60s were a good time for lost girls.

Maybe not lost, but forgotten.

For all the Ronettes and Shangri-Las we still sing along to on oldies’ stations and movie soundtracks, there are countless “ettes,” “elles” and “and thes” lost to history. This was just the way of the 60s Girl Group. A new one formed or fractured every day. Their songs were sold and spat out like the bubblegum they took their flavor from. There was money to be made in close harmonies that straddled the shimmering line between pop, Motown, and female desire.

It was not so much made by the girls.

Instead, powerful male producers fed the big machine fresh groups daily. Hits were churned out, usually variations on the theme of being hopelessly in love or trouble. Motorcycles crashed, parents clashed, and love songs in the key of desperate longing were born.

Lori, Lana, and Lenny Wellfleet were discovered in Cape Cod in the early 60s. With the help of Johnny and Bobby Velvet, they made a major splash before their disappearance from the public eye about a year after their debut. Even their wildest, craziest fans lost track of them. But now that we have the endless dusty basement that is the Internet, we can take a look back at this time and see a little more to the story- or at least the legend- surrounding The Mermaids.

You don’t remember them. You probably haven’t even heard one of their songs. But just like our grandparents were once all young and foxy, The Mermaids once rose to fame sure as a wave, only to turn to foam just as quickly. They loved, lost, and cut a record about it. Then there was the death of Bobby Velvet. The trouble on Beachrose Island.

But first things first. We’ve got to meet the girls.