Interview: Gary US Bonds Makes His Way to Peekskill

This year marks the seventh annual Peekskill Jazz and Blues Festival, with festivities running from Friday, July 26 through Saturday, July 27.

The musical fete will feature ten jazz and blues artists across two stages, with a capstone performance by jazz and blues legend Gary US Bonds.

“It seems like a really cool thing to do,” Bonds told Patch. “It seems like they have a lot of fun there, with the whole community involved.”

Bonds is also confident that his signature songs and style (for a listen, click here) will dovetail perfectly with the festival.

“The audiences should expect to have a good time, because I’m gonna to give it to ‘em,” Bonds said. “I’m gonna be yelling and screaming at them, and hope that they’re gonna yell and scream back at me.”

At the age of 74, Bonds says hisenergy has never been higher. He plays regularly, records in his home studio, and recently released his autobiography, Bye US Bonds: That’s My Story.

It was five decades ago that Bonds—who then went by Gary Anderson—was discovered singing on a street corner in Norfolk, Virginia.

As a kid, music was an influential part of Bonds’ life. He sang in the church choir, and loved listening to the radio, he said.

“Music was definitely a big part of my childhood,” he explained. “I mostly listened to country music and jazz on the radio. Those were the only two stations that made any sense to me.”

While Bonds’ mother was a piano teacher, he never learned to play in fear of what the rest of the boys in the neighborhood would think.

“Now I wish I could play, and I’m sorry I didn’t learn,” Bonds said. “But that’s what you do when you’re a kid—you never want to do anything your mom tells you to do.”

But he did listen to his mother when it came to her taste in music.

Throughout his adolescence, Bonds’ mother took him to see some of her favorite R&B bands including Booker T & the M.G.’s, Bull Moose Jackson and Ivory Joe Hunter. The concerts he saw in his youth had a profound impact on his life, he said.

“I thought that was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Bonds noted. “The fancy clothes, the flashing lights, the screaming girls. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

When he was a teenager, Bonds and his group of friends decided to sing on the street corner near his house, and called themselves the Turks. Bonds admits to starting the group to attract girls.

“We did a lot of harmonies and doo-wop, and we had a grand time doing that,” Bonds said.

A man by the name of Frank Guidas who owned a record store in Norfolk would walk by The Turks everyday on his way to and from work. He would frequently pay the group compliments, and stay to listen to their songs.

“He said to us, ‘I plan on opening up a recording studio in a couple of years, and I would really like for you guys to come and record for me,’” Bonds recalled. “And of course we agreed.”

Two years later, Guida opened Legrand Records. By that time, though, Bonds was the only Turks member left. The others had either moved away or gone into service. So Guida invited Bonds into the studio to record a single. The first song Bonds recorded was entitled, “New Orleans,” which ended up being a hit when it was released in 1960.

Before his song hit the radio, Guida thought it would be a good marketing strategy to change Bonds’ name. Guida was a regular at a local delicatessen, called Codd’s Deli. In the deli, Codd had a huge American flag behind the counter, and in the front of the store, a life-size cardboard Uncle Sam that said, “Buy US Bonds.”

“So he sent the record sleeves to different DJs, and all he put on the sleeves was ‘Bye US Bonds,’” Bonds said. “The DJs thought it was an ad for US savings bonds, so they automatically put it on the turntable. I thought that was a genius marketing ploy, because it really worked.”

Bonds found out about his new name while sitting on his front porch with his mother and a few friends. WREV radio announced that they were playing a new record by a new kid in town, US Bonds.

“I thought, ‘oh my god, it’s only been a couple of months and somebody’s already done another version of my song.’ I didn’t know Guida had changed my name,” Bonds said.

For Bonds, his experience at Legrand Records was fantastic, he said.

“We were doing a lot, and a lot of new things that none of us had ever done. We were all brand-new to the game,” Bonds said.

For years, Bonds went on recording upbeat party songs, including his number one hit, “Quarter to Three,” which was released in 1961.

Bonds says that “Quarter to Three,” is the song he’s most proud of in his career.

“It’s a very fun party song we really worked hard on to put out, and its my highest selling hit,” Bonds said. “To do this day, everybody says ‘that was the record we put on when we want to party.’”

After “Quarter to Three” toped the charts, Bonds started off on his first tour. His first performance was at the Howard Theater in Washington D.C., and it was after that concert that he truly felt like he’d made it.

“I got to be on stage with Sam Cooke, BB King, Ruth Brown, Jackie Wilson I was on stage with all of my idols thinking, wow this is too cool. I used to go to theaters to watch them, now I’m watching them from the wings,” Bonds said.

Over the next few years, Bonds released three more top ten hits: “School is Out” and “Dear Lady Twist” in 1961, and “Twist Twist Senora” in 1962.

Yet, after a while, Bonds grew weary of recording the same types of upbeat songs, and wanted to become a serious artist. Legrand was against this career shift, not allowing Bonds to change his style. The label refused to let Bonds out of the contract, so Bonds decided that he wouldn’t step into the studio and record for them. Bonds neglected the studio up until the late ‘70s. 

The trouble that Bonds faced with the contract taught him a great deal about the music industry, as it sent him into a 20-year lag period.

“The first thing I tell kids who want to be in the music industry is to get a lawyer before anything. Because there are so many crooks out there,” Bonds said.

During this period, during the 1970s, Bonds began working with the Global Village Champions, an organization striving to end world hunger. To this day, Bonds continues his humanitarian group with this organization.

In the early 1980s, Bruce Springsteen, a Bonds fan, began using “Quarter to Three” as his encore song at his concerts.

Springsteen helped produce some of Bonds’ new songs, and brought him together with artists like Steve van Zandt of the E-Street Band to collaborate on music. With Springsteen’s push, Bonds’ career was rebooted.

“Bruce is a great guy. Talented, and very smart. He’s a nice guy to be around to chew that fat with and he’s been a good friend,” Bonds said.

Since 1981, Bonds has released six studio albums, and has been inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

While many artists struggle with remaining relevant, Bonds feels that he doesn’t need to change, because he’s created his own unique style that audiences continue to enjoy.

“I don’t really have worry about that because I created my own style. Nobody sounds like me, and nobody creates the kind of record I like to create. So I just have to continue to do what I do for my core audience,” Bonds said.

Nowadays, Bonds continues working in his studio, writing and arranging with his daughter and doing shows. Bonds says he’s so busy that he doesn’t even have time to sit down and listen to the radio. Next for Bonds after the Peekskill festival is a Caribbean cruise that he will be playing on. While such a time-consuming schedule, some may want to settle down. Yet Bonds has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“I hope to never stop playing music,” Bond said. “I think I’ve still got a few hundred years left, so I think I’ll stick with it. Music has given me a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles. I met a lot of friends, good and talent people. It’s given me a lot of happiness.”

For more information on Bonds, or to buy his autobiography, visit www.garyusbonds.com