King Harvest

This page is maintained by the original members of King Harvest.Below is our "official" biography
KING HARVEST RECORDED THE ORIGINAL AMERICAN CLASSIC HIT - "DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT" (written by Sherman Kelly)- AND LATER RECORDED AND TOURED WITH THE BEACH BOYS.
BIOGRAPHY:
It all started in Ithaca, NY in the mid-60s, when the four core King Harvest members showed up at Cornell University for an education and found a college where there were 53 fraternities – that's 53 opportunities to play fraternity parties, and for musicians, too much to let pass by. And so, the four eventual members of King Harvest - Eddie Tuleja ( guitar and vocals ), Ron Altbach ( keys), Doc Robinson ( keys, bass and lead vocals ) and Rod Novak ( bass, vocals and sax ) put their various pre-med and pre-law and architecture and art history and other potential careers in second place to their first love – playing rock and roll
After several years of calculus mixed with beer and contraband, first Ronny, then Rod, then Eddie and finally Doc made their way to Paris. First it was Ronny's studying classical music seriously with Mlle. Nadia Boulanger, then Rod recording in Paris as Clint Farwood for Jacques Morali (before his success with The Village People) and playing sax with chanteuse Nancy Holloway, then Eddie seduced by Ronny's promise of rock and roll stardom and fine French women, and finally Doc, who had just left Boffalongo, at a time when King Harvest was really starting to roll.
The band had recorded under various names in the French capital – a country album called E Rodney Jones and The Prairie Dogs with Rod and Eddie on vocals, another Prairie Dogs album of classic American country and traditional songs. After winning a rock and roll contest using the name King Harvest, they recorded their first rock album with bass player Didier Alexandre, Wells Kelly on drums, and Paul Harris on organ (both visiting from the US.).
Then things took a turn toward the serious, with the band being asked to write and perform songs for the soundtrack to a film, Le Feu Sacre, which went on to represent France at the Cannes Film Festival in 1971. Jackie Lombard, who became one of the top concert promoters in France, was the band's publicist and booked King Harvest into the Cannes Whiskey-a-Go-Go for the duration of the festival. Ringo Starr, Maurice Gibb, and other luminaries stopped by, a few offers were made, and King Harvest was on its way. They were booked to open for BB King at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. And, Ashley Kozak, manager of Donovan, invited the band to come to London to perform at the Speakeasy.
As luck would have it, Wells Kelly came back to France, armed with his brother Sherman's song Dancing in the Moonlight. (recorded as a single by Boffalongo for United Artists with Sherman's vocals). King Harvest teamed up with its producers Pierre Jaubert and Jack Robinson to arrange and record a new version of Dancing in the Moonlight with Doc singing lead
To everyone's amazement, Dancing in the Moonlight flopped in Europe. But in the summer of 1972, Jack Robinson decided that he wouldn't take no for an answer, and traveled to the US with Pierre Jaubert to first lease the master of Dancing in the Moonlight to a tiny NYC record company, and then to talk with DJs on the West Coast. Jack broke the record personally. Dancing in the Moonlight moved up the US charts, eventually staying high on the Billboard charts for 20 weeks
The band, back in the US, settled in Ronny's upstate NY hometown, Olcott NY, where they rehearsed and readied a second album as well as a tour of the East Coast. Welcomed by the entire township, King Harvest practiced in the basement of the local Methodist Church, and played gigs at local bars. The band now consisted of its original four members. Sherman Kelly (www.shermankelly.com) played for a few months as a third vocalist and keyboard player. Tony Cahill and David Montgomery came over from Paris to play bass and drums
The band's second single, A Little Bit Like Magic, was released and a tour started, with Jay Leno of Tonight Show fame as opening act. Somewhere along the way, their record company ran out of money, pulled all promotion spending, and A Little Bit Like Magic never made it into the top 40. And, as the momentum fizzled, King Harvest drifted apart in the summer of 1973. Their second album was never released.(The Lost Tapes-2007).
But that wasn't the end. Rod went to work in NYC for the band's manager, Jerry Purcell, and was the Music Director at world-famous Max's Kansas City. Ronny went to work as a keyboard player for the Beach Boys. By the fall of 1974, King Harvest was back on the drawing board, with an offer by Jim Guercio, famed producer of Chicago and owner of Caribou Ranch, the recording studio of choice in the 70s. (Jim was also manager of Chicago and the Beach Boys). A competing offer came from A&M records
The group, back to Rod, Doc, Eddie and Ronny chose A&M, and its album, King Harvest, (with Beach Boy drummer Bobby Figueroa), produced by legendary songwriter Jeff Barry, was released in the fall of 1975 featuring guest appearances by Beach Boys Carl Wilson and Mike Love, Peter Cetera of Chicago, and a jazz solo appearance by the great Charles Lloyd. The group broke up in 1976, but all four members found themselves working in various parts of the Beach Boys organization, playing tours in the US, Canada, Australia, and England, recording on BB and Dennis Wilson albums, and staying in the game
In 1982 Ronny arranged for "The Prairie Dogs" to play a 2-month tour in Norway. Upon their return they recorded an album called The Prairie Dogs - Country Classics.
And, though they never duplicated their monster hit Dancing in the Moonlight, their bond of friendship lasts to this day, fulfilling the lyrical prediction of one of their greatest songs. "Old Friends, When the Story Ends, We'll Still Be Good As Gold".