For Women Only

Album review

Bergen White was a member of Ronny & the Daytonas during the Nashville-based hot rod group's last days, when the band was shifting away from Beach Boys-styled hot rod and surf tunes and developing its "softer" side after finding some success with a ballad hit, "Sandy." In 1969, when the group finally did break up, White remained in the Nashville area, where he recorded his first album, For Women Only, which was released on producer and mini-mogul Shelby Singleton's SSS-International label. White wrote or co-wrote several of the tracks himself ("Now" was co-written with Bob Tubert, who wrote several hits for Eddy Arnold, Sonny James, Roy Clark, and others), but many of the highlights are his soft pop renditions of material penned by other notable composers. "She Is Today" is a faster-paced, more upbeat version of the Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil song that had previously been recorded by the Vogues, who were also on SSS at the time. White covers the Lettermen's harmony pop arrangement of Little Anthony & the Imperials' "Hurt So Bad" (a Top 20 hit from September 1969) and Townes Van Zandt's gorgeous "Second Lover's Song." There are a couple of David Gates tunes too, the sublime "Gone Again" and "Look at Me," which appeared on Bread's debut album that same year. Incidentally, during this same time, White provided vocals (along with Daytonas' group leader Buzz Cason and Bobby Russell) and string arrangements for several so-called "supermarket" knockoff records that were released by the budget sound-alike Hit Records label. One of these recordings was the Bergen White-Russell-penned Beach Boys knockoff "We Built a 409," credited to "the Roamers" (aka Ronny & the Daytonas). Singleton was listed as the producer on these records. White continues to have a thriving career as an arranger/producer in Nashville.

© Bryan Thomas /TiVo