Montrose (band)
Encyclopedia
Montrose was a California-based hard rock
band. The band originally featured Ronnie Montrose
on guitar and future solo artist and former Van Halen
frontman Sammy Hagar
. Rounding out the original foursome were bassist Bill Church
and drummer Denny Carmassi
.
, and on albums by Beaver & Krause
and Herbie Hancock
). He was also a member of the Edgar Winter Group, playing on such hit singles as 'Free Ride', which was from the best-selling album 'They Only Come Out at Night' (1972).
The original line-up lasted long enough to make just this one album, the Templeman-produced Montrose
. The first member to leave was Bill Church who was later replaced by Alan Fitzgerald for the band's second album, Paper Money
.
Hagar left for a solo career, and Montrose released two more albums, Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose!
(1975) and Jump On It
, both featuring Bob James, formerly of Los Angeles-based band Swan, on vocals, and new member Jim Alcivar
on keyboards. On Jump On It, Fitzgerald was replaced on bass by Randy Jo Hobbs
.
After departing, Hagar had a successful solo career, which featured fellow former Montrose member Bill Church as part of the backing band for awhile. He joined Van Halen in July 1985.
Ronnie Montrose, Jim Alcivar, Alan Fitzgerald and Denny Carmassi formed another band in the hard rock mould in 1979, named Gamma
, which featured singer Davey Pattison
.
In 1987, Ronnie Montrose formed a new version of Montrose with singer Johnny Edwards
and drummer James Kottak
(both from the band Buster Brown), and bassist Glenn Letsch
, who had replaced Fitzgerald in Gamma. This version of the band released one album, Mean
.
The original Montrose line-up reunited on Sammy Hagar's Marching to Mars
(1997) album, performing "Leaving the Warmth of the Womb," and on stage as an encore at a few Hagar concerts in 2003 and 2005.
Ronnie Montrose has also performed off and on from 2002 to present with a Montrose lineup featuring Keith St. John (endorsed by Sammy Hagar
) on lead vocals and a rotating cast of veteran hard rock players on bass (such as Dan McNay or Sean McNabb) and drums (Mick Brown of Dokken
). Ronnie successfully battled prostate cancer from 2008 to 2010 and has begun more regular gigs.
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
band. The band originally featured Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose
Ronnie Montrose, is an Amercian rock guitarist who has headed his own bands as well as performing with a variety of musicians, including Sammy Hagar, Herbie Hancock, Van Morrison, The Beau Brummels, Boz Scaggs, Beaver & Krause, Gary Wright, Tony Williams, The Neville Brothers, Dan Hartman, Edgar...
on guitar and future solo artist and former Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
frontman Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
. Rounding out the original foursome were bassist Bill Church
Bill Church
William 'Bill' Church , started out playing bass in a band called Sawbuck in 1969, with Mojo Collins, Starr Donaldson, Ronnie Montrose and Chuck Ruff. As the band was beginning to record their first album, Montrose and Church left Sawbuck to join Van Morrison on his Tupelo Honey album...
and drummer Denny Carmassi
Denny Carmassi
Denny Carmassi is an American drummer.Carmassi was a member of the first four line-ups of the band Montrose. After Montrose, he played with his former Montrose bandmate Sammy Hagar as a solo artist, and with his former Montrose bandmates Ronnie Montrose and Jim Alcivar in the band Gamma.He also...
.
History
Prior to forming the band, Ronnie Montrose had been a successful session musician (playing, along with Bill Church on Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey album, produced by Ted TemplemanTed Templeman
Ted Templeman is an American record producer.-Career:He began his career in the mid 1960s in the Santa Cruz area as a drummer in a band called The Tikis. At the suggestion of Lenny Waronker, the group decided to change their name. Harpers Bizarre was born in 1966, with Templeman switching to...
, and on albums by Beaver & Krause
Beaver & Krause
Beaver & Krause were a musical duo made up of Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause. Their 1966 album The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music was a pioneering work in the electronic music genre....
and Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
). He was also a member of the Edgar Winter Group, playing on such hit singles as 'Free Ride', which was from the best-selling album 'They Only Come Out at Night' (1972).
The original line-up lasted long enough to make just this one album, the Templeman-produced Montrose
Montrose (album)
Montrose is the debut album by the band Montrose in 1973 which was produced by Ted Templeman.- History :After having done sessions work for various musicians including Van Morrison, Herbie Hancock and Edgar Winter, this was Ronnie Montrose's first record leading his own band. It featured then...
. The first member to leave was Bill Church who was later replaced by Alan Fitzgerald for the band's second album, Paper Money
Paper Money
Paper Money is the second album by the band Montrose. It was released in 1974 and was the band's last album to feature Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist.-History:...
.
Hagar left for a solo career, and Montrose released two more albums, Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose!
Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose!
Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose! is the third album of the band Montrose.It is the first Montrose album to feature singer Bob James and keyboardist Jim Alcivar. The album was critically praised and also noted for its movie-poster cover giving the impression that Warner Brothers was presenting...
(1975) and Jump On It
Jump on It (Montrose album)
Jump on It is the fourth album by the band Montrose.It is the second Montrose album to feature singer Bob James and keyboardist Jim Alcivar, and features bassist Randy Jo Hobbs on three songs. The remainder of the bass tones were supplied by Jim Alcivar via the keyboard and there was no bassist on...
, both featuring Bob James, formerly of Los Angeles-based band Swan, on vocals, and new member Jim Alcivar
Jim Alcivar
Jim Alcivar is an American keyboard and synthesizer player and sound engineer. He is most noted for his connection to guitarist Ronnie Montrose and appearing in his bands Montrose and Gamma and on his first solo album Open Fire. His father is composer, arranger and producer Bob Alcivar.-Discography...
on keyboards. On Jump On It, Fitzgerald was replaced on bass by Randy Jo Hobbs
Randy Jo Hobbs
Randy Jo Hobbs was an American musician born in Winchester, Indiana. Hobbs played bass for The McCoys during the 1965-1969 period and in the bands of the brothers Edgar Winter and Johnny Winter during 1970-1976....
.
After departing, Hagar had a successful solo career, which featured fellow former Montrose member Bill Church as part of the backing band for awhile. He joined Van Halen in July 1985.
Ronnie Montrose, Jim Alcivar, Alan Fitzgerald and Denny Carmassi formed another band in the hard rock mould in 1979, named Gamma
Gamma (band)
Gamma was a band formed by guitarist Ronnie Montrose and singer Davey Pattison in San Francisco in 1979. They released four albums: Gamma 1 in 1979, Gamma 2 in 1980, Gamma 3 in 1982 and Gamma 4 in 2000...
, which featured singer Davey Pattison
Davey Pattison
Davey Pattison is a San Francisco Bay Area based rock vocalist. Pattison recorded his first music in 1969, and his career took off after arrival in the United States in 1979, on invitation from Bill Graham, to front the band Gamma, formed by Bay Area guitarist Ronnie Montrose."I'd given up all...
.
In 1987, Ronnie Montrose formed a new version of Montrose with singer Johnny Edwards
Johnny Edwards (musician)
Johnny Edwards is a singer who sang for the bands Buster Brown, Montrose, King Kobra, Wild Horses, Royal Jelly and is most famously known as the 2nd lead vocalist of the rock band Foreigner...
and drummer James Kottak
James Kottak
James Kottak is an American drummer for the heavy metal band Scorpions, which he joined in 1996....
(both from the band Buster Brown), and bassist Glenn Letsch
Glenn Letsch
Glenn Letsch, is an American bass guitarist. He was in a Los Angeles band with Mitchell Froom called "Bullet Park" . After Ronnie Montrose produced their demo, he asked Letsch to join his band Gamma, where Letsch became friends with singer Davey Pattison...
, who had replaced Fitzgerald in Gamma. This version of the band released one album, Mean
Mean (Montrose album)
Mean is the fifth album by the band Montrose. It has much more of a glam metal sound than previous Montrose albums.Singer Johnny Edwards and drummer James Kottak had previously played together in the line-up of the glam metal band Buster Brown that played on the second Buster Brown album Sign Of...
.
The original Montrose line-up reunited on Sammy Hagar's Marching to Mars
Marching to Mars
Marching to Mars is Sammy Hagar's first post-Van Halen solo album. It features various musicians on different songs. It was released on MCA Records, which had by that point acquired his former label, Geffen Records...
(1997) album, performing "Leaving the Warmth of the Womb," and on stage as an encore at a few Hagar concerts in 2003 and 2005.
Ronnie Montrose has also performed off and on from 2002 to present with a Montrose lineup featuring Keith St. John (endorsed by Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
) on lead vocals and a rotating cast of veteran hard rock players on bass (such as Dan McNay or Sean McNabb) and drums (Mick Brown of Dokken
Dokken
Dokken is an American heavy metal and hard rock band formed in 1978. They split up in 1989 but reformed four years later. The group accumulated numerous charting singles and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide...
). Ronnie successfully battled prostate cancer from 2008 to 2010 and has begun more regular gigs.
Albums
- MontroseMontrose (album)Montrose is the debut album by the band Montrose in 1973 which was produced by Ted Templeman.- History :After having done sessions work for various musicians including Van Morrison, Herbie Hancock and Edgar Winter, this was Ronnie Montrose's first record leading his own band. It featured then...
(1973) #133 US; #43 UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... - Paper MoneyPaper MoneyPaper Money is the second album by the band Montrose. It was released in 1974 and was the band's last album to feature Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist.-History:...
(1974) #65 US - Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose!Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose!Warner Brothers Presents... Montrose! is the third album of the band Montrose.It is the first Montrose album to feature singer Bob James and keyboardist Jim Alcivar. The album was critically praised and also noted for its movie-poster cover giving the impression that Warner Brothers was presenting...
(1975) #79 US - Jump On ItJump on It (Montrose album)Jump on It is the fourth album by the band Montrose.It is the second Montrose album to feature singer Bob James and keyboardist Jim Alcivar, and features bassist Randy Jo Hobbs on three songs. The remainder of the bass tones were supplied by Jim Alcivar via the keyboard and there was no bassist on...
(1976) #118 US - MeanMean (Montrose album)Mean is the fifth album by the band Montrose. It has much more of a glam metal sound than previous Montrose albums.Singer Johnny Edwards and drummer James Kottak had previously played together in the line-up of the glam metal band Buster Brown that played on the second Buster Brown album Sign Of...
(1987) - The Very Best of MontroseThe Very Best of MontroseThe Very Best of Montrose is a compilation of music from the five Montrose albums, the first four in consecutive years in the mid-seventies and a revisit to the concept in 1987.- Track listing :# "Rock the Nation" - 3:03...
(2000)
Singles
- "Rock CandyRock Candy"Rock Candy" is a song by Montrose, the last song written and recorded for their 1973 debut. It was composed by all four members of the band. The song still gets performed on Sammy Hagar's solo tours and even had been re-recorded as the b-side to the Hagar single Little White Lie by the original...
" - "I Got the FireI Got the Fire"I Got the Fire" is a song from the Montrose album Paper Money in 1974. The guitar solo is the result of a fortuitous accident:"Guitarist Ronnie Montrose also contributes a solo of singular dexterity and earth-shaking intensity thanks, ironically, to a studio screwup which resulted in the...
" - "Bad Motor ScooterBad Motor Scooter"Bad Motor Scooter" was the second track from the album Montrose by the band of the same name. It, along with "Rock Candy" was arguably the best known song by the band, Montrose, with lyrics penned by frontman Sammy Hagar. The song's intro, a distorted electric slide guitar sound which closely...
" - "Make It Last"
- "Rock the Nation"
- "Space Station Number 5" / "Good Rockin' Tonight" #71 UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...