Prince and the Paupers


Mansfield 1964-8

The band started in 1964 when Tom Miller has a Senior in High School in Mansfield. The Other members were all Juniors at the time. The band consisted of Tom Miller Lead/Rhythm Guitar, Jon Wright (Prince)- Singer, Howard Edelstein- Lead Guitar/Rhythm Guitar, Dick Whitney- Bass, and Skip Fox-Drums. The band recorded one 45 at Starlite Studio’s in 1966 that was release on the Starlite Label. Here is Tom’s Recollections of the recording and band:

"The song you referred to was titled "What More Can I Say". In fact, I wrote the song and did the musical arrangement. We played a private party (don't remember where) and someone from WMAN radio in Mansfield was there... heard the song.. and said he would put up the 500 bucks if we would record it. So off we went to Starlight Studios in Shelby Ohio for a four hour recording session. Keep in mind these were the days... at least at that studio... when you rolled tape and prayed for a clean run through of the song. There wasn't any editing or much post production. Well, it took us 3and a half of the 4 hours to get a take we were happy with. The funny part was the recording engineer came into the studio and said that's a take... now what are you going to put on the B side. We all looked at each other and cracked up because it never occurred to us that we had to have a second song. So on the fly we just play the instrumental riff we always used to end sets and go to breaks... and we made up the name “Troubleproof” for it. I laugh to myself every time I think of that moment. The record got some local air play on WMAN but that was it."

"Each member of the band went to a different college... so we would play during all the holiday vacations... and all summer long. We played in bars, frat parties and private parties. And of course one of the highlights was playing at the infamous Ski Lodge. It seemed for local bands that if you got to play there you had arrived. I recall one of the times we played there the guys from Music Explosion asked if they could play Little Bit O Soul on our equipment during one of our breaks. We said sure... but didn't really think about the fact that here were guys who had a major nationwide hit... playing it on our equipment!! I should mention that when all of us graduated from college, we all went our separate ways and that was sadly the end of the band."

Story by Matt Baker