NEO Music and More

The Euclid Beach Band was a rock band from Cleveland, Ohio best known for their local hit song “There’s No Surf in Cleveland”. The band was formed in 1978 by Scene magazine editor Jim Girard and Rich Reising, a guitarist in Eric Carmen’s band who also worked at Scene. The group took its name from Euclid Beach Park, a defunct amusement park which closed in 1969.

The record was released in May 1978 and quickly became the top selling single in the Cleveland area and reached No. 80 on the Record World singles chart and No. 103 in Cash Box.

Before forming the Cars, members of the band performed together in several different groups. Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr met in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s after Ocasek saw Orr performing with his band the Grasshoppers on the Big 5 Show (later Upbeat), a local musical variety program. The two were members of various bands in Columbus, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan before moving to Boston in the early 1970s. 

Benjamin Orzechowski was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Known locally as “Benny 11 Letters”, he grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, and Parma, Ohio and attended Valley Forge High School before joining local band the Grasshoppers in 1964.

As a member of the Cars, Orr sang lead vocal on some of the band’s best-known songs, including their first hit in the top 40, “Just What I Needed“, “Let’s Go“, and “Drive“, their highest charting single in the United States.

When Ric Ocasek was 16 years old, his father moved the family back to the Ocasek hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where his father worked as a systems analyst with NASA at the Lewis Research Center. He graduated from Maple Heights High School in 1963. Ocasek briefly attended Antioch College and Bowling Green State University, but dropped out to pursue a career in music.

The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. YouTube – The Cars perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

🎸 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2018

Rachel Sweet was born in Akron, Ohio. She began recording commercials at the age of six, toured with Mickey Rooney, and performed in Las Vegas as the opening act for Bill Cosby at the age of 12. 

Switching to rock and roll from country music, she signed to Stiff Records and released her first album, Fool Around, in 1978. The album was a critical success and she had success with the single “B-A-B-Y“. 

The Pretenders are a British-American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion). Following the deaths of Honeyman-Scott in 1982 and Farndon in 1983, the band experienced numerous personnel changes; Hynde has been the band’s only consistent member.

Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio and grew up in nearby Cuyahoga Falls. She graduated from Firestone High School in Akron. She has said “I used to go to Cleveland just to see any band”. While attending Kent State University’s Art School for three years, she joined Sat. Sun. Mat., a band which included Mark Mothersbaugh, later of Devo. Hynde was also caught up in the Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970, in which the boyfriend of one of her friends was among the four victims.

She moved to London in 1973, working at the weekly music paper NME and at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s clothes store.

She formed The Pretenders in 1978 and in January 1980, the band reached No. 1 in the UK with “Brass in Pocket“, which was also successful in the US, reaching No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band’s hit songs include “Kid” (1979), “Brass in Pocket” (1979), “Talk of the Town” (1980), “Message of Love” (1981), “My City Was Gone” (1982), “Back on the Chain Gang” (1982), “Middle of the Road” (1983), “2000 Miles” (1983), “Don’t Get Me Wrong” (1986), “My Baby” (1986) and “I’ll Stand by You” (1994). 

The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. YouTube – The Pretenders perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

🎸 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2005

Jonah Koslen, who attended Beachwood High School, left the Michael Stanley Band in 1977 and formed the band Breathless the following year. Breathless consisted of Koslen, bassist Bob Benjamin (also from Beachwood High School), drummer Kevin Valentine, percussionist Rodney Psyka, guitarist Alan Greene and keyboardist Mark Avsec, formerly with Wild Cherry.

The group released their debut album Breathless, produced by John Cougar Mellencamp producer Don Gehman, in July 1979. Following the album’s release, Breathless toured as an opening act, including a dozen shows opening for Kiss. The single, “Takin’ It Back”, scratched the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 92.

With support from Cleveland radio station WMMS, Breathless became a popular act locally, headlining Blossom Music Center in June 1980.