Bonnie & The Treasures

Home Of The Brave on Phil Spector's Phi-Dan label, arranged by Nick De Caro and produced by Spector protégé Jerry Riopell(e), remained on the chart for five weeks, peaking at #77.

When "Home Of The Brave" hit the record charts, Bonnie & The Treasures became an actual gigging group. At first, Charlotte (Bonnie) took to the stage with Sherlie Matthews and Clydie King, who had numbered among her back-up vocalists on the disc. But, much in demand elsewhere, those two ladies soon handed over to Marva Holiday and Nancy Padròn.

2nd...the recording....Two versions of Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil's composition "Home Of The Brave" entered the Billboard Hot 100 of August 28th 1965; one by Jody Miller on Capitol, the other by Bonnie & the Treasures on Phil Spector's Phi-Dan logo. Both labels thought they possessed an 'exclusive' on the song. Adamant that his was the original and the best, Spector took out ads in the trade magazines declaring, 'Evitez les confusion! …original creativity is still the backbone of our industry'.

The Phi-Dan disc, arranged by Nick De Caro and produced by Spector protégé Jerry Riopell(e), remained on the chart for five weeks, peaking at #77. For Miller's rendition, arranged by Billy Strange and produced by Steve Douglas, it was a different story. By mid-October it had reached a high of #25, providing the folksy chanteuse with her third hit of the year. Jody Miller went on to notch up 27 country hits and recorded over two-dozen albums. Bonnie & the Treasures never bothered the charts again.

For years it was rumoured that Bonnie was, in fact, an alias for Ronnie Bennett of the Ronettes. Now we know better. Bonnie was, of course, one of several recording names used by an obscure young singer-songwriter named Charlotte Ann Matheny. She died in 1976. Spectropop is pleased to present her story.

PETE CANVEL INTERVIEW:

Soon after I met Charlotte, we talked about records, and I told her I was interested in the Spector sound. She told me she had a release on one of his labels a few years earlier - "Home Of The Brave". At first, I didn't believe her. I had never heard of any version other than Jody Miller's. Besides that, if she recorded for Spector, why wasn't she well known? The next day, she came to the studio and showed me this well played red label Phi-Dan 5005. Henceforth, I knew her as Bonnie.

Disregarding Jerry Riopelle's production credit, I asked her if Spector produced the record. It sounded like his work and I wanted to believe he did. She said that Jerry produced "Home Of The Brave", but that Spector WAS in the studio at the time. Along with the Phi-Dan disc, Charlotte showed me a Bonnie & the Treasures acetate of "Tell Me In The Sunlight", which I believe she said Jerry had produced, and a DJ pressing of "Close Your Eyes", which bore the name Bonnie. I LUSTED after those records. One day she finally agreed to loan me her personal copies, so that I could make acetate dubs for myself at Gold Star.

THE CONTROVERSY....Jerry Riopell, one of the Phil Spector's "Stable" of producers...the actual producer....

Did you work with Phil on 'Home Of The Brave'?

No, I did that one myself. When the record came out, it was covered by Jody Miller. We didn't expect their record, and they didn't expect ours. It was published by Screen Gems, and no one expected that this was going to happen. When the record came out and the big battle started, Phillip took control of the battle. It became like it was his record instead of mine. He became so busy calling up the trades and doing interviews, saying how HIS new record 'Home Of The Brave' on HIS Phi-Dan label was being covered and that HE had the original. I was the producer, but he became so busy supporting the record that it became to him like his own. Of course it was - he owned it, and it was put out by his record company - but, in fact, I was the producer of it.