The Soundtrack of my Childhood

Yesterday, October 20, would have been my father’s 66th birthday. After a lifetime of smoking cigarettes, complicated by diabetes, several strokes and a congenital heart condition, Sheldon Breier passed away on Christmas Eve 1999 at the far-too-young age of 57. I miss him every single day.

My dad was a rock star four years before I was born. No, really! Well, maybe more like a one-hit wonder. Does anyone remember a 1960 doo-wop gold single called “Image of a Girl,” recorded by the Safaris? According to Wikipedia, “The Safaris were an American pop group from Los Angeles, California."

 “Formed in 1959, the Safaris, released the following year, their debut single, Image of a Girl. The song was a hit in the U.S., peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was covered by Mark Wynter in 1962; this version hit #11 in the U.K. However, despite several further single releases, The Safaris never had another hit.”

To fill in the blanks, the original four members of the Safaris—which also included lead singer Jimmy Stephens, Richard Clasky and Marvin Rosenberg - were all students together at Fairfax High School in Hollywood, CA. Dad was the youngest of the group (he is second from the left in the photo) and is one of the background voices in this recording:

I recall being told that the lyrics for Image of a Girl were inspired by one of the songwriters’ (Richard or Marv) girlfriends at the time, Teri Lynn. When I was born to my young parents (who were high school sweethearts at Fairfax), they named me after her. Three months later, my mother died suddenly at 22 years of age. That’s when we moved in with my beloved grandmother, whom I posted about last week.

As my father related, the band broke up despite having enormous potential, because the parents all agreed that their boys HAD to go to college and get an education instead of fooling around with music. So Dad became a CPA, then went to law school and was an attorney for the rest of his life. I suspect he always wanted to go back to doing something more creative, though.
 
The Safaris did reunite a few times, most notably in the late ‘80s for an oldies concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Now it seems that Jimmy and Marv have put together a new version of the group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RIhB4mm7go…I wish them the best of luck.
 
Throughout my childhood, Dad was always my biggest fan, supportive of all my scholastic and extracurricular activities including choral singing, piano, guitar and musical theater. He told me I could be whatever I wanted. He said he trusted me to make my own smart decisions. He was my best friend.
 
In Googling for this post on his birthdate, I was gratified to find so many people who still remember this beautiful oldie, and who commented on the various YouTube versions, which I didn’t realize until now even existed. God bless YouTube. And God bless my father…and all the fathers who have exited the planet, leaving behind Spirited Daughters to carry on their legacy.

~ Teri Breier  www.quintessencecreative.com 
Click here for more of Teri's posts.

Comments

[Teri Breier]

Davis, I sure appreciate the wonderful memories you shared with me here and via email. It is so nice to know that there are people out there like you who remember my dad, the group and their hit song so fondly...and that it made such a lifelong impact on you. Thanks also for tracking down Marv and connecting us. I'll give my regards to Bakersfield when we are there this Sunday. :)

[Davis C Bruce]

I am a lawyer in the inner-city Boston criminal courts and one of the things that I find relaxing is to listen to oldies. Not "recent" oldies, but going back to 1958-59-60. I distinctly remember that when I was in the 8th grade in Bakersfield Calif, I heard on the radio a song released by a Los Angeles group called The Safaris. This was May of 1960 and I remember the sound of the song, the clock ticking in the background, like it was yesterday. This was one of the best songs I had ever heard and even now, it is in my top all-time five oldies songs. To hear of the passing of your dad was very sad indeed. The Safaris could have gone on to bigger and better things but the record companies back then took such advantage of singing groups that most disbanded rather than endure the abuse. But Image of A Girl remains with me as if they released it the other day. It is one of those timeless songs. People nowadays say, well, how could you like songs from way back then? Well, way back then, at the time, was the present. May of 1960, then, was our present, so we liked the music that came from those years.
The Safaris were unique.