The Chosen Few

THE CHOSEN FEW'S
"Raw 'n Roll" CD website

If you have old photos of the band or any of the old members.
We want them!

THE SONGS
1. Play With Fire              02:23
2. You Made me Cry        03:12*
3. Summer Love               03:11*
4. Stay Away                    03:20*
5. Bye Bye Love              03:25
6. Johnny B. Goode         03:01
7. Great Balls Of Fire      02:22

Executive Produced by
Chet Nichols and Stephen Barncard
for Magic Garage Productions

Re-mastered and digitized by
Stephen Barncard,
House Of Cubes, SF, CA

Produced by Chet Nichols,
Tom Peck, Wayne Welch
Jeff Weinstein and Bill Bradley

Engineered by Bill Bradley in 1964 in his
3-story home in Wilmette, Il

* Songs composed by Chet Nichols.
Copyrights by Chet Nichols (ASCAP)

Special thanks to Stephen Barncard,
Greg Welch, Susan Peck MacDonald
and Mrs. Peck for their time and
contributions

Dedicated to the memory of
Thomas O. Peck, Jeffrey Weinstein
and Bill Bradley

Copyright 2007 by Chet Nichols.
All Rights Reserved.
Cover design and photos by Chet Nichols

If you want to reach Chet Nichols
please email us. Click Here.

To Purchase this CD please CLICK
on the ADD TO CART button below.
You will be sent to my secure site at
PayPal

Chet, Jeff & Tom at The Rolling
Stone in Winnetka-1964

Wayne Welch at the drumset
at a basement practice

Jeff, Tom and Chet at a basement
practice.

Jeff chilling out during a break
from practice.

Tom working it out on bass.

You can listen to some of Chet's music by scrolling through the music player below and making a selection. Or you can listen to ALL of Chet's song in their
entirety at Chet's music site. You can also purchase CDs and MP3 downloads at Chet's Music Site.

Click Here To Go To The Music Site.

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Here is a Music Player that you can use to listen to Chet's various CDs. If you like a song, just click on the "Buy" icon and you will be taken to Chet's music site at iTunes where you can purchase the song as a digital music file. Pick up a song, today.

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Here is an article that appeared in May of 2008
in THE CHICAGO READER

Below is an article from the website.
http://www.60sgarageband.com.
Click Here For The Site

Please visit this site for some cool
articles about bands from the 60's.
http://www.60sgaragebands.
Click Here For This Article

Chosen Few
Chet Nichols has been performing music for over forty years and first found major success with his teen band The Chosen Few. Performing in and around Winnetka, Illinois, the band separated themselves from the rock and roll pack by performing a mixture of the popular songs of the day and originals written by Nichols’ himself. Some of these originals have been compiled on a CD that Nichols has released and that is available at his Web site. Nichols will be inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in March, an achievement that recognizes not only his accomplishments as a solo singer/songwriter, but his stint as a member of The Chosen Few as well.

The Chosen Few at The Rolling Stone
An Interview With Chet Nichols

60sgaragebands.com 60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Chet Nichols (CN): My dad and mom met in the church choir at St. Mary’s in Evanston, Illinois. Dad was an opera singer and known as “The Singing Dog Warden.” Our house was filled with music, records and people who’d gather around the family piano to sing. So, I guess, “music was in the air” at the Nichols’ house. All my brothers and my sister were into music. I began singing by the time I was three. I began playing piano when I was six and I began studying cello when I was seven. I eventually began competing in piano and cello competitions. When I was twelve, I was picked to be the concertmaster in the Chicago Archdiocese Orchestra as the first cellist, an honor usually bestowed on the first violinist.

60s: Was The Chosen Few your first band?
CN: No, I had a couple other bands. The first was a rock-a-billy, Elvis-type band. It didn’t last too long - five to six months. Then I had another band, The Fruits Of The Loom, which stayed together throughout high school and we usually played some high-school events. This was more of a “get-together band.” I also played in a folk-duo called, The Baymen for a few years, usually playing high school events at New Trier High School. I played in a folk-trio, too.

60s: Where was when was The Chosen Few formed?
CN: The band started in my sophomore year at New Trier in 1963. The band was the brain-trust of Phil Hagenah, who played bass, and I. We had a few other guys who were dying to get into the band. It was tough to turn some guys away but the rule was they had to be able to sing, too.

The initial line-up was: Chet Nichols – vocals, harmonica, and lead guitar; Phil Hagenah, – vocals and bass; Eric Schroeder – vocals and drums; and Mark Springer – vocals and guitar. Mark didn’t last too long because he hated to practice and he was replaced by Jeff Weinstein on vocals and guitar. Eric was a jazz drummer and didn’t have time for the band and we replaced him, with Phil Hagenah moving to drums and we added Tom Peck on bass. Initially Tom didn’t know bass at all, but he could really sing and he and I sounded great together. Phil taught him to play. Dang if he didn’t learn the song list in two weeks. It was amazing. This eventually led to a big problem though.

Phil was a good drummer, but not great. We found a new guy, Wayne Welch, who was a cross between Keith Moon and Dennis Wilson. He was a great singer, too. So, we pondered how to tell Phil he was going to be replaced. We drew straws and I drew the short straw and had to tell Phil. I know it hurt him, but he was cool about it and we are friends to this day. So the final and long-running line-up was: Chet Nichols – lead singer and lead guitar; Tom Peck – vocals and bass; Jeff Weinstein – vocals and rhythm guitar; and Wayne Welch – vocals and drums.

60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
CN: We played songs by The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Kinks, Elvis, Them and The Yardbirds—most of the popular bands of the day. What really set us apart from the other bands were the songs I wrote, “You Made Me Cry,” “Over and Over,” “Million Dollar Sandbox,” “If You See Kaye” and “Summer Love”...to mention a few. Eventually, our shows consisted of half the songs I wrote and half popular cover songs of the day. I actually had other area bands that approached me about playing my songs during their sets.

60s: What was the Winnetka rock and roll scene like in the '60's?
CN: It was very vibrant and very competitive. The competitive part bugged me. The old line of “Who was the best instrumentalist or vocalist” made me laugh. To me, it was all about the band sounding good and writing good songs. For us, it was all about “having soul.” Still, as a “scene,” we all respected each other and would go and catch each other’s shows. It was cool to see the diversity of sounds coming from all the bands in the area.

60s: What other local groups of the era do you especially recall?
CN: The Dell-Vetts, The Flock, The Dharma Bums, The Shadows Of Knight, The Buckinghams, and Mark Hannon’s band; it’s a rather long list. There was a lot of great music and great bands. Again, I loved hearing what other people were doing and appreciated what people were creating.

60s: How far was The Chosen Fews’ "touring" territory?
CN: We went into Chicago, the western and northwestern suburbs and, of course, the North Shore.

60s: Where did The Chosen Few typically play?
CN: We played everywhere. We played a lot of private high school and college parties. We played a lot of frat parties at Northwestern, debutante parties, Beautillions…you name it. We played at many events at New Trier, too. Also, we played all the clubs throughout Chicago. Our home club was The Rolling Stone in Winnetka. We played many battle of the bands and usually won them on the strength of my original songs. I don’t remember us ever losing one.

Tom Peck kind of acted as our manager, too. His mom helped out. Bob, the guy who ran the Rolling Stone, booked us a little bit and really wanted to be our fulltime manager. My mom balked at this. She knew the music biz and was a bit scared that I would go off and be a musician and not go to college. So, the band was sort of doomed. Wayne eventually went off to the Army and Tom, Jeff and I went off to college. We did play some dates during the summer when we were in college. But my solo career started to take off during my sophomore year at Kansas University, so I concentrated on it because I was playing great “listening clubs,” halls and colleges all across the country.

60s: How popular locally did The Chosen Few become?
CN: We were in high demand and played almost every Friday and Saturday. We made good money, too. I rarely ever had to ask my mom for money. When we played the clubs the places were packed, which was cool. It was great to play to a big crowd that was digging the music.

60s: Were any of the Chosen Few songs released on the CD that you offer released as 45s?
CN: No. Unfortunately, the tape that spawned the CD is the only one in existence. We did do another tape recorded in 1965, but it has been misplaced. I really want to find it because it has a bunch of our later originals and some really great covers.

60s: Where were the songs recorded?
CN: The first tape we recorded was recorded at Bill Bradley’s three-story house in Wilmette one Saturday afternoon. Bill had us spread out throughout the house to help separate the sound. His mom unexpectedly came back home in the middle of the session and almost flipped out. But, she let us finish. Bill went on to be the top engineer at the famed Universal Studios in Chicago. Eventually, he moved to Los Angeles were he recorded many artists and eventually ran Madonna’s record company, Maverick Records, before he passed away a few years ago.

60s: You were the band's primary songwriter. Where did you typically find your inspiration?
CN: As mentioned earlier, half our show was originals. I was the only writer in the group. I found my inspiration at that time about the life around me. Since we were all interested in girls, girls and girls…a lot of inspiration came from that.

60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances? Does any home movie film footage exist of the band?
CN: Naw, we never did TV. I think there is some movie footage that was taken, but where it is is still a mystery.

60s: What year did the band break up?
CN: Our final shows were in the summer 1967,with college and the armed services taking us in different directions. Tom Peck went to Boston, Jeff went to Colorado, Wayne went into the army and was stationed in Oklahoma. I went to Oklahoma City University to study theater arts for a year. Wayne and I re-united a couple times while we were there.

60s: Which bands did you join after The Chosen Few?
CN: I went on and had a successful solo career for many years. I still play solo. I had a jam band in Lawrence, Kansas for a few years where we played long psychedelic sets at Be-Ins. But the band never went anywhere and I continued to play solo, which is where I had the success, writing outside-alternative-folk-rock songs.

60s: How often, and where, do you perform today?
CN: I still write and perform these days as a solo performer. I also write instrumental songs for use in films and TV. I have recently release two new instrumental CDs, Red Mesa Sunset and Earthways. I have a new release coming out in 2008 entitled, Peak To Peak. One of the songs on that CD, “Beijing Dawn,” was recently awarded a Special Mention in the Music Aid International Song Competition. I also have a new singer-songwriter CD which is scheduled to come out in 2008. To pay the bills, I act in films, on TV and work as an Interactive Producer producing Web sites.

60s: You were recently voted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. That had to be a tremendous honor.
CN: Actually, I am very honored and excited about this. The induction ceremony is on March 23, 2008. Being voted into The Kansas City/Kansas Musician Hall Of Fame really acknowledges my twelve-year touring career that followed my time spent in The Chosen Few. I recorded two records, “Time Loop” and “Waving Prairie,” for Kama Sutra Records. In the past 25 years, I have produced numerous singer-songwriter CDs. I met a lot of great people in Kansas City and in Kansas who are still good friends. Kansas City had a very vibrant music scene in the late ‘60s, ‘70s and beyond. I am still very active in music and love writing, performing and playing.

60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Chosen Few?
CN: It was one of the best times of my life. We had a band where everyone contributed to its success. We didn’t experience the friction I saw that took place in other groups. I learned a lot about writing songs and playing covers in The Chosen Few. I miss those guys. Wayne Welch and I are the only surviving members. Tom Peck and Jeff Weinstein have passed away. The CD, Raw ‘N Roll, that I just released contains the only surviving music from the band. I dedicated this CD to the memory of Tom Peck, Jeff Weinstein and Bill Bradley.

If people are interested in hearing my music they can visit:
http://www.broadjam.com/chetnichols

General information about my careers is available at http://www.chetnichols.net.

There is also a Web page at the site above with all the history of The Chosen Few.
Jeff Weinstein, Tom Peck and Chet Nichols
Tom Peck

Jeff Weinstein
Wayne Welch

Record Reviews

"Thanks, Chet, I did receive the CD. Without question, your originals are the best songs on the CD and really are equal or better than a lot of what was played on the radio during the time they were recorded. I greatly enjoyed them.

All is well. I'll be in touch when the interview is live on 60sgaragebands.com."

Thanks again.

Mike Dugo - Webmaster for 60sgaragebands.com

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Forget "Ten Years After" with Alvin Lee, how about "Forty Three Years After with

The Chosen Few"!

Chicagoland's Quintessential Mid-Sixties Rock Band

Like discovering a diamond in the rough, Musician Extraodinare Chet Nichols unearthed a long thought lost 1964 taping of his band The Chosen Few. Thanks to Chet's perseverance, he had it re-lobotimized, cleaned up and digitized, reproduced and packaged. Considering
the primitive conditions under which it was recorded on 1/2 inch tap, as well as it's forty three years of entombment in a long lost music graveyard, the sonic clarity and quality remained intact! Chet must have employed a kitchen magician, the ghost of Houdini, and a clone of George Martin, the producer of The Beatles, to bring this baby back to life. (Actually it was Chet's buddy and David Crosby producer, Stephen Barncard).

Thank the Music Gods for miracles.

What we have before us now folks, is the only known recording of one the hottest mid-sixities bands to grace the Chicagoland area and The North Shore. This band had a following that always backed the venues where they played. In spite of the young age of the members
of the band (17-18), they displayed a sense of musical professionalism, far beyond their years. Additionally, their vocal talents were top notch, and balanced in true harmony. They played the various covers of that era, that ran from The Beach Boys to The Stones to The Beatles, and on and on. With Tom Peck on bass, Jeff Weinstein on rhythm guitar, Chet Nichols on lead
guitar and lead vocals, and Wayne Welch on drums, they were a together group with a very tight sound. The biggest surprise of the group was Chet Nichols's song writing ability, which led him to a long and highly successful career as a highly acclaimed performing artist,
proficient song writer and well noted author. Chet's self-penned songs on this CD are well written, highly evolved and perfectly vocalized and were a highly positive harbinger of things to come for him in his music career. Having seen this band blast out their many great songs on many occasions in those music filled years, I now have a piece of music history that I had
longed for many a year. Anyone from that era needs this CD for their music collector. In addition, anyone who has ever lived or went to High School in the Chicago area, the North
Shore, Wilmette, Winnetka, Kenilworth, Evanston and Highland Park, etc, is required to have this album. It's too bad that we don't have any more of the music that The Chosen Few
played. However, this sonic taste of that time is like a whole musical feast! Chet, many thanks for giving us a piece of the past that we had longed for such a long time. It is a true Mid-West Musical Masterpiece!.

.......GW, Marquette, MI

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Background Notes About "The Chosen Few"

The Chosen Few was an important rock ’n roll “basement band” based on the North Shore of
Chicago in the early 1960s. Basement band? Well, they practiced in basements. All of the
initial band members attended New Trier High School, a school that has spawned many great
creative artists, musicians, actors and producers. The North Shore was a hot spot for
developing rock’n roll bands and artists in the area. The Chosen Few began playing together
in the Fall of 1963. The co-founders were Chet Nichols, who played lead guitar and sang lead
vocals, and Phil Hagenah, who initially played guitar. A friend of Phil’s, Tom Peck, was
begging to join the band, so Chet and Phil taught Tom to play bass and Phil graciously
moved to the drums. Mark Springer joined to play rhythm guitar. Like many bands, there
were changes in personnel until the final nucleus was solidified. Along the way they added Wayne Welch on drums and vocals and Jeff Weinstein on rhythm guitar and vocals. Phil Hagenah, went on to be a very successful film producer and Mark Springer went on to be
a singer in The New Christie Minstrels.

They were one of the “house bands” at the famous Winnetka rock ’n roll nightclub, The Rolling Stone. What set the band apart from other bands was the fact that they played
originals penned by Chet Nichols and mixed them in with danceable cover songs. Chet’s
songs were influenced by The Beatles, The Kinks, The Beach Boys and The Rolling
Stones. He wrote songs that people still remember today; “You Made Me Cry”, “Million Dollar Sandbox”,“Stay Away”, “Over and Over”, “Summer Love” and “If You See Kaye”, to name a few.

They played together until the summer of 1967, when college and the Armed Services finally
split the band up for good. Tom Peck headed to Boston and lived there for several years until
migrating to San Diego, where he lived as a free-lance writer and cared for his mother until
June 2005 when he passed away. Jeff Weinstein moved to Colorado and played in bands in the Boulder area until he passed away in the 1980’s from complications of diabetes. Wayne Welch went into the Army and took his basic training near Oklahoma City where Chet first attended college. Wayne now lives in Bonanza,Oregon and his band, "The Usual Suspects" plays in the Klamath Falls, Oregon area. Wayne has two sons, T.J., a bank executive in Illinois and Bob, an artist. Chet transferred to Kansas University and was “discovered” in a coffee house in Kansas City.

This led him into a long-running solo career as a performer, recording artist, singer, songwriter,
multi-instrumentalist, actor, writer, designer and composer that is still going strong. Chet has
produced 16 CDs of material that runs from Outside Folk Rock to Americana to Alternative
Country to New Age/World Fusion Instrumental compositions.

Chet thought he had lost this tape, but found it in a box of old tapes stored in his garage in
December of 2006, He turned to his old friend and respected San Francisco producer, Stephen
Barncard, to salvage the tape and digitize it. The tape was recorded on a 1/2 machine and is
in mono. It was engineered and recorded by Bill Bradley in his 3-story house in Wilmette
one Saturday afternoon. Bill went on to being one of the best engineers in the music business,
eventually working with Madonna and running her record company.

There is distortion and a raw feel to this tape because the pre-amps on the mixing board were
not built for loud drums and amplifiers and The Chosen Few played loud AND fast. But the vocals are clear and out front. This CD is un-cut and un-edited. It is an honor to be able to bring to you this little gem of the history of an important band that was part of such a vibrant and exciting time of emerging music in the 1960’s.

We want to send out very special thanks of appreciation to Stephen Barncard, Greg Welch,
Susan Peck MacDonald and Mrs. Peck for their time, enthusiasm and contributions to this
production. Their help has truly enriched this project.

Also thanks to Mr. Hagenah, Mr. and Mrs. Peck and Mrs. Nichols for letting the band practice in their basements, drink cokes and empty the ice boxes of food. Also, thanks to Mrs. Bradley for letting us trample her beautiful home in East Wilmette on one fateful Saturday afternoon.

This CD is dedicated to the memory of Tom Peck, Jeff Weinstein and Bill Bradley.

Click Here To Listen To Or Buy Chet's Music :: Contact Chet

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Chet Nichols
Stage Performance Resume

Chet has performed as a solo "Opening Act" in concert with:
The Jefferson Airplane
Jethro Tull
The Grateful Dead
George Carlin
Steve Martin
POCO
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Big Brother & The Holding Company
Linda Ronstadt
B.B. King
The Charlie Daniels Band
Dan Hicks & The Hotlicks
Brewer & Shipley
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
It's A Beautiful Day
Pacific Gas & Electric
Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen
Mary Travers
Country Joe McDonald
The Grassroots
Hot Tuna
Mason Proffit
Blue Oyster Cult
Southern Comfort
John Lee Hooker
Richard Pryor
John Denver
The Guess Who
Steve Goodman
The Mary Clayton Band
The Kansas City Philharmonic ... and more

He has worked in recording studios with..................
Stephen Barncard (David Crosby)
Spencer Dryden (The Jefferson Airplane)
Nicky Hopkins (The Rolling Stones)
Dave Garabaldi (Tower of Power)
Pete Sears (The Jefferson Airplane)
Nick Gravenities (Big Brother)
Sal Marquez (The "New" Tonight Show Band)
The New Riders Of The Purple Sage
Jack Shoerer (Van Morrison)
Henry Lewie (Joni Mitchell)
Don Preston (Wings)
Bill Bradley (Madonna) .........and more

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