Post 444 - Marty Rhone - So You Want To Be A Pop Singer / As The Sun Goes Down

Marty was born Carl Van Rhoon, on 7 May 1948. Of Dutch-Indonesian ancestry, he started singing at an early age and at 17 went straight from school to a professional singing career. He'll be forever remembered for his two seventies hits “Denim And Lace” and “Mean Pair Of Jeans” – but to fans of Australian music of the sixties – he is fondly remembered for a string of classic songs which seem rather advanced for their time. In 1965 Marty and his band The Blue Feelings went to the Channel 9 studios to audition for their television pop show, "Saturday Date". However, it actually turned out to be, on the sly, an audition for a new record company called Spin Records, which was run by Nat Kipner, Nat liked Marty, but not the band, and as a result Marty signed with the label as a solo act. Kipner had seen a band called The Soul Agents performing at a Sydney club and was very impressed with the band, so in January 1966 Marty Rhone and The Soul Agents joined forces and became part of the Spin roster along with Steve & The Board, the Bee Gees, Jeff St. John & The Id, Tony Barber, The Dave Miller Set and Ronnie Burns. In 1967, The Soul Agents took on a full-time residency performing at one of Sydney’s biggest Nightclubs, and Marty moved to Melbourne where he continued to do T.V. and personal appearances and remained there until early 1970 when he was conscripted into the army for a two-year period. Out of his battle greens in 1972, Marty enrolled at the NSW Conservatorium of Music on a government grant for a two-year period and then turned his attention toward acting, where he worked both live theatre "Godspell" and on T.V. with roles in Number 96,and Class of '75. In 1970 he recorded the single here for you to download and my favourite Marty Rhone song "So You Want To Be A Pop Singer" b/w "As The Sun Goes Down" (EK-3637)Both sides of this single were written by Marty and shows his writing talents as well as a great singer. The single was produced by John Farrar for Spin Records in 1970.