Stanley David Solomon (July 23, 1947- June 14, 2021)

The legend has passed. Long-live the legend.

Born with the gift of a golden voice, as Leonard Cohen put it, uncle Stanley was first a singer, then a storyteller. He had more lives than a cat, and if you gave him the time, he'd tell you about all of them.

I've written about him before on this blog as the lead singer and songwriter of the legendary Israeli rock band from the late 1960s (The) Churchill's. For me that's really where the legend of Stanley Solomon starts. When in '67 on the cusp of his twenties, he decided to become a volunteer for Israel for the Six Day War. By the time he got to Israel the war was over and he ended up living on kibbutz doing odd jobs, like painting tanks. In Florida, Stan had been fronting local Miami bands since his early teens, notably, The Mystics who played high-school dances and the like. So when he got to Israel putting a band together came naturally. He started doing a solo James Brown/American Soul-type act opening for a band called the Churchill's at the live music clubs in Tel-Aviv - at a time when live American music was a bit of a novelty in Israel and the local club scene was just starting to take off. The act was building a bit of a following and the manager of the Churchill's asked Stan to officially join the band. When two of the original Churchill's members had to report for army service Stan got guitarist Robb Huxley, a Brit who was in Israel on tour with The Tornados, to join the band. Stan and Robb had hit it off and started rooming and writing songs together. The second 'breakthrough' version of the Churchill's line-up was complete - Stan, Robb, Miki Gavrielov, Ami Treibich and Haim Romano. They continued to perform covers of popular American music but slowly started including original tunes in their sets, usually to the chagrin of their audiences. By 1968 they had enough material for an album, the now legendary eponymous LP (also called "Songs for the film 'A Woman's Case'") on the CBS - Hed-Artzi label, with most of the songs written by Robb and Stan, and with Stan producing. The style of their recording was unusual, in fact revolutionary for Israel. The songs were a mixture of British pop, American psychedelia, and Mediterranean flavours and instrumentation. It pushed the boundary of the familiar national folk-type Israeli music of the time, with backward tape and odd sounds. It represented the beginning of the nascent Israeli rock music recording industry. Through 1968-69 the Churchill's toured in Europe, and went on to record with Israeli musical legend Arik Einstein, with Stan co-producing Einstein's third solo album, 'Poozy' (generally regarded as the first homegrown 'rock' music album in Israel). Stan produced a handful of other Israeli bands as well. One of Stan's legendary musical productions was a star-studded Hebrew version of 'Give Peace a Chance', the Lennon-Ono/McCartney bed-in song recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal (Stan's hometown). All this happened before Stan had reached the ripe old age of 23.

Even after sidelining the music business for other entrepreneurial ventures through the 1970s, including in the fashion business (a designer jeans company) and as a fine art dealer, Stan kept an interest in music. He maintained friendships with a number of musicians, sound engineers and producers, bought and rented out the first synclavier (early digital musical synthesizer and sampler) in Florida, he helped to finance Black Sabbath's 1980 Heaven and Hell album when they reportedly ran out of money, and he had a small 8-track recording studio of his own where local bands could record demos. One of my fondest memories of uncle Stan was on a visit in the early 1980s. I was 15 or 16 years old and had recently started playing in my own high-school rock band. Imagine what a thrill it was when Stan took my brothers and me to visit Bill Szymzyck's Bayshore Recording Studios in Coconut Grove, where the Eagles had recorded their album The Long Run the previous year. 

Sometimes Stan's stories about his connections to famous people were hard to swallow. He talked about being friends with guitar legend Jeff Beck, or said that Aretha Franklin stayed at his home, and then just when you thought he was blowing hot air something would happen to prove it all true. Stan's attraction to the rich and famous goes back to his childhood in Miami Beach. When (CNN legend) Larry King had his weekly radio show in the early 1950s broadcasting from Pumpernick's restaurant, little Stanley Solomon was a frequent guest and would sing a song for the audience. One of Stan's childhood playmates was his neighbour Jake Lamotta Jr., son of the former middleweight world champion. Apparently the Lamottas considered Stanley like a member of their family. My grandmother told a story that one day when Stan was a little boy he asked if he could bring a friend home from the golf course for lunch. A limo pulled up outside the house and Stanley got out with Senator Stuart Symington. It seemed that Stan was born with a 'gift for the gab'. He could talk anybody into doing almost anything. 

But it was music, I believe, that was always closest to his heart and soul, and his god-given talent from birth. His mother, my grandmother Betty, had a beautiful voice too, and said that as a little girl she saw herself on stage one day. That never happened. The apocryphal story she told about Stanley's talent was that at his bar-mitzvah the cantor was so awestruck and moved by his singing of the Torah that after Stan finished he presented the bar-mitzvah boy with his cantor's hat, a sort of coronation.

So in honour of Stan, go on Youtube and listen to the Churchill's album. And if not the whole thing I'd recommend what I consider to be their masterpiece, "Subsequent Finale."   

Uncle Stan (on the left) at the helm of the "Give Peace A Chance" recording session. 

UPDATE: After posting, I received the following reminiscences from Stan's dear friend and Churchill's bandmate Robb Huxley, which he has given me permission to share. Robb also suggested a few corrections to my original post. Incidentally, Robb has written a highly recommended multi-volume detailed memoir of his musical career including an excellent account of his days in Israel with the Churchill's called "Subsequent Finale" that features poetry and lyrics written by Stan:

Hi Glen here is a some additional material of interest on Stan and a few minor changes. When Stan went to Israel and the six day war was over he had the opportunity to work on a Kibbutz. It was Kibbutz Afek. When Stan arrived they gave him a list of jobs that were available and he was told he could choose whatever he would like to do. One of the opportunities was fishing and as Stan loved the ocean he envisioned going out on a fishing boat every day and found the thought of that quite appealing. However his aspirations were dashed when “fishing” turned out to be standing up to his knees in water in large artificial fish ponds on a fish farm. His job was to scrape and clean all the muck and build up from the ponds, a far cry from sailing out on the ocean blue enjoying the sea breeze and sunshine. When Stan notified the Kibbutz authorities that he did not like that kind of work and that nothing else such as picking olives or tending goats appealed to him he was told that his only other choice was to be a volunteer in the Israeli Army. Stan opted for the army and was sent to an army base outside of Haifa. That is where one of his jobs was to paint tanks. While there he met and became friends with the famous American actor Larry Storch from the American TV series “F” Troop. Larry had also gone to Israel as a volunteer. One day Stan was sent to an outpost to do some work there when a group of high ranking Israeli army officers showed up led by the famous General Moshe Dayan. General Dayan approached Stan and shook his hand and thanked him for his services as a volunteer. He did make one remark though which was he suggested that Stan cut his hair! While at the army base Stan met an Israeli guitarist who had a band called the Saints. Very soon after a get-together Stan was asked to join the Saints, which he did. On one occasion when they appeared in Tel-Aviv Stan was spotted by up-and-coming band manager Yehuda Talit R.I.P the manager of The Churchills and was asked to join the group.

When Stan played in the Mystics in Miami he used to go and hang out at the famous Criteria Studios where he met and became a part time assistant to the famous record producer Bob Crewe. Crewe was famous for a string of hits he produced for The Four Seasons. Stan obviously picked up a lot of experience at Criteria Studios which no doubt helped him a few years down the road when he produced the iconic Churchills Album.

Stan also entered into a business venture where he wanted to create what he called the Rolls Royce of concerts at the famous Gusman Hall auditorium in downtown Miami. The concept was to offer gourmet food and drinks during the intermission. The concept was very high class. He was unable though to entice, Bob Dylan or The Rolling Stones to top the bill. He did however put on two shows one with Leon Russell topping the bill with an incarnation of the Byrds opening up and also a second show with famous Latin singer Camillo Sesto. Unfortunately this concept was way ahead of it’s time and Stan abandoned the venture soon after the second show.

I agree with you that some of Stan’s tales were a little hard to believe sometimes. Nobody from the original Churchills believed him when he told them that he was the son of the great Canadian clothing manufacturer millionaire Sam Solomon but that was proven to be correct when Mr. Solomon was invited by then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir to come to Israel and to offer advice and training in mass production of clothing. Sam Solomon did come to Kolinor Studios in Tel Aviv to see Stan producing the Churchills Album. By the way, the original first pressing copies of the album have reached a staggering high in value and have been selling for $8,000.00.

Very best regards

ROBB.