Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts!  I'm Bill Price, and this edition of Rock and Roll Flashback features the story of Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs. Surprisingly, during the mid 1960's at the height of Beatlemania, the band managed to have two top 10 hits and four releases that made it into the top 40, despite several personnel changes in the band. They were best known for their unique songs and the distinctive costumes they wore.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John, and the basic track was recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004.
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Transcript

This edition of Rock and Roll Flashback features the story of Sam the Sham & the
Pharaohs. Surprisingly, during the mid 1960's at the height of Beatlemania, the band
managed to have two top 10 hits and four releases that made it into the top 40, despite
several personnel changes in the band. They were best known for their unique songs and the distinctive costumes they wore.

Domingo Samudio was born on March 6th, 1937 in Dallas, Texas. He began singing
when he was in second grade, representing his school on a radio program. Several years
later, he started playing guitar and with his friends formed a group. Interestingly one of
the friends was none other than Triny Lopez, who would later have a successful career.
After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy where he acquired the nickname
Big Sam. After the military, he returned to Texas and enrolled at the Arlington State
College, but after two years he left. Then in 1961, Sam formed a band, which he named
The Pharaohs. The inspiration for the name and the costumes came from the 1956 film
The Ten Commandments. Members of The Pharaohs included Carl Miedke, Russell
Fowler, Omar Lopez and Vincent Lopez.

In 1962, the band recorded and released a single, but unfortunately it failed to generate
any sales, and as a result the group disbanded. By 1963, Vincent Lopez was in Louisiana
playing with a group called Andy and the Nightriders. Sam then joined the band when the organist left the group. The Nightriders started playing at The Congo Club close to
Leesville, Louisiana, where they became the house band. While playing at The Congo
Club, Sam adopted the name Sam the Sham, as a result of a joke regarding his singing
ability.

The Nightriders then relocated to Memphis, Tennessee in June 1963 performing as the
house band at The Diplomat. In late summer Andy and Vincent left the band and returned to Texas. Jerry Patterson and Ray Stinnett joined the group as the replacements. Sam then changed the band’s name to Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, and added Butch Gibson on saxophone.

In late 1964, the band recorded their first and biggest hit “Wooly Bully” on the XL label
in Memphis. After the MGM label released the single, it sold three million copies.
Surprisingly, “Wooly Bully” managed to reach number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in
June 1965, when the music charts were dominated by the British Invasion. The single
was also awarded a gold disc. Interestingly, even though it stalled at number two, it
remained on the Hot 100 chart for 18 weeks.

The next two singles “Ju Ju Hand” and “Ring Dang Doo” were minor hits. “Ju Ju Hand”
made it to number 26 in the US and number 31 in Canada. By the end of 1965 Butch
Gibson, Jerry Patterson, David Martin and Ray Stinnett quit the band due to a dispute
over financial issues. Leonard Stogel , who was Sam’s manager discovered a band that
went by the name of Tony Gee and The Gypsys appearing at the Metropole Café in New
York. Band members were Tony Gerace, Frankie Carabetta , Billy Bennett and Andy
Kuha. They then became the new members of the Pharaohs, which recorded “Lil Red
Riding Hood”. The single peaked at number two for a couple of weeks on the Hot 100
chart beginning on the week of April 3rd, 1965.

After the success of “Wooly Bully” and “Lil Red Riding Hood”, other releases followed
which included “Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin” which peaked at number 22 in the US
and number 13 in Canada, “How Do You Catch a Girl” number 22 in the US and number
12 in Canada, “I Couldn’t Spell” and “Oh That’s Good No That’s Bad” which managed
to reach number 54 in the US.

Then in late 1966 Fran Curcio, Lorraine Gennaro and Jane Anderson joined Sam as The
Shamettes. Billed as Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and The Shamettes they performed in Asia and recorded and released an album titled “The Sam the Sham Revue”. Later Sam released a solo album in 1967 titled “Ten of Pentacles” By 1970 Sam decided to go off on his own and in 1971 released the album “Sam, Hard and Heavy” on the Atlantic record label. He wrote the liner notes for the album, which won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes.

In the 1980s Sam collaborated with Ry Cooder and Freddy Fender working on the
soundtrack for the Jack Nicholson film “The Border”. Once he left the music business he
worked as an interpreter in Mexico and later appeared as a motivational speaker. In 2016 Sam was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. As of 2023 he was still making occasional performances.

This has been a look back at the history of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, one of Rock
and Roll’s unique bands.