Memoir of The Four Preps’ Bruce Belland captures early days of rock and roll vocal groups

Bruce Belland’s ‘Icons, Idols and Idiots of Hollywood’ highlights stories behind The Four Preps’ hits “26 Miles (Santa Catalina),” “Big Man,” and more.

Author:
Warren Kurtz
Publish date:
Nov 17, 2023

BRUCE BELLAND

Icons, Idols and Idiots of Hollywood

BearManor Media (hardcover, paperback, digital)

By Warren Kurtz

Bruce Belland is the sole surviving member of the California vocal quartet The Four Preps, who had a pair of Top 10 hit singles on Capitol in 1958, “26 Miles (Santa Catalina)” and “Big Man.” BearManor Media has published Belland’s entertaining music memoir Icons, Idols and Idiots of Hollywood: My Adventures in America’s First Boy Band.

Belland grew up in Chicago as the son of a preacher and his optimistic wife, “two dirt poor do-gooders.” When a “well-meaning relative” expressed sympathy about his father’s paltry paycheck, “Dad replied, ‘We do it for the outcome not the income.’” When Belland turned eight, he was bitten by the music bug with records and sheet music, declaring, “Who needs baseball cards?!” Before his tenth birthday, his dedicated reverend father accepted a challenge to move from Chicago to West Hollywood, an environment of pastel houses with a newspaper route for the young Belland, whose customers included Gene Kelly and Jimmy Durante. On a Saturday night as a teen, he wandered after hours to a club, was let in, and heard and met his music heroes The Mills Brothers, watched their performance, and fell in love with live performance harmony vocals.

Students in his Hollywood High School included Rick Nelson and Belland’s friends who would become The Four Preps. Nelson’s connection led The Four Preps to music roles on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. At neighboring Uni High, Nancy Sinatra and her friends were impressed with Belland’s composition “26 Miles (Santa Catalina),” which became a selling point to the people at Capitol to include as the flip side of their version of the song “It’s You” from The Music Man. After its release, a late-night DJ in Hartford, Connecticut flipped over the record, triggering a breakthrough hit for the young quartet in January 1958.

After thirty takes, The Four Preps achieved the “Heart and Soul”-like party piano sound that they wanted for “Big Man,” giving the vocal group their second Top 10 hit in 1958, later covered by Herman’s Hermits and Donny Osmond.

Belland met promising talent, including a studio guitarist who had relocated from Arkansas, Glen Campbell, and a young local who had just been signed to Capitol as part of a quintet, Brian Wilson. In the early 1960s, The Four Preps toured college campuses, including a difficult decision to go ahead with a performance on the evening following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, in an effort to soothe the students. In 1964, as with other acts, The Four Preps’ popularity faded, replaced by The Beatles and Motown stars, and their string of thirteen Top 100 singles ended with the novelty song “A Letter to The Beatles.”

Icons, Idols and Idiots of Hollywood is a well-written, fun and entertaining musical tale from the California singer-songwriter and now author.