John Seiter didn’t waste any time turning a dream into a reality.

In 1965, he set out on a lifelong adventure that has yet to halt.

“I left St. Louis (Missouri) right out of high school with my drums on top of the car, and I knew what I wanted to do,” he said.

His destination, Los Angeles. His brothers had already headed west with their own ambitions and he wanted to the same.

“I was very fortunate, I hooked up with some people early on and I played in a blues band in the Valley.

Young Seiter’s skills as a drummer just happened to stem from rock drummer Bob Kuban. Kuban would see time in spotlight when his group, Bob Kuban and the In-men, had its song “The Cheater,” hit the charts in 1966.

Seiter considered himself an “R&B guy” at the time of his departure, listening to music his father didn’t approve of. This would end up being the beats of Motown.

“I turned the dial all the way to the right, and up there was a station that played the music that my dad just absolutely hated,” Seiter said. “He was a big band guy, he was a Frank Sinatra guy, Ella Fitzgerald guy, and I was listening to Otis Redding and everybody I could.”

Gigs of opportunity in LA

If there’s phrase to describe his developing music career, it would have to be, “One thing just led to another.” He learned very quickly that teaming up with another musician opened more doors.

“Overall, I got a lot of jobs from bass players, and I gave a lot of jobs to bass players,” Seiter said. “It just kind of goes together. A bass player and a drummer that kind of lock together, they get each other work because if you go somewhere and you play drums, and somebody says, ‘Do you know a bass player,’ you’re going to pick the guy you feel really comfortable with. And it’s the same the other way around.”

Jim Fielder ended up being a great companion in that regard. As their careers took off, Fielder would become one of the original members of Blood, Sweat and Tears.

In fact, it was Fielder that introduced Seiter to an emerging sound that was going to take the music world by storm — folk.

“When I got hooked up with ‘folkies’ (Fielder) called me and asked me if I wanted to go on the road — first thing I asked was what kind of music. He said folk.”

Seiter didn’t know what folk was, but it was a gig and an opportunity, and he didn’t turn away from it. He became the drummer for Judy Henske, and then folk artist Tim Buckley.

“Henske led to Tim Buckley, and then when Tim Buckley ended I was in New York,” Seiter said. “I joined Odetta. We were a trio. She played guitar. She was a queen. She was a folk queen.”

John joins 'The Gang'

Success for Odetta meant success for Seiter. There were a lot of jobs in a lot of places to go out and perform. However, it was also in New York, Greenwich Village to be exact, where folk was on fire.

Performers could be found everywhere from coffee shops to night clubs.

Patrons witnessed singers like John Phillips, Scott Mackenzie, John Sebastian, Zal Yanovsky, Denny Doherty and a big woman who could really belt out her notes — Cass Elliot.

Mackenzie is forever remembered for singing, “If You’re Going To San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair),” while Sebastian and Yanovsky created the popular band, The Lovin’ Spoonful. Sebastian also gained fame with his song “Welcome Back,” that was used for the TV show, “Welcome Back, Cotter.”

Phillips, Doherty, Elliot, and Phillips’ wife, Michelle, joined forces and became the Mamas and the Papas.

In 1967, Seiter was touring with Odetta performing at the famous Apollo Theater.

“It was pretty tense up in Harlem, and that was six shows a day,” he recalled. “There was a movie between the shows. You had 20 minutes on stage, each act — there were like nine acts. You started at noon and your last show was midnight.”

A woman by the name Elaine McFarlane, who went by Spanky, was also performing with her group in Greenwich Village, they called themselves Spanky and Our Gang — a nod to the classic kids films from the 1930s of the same name.

Spanky and Our Gang were getting air time with what would become one of their signature songs, “Sunday Will Never Be The Same.” They were putting on a showcase that was witnessed by Odetta’s manager who asked Seiter to come down and see them himself.

“I went down there, I sat in the audience and I watched the act, and I fell in love with it,” he said. “I went back stage — I had met Spanky in Chicago years before — and told them how much I enjoyed it.” And she said, ‘You got the gig if you want it.’

“The act, everybody had a character. It just got me. I knew instantly that I had to go and be part of this.”

Spanky and Our Gang’s appeal to Seiter was so strong, he left Odetta’s entourage — which included an upcoming tour to Japan that he obtained a passport for —and joined a group bursting with musical talent.
 
Seiter embraced the character of The Chief. With a large western hat featuring a big feather, he portrayed a subdued, straight-face drummer that barely moved.

“I didn’t move my torso. I just moved my arms and legs,” he said. “My mom would say, ‘Can’t you push that thing back so we can see your face on television?

“Under the hat, I was The Chief. Milton Berle took my hat off, he was the only person who ever took my hat off on camera.”

That every moment took place nearly 55 years ago this month on the television variety show “The Hollywood Palace.”

“I was focusing on the exit sign at the back of the theater,” Seiter said in regard to his efforts to be expressionless. 

As more hits popped up on the charts, the more television shows came calling. Popular songs like “Lazy Day” and “Like To Get To Know You” got the group on The Ed Sullivan Show three times.

Seiter remembers when they had to pack up and leave their gig at the Chess Mate in Detroit and head to New York for a special opportunity.

“We played the gig — one set — and we went into the dressing room and one of our managers said, ‘Okay, we’re out of here.’ And we were suppose to play couple of nights there. And he said, ‘We’re out of here. We’re playing Carson tomorrow night,;" Seiter said. “We packed up and flew to New York, and we played the Carson show (The Tonight Show) because ‘Sunday Will Never Be The Same’ was racing up the charts in New York.”

At that time, performing on television really depended on the show, Seiter points out. There were times bands sung along to their track, lip-synced or sung live. He said show operators would cancel out the fade at the end of a song by instructing an applause just before the track completed.

“We played all of the television shows, and 'Hollywood Palace,' and 'John Davidson Special,' 'American Bandstand.' All of it. We did everything,” Seiter said. “We were very popular with the colleges, and we just saturated the Midwest and the whole country really.”

A sudden loss

Yet all good things must come to an end. 

Unfortunately for Spanky and Our Gang, the end came rather suddenly in October 1968 when bandmate Malcom Hale didn’t show up in Montana for the start of a few shows following time off.

“We had been off for a week and had a show booked,” Seiter said. “When we went to the airport to get him, he did not arrive.”

Hale had missed shows before because of his commitment to the U.S. Army Reserves, so it wasn’t uncommon to go on without him. Seiter would fill in vocally on Hale’s parts.

Unbeknownst the group was the fact that Hale was found dead in a Chicago flat. He was 27. His death puts him on a long list of popular musicians that died in their 27th year. It’s known as the 27 Club, and it includes Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

“We did the show and found out in the dressing room after,” Seiter said. “He had some congestion. He was taking something for it. Slept at a flat in Chicago that had reported a small gas leak.”

Carbon monoxide has been cited as the cause of Hale’s death.

“He was more than an instrument. He was our arranger. He was a vocal guy,” Seiter said. “He was a guy that would say, ‘OK, you sing this. Nah-nah-nah, doe-dee day-doe. And you sing this, Da-da Da-da. Okay, I-2-3.’ And then we’d sing.”

But without Hale, the musical magic was gone.

“We couldn’t even rehearse. We tried to rehearse, and we tried to be Spanky and Our Gang, and it just wasn’t working without Malcolm. It just wasn’t working,” Seiter passionately expressed. “It’s a sad thing, man. It killed us.”

New adventures

Just as before, one thing led to another and an opportunity to join The Turtles presented itself. Their 1967 No. 1 hit “Happy Together” has been embedded in rock ’n roll history.

Seiter only spent a year and a half with The Turtles before pursuing new directions.

“I went on to be a studio guy and I played with a lot of people. I’m on a lot of albums and I’m on a lot of records,” he said.

Eventually he formed a career as a professional videographer with the NFL’s New York Jets.

Today he works on his own independent video projects, and continues to follow his hometown St. Louis Cardinals.

Seiter and Spanky are the only members of Spanky and Our Gang still alive — Lefty Baker died in 1971, Oz Bach in 1998, Nigel Pickering in 2011 and Kenny Hodges in 2013.