The Tygers To Open For The Grass Roots and Three Dog Night

After a 40 year hiatus, The Tygers have released their follow-up album aptly titled 'Second Album'. "Releasing a solid debut album is one of the tougher accomplishments in the music industry," says Drew Olson of OnMilwaukee.com

"The only thing more difficult, it seems, is making a good sophomore disc. The old saying in the recording industry holds that bands have 'a lifetime to make the first record and six weeks to make the second.' The Tygers broke that mold ... and it only took 40 years!"

The tale of The Tygers is one of the great "one that got away" rock 'n' roll stories of all time. Back in 1967 Tony's Tygers, comprised of five Milwaukee teenagers (Tony Dancy, Craig Fairchild, Dennis Duchrow, Fred Euler and Dave Kuck) entered and won the Wisconsin State Battle of the Bands, sponsored by the Jaycees. As a result, local pop music impresario Jon Hall became their manager. The Tygers went on to Boston to compete in the National Battle of the Bands, where one of the judges was Les Paul. He immediately took an interest in the group and decided to visit them in their hotel room. He played for them on Tony's Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar, and exclaimed to the band, "I haven't been this excited about a band since I saw The Young Rascals when they were starting out in New Jersey." Les Paul invited Tony and the boys to come and stay at his home in Mahwah, New Jersey, where he wanted to produce a record with them. The Tygers placed 3rd in the nation and soon after their return to Milwaukee, Les Paul came to town and met with the band at Tony's house. He made his pitch to the band members' parents and to Jon Hall, but Jon, realizing that he had a hot property, refused to give anything up or make any sort of deal with Les. Reportedly, Les Paul confessed that he couldn't work with the band's manager in any event. Likewise, the parents were indecisive. Sadly the whole thing eventually fell through. Why did the parents and the band allow such a golden opportunity to slip away? We'll never know.

In early 1968 The Tygers ventured into RCA Studios in Chicago and recorded "Little By Little" and another Dancy-Duchrow composition, "Days and Nights", in two hours. Jon Hall released the record locally on his Teen Town label and with the support of WOKY's Bob Barry, the number one disc jockey in Wisconsin (the guy that brought The Beatles to Milwaukee), the record soared up the charts to #2. Only The Monkees "Valleri" prevented the song from hitting #1 in March of 1968. Upon the success of The Tygers new single, Herb Alpert, head of A&M Records, bought the master and released the single on A&M, making it a national record. In the March 2, 1968 issue of Billboard magazine, "Little By Little" was picked as a Spotlight Single. The write-up declared: "A hot master out of Milwaukee, purchased by A&M, features the third place winners in the nationwide Battle of the Bands contest. The easy-beat rocker is aimed right at the teen market and should spread fast nationally." Jack Devaney of Record World magazine raved in his Coast Capers column on March 16, 1968: " 'Little By Little" A&M's Tony's Tygers will take the nation by storm."

In order to "strike while the iron is hot", The Tygers rushed to create a debut album but did so without the services of their lead arranger and singer Tony, who was ill. The album failed to gain traction and the record deal evaporated. Duchrow left for the Vietnam War, two other members left for personal reasons and the remaining four members - Tony Dancy, Craig Fairchild, Lanny Hale and Fred Euler - kept up the fight for a few years, only to find frustration. Hale was accepted into medical school and became a cutting-edge ophthalmologist. Euler left to pursue a very successful career in hotel management. Dancy and Fairchild headed for California, where they created music for "The Brady Bunch" and "The Flintstones." Dancy reformed The Tygers, with new and old members, for shows in the 1980s and '90s. About a year ago, Dancy and Fairchild gathered at Hale's home studio and began working on the long-awaited follow-up record, 'Second Album'.