GRAHAM PARKER

rock singer-guitarist

“The first single that I bought -- and this is a pretty strange one -- was ‘Some Kind of Fun’ by Chris Montez. How about that? That’s pretty strange. It was a minor hit in England, but I was knocked out by this vibrant organ thing. That was the first record that I actually bought. I don’t know what year that was. When the hell was that? Was that pre-Beatles and Stones? I think it probably was.

“Then I was buying Stones’ EPs and singles and stuff. I had ‘I Wanna Be Your Man.’ Then somebody -- I think it was a friend of mine’s parents -- gave me all these Little Richard records, ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’ ’ and stuff.

“That Chris Montez, that’s the guy. He did it for me, the Latino devil.

“There was actually a video for that song I think. I remember seeing it on TV, and there were all these people going on a roller coaster. It was all very exciting, that pounding organ thing. It’s amazing that I didn’t turn out to be a Hammond organ player.”