R. Paske wrote:

<<A friend turned me on to some of Gary Charlson's stuff on Titan Records. 
I've looked for information on the Web but never turned up too much. I still 
don't know a whole lot about him, and I've wondered what became of him since the 
early '80s.>>
    
Charlson was one of the Titan Records stable of power poppers (along with the 
Eric Carmen soundalike Arlis! and the amazing Boys) in the late '70s/early 
'80s.  Run by power pop fan/super nice guy Tom Sorrells, Titan was kind of like 
the Bomp Records of the Midwest. (As longtime GOLDMINE readers might remember, 
Sorrells also used to sell cool obscure power pop and the like as "Dancing 
With the Pope").

Charlson's big claim to fame (as it were) was recording and releasing the 
Dwight Twilley composition "Shark" as a single on Titan.  It's definitely one of 
the top 40 indie power pop singles of the era. He also released a single 
called "Real Life Saver" (nice, gentle melodic power pop) and a 12" EP of covers 
called "Real Live Gary," where he covered Big Star, Raspberries and Crabby 
Appleton, among others.

Last I heard from Tom Sorrells, Gary C. was making his living singing covers 
in coffeehouses and such, and trying to pitch his original tunes to country 
artists.

There was supposed to be a three-CD Titan Records retrospective coming out on 
Get Hip Records, but I'm not sure if it's still in the pipeline or not.  Hope 
so, because I've seen the proposed track listing and it's a doozy, with lots 
of rare and unreleased cuts.

John B.
np: R. Dean Taylor - "Indiana Wants Me"



John B.