Terry Knight And The Pack

'Terry Knight and the Pack' was between 1965 and 1967 a band from Flint, Michigan. The band was signed to the Lucky Eleven label throughout its short recording career.

Former DJ Terry Knight fronted the act as singer and songwriter. Don Brewer and Herm Jackson played drums and bass, respectively. Curt Johnson supplied fuzz guitar solos while Bobby Caldwell provided melodic keyboards. Mark Farner replaced Herm Jackson on bass for a few months in the spring of 1966. After his broken leg healed, Herm Jackson returned to the band. In January 1967 Terry fired Curt Johnson and replaced him with Mark Farner on guitar.

A quintessential garage band, TK&TP openly imitated best-selling rockers of the mid-1960s, especially the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Due to the band's lack of refinement and Knight's compositional idiosyncrasies, much of their material transcends its inspiration to qualify as lost classics of the Nuggets era.

Six of their nine 45s made regional Top 40s throughout Michigan, Ohio and New York, with two of them - "Mister, You're A Better Man Than I" (originally by The Yardbirds) and I (Who Have Nothing) (a cover of a Ben E. King song) - reaching the national charts. I (Who Have Nothing) went to #46 and earned the band an appearance on Dick Clark's television program Where The Action Is.

Tracks by the band include: "This Precious Time" (composed and produced by P.F. Sloan), a version of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and several Knight originals: "Numbers," "A Change On The Way" and "Love, Love, Love, Love, Love" (later covered by Detroit roots rockers Brownsville Station). An interesting note is that The Music Explosion issued an almost identical version of "Love, Love, Love, Love, Love"--same instrumental backing track but a different vocal track; it's unclear whether The Pack or the Music Explosion recorded the "original".

TK&TP were mainstays on Cleveland's TV rock & roll showcase, Upbeat. In addition, they opened regional gigs for the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five and The Yardbirds.

After their second LP, Reflections, Knight left the band to pursue a frustrated solo career as producer and singer. The Pack continued without Knight with even less success. The band was largely forgotten until Farner and Brewer formed the nucleus of Capitol Records' best-selling act of the early 1970s, Grand Funk Railroad, initially managed and produced by Knight.

All recordings by Terry Knight and the Pack have been out of print since 1973, except for I (Who Have Nothing) which is included in the Cameo Parkway 1957-1967 box set.

Only one "best of" compilation was released in late 1972 by ABKCO Records as the 2 LP set "Mark, Don & Terry 1966-67" (plain blue cover) inspired by the Grand Funk Railroad 2 LP set "Mark, Don & Mel: 196971" (plain black cover) released earlier that year on Capitol. The ABKCO-released album was later re-packaged in 1973 as "Funk-Off." Both albums are considered collectors items after being dropped from the ABKCO catalog. Another quasi-best-of compilation, Track On, was released on Lucky Eleven circa 1969-70, but the legality of this issue has been questioned.

In 2008, Terry Knight and The Pack were inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

See also: Terry Knight & The Pack
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.