Channel still riding high with '60s hit 'Hey! Baby'

Riding high on his Top 10 hit "Hey! Baby," Texas native Bruce Channel was on a month-long tour of England with Delbert McClinton in 1962 when they stopped one night to play the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton. The opening act was a new British group called The Beatles.

"I thought they were kind of rough looking," recalls Channel. "They had on leather jackets and hair out to here ... I had on a sport jacket and my hair was combed."

But, Channel said in an interview from his Nashville, Tenn., home, "You could tell how the kids really went for them."

Channel (pronounced like the perfume) will be the featured performer Saturday night at the Kiwanis '50s and '60s Dance at the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

Also performing will be the Decade Band, Kim Keele, Fred Horrell and the Kiwanis Firemen. The dance is from 8 p.m.-midnight. Setups will be provided. Tickets are $7 in advance and $8 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Channel has been performing at the Kiwanis Club dance for a number of years due to his friendship with Kiwanian Fred Horrell. Horrell played with the popular Bill Black Combo back in the 1960s.

Channel co-wrote "Hey! Baby" with the late Margaret Cobb and put it on a demo at the last minute. At the time he was playing with a band called the Light Crust Doughboys, who represented a flour maker. Six months later he was touring with Fats Domino, Brooke Benton and the Impressions and performing on "American Bandstand."

He toured England four different times, the last time with the Beach Boys in 1970. He had hits in Europe titled "Mr. Bus Driver" and "Keep On."

Since moving to Nashville in 1978, Channel has written No. 1 hits for T.G. Shepherd on "Party Time," Janie Fricke with "Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby," John Conlee on "As Long As I'm Rockin' With You and Mel McDaniel's "Stand Up."

Anne Murray also had a hit with a re-make of "Hey! Baby." Channel's version was resurrected for the soundtrack of the movie "Dirty Dancing." More recently, a European disco singer named D.J. Otzi had a hit with a dance mix version. He got the idea from listening to fans of the Dusseldorf Rhein Fire, an NFL Europe team, spontaneously sing "Hey! Baby" during games.

Playing music in the early 1960s was very different from now, Channel says. "At that time there wasn't any music business as such. "It thrilled us when we got to see 'Rock Around the Clock.'"

The same people are coming to hear "Hey! Baby" who came when he started out, Channel says.

"We're just a little over teen-agers."