Excerpted from Kit Kat keyboardist and composer Karl Hausman's memorable memoir in the liner notes of It's About Time (Jamie 4008), the 2-CD set of Kit Kats' Jamie recordings.
It was February, 1962 and “Duke Of Earl” was #1 on Billboard when four young men played their first night together at the Cottage Inn, one of 334 bars in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. The young men’s names were KIT (Carson) STEWART, from Bridesburg, on drums and vocals; Ronnie Cichonski, from Port Richmond, on bass; John Bradley, from Bristol, on guitar and vocals; and Karl Hausman, from Fishtowne, on piano and vocals.
As founder, Kit named the new group The Kit Kats, and the four earned $5 apiece for that first night performing! Kit had recently gotten out of the Navy and was taking drum lessons. Wanting to start a group, he hooked up with Ronnie, who was accomplished on the Fender bass. Searching for more musicians, the pair inquired at the nearby “Brad’s Music Store.” The owner, a music teacher named Harold Bradley, told them of his son John, whom he had taught guitar. John had recently gotten out of the Army and had joined a group called the Chancellors, who were playing locally at another lovely Kensington bar, the H&H. The weekend after they spoke to Bradley, the two went to hear John play and were very impressed with both his guitar sound and his singing (on “Sweet Little Sixteen,” the only song he sang with the Chancellors).
But there was something else! In the corner of the stage was a piano player, standing up and pounding away on a dark, upright piano, which had been raised up on beer cases. That ol’ piano was rocking back and forth, and Kit, who had been stationed down South in the military, thought “there ain’t nobody north of Tennessee can play like this guy! I want him!”. The four met, and after Kit gave his spiel, John quit the Chancellors to join this new start-up band.
Karl, the pianist, was not so easily swayed. He’d already been playing professionally since the age of 14, and while Kit and John were in the service, Karl had been traveling, primarily in Canada, with an opening band for the Johnny Cash Show. After a year of living out of a suitcase, he returned home, got a nice desk job at Philadelphia International Airport, bought his first car and was generally content to play on weekends and stay home with his girlfriend.
“Curiosity killed the Kat,” however, and as he and John had been friends since they were 13, Karl agreed to at least come and see this new band. “Yo, John! Let me know where yer at and I’ll come see yiz!”. Two weeks after John joined Kit’s band, Karl would find himself sitting in the Cottage Inn, watching Kit, Ron, John and a sax player named Bob Seeger. The horn was offkey, but the band was cookin’ and Karl discovered what he had not known before - that John could sing so high! Yes sir, this band was good! By the next weekend, there was a piano on stage where the sax player had been. Four months later, Karl, who had agreed to a play on a “we’ll see” basis, quit his desk job and “stayed and played,” with the group, standing up, for the next twelve years!
From weekends in neighborhood pubs, the group moved up, within a year, to a 6-to-7-night schedule, moving downtown and playing sailor bars and after-hour strip joints ... all four of them between the ages of 19 to 21! They rehearsed constantly during the day, either at Karl’s parents’ house or the Bridesburg Recreational Center. Each member would pick his own songs to sing and gave the music to Karl to work out for the next rehearsal. Karl would study the harmonies of various groups and figure out ways to make three voices sound like more. Then he created his own arrangements and taught each song, note by note, vocally and instrumentally, to the other three members. They called him “Professor.” They also called him other things when he yelled at them for straying from his arrangement, or for not learning fast enough! Some days there were heated arguments, and Kit, John and Ron would storm out of Karl’s house; inevitably they would return and practice until they were perfect!
Kit did the bookings, but Karl gave him something great to book - the best-looking and best-sounding band imaginable!
