The original five members of the 1960s Iowa-based rock ‘n’ roll band DeeJay and the Runways will reunite Saturday at the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Music Museum in Arnold’s Park. One of the band members, John Senn, says they had their biggest hit in 1966 with the song, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.”
He says the song reached #44 and #46 of the Top 100 on the two major record “charts” of the time, Cashbox and Billboard, while it stayed on the charts for 11 and 14 weeks. Senn says the song’s popularity propelled the band into taking a national concert tour, which he says was an eye-opening experience for the young men. The tour also included a national TV appearance.
“You can imagine what six guys from the state of Iowa, who had never really been that much out of the state, here we were traveling on our first national tour,” Senn says. “We went to Chicago and on to Norfolk, Virginia, to do the ‘Dick Clark Where The Action Is’ TV show on the U.S.S. Forrestal, which was an aircraft carrier in drydock.”
Some members of the band still live in the Iowa Great Lakes region. The program starts at 1 P.M. on Saturday. Appearing along with Senn will be: Denny Storey, Gary Lind, Bob Godfredsen and Denny Kintzi. They’ll hold a panel discussion about how they met, formed the band and came to record “Peter Rabbit.” There is no admission charge. See the group perform on the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame website at “www.iowarocknroll.com“.
By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City