Biography
Red Garrison made three singles for RMP between 1960-1965. “The oldie is played exciting instrumental style here by Garrison and his combo,” Billboard said of Garrison’s first A-side “Taboo.” It has a beat and the horn and guitar give it a good sound.” By 1960, “Taboo” was two decades old and had been covered extensively. The Cuban-born Margarita Lecuona penned the song in 1941, inspired by F.W. Murnau’s 1931 film Tabu, concerning the plight of star-crossed lovers in the South Pacific. Garrison’s follow-up—“Chant of the Jungle” b/w “Big Rumble”—would mine similar territory, the former resurrecting Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed’s 1929 hit from Joan Crawford’s first talkie Untamed. A regrouped Red & the Flames delivered two more instrumentals for RMP in 1964, disappearing into the Brooklyn hustle shortly after.
Benjak continued his low level operation well into the late ’60s, collaborating with juke box operator Joe Pellegrino on singles by the Impossibles and Renaissance of Rhythm, curiously tacking “Big Rumble” onto the back of R.O.R.’s boogaloo workout “There Is No Time.” When exactly Radio Music Productions went silent is unknown. “My father never wavered in his belief that a hit was right around the corner. He was writing songs right up until the end of his life,” Stephen Jr. said. “He died at 92.”
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