Lauren Smith: What is your book about?
Lauren Smith: Why did you decided to write it?
Dee Dee Phelps: One morning the thought came to me that I needed to write about my experiences singing with Dick and Dee Dee. At first I rejected the thought. I had a full live with many activities and wasn’t sure I wanted to devote my time to a project of this magnitude. But the thought persisted, “You need to write about singing as Dick and Dee Dee.” No matter how many times I pushed the idea away from my mind, it always returned in the quiet moments. After several months I finally surrendered. I realized it was obviously my destiny to write this book.
Lauren Smith: What do you think readers will be most surprised to learn about your career?
Dee Dee Phelps: I think readers will be most surprised to find out that Dick and I were not married, boyfriend and girlfriend or brother and sister. We were simply working professionals, very different personalities struggling to get along while living in the limelight of enormous success. Dick actually was my boyfriend for a brief moment in time when we were in the eighth grade. But when he chopped off most of my hair in an attempt to make me into Audrey Hepburn, our relationship hit a road block. That, combined with our first major disagreement shortly after we recorded The Mountain’s High (more details on this in Vinyl Highway), set the tone for strict boundaries in our relationship throughout our career.
Lauren Smith: You tell a wonderful story about Roy Orbison in your book. Can you share it with us?
Dee Dee Phelps: Actually, the Roy Orbison story is on my blog: http://blog.dickanddeedee.), but not included in Vinyl Highway. After I wrote Vinyl Highway the word count was 130,000 words. I was told by editors that we had to reduce the word count to 100,000 words or less, otherwise it would cost so much to cover printing costs, the book would be priced into the stratosphere. I had no idea how to cut 30,000 words from the book. Fortunately, an editor friend helped with the process, taking out chapters that included the Roy Orbison story, Hawaii, Japan and a second tour of Europe. She wove together the remaining text to help the story flow and we have the edition of Vinyl Highway released as the book. But in response to requests to write personal stories about various acts, I’ve started adding stories not found in Vinyl Highway to the blog. I love the story of Roy Orbison because it was so unique and shows the wonderful generosity that Roy Orbison demonstrated, in additional to his phenomenal talent. We met him early on in our career, in 1961. Our record company, Liberty Records, sent us to perform on stage for a radio station promotion. We arrived in the Montgomery, Alabama airport on a sunny November morning in 1962. The general manager of the local radio station met our plane. No matter how many times I told him my name was Dee Dee, he kept referring to us as Dick and Dee Bee. “Yep, Dee Bee, it shore is nice you folks could drop in on us. Y’all must be fine, wonderful folks.” I assured him that we tried to be. We arrived at the large arena in time to catch Roy Orbison’s rehearsal with the band. He was leading them through the charts to his hit record, “Crying.” Roy stood poised on stage, his body still, eyes closed. A blue filter colored his hair, like a black river reflecting the dark blue sky at midnight. “I was alright, for awhile, I could smile for awhile” Suddenly the band hit a wrong chord and Roy’s eyes opened. Blinking at the musicians through thick glasses, his quiet voice drawled, “Let’s take it again.” As the song started, his high tenor voice cut through the atmosphere like a warm knife through butter. His high notes were pure magic. As Roy hit the last not of the song and held it, the entire auditorium (crew, promoters, disc jockeys, and other singers) broke into applause. Roy nodded, embarrassed, said a few final words to the band and left the stage. Later, Dick and I were waiting in the dressing room for our rehearsal when Roy entered. “Roy, this is Dick and Dee Bee.” The general manager shouted. “It’s Dee Dee. D..E..E…D…E…E.” “Pleasure to meet you,” Roy said. Dick wasn’t paying attention. Something triggered a strong desire in Dick. I recognized the signs. He was almost salivating. What was he after? I followed the direction of Dick’s eyes as they swept the dirty dressing room floor, finally resting on Roy’s shoes. I’d never seen anything like them. Made out of the softest black leather, the shoes had no laces. Instead, the ankle boots sported strips of elastic on either side to facilitate pulling them on and off. Two years later the Beatles would wear similar shoes on their first American tour, forever redefining footwear for thousands of American men. But in 1962, only Roy Orbison owned a pair of what would be known as Beatle boots. Dick could contain himself no longer. He moaned, “Oh, man, I really dig those shoes.” Roy smiled and looked down, as if noticing the shoes for the first time. “Yeah, I just got them.” “Where did you buy them?” Dick asked. “I’d give anything for a pair of shoes like that.” Roy smiled at Dick’s child like fascination. “I got them in England. You can try them on if you like.”
Roy bent over, slipped off the shoes and handed them to Dick, who rapidly slid them on his feet. He rocked back and forth like Dorothy wearing the emerald slippers. “They’re so cool,” Dick muttered. “They fit you perfectly. Take them. They’re yours.” Roy smiled broadly. Dick looked shocked. “No, I can’t take your shoes!” “I’ve got another pair just like them. Go ahead. Take them. They look great on you.” Dick pumped Roy’s hand up and down, and then stared down at his feet encased in the new shoes. When we went out on stage for our rehearsal, Dick kept his eyes on the floor. He didn’t even react when the disc jockey introduced us to the band as Dick and Dee Bee. We never worked with Roy Orbison again, but Dick wore Roy’s shoes for many years, always telling any who would listen about Roy’s generosity.
Lauren Smith: What was the single most exciting moment of your career?
Dee Dee Phelps: The most exciting moment for me was a simple moment filled with exhalation and love. Dick and I were singing with Gene Pitney, the Shirelles and the Cascades Band in Honolulu. In a stadium packed with teenagers, Dick and I sang our new Warner Brothers Records release, “Young and In Love.” We’d been told by Liberty Records that we would never have another hit record if we left their company, but the first song released on Warner Brothers rapidly climbed the charts. I remember looking into the colored gels of the spotlights, feeling the energy of the thousands in the stadium. As we sang the words, “When your young and in love (so in love), the whole world seems to know. Love is like a candle light, always giving off a glow” a wave of energy flooded over me, permeating every cell in my body. I was young and in love, not with a particular person, but with everyone in the audience. As the song ended, many audience members rose to their feet and walked to the stage, carrying Hawaiian leis in their arms. They started piling them over our heads. Soon the flowers leis rose so high they covered our noses. I breathed in the lovely fragrance and felt the golden warm love continue. We finally were escorted off the stage when the flowers started to cover our eyes. I was in another world and I couldn’t speak for several moments. For days afterward, still wearing some of the leis as a reminder, I felt the joy of that performance.
Lauren Smith: If you could go back and do it all over again, would you, and if so, would you do anything differently?
Dee Dee Phelps: Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It gives you a chance to imagine changing all your mistakes and taking advantage of all the opportunities you let slip by. Would I do it all over again? Absolutely! Would I do anything differently? Sure. I would have invested in all the cheap land in Santa Monica and what would eventually become Marina Del Rey in California, I would have insisted we release Heartbeats as a single from the movie we sang in, “Wild, Wild, Winter” (I’m convinced it would have been another hit for Dick and I). But everything that happened made me who I am today. I’m grateful for all the learning experiences, good and bad.
Lauren Smith: What do you hope readers get from your book?
Dee Dee Phelps: I want the readers to laugh and feel good as they read stories of some of their favorite recording artists. I also hope the readers get a sense of what the United States was like in the Sixties. As teenagers then, we experienced joy and freedom, the belief that anything was possible. We felt we could go anywhere, do anything. Of course, we didn’t have the wonderful technology of today. Can we even imagine a life without cell phones and computers? And for younger readers, I hope to have opened a window to the past, to show what it was like to encounter segregation in the South, the live through the most dramatic times in a decade, to survive the ravages of freedom out of control. And mostly, I want the readers to know there are positive ways to deal with disturbance and stress in our lives. I was fortunate to have had a mentor (The Monk) to help me through. Some of those reminders are in Vinyl Highway. Thank you for these great interview questions.
To view vintage videos of Dick and Dee Dee: www.dickanddeedee.com
