20/20: The Power Pop Band Who Just Made It

It's time for my first post of Underground Alley. Let's start off with an forgotten/obscure American band called 20/20. They originally were a power pop band from the 70s (mod punk rock/disco era).

Artist/Band: 20/20

Genre: Power pop

From: Hollywood California

Years Active: 1977-1983, reunited in the mid-1990s until the mid 2000s

Label(s): Portrait Records, Mainway Records, Enigma Records, Oglio Records, Bomp! Records

Band Members/Instrument Position/Years Active:

Steve Allen - guitar, vocals

Ron Flynt - bass, vocals
Chris Silagyi - keyboards - 1977-1981
Mike Gallo - drums - 1977-1979
Joel Turrisi - drums - 1979-1981
Dean Korth - drums - 1981-1983
Bill Belknap - drums - 1983-1984, 1995-2005
Phil Seymour and Dwight Twilley - From Tulsa, Oklahoma. (In need of more research.)

In the studio:

While they were recording their debut album, Mike was let go from the band (not sure why). They replaced him with a studio drummer to finish to rest of that album (how lame :/) and for their second one, Look Out, they hired Joel Turrisi. For the third album, Sex Trap, however, Turrisi was replaced by Dean Korth. 20/20 then split up by 1979 in the end.

To sum it up, the three main reasons this band isn't well remembered are:

A. They didn't release enough singles or albums.
B. The band broke up at least twice.
C. The drummers were continuously replaced.

Life after break up:

Ron Flynt : Moved to Austin, Texas to open his own recording studio called Jumping Dog Studio & headlined the 2005 Austin music festival with a newly released CD under the Zip record label, featuring the song "Mary's World".

Steve Allen: Moved to Nashville, Tennessee and continued to write and record music at Blue Planet Studio.

Bill Belknap: Musician at Long Branch Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Chris Silagyi: Became a record producer.

Joel Turrisi: Became an actor for VFG Productions/Panaview in Hollywood, CA and works in other parts of the film and music industry.

Mike Gallo: Formed the bands RadioMusic and Two Moons, signed a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell.

He evem started his own label, Two Moons, same name as the band he once formed. He is now a recording artist and songwriter at home and is also focused on labeling and publishing.

Dean Korth: Recently became a drummer for the group "The Catalina Scramblers" in Santa Cruz, CA.

Now it's time for the part you've all been waiting for: the list of albums and singles!

List of Singles:

Side-A:

1. "Giving It All" - 1978
2. "Tell Me Why" - 1979
3. "Cheri" - 1979
4. "Strange Side of Love" - 1981

Side-B:

1. "Under the Freeway" (B-Side of  "Giving It All" - 1978)
2. "Yellow Pills" (B-Side of  "Tell Me Why" - 1979)
3. "Backyard Guys" (B-Side of "Cheri" - 1979)
4. "People in Your Life"/Child's Play" (B-Side of  "Strange Side of Love" - 1981)

List of Albums:

1. 20/20 - 1979 - Portrait Records
2. Look Out! - 1981 - Portrait Records
3. Sex Trap - 1982 - Mainway Records
4. Sex Trap - 1983 - Enigma Records 
5. 20/20/Look Out! - 1995 - Oglio Records (remastered 2-in-1 CD reissue, rare find nowadays)
6. 4 Day Tornado - 1995 - Oglio Records
7. Interstate - 1998 - Oglio Records
8. Sex Trap (Japanese Release) - 1999 - Includes "Best of Your Life"

*The 1983 Enigma release of Sex Trap is the wider distribution reissue, which features remixes of the title track and "Fast Car" and the song "Please Please (Listen to Me)" was replaced with a track called "Jack's Got a Problem."

List of the band's recordings that were featured on compilations:

1. 1978: "Giving it All" - The Best of Bomp Volume One (Bomp! Records)
2. 1979: "Drive" - Waves Anthology Vol. 1 (Bomp! Records)
3. 1993: "Song of the Universe" - Yellow Pills Volume One (Big Deal Records)
4. 1993: "Giving it All" and "Yellow Pills" - Shake It Up! - American Power Pop II (1978-80) (Rhino Records)
5. 1995: "Remember the Lightning" - Into the Anxious 80's (Risky Business)
6. 1996: "Drive", "Screaming", and "Under the Freeway" - The Roots of Powerpop (Bomp! Records)
7. 1997: "Day After Day" Come and Get It: A Tribute to Badfinger (Copper Records)

Here is an example of a song from the LP Look Out!:

And an example of a song from the Sex Trap album:

Fun fact: They performed on American Bandstand at least once and Chris Silagyi's sister, Denise (whose YouTube username is djsmontanes) went to see the band  perform live in the late 70s/early 80. "My husband refused to dance when they did their set, so I had to dance with my sister." Denise said in a comment to the video "20/20 - Tonight We Fly". "The camera guys would not shoot us cuz we were the same sex! I was so pissed." Dick Clark let them dance together to avoid and controversy but it was not allowed to be shown on TV. You can look for the comment here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSAO6aOwDRU

*Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon.com and opinions based on what I've learned from reading these sources.*