Orleans

Orleans’ best album is arguably “Waking And Dreaming”. The album was written almost entirely by John Hall and his then wife Johanna. The exceptions being; “The Bum” (Wells Kelly) and “Spring Fever” (Larry Hoppen, Marilyn Mason). The lineup for this album consisted of members:

Larry Hoppen, lead singer, songwriter and multi Instrumentalist of the soft rock group Orleans, passed away on July 24th, 2012. Hoppen, who’s brothers Lance and Lane were members of the group was 61. A distinctive, high ranged voice that blended well with the groups harmonies, Hoppen was the signature voice in the band. Following is a telephone interview with Larry from 2010:

Larry Hoppen also performed and/or recorded with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Livingston Taylor, Lulu, Graham Parker, Blues Traveler, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, Michael Franks, Levon Helm, the late great Michael Brecker, the late great Chet Atkins, the late great Artie Traum, John Sebastian, Bela Fleck, Felix Cavaliere, Edgar Winter, Robbie Dupree, Spencer Davis, Rick Derringer, Mark Farner, John  Ford Coley, Jimi Jamison, John Cafferty to name a few.\

Orleans is an American pop-rock band best known for its hits “Dance with Me” (1975), “Still the One”, from the album Waking and Dreaming (1976) and “Love Takes Time” (1979). The group’s name evolved from the music it was playing at the time of their formation, which was inspired by Louisiana artists such as Allen Toussaint and the Neville Brothers. Orleans was formed in Woodstock, New York in January 1972 by vocalist/guitarist/songwriter John Hall, vocalist/guitarist Larry Hoppen and drummer/percussionist Wells Kelly. In October of that year, the group expanded to include Larry’s younger brother, Lance, on bass. Drummer Jerry Marotta joined in 1976, completing the quintet.

Drummer Wells Kelly first met John Hall, an in-demand session player and member of the group Kangaroo, in the late 60s when he played with him in a group called Thunderfrog and later played on John’s first solo album, Action, released in 1970. In 1969 Wells joined the first incarnation of a band called King Harvest, who would have a hit a few years later, in 1973, with the song “Dancing In The Moonlight”, a song written by Wells’ brother, Sherman Kelly, and first recorded by Boffalongo, a group Wells joined in 1970 after leaving King Harvest.

Hall and his wife, Johanna, had just gained notoriety when their song “Half Moon” had appeared on their friend Janis Joplin’s posthumous album Pearl. Larry Hoppen, who grew up in Bayshore, Long Island but relocated to Ithaca, NY to attend college in the late 60s, was also a member of Boffalongo with Kelly. In December 1971, Wells was asked by Hall to move to Woodstock to join his band. John Hall, who had recorded and toured with Taj Mahal and Seals and Crofts, at the request of producer/pianist John Simon, had decided to relocate there to be close to Bearsville Studios and the musical scene there.

After a swing through Europe playing guitar behind Karen Dalton on a Santana tour, Hall decided to start his own band in Woodstock. After months of playing the Cafe Expresso with different rhythm sections, Hall called his old friend Wells Kelly (son of Cornell’s Dean of Architecture) in Ithaca and asked him to join his group. Multi-instrumentalist Kelly accepted the offer on the condition that he play piano. For a brief time, the band consisted of Roy Markowitz on drums, Bill Gelber on bass, and Kelly on electric piano. When Markowitz and Gelber left the band, Wells told John about his former bandmate from the Ithaca-based Boffalongo. Hall encouraged Kelly to call Larry Hoppen, who accepted the invitation to join the new group, christened Orleans by Wells, in late January 1972 and for months they would play as a trio, often switching instruments during the show.

Larry’s 17 year old brother, Lance Hoppen, was brought into Orleans around Halloween 1972 to play bass, freeing up Larry to play more guitar and keyboards.

Orleans found its core audience touring the clubs and college circuit of the northeastern United States, crossing paths with other up-and-comers such as Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits and Hall & Oates. Rolling Stone magazine called Orleans “the best unrecorded band in America”. Showcase performances in New York gave rise to a recording contract with ABC Dunhill Records and the release of the eponymous debut album in 1973, which had been recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama with producers Roger Hawkins and Barry Beckett at the helm.

The group’s second record, Orleans II, recorded at Bearsville Studios, was originally released in Japan and Europe in 1974 but ABC declined to release it in the US since they felt there were “no hit singles” on the album and dropped them from the label. Orleans II was finally put out in America in 1978, combined with the first album, as a double LP called Before the Dance. It was also released as a CD in Japan in the 1990s under its originally slated title Dance With Me.

However, it was not until Orleans was heard at Max’s Kansas City, then produced, by Chuck Plotkin, then head of A&R for Asylum Records, that the band scored its first Billboard Hot 100 charting with “Let There Be Music”(#55), taken from their third album, Let There Be Music, released in March 1975.

The follow-up single, “Dance With Me” (reshaped and re-recorded from Orleans II with Plotkin at the helm), brought Orleans to No. 6 on the pop charts and into the mainstream of American pop music. Atypical of the high-energy, earthy, R&B/Rock n’ Roll mix of styles they had been previously identified with, “Dance With Me” cast the band in a more “soft-rock” light and landed them a tour with Melissa Manchester.

While recording their next album, Waking and Dreaming, in the spring of 1976, the group was joined by second drummer Jerry Marotta, freeing Wells Kelly up to sing more and play keyboards.

It was the smash hit “Still the One”, from Dreaming (released in August 1976), that cemented Orleans’ relationship with the American public. While the single was climbing the charts to a peak position of No. 5, the band did a major cross-country tour with label-mate Jackson Browne.

In early 1977, however, internal stresses and disagreements over material and musical direction prompted guitarist/songwriter Hall to announce his intention to leave the band in search of a solo career. “Still the One” was chosen as the theme song for the ABC television network (the parent of ABC Records). Since then, it has been used for numerous commercials and movie soundtracks. The follow-up, “Reach”, peaked at No. 51 in March 1977 and Hall left the band in June 1977 after touring commitments were satisfied. Marotta departed not long afterwards to join Hall and Oates and eventually moved on to Peter Gabriel’s band.

After several months of mulling things over and working with other musicians (Larry joined Jerry Marotta in the backing band for Garland Jeffreys while Kelly worked with the Beach Boys), the Hoppen brothers and Kelly decided to continue on in late 1977, bringing in new members R. A. Martin (vocals, sax, horns, keyboards) and Connecticut musician Bob Leinbach (vocals, keyboards, trombone), who’d played with Larry Hoppen during the Ithaca years and had completed a stint with the group The Fabulous Rhinestones. The new lineup signed a contract with the Infinity Records label and their debut there, Forever (April 1979), produced the No. 11 hit “Love Takes Time”. In 1979 Orleans continued to tour with artists such as Stephen Stills and Chicago. Collectively, the three Orleans’ hits have been aired over 7 million times.

In 1980 Infinity went bankrupt after a proposed deal to record an album with Pope John Paul II (who was on a tour of the US in the fall of ’79) fell through. Infinity was absorbed into MCA Records, who failed to promote their next album, simply titled Orleans. This last, recorded in Woodstock, featured only the Hoppens and Wells Kelly as Orleans since the others had left earlier in the year. Nonetheless, the album featured guest appearances from all past members, including John Hall, who was in the process of forming the John Hall Band with Leinbach as a member. Orleans was produced by Englishman Robin Lumley, mixed at Trident Studios in London and featured Lumley’s friend, Phil Collins, contributing backing vocals to a track.

After their 1980 release, the group added Dennis “Fly” Amero (guitars, vocals), keyboardist Lane Hoppen (brother of Larry and Lance) and drummer Charlie Shew (at that time going under the pseudonym Eric Charles) to play alongside Wells Kelly then replace him when he left by early 1981 to relocate to NYC.

Orleans then signed with the fledgling Radio Records and recorded their next album, One of a Kind, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the summer of ’82. The album (released in September 1982) included brand new band member Michael Mugrage replacing Amero on guitar at the request of the album’s producers Don Silver and Ben Wisch. Jerry Marotta briefly rejoined the band to play on the album but was replaced by drummer Nicholas Parker after its release. But Radio, likewise, went bankrupt just as One of a Kind was hitting the record store shelves.

Now without a record label, Orleans struggled in the early 80s, playing mostly small clubs in the Northeast and at this same time, Larry and Lance formed a side group, Mood Ring, with Bob Leinbach, Nicholas Parker, singer/songwriter Robbie Dupree (of “Steal Away” fame) and various others who drifted in and out, to play for fun, mostly at parties and clubs. Mood Ring played some club dates in 1984 billed as Robbie Dupree and Orleans (As of the late 2000s, Mood Ring have reconvened to do occasional concert dates).

But after a tough two-week stint in Bermuda in July 1984, Larry lost his voice one day into the gig due to a combination of air-conditioning and high humidity. After this, he returned to his home in Woodstock and decided to take some time off to allow his voice to heal.

In the meantime, Kelly went on to join Steve Forbert’s Flying Squirrels in 1981 and also played with Clarence Clemons and the Red Bank Rockers before joining Meat Loaf’s Neverland Express in 1983. While on tour in England with Meat Loaf, Wells was found dead on the front stairs of a London flat he was staying at on the morning of October 29, 1984, after a night of too much partying.

Wells Kelly’s untimely death was the catalyst for a reunion of Hall and the Hoppen brothers. John and Bob Leinbach joined Larry up in Ithaca to play at a memorial for Wells (Lance had been unable to make the wake due to another commitment). Then in 1985, through the Halls’ connections in Nashville, the reunited lineup of John Hall, Larry Hoppen, Lance Hoppen and Bob Leinbach relocated there and by 1986 Orleans had cut the Grownup Children album, with guest appearances from heavyweights like Chet Atkins, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Bela Fleck, under the direction of famed Nashville producer/MCA label chief Tony Brown. During their Nashville period, the band added bassist Glen Worf and drummer Paul Cook (who was eventually replaced by Tommy Wells) for concert dates.

By 1988, John and Larry began to realize that, while Nashville was a great place for them as songwriters, it was not so accommodating to Orleans’ career as a band. They decided to relocate their activities back to Woodstock, NY and brought in New York native Peter O’Brien on drums. Lance decided to stay in Nashville to work on sessions and writing and was no longer available for all Orleans’ gigs, so bassist Jim Curtin joined to be Lance’s sub, as needed, between 1989 and 1994.

Orleans slowly re-established their presence in the Northeast over the next couple of years. In 1990 Robbie Dupree approached them to make a live album, mostly for their growing fan base in Japan. Two shows at Woodstock’s Bearsville Theater were recorded, as the group was joined by Lance, Bob Leinbach, Paul Branin (sax, guitar) and special guests: Rob Leon, John Sebastian and Jonell Mosser.

The double Orleans Live CD set came out in Japan in February 1991, followed in April by their first trip to perform in Japan (with a lineup of John, Larry, Lance, Leinbach, O’Brien and Paul Branin). 1993 saw the American release of Orleans Live: Volume 1, a single disc CD version and the first release on the band’s own Major Records label. Live Volume 2, featuring the rest of the show, was soon to follow.

Still without a “traditional” label in the USA, Orleans recorded a new album, Analog Men, for the Japanese label Pioneer. It came out there in 1994 and was followed by a return to Japan for more shows. Later that year, Orleans played at Woodstock 94, which was right in their backyard, in Saugerties, NY. Bob Leinbach once again rejoined the group for this show and continues to make occasional guest appearances with them.

The following year found them touring as an acoustic trio (John, Larry and Lance). While most of the venues were small listening clubs, the real highlight of ’95 was being the opening act on the Can’t Stop Rockin tour with Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar.