Mark Lindsay

Mark Lindsay was born on March 9, 1942, in Eugene, Oregon. He was the second of eight children. The family moved to Idaho when he was young.

Lindsay began performing at the age of fifteen with local bands. He was tapped to sing in a band called Freddy Chapman and the Idaho Playboys after he won a local talent contest. After Chapman left the area, Lindsay saw the other band members and a new member, Paul Revere, playing at a local I.O.O.F. Hall. He persuaded the current band to allow him to sing a few songs with them. The next day he was working at his regular job at a bakery when Paul Revere came in to buy supplies for a hamburger restaurant that he owned. This chance meeting began their professional relationship.

Lindsay became lead singer and saxophone player in a band with Revere and several others. He suggested they call themselves "The Downbeats" after a magazine with the same title. They made some demo tapes in 1960 in Boise, Idaho, and signed with a record company called Gardena Records. Paul Revere and the Raiders scored their first national hit with the piano/sax instrumental "Like, Long Hair" which peaked at #38 in the Billboard charts on April 17th, 1961. The group began dressing in Revolutionary War-style outfits. Mark Lindsay carried the theme a bit further by growing his hair out and pulling it back into a ponytail, which became his signature look.

Lindsay hosted a Saturday afternoon TV show called "Where the Action Is."

By 1968, Lindsay had completely taken over the writing and producing tasks for the group. Paul Revere & the Raiders had a revolving cast of band members, with only Revere and Mark Lindsay remaining in the group since its inception. Dick Clark created another show, "Happening 68", which was to be hosted by Paul Revere and Mark Lindsay and feature the group. The group itself was featured prominently in this show. Happening '68 premiered in January 1968. The show was so popular that the group also hosted a daily version over the summer of 1968, called It's Happening. Happening '68 survived into 1969, at which point the name of the show became Happening. The show was canceled in October 1969.

Mark Lindsay had some success with such songs as "Arizona" (Billboard #9--Gold single) and "Silverbird" (Billboard #25) in 1970 [4]. He recorded "Indian Reservation", a song written by John Loudermilk years earlier, to be a solo recording, but the decision was made to release the song under the name "The Raiders" and it went on to be the only number one song in the group's history. He continued to chart solo singles throughout 1970-71 ("Miss America" (#44--May 1970), "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind" (#44--November 1970), "Problem Child" (#80--January 1971), "Been too Long On the Road" (#98--June 1971) and "Are You Old Enough" (#87--October 1971)[5]. Lindsay kept his profile up by appearing on The Carpenters television variety show Make Your Own Kind of Music, as well as singing the themes to films Something Big (1972) and Jody, the theme from Santee (1973-credited to The Raiders).

According to a Rolling Stone interview (conducted in 1985), Lindsay left The Raiders because "there was a contractual thing I didn't agree with, and I just stopped." Lindsay continued to record solo singles for a few years (for Warner Bros., Elka and Greedy) before retiring from performing to serve as head of A&R for United Artists Records. He contributed to the recordings of artists such as Gerry Rafferty (on "Baker Street"), Kenny Rogers, and others. His accomplishments also included composing jingles for commercials (including Baskin Robbins, Datsun, Kodak, Pontiac and Levi's among others) and scores for motion pictures. He contributed both his voice and his musical compositions to advertisements for companies such as Yamaha, which used the music from "Silverbird" as the background to one of its commercials. He also composed music for the movies For Pete's Sake and The Love Machine, sung by Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick, respectively, and for a 1982 documentary, The Killing of America, as well as a song for the movie Savage Streets. In 1980 he dubbed a voice and co-wrote the musical score (with W. Michael Lewis) for the American version of the Japanese movie Shogun Assassin.

On November 11, 2006, "Mark After Dark" switched to FM webcast "K-Hits 106-7" KLTH Saturday nights 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. PST. On March 10, 2007, the program "Mark After Dark" changed its name to "Mark Lindsay's Rock & Roll Cafe" to refer to Lindsay's new restaurant, which opened to the public in Portland, Oregon, on August 27, 2007. The restaurant includes a remote studio where Lindsay does his radio show in front of restaurant guests and can be seen from the street and sidewalk. The studio is also used at times by other K-Hits air personalities.

On September 21, 2007, a federal lawsuit was filed against the new restaurant for the restaurant's allegedly unauthorized use of various trademarks owned by the Yaw family, who had operated a series of restaurants in the Portland area for many years.[7][8]

On May 12, 2008, "Mark Lindsay's Rock & Roll Cafe" announced its closure. [9]

Lindsay's recording of Treat Her Right with Los Straightjackets in 2001 was cited by Stephen King in his column for Entertainment Weekly in May 2008. "This remake of Roy Head's 1965 soul hit smokes. And Mark Lindsay sounds so good you just gotta wonder where he was all those years."

Lindsay married his second wife Deborah (née Brandt) on July 29, 1989, in McCall, Idaho. His first marriage ended in the early 1980's .