Cashman & West

Though best known for producing the classic hits of singer/songwriter Jim Croce, the team of Terry Cashman and Tommy West also enjoyed successful performing and composing careers in their own right. Cashman was born Dennis Minogue in New York City on July 5, 1941; while playing minor league baseball in the Detroit Tigers' farm system during the late 1950s, he simultaneously fronted the Chevrons, scoring a handful of minor pop hits and even appearing on American Bandstand. However, as both his baseball and performing careers waned, in 1964 Cashman joined the promotions staff of ABC Records; there he eventually teamed with songwriter Gene Pistilli to author the lovely "Sunday Will Never Be the Same," a Top Ten pop hit for Spanky and Our Gang during the summer of 1967. In time the duo joined forces with fellow tunesmith Tommy West, born Thomas Picardo, Jr. on August 17, 1942. Like Cashman, West began his career as a performer, co-founding the New Jersey-based vocal group the Criterions in 1958; after a handful of unsuccessful singles, they adopted the name the Troubadours. West concurrently attended Villanova University, joining the collegiate vocal club and befriending fellow member Croce. As Cashman, Pistilli, and West, the threesome recorded a series of singles and a pair of LPs, 1967's Bound to Happen and the following year's For Love of Ivy, to little notice; under the name the Buchanan Brothers, however, they notched a hit in mid-1969 with "Medicine Man." Meanwhile, at West's urging, Capitol signed his old friend Croce and wife Ingrid to a record deal; Cashman, Pistilli, and West also produced the resulting LP, 1969's Approaching Day, but when the record failed to generate much interest, the Croces were dropped from their contract. Soon after, Pistilli dissolved the...