COOK, FRANK

Homebase: Wenatchee, WA
Stats: 1936 - 2012
Misc Notes:

FRANK COOK - WENATCHEE FAMOUS

Born in 1936 in Tonasket, Washington, Vern Franklin Cook moved to the Wenatchee Valley in 1958. Having started his musical career the year before in Lander, Wyoming  playing  stand up bass Frank soon secured a regular Wenatchee gig performing with Elson Burns at the Monitor Inn tavern in Monitor, Washington.

In September, 1958 Frank recorded his first 45 rpm single choosing area rock n' rollers The Furys to back him on the recordings. The Furys was composed of Chelan and Entiat, Washington high schoolers Kevin Woods (guitar), Glenn "Junior" Taylor (bass), Bill Franklin (drums), Jerry Ingram (piano) and Gary Gibson (sax). Frank and The Furys traveled to Seattle to the then state-of-the-art studio: Joe Boles Custom Recorders. There, as an obvious nod to then-popular singers with names such as "Buddy", "Ritchie", "Gary", and "Frankie," Frank signed the studio log book as "Frankie Cook." This was a far cry from the tried-and-true country musician he would become.

At Boles' studio Frank and the band recorded two songs, a twist adaption of the 1940 Johnny Mercer tune "Blues In The Night" and and an original of Frank's titled ("Wild Wild Horses) Couldn't Hold You." The record (Frank Cook #998) was distributed and sold in  the Wenatchee area  that same year with The Furys absent from any label credits. During the years following  Frank organized his most remembered group, The Night Raiders.  With Bobby Simmons (guitar) and Gary Coots (drums) the combo played for years as the house band at the Kiltie Room lounge in Wenatchee's Columbia (130 S. Wenatchee Ave.) Hotel.

In May, 1965 Frank Cook & The Night Raiders signed a contract with Seattle's Virgelle Records for a single (Virgelle #731). The A side of that disc was "When Two Wolds Collide." The B side featured "Going To Have Myself A Cry" which was co-written by Frank and fellow Wenatchee-ite Bill McClellan. A second 45 "What Your Leavings Done To Me" / "Touch My Heart " followed soon after on another Seattle area label. (Spur #105). By 1969 Frank Cook & The Night Raiders were still performing at the Kiltie Room as well as other area venues. That year the group released a 45 rpm record, "Just Wishing" / "People Ask Me" on Wenatchee's  Julian (#J-111) record label. The songs had been recorded at Tacoma, Washington's Wiley Sound Studio. A final  Julian single (#J-114) featuring "They Don't Pick Cotton In Chicago" and "Sailor's Lament"  was recorded at the same studio and released in April, 1971.

Cook used The Night Raiders moniker into the early 1980s. Then, in 1984 personnel changes  prompted adoption of the name The Frank Cook Band. Frank Cook performed throughout central Washington until 1996 when health issues forced his retirement from the stage. He died in 2012. [The preceding was adapted from an article by Dustin Hays which originally appeared in The Comet, Wenatchee, WA 2/27/2018]

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