Rare Earth
Band Members Included:
PETE RIVERA - Lead Vocals, Drums (Sunliners)
GIL BRIDGES - Sax, Flute (Sunliners)
KEN JAMES - Keyboards
JOHN PARRISH - Bass, Trombone (Sunliners)
ROD RICHARDS - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals (Sunliners)
ED GUZMAN - Percussion
RAY MONETTE - Guitar (replaced Richards)
MARK OLSON - Keyboards (replaced James)
...and numerous others through 1979 when they gave it up
Quite a prolific, popular and long-lived band and a Detroit area favorite
(they starting out in Lansing as the Sunliners in the very early part of
the decade, at which time the band contained Fred Saxon (Kotenko)

AS the Sunliners they had the distinction of opening for the Beatles
Detroit appearance in 1966 and were rumored to posses a performing
repertoire of over 500 songs, although they were as much, if not
more of a Roostertail-type nightclub lounge act as they were a
pure rock band. Even though they signed to Motown's new rock
subsidiary in 1968 (with both taking the same name in the process )
and were produced by a handful of notables including Detroit guitar
wizard Dennis Coffey among others, Rare Earth's psychedelicized
renditions of their favorite Motown tunes haven't aged near as well as
even Vanilla Fudge's similar mutations (go ahead, play all 21 minutes
of "Get Ready"...you'll understand).

It's hard to tell if these guys wanted to be the Temptations, Young
Rascals, Three Dog Night or possibly Blood Sweat & Tears (or all in
one) but despite a string of modestly successful records that wandered
the territory of those influences during the early seventies, musically
they made little impact at the time and even less of a lasting
impression. RIP.
House Band
Jerry Schoenith introduces his house band
the Sunliners to Motown Executives.
Special Thanks to JerrynSchoenith and the Roostertail Detroit