On January 9, 1965, the Novas debuted their seminal recording, “The Crusher.” For better or worse, it followed the tradition of novelty records breaking out of Minneapolis.

230 lb. lead singer Bobby Nolan (age 17) lived on 44th Street, just over the St. Louis Park line in Edina.  The band had been previously known as the Avons.  Other members were Ted Berquist (bass); Jeff Raymond (drums); and Ross Ingram (lead guitar).

Rod Eaton says that the song was recorded at the original Dove Recording Studios in St. Louis Park before the studio moved to Bloomington. Darold “Arv” Arvidson was the engineer — he hated the recording. It was the studio’s first session. The record was turned down by SOMA, and the Heilichers really kicked themselves for that when it took off when distributed on the Parrot Label (same as Tom Jones).

It reached number 88 on the charts, appearing on the radar for three weeks, peaking on January 16, 1965. Apparently some in-fighting resulted in this genuine masterpiece not reaching #1. See a great interview here.

Leave it to Doug Spartz to find Bobby Nolan, who recreated his masterpiece as he was inducted into the Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame on April 27, 2007.

THE MILWAUKEE MAULER

The real Crusher was wrestler Reggie “The Crusher” Lisowski (July 11, 1926 to October 22, 2005), who hailed from Milwaukee and performed on “All Star Wrestling,” straight from the Calhoun Beach Hotel on Channel 11.

Alas, the Crusher died in 2005.