The Phaetons (with Alan Axelrod, Bobby George, Lee Grayson, Gerard Kenny and Tony Martino) signed with Warner Brothers and released three obscure singles: "Where Are You" (Warner 5892, 1967), "3 Weeks, 4 Days, 15 Hours" (Warner 7082, 1967) and "You Better Come Home" (Warner 8055, 1968). Long a local headliner, The Phaetons worked a grueling schedule attempting to hit it big on the other side of river. Gerard Kenny recalled one fan from The Daisy, in Amityville. "This kid used to come in every night we played there, he stood at the edge of the crowd and watched every set. One night, he didn't show and we asked the club owner where he was...he tells us that the kid killed his parents and had been arrested. He turned out to be The Amityville Horror kid!"

Kenny recalls mostly tough times, "My brother, Michael, was in the ST4. They pretty much covered Beatle songs and did them really well. They had a big following. I came home from this interminable tour, and I was wiped out...I'm in a big deal band playing originals on a national label, with records produced by Jerry Ragavoy, and so what--big deal--I'm not making any money! Here's my kid brother, playing Beatle covers in local bars, driving a new convertible, that he bought on his income, with chicks hanging out the sides...I was doing something wrong." The Phaetons finally succumbed.

Kenny moved through a succession of groups until "I got tired of the business. There was this bad attitude coming out of the city, "Oh, it's only the Island...etc." Also, I was affected by what appeared to be a lack of interest in original music. I was not willing to jump in line and play in a copy band. Moving to Europe was a good move for me. Over here, Billy Joel was doing his thing and over there, I was doing a Billy Joel thing, too!" And quite successful. Gerard Kenny released several albums and hit singles on European RCA, co-wrote Barry Manilow's smash, "I Made It Through The Rain" (Arista 0566, 1980) and was Alan Jay Lerner's last collaborator. Their musical adaptation of the classic film, "My Man Godfrey," was mounted for a Broadway run.

There were hundreds of popular bands moving up from the garages into paying gigs, some also landed recording contracts. The Battle of The Bands Competition, operated by the State Parks Department, played a pivotal role in the growth and exposure of developing talent. Gerard Kenny, of The Phaetons, remembers them as often cut-throat, "Other groups used to steal our equipment. I lost four amplifiers, a few microphones and only God knows how much cable..."

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