Robert Hafner

Robert Hafner (August 4, 1932 - October 12, 2013) was a record producer and song writer who, along with Tony Hilder, was responsible for many of the surf records that came out in California in the 1960s including Vesuvius and Intoxica by The Revels. He also contributed to the music for the film The Exiles. Music historian and author Robert Dalley said that he had a definite place in Surf history.

Background

Hafner was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania in 1932. In 1939 the Hafner family moved to Los Angeles. While at high school he got his first guitar and later joined the high school jazz swing band. After quitting college and moving to New York he attempted to get into the Actors Studio, but ended up working as a painter. Following the deaths of his parents within a short time of each other, he ended up broke and on skid row. He then caught up with an old acquaintance and with his help he got into the music business, working as a songwriter and musical arranger. In 1969 he married in Idaho. In 1992 he and his wife Barbara moved to Chicago to be closer to her parents.

He died of heart failure Sunday, October 13, 2015 at Centegra Memorial Medical Center in McHenry, aged 81. He was survived by his wife of 44 years, Barbara, and his daughter Celeste.^[1] At the time of his death, he had lived in Lake County for 30 years.^[2]

Career

Music

In the late 1950s Hafner also worked with Los Angeles producer Earl Stone. It was reconnecting with this old acquaintance that he was able to work with The Revels.^[3]

In 1961 Hafner and Anthony (Tony) Hilder provided the music for the film The Exiles.^[4][5]

The bands Hafner and Hilder worked with included a group called New Dimension. They never released any singles. The albums were released by a very small record label called Sutton who Hilder and Hafner had a deal with. These budget releases were packaged in generic sleeves and sent straight to shops to go into the cut-out bins and racks.^[6][7]

His composition Comanche was used for the film Pulp Fiction, which he found offensive as it was used as background music for a violent scene in the film. According to him, there was an idealistic angle to the song as it was about the plight of the American Indian.^[8] On September 10, 1998 Robert Hafner and The Revels filed a legal action against Disney, Miramax, MCA Records, and Universal Music Group for the use of the song in the film, which went to trial and Hafner won.^[9]

By the late 1990s he had stopped writing music and had since left the music business.^[10]

Film

In 1959, Hafner and Tony Hilder had small parts in the film The Hideous Sun Demon, a sci-fi horror film directed by Tom Boutross and Robert Clarke.^[11] During his life he wrote several screenplays and novels.^[12]

Compositions (selective)

• "The Day George Wallace Was Shot" by Bob Hafner and the Homesteaders, on release - "The Day George Wallace Was Shot" / "Brave Men Walk Alone" - Liberty Tree - (1972)
• "The Final Season" by Bob Linkletter, on release - "The Out Crowd" / "The Final Season" - (1965)
• "Surfin' Tragedy" by Bob Vaught and the Renegades, on release - "Exotic" / "Surfin' Tragedy" - GNP Crescendo GNP 193X - (1963)^[13]
• "Latin Soul", "Christmas Eve", by The Sentinals, release - "Latin Soul" / "Christmas Eve" - Era 3097 - (1962) (Side 2 co-written with K.C. Reeth)^[14]
• "Intoxica", "Comanche" by The Revels, release - "Intoxica" / "Tequila" - Impact 3-IMX - (1961)^[15]
• "Vesuvius" , by the Revels, release - "Vesuvius" / "Church Key" - Impact 1-IMX - (1960)^[16]

References