Big Mike was formed in New York circa 1995 By the singer/songwriter duo John Tucker and John Fanelli (vocals) along with their friend and bandmate Mike Morel on lead guitar.
They weren’t really a formal band until they moved to San Diego and hooked up with a drummer and bass player (Seth Bennett and Gus Kendrick respectively) and started playing club and party gigs.
Sometime shortly after hooking up with Seth and Gus, Tucker asked if the band could turn some of my poems into songs. I happily said yes and soon became their manager/lyricist.
After I was on board, Mike Decker, my younger brother and guitarist, joined the band as well. The group of us spent many golden hours together, drinking beer and writing songs. We were together about 2 years and released one album called Heaven’s To Betsy, named for John Fanelli’s sister who financed it.
Directly below this are links to the songs I wrote lyrics for. Below those are more Big Mike tunes that I was not involved with. Feel free to rip any or all of them. Please note, Mike Decker played lead guitar only on songs marked with an asterisk.
CLICK HERE FOR LYRICS AND LINER NOTES
Decker lyrics:
Foreboding*
Cozy Life*
Carmen *
Tobecca*
Succession
Sonora*
Elephant Love – live at Winston’s*
Rhythm Boy – live at Winston’s *
Fanelli/Tucker lyrics:
Melancholy
Nature Boy
Blue Angel
Road
Looking Glass
Lucky Guy*
For years I’ve been looking to find what happened to this band! I bought this album after hearing them play at Grossmont College about ten years ago (98 maybe 99) and it has yet to leave my CD player for any significant amount of time! If any of these guys are still playing I’d love to know where.
Okay, this is gonna sound really dumb, but I have to tell you this story.
Growing up, my dad was in the Navy and I never got to see him all that much. Whenever he came home he’d take my mom’s Maroon 5 or Frank Sinatra album out of the car and put this in, and for the next week while he was here he’d drive around with this album on infinite repeat. When he died, I rooted through his stuff ’til I found it, and now it’s in my car too.
I just want to say this is one of my favorite albums of all time, that I know every word to every song, and that I can’t describe how much this album means. I know I’m starting to sound like a girl here, but you guys rock. My dad loved you, I love you, I love this CD. Sorry if this comment seems stupid.