Wednesday, February 24, 1988/The Battalion/Page 3
t
State and Local
&M games announcer
ings about ‘Aggie girls’
| n K
By Tom Eikel
Staff Writer
I wish they all could be Texas Ag-
te girls?
It’s not the Beach Boy’s, or even
avid Lee Roth, but it’s a song top
ing the charts in Bryan-College Sta-
lon.
“Texas Aggie Girls” is Derrick
Irubbs’ remake of the Beach Boys’
it tune “California Girls,” and is
ne of the most popular songs in
>wn, according to Jay Kelley, a disc
jckey at local radio station KKYS.
“It’s without a doubt the most re-
uested song we’ve had this week
. morning, afternoon and night
we can’t play it enough,” Kelley
titl.
Grubbs, home-game announcer
[or the A&M baseball team, said he
adn’t anticipated the success of his
reation.
“1 don’t know how long it will last,
ut I’m glad to see people are enjoy-
it,” he said. “The reason 1 did it
as just to play this at the ballpark
etween innings.”
The song made its debut Feb. 13,
tthe Aggies’ double header against
ubbock Christian University.
Grubbs said his biggest thrill so
ar came when he heard someone
equest his song on the air.
“That was the first time it hit me
[hat people liked this thing,” he said.
KKYS began playing “Texas Ag-
ie Girls” Feb. 15, and the next day it
as the number one song on the sta-
’s “Top Fast Five at Eight” poll,
nd has been number one since.
Kelley is host of this program in
I'hich the station opens its phone
lues at 7 p.m. for listeners to phone
i the names of their favorite songs,
fhe results are tallied and the top
five songs are announced at 8 p.m.
Kelley said “Texas Aggie Girls” has
leen getting around 30 or 40 votes
lei night, enough to keep it in the
lumber one spot.
“Texas Aggie Girls” is an idea that
[ame about rather spontaneously.
Grubbs said he was driving
[hrough campus early last fall, listen-
Wtothe song “California Girls” on
liscar radio, when he came up with
he idea.
“It was between classes and there
fere a lot of girls walking around,
pd they looked so good ... I just
Started thinking California girls
nothing, it’s Texas Aggie girls — so I
tarted singing T wish they all could
>eTexas Aggie girls,’ ” he said.
Grubbs’ lyrics stayed in the back
Photo by Katherine E. Matzinger
Derrick Grubbs originally wrote “Texas Aggie Girls,” a rewrite of
“California Girls,” to play at baseball games at Olsen Field.
of his mind for a few weeks before
he actually began to write the song.
“Baseball season was coming up,
and like I said, I’m always wanting to
come up with a new gimmick, so I
thought what the heck, I’ll rewrite
the lyrics, it’s only two verses.”
Grubbs called his friend Tommy
Smith, a local musician, about put
ting a band together to record his
version of ‘California Girls.’ Smith
suggested they instead contact David
Cooper, who runs Brasswind Re
cording Studio in College Station, to
get a prerecorded instrumental ver
sion of the song, and then add their
own vocals, which they did.
The tape, however, had on it the
vocal chorus T wish they all could be
California girls.’
“If we were going to record this,
we had to override that chorus with
‘Texas Aggie girls,’ so we needed an
other voice,” he said.
To solve this problem, Grubbs ■
called in the vocal services of Mark
Davenport, a friend and former
band member with Smith.
“We went into the studio one
Pilot who crashed in storm
didn’t have proper license
EL PASO (AP) — The pilot of
a private plane that crashed last
week a block short of a residential
neighborhood apparently was
breaking an honors system by fly
ing an airplane for which he was
not licensed, an official said.
Donald McCoy died along with
two passengers in the crash of his
twin-engine Aero Commander
680 Friday. McCoy was licensed
to fly only single-engine planes,
Armond Edwards, National
Transportation Safety Board in
vestigator, said.
McCoy also Was licensed to fly
only in clear weather, Edwards
said Monday. Nevertheless, the
55-year-old pilot and business
man tried to take off in snow and
fog from El Paso International
Airport.
He flew about three miles be
fore narrowly missing rush-hour
traffic on Interstate 10 and slam
ming into the highway’s access
road near a gas station and a row
of houses. He also flew low over a
motel on the other side of the in
terstate.
Not enough air safety officials
work at the airport to check
whether each pilot is qualified,
Edwards said.
“There is no way of checking a
pilot’s certification every time
they take off,” he said. “It’s not
the control tower’s responsibility
to check every pilot, either. Even
if the air-traffic controllers did
ask, all a pilot had to do is lie.”
Officials check a pilot’s license
when an incident or accident calls
for it, Edwards said.
In addition to discovering that
McCoy was not licensed to fly the
twin-engine plane he crashed, or
to tty on instrument readings, of
ficials also found that McCoy s
medical certification had expired.
“This is very rare,” Edwards
told thefT Paso Times by phone
from his Fort Worth office. “Most
pilots are very conscientious
about safety. Very rarely do our
investigations find pilots flying
something they aren’t licensed
to.”
McCoy, a licensed pilot since
1962, had no previous problems
or accidents, according to federal
records.
McCoy, who was carrying his
secretary, Rosa Linda Puentes,
31, and her son, Jesus Aaron
Puentes, 11, had just taken off
when he radioed the tower to re
port trouble with his landing
gear.
Negotiations reduce discrimination
night, and I sang my part,” he said.
“Then Mark went in and he sang all
the high, middle and low parts of all
the chorus, and then Tommy went
in and did a little bit.
“Then, the last thing, I went in
and added all the whoops.”
Their combined efforts, with
Grubbs as lead vocalist, were then
mixed with the instrumental track to
create the finished product.
“One thing led to another, and I
thought well, what the heck, I’ll call
the radio stations and see if they
wanted to play it and possibly plug
the next home baseball game too,”
he said.
“I’ve heard them do it a few times,
so it’s payed off.”
After the song began to take off
and people began to ask where they
could buy a copy, it became a busi
ness proposal, he said.
Cassettes are being produced with
“Texas Aggie Girls” recorded on
both sides, and are being sold at a
few local record and bookstores for
$4.30.
AUSTIN (AP) — The initial ses
sion of negotiations aimed at ending
alleged racial discrimination in the
Texas Department of Public Safety
was positive, participants said.
“We made substantial progress,”
Gary Bledsoe, president of the Aus
tin branch of the National Associa
tion for the Advancement of Col
ored People, said. “There were no
thumbs down to any of the demands
placed on the table.”
Bledsoe said a report on Monday’s
discussions would be given to the
state Public Safety Commission on
Thursday. A second meeting be
tween DPS and NAACP officials has
been scheduled for the first week in
March.
Gerald Carruth, DPS chief of le
gal services and negotiator for the
department, agreed with Bledsoe.
“We made real progress . . . we
opened the lines of communications
and both sides have a better under
standing of what is needed,” Car
ruth said.
Grover Hankins, general counsel
for the NAACP, said he was encour
aged “by the department’s will
ingness to negotiate.”
Among state troopers attending
the meeting was Michael D. Scott,
36, of Houston, who has tried unsuc
cessfully for several promotions in
his 14 years with the DPS.
Scott and other black officers said
they have been wrongly denied pro
motions and transfers and have been
subjected to discriminatory remarks
by supervisors and other of ficers.
They also allege that they have
been kept out of the elite Texas
Rangers and subjected to other dis
criminatory acts.
Inmate appeals Thursday execution date
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — Attorneys
for death row inmate Gary Graham,
convicted of fatally shooting a man
during a robbery in a Houston gro
cery store parking lot, filed an ap
peal Tuesday for a stay to halt his
scheduled execution.
Attorney Doug O’Brien said he
filed a petition with U.S. District
Judge David Hittner of Houston.
Hittn^r was on jury duty Tuesday
and had'not issued a ruling in the
case, he said.
Graham, 24, is scheduled to die by
injection before dawn Thursday for
the May 1981 shooting death of 53-
year-old Bobby Grant Lambert of
Tucson, Ariz.
Graham, who was 17-years old
when convicted of capital murder, is
expected to get a stay because this is
the first round of appeals in the fed
eral courts, said Robert McGlasson,
director of the Capital Punishment
Clinic at the University of Texas Law
School.
Graham’s victim was robbed of
less than $100, although police said
the victim had $6,000 on him.
O’Brien’s petition asks the court
to grant a stay pending a decision by
the U.S. Supreme Court in an Okla
homa case that people who commit
capital crimes when under the age of
18 should not be executed.
His appeal also is based on a case
involving Texas death row inmate
Donald Gene Franklin, which argues
that jurors are not allowed to hear
mitigating circumstances when con
sidering punishment. Arguments it ■
that case are scheduled before the
high court March 1.
Allegations of ineffective counsel
during trial also are being raised by
O’Brien.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Mon
day rejected appeals by three other
Texas death row inmates —Jeffrey
Griffin, Federico Martinez Macias
and Noble Mays. None of them have
execution dates scheduled.
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