Jim Overton is the Business Manager for the Original Rhondels.  He handles all of the money, any personnel issues, and helps with bookings & contracts.  He also oversees the sale of CDs and Band memorabilia and travels with the Band.

Jim started taking drum lessons at the age of 6 from Joe LaCassio who, along with other members of his family, played in the orchestra at the Gaiety Theatre on Main Street in Norfolk.  Jim played the drums at several charity benefits in Norfolk and the surrounding area, and he was billed as a nine-year-old drummer sensation on the front page of the Virginian Pilot, playing for the Joy Fund Jamboree in 1941 at the Norva Theatre in Norfolk.

Jim continued playing the drums in grade school where he was excused from class every Wednesday morning to attend and play at the high school assembly. He and several others had a small band that played at all high school functions. While at college he played at all of the school dances as well as  functions at Wake Forest, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, NC

Jim had always loved to dance so when he graduated from college he packed up his drums, put them in the attic, and started going to the Top Hat, the Mecca, the "Little Casino", (later known as the Peppermint Beach Club), the Oaks Inn, Rouges Gallery and many other night clubs to dance and to listen to the "New Rave" BEACH MUSIC.  It was during this time that Jim first met Bill Deal when Bill was a teenager playing at school proms, community centers and at most of the night clubs in the area.  Jim soon fell in love with the Band's music and would always be in attendance whenever the Rhondels were in town.

Im 1992, Bill asked him to become the Business Manager of the Band, then known as BILL DEAL'S RHONDELS or THE ORIGINAL RHONDELS.  He started traveling with the Band at this time. Bill and he decided to co-produce the CD "Spinnin' in 2002.  When "Spinnin" came out in June of 2003, it was an immediate success as was the CD "Toast of Virginia Beach", that Bill and Ammon had produced a few years earlier.

"When Bill died on December 10, 2003, Bill's wife, Barbara Deal, asked the members of the Band and me to carry on the Band and continue to play in Bill's name", Jim says.   "They unanimously agreed to do so, and the Band has been playing and entertaining ever since.”

Jim has been the key figure in the longevity of the Original Rhondels, seeing the band through the good times and the bad.   He is truly the manager that every band dreams of!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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