Remembering Mike Tronco and the beach music sounds of Columbia’s The Sensational Epics

James “Mike” Tronco shared a stage with the likes of James Brown, Gladys Knight and The Drifters while helming The Sensational Epics, a band at the heart of Columbia’s robust music scene in the 1960s.

He was a “happy-go-lucky guy,” described by one friend as a South Carolina Frank Sinatra. His voice led hits including “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” and “You warp my mind, girl.”

Tronco died Wednesday. He was 75 years old.

Tronco was not originally supposed to be the lead singer of The Sensational Epics, recalled Gene Lee, a former band mate. But when the would-have-been singer’s father sent him to a military academy, Tronco auditioned to replace him.

It was the beginning of what would become a 50-year music career with “The Epics,” spanning the early 1960s through 2017.

During that time the band would play with some of the biggest names and press multiple records with producers including Warner Brothers Records.

But before they made it big, they were known as a party band for high school dances and fraternity parties. They were “kind of a start the party kind of thing,” Lee said. They had nine members with skills ranging from saxophone to trumpet to the keyboard.

They played “beach music,” a warm and upbeat rock n’ roll. Think “Under the Boardwalk” by The Drifters or Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).”

Beach music existed for, or because of, a fast-paced, wobbly-legged dance called the shag, explained Rick Wrigley, a long-time Columbia radio DJ whose station put on many shows where Tronco’s band was featured. (The shag is South Carolina’s state dance.)

The typical attire of “a shagger” as Wrigley described them, was Bass Weejuns penny loafers, gant pants and madras shirts.

At the time, these kinds of bands were all over the Southeast. If you wanted to be a successful one, you needed to find a way to stand out.

Tronco was a natural fit for such a task.

He’d often join the crowd in the middle of a set and dance the shag or invite fans to sing along into the microphone.

“Mike, he liked the ladies,” Lee said with a laugh. “He would often get down there and let them sing parts with him or shag with them.”

The fans enjoyed being part of the show, Lee said. “If you let them sing a little bit, give them the thrill, it made the people like him more.”

As they gained recognition and started releasing their own music, The Sensational Epics would be invited to play at Grand Strands and radio station festivals. They were a mainstay at the Columbia fest, Woody with the Goodies Hoparoonies, hosted by Columbia’s WCOS station manager Woody Windham.

And they knew how to put on a good show, said Wrigley, who was a DJ at WCOS.

“It was very high energy,” Wrigley said. “Their stage routine was very, very athletic. They would dance on the stage, they’d leap over each other, they’d do pyramids.”

But the choreography was never practiced. It was just what came naturally to the exuberant troupe.

“We kind of made it up as we went along, whatever felt good, worked good, we would do it the next time,” Lee said.

During one particularly inebriated show, saxophonist Fred Perry impulsively leapt over another member.

“We thought we’d add that to the group. It got to where we were stacking ‘em up three high, and he was jumping over,” Lee said.

Tronco himself was a comic. He loved attention and was usually telling a joke or carrying on about something, Lee said.

The 1960s were a whirlwind for the band. In their touring years, the band would play across the Southeast on the Chitlin Circuit, a string of venues known as safe places for Black musicians to perform during Jim Crow.

But by the decade’s end, the music was changing.

“By the ‘70s, everything was psychedelic. I just decided I could not play that music. I think most of the guys felt the same way.” Lee said. “Mike was the first one to say, ‘I can’t do this.’”

The men parted professional ways. They played with other bands, got jobs, had children. But decades later, in 1999, the group met again to play a Dreher High School reunion.

After a few practices, Tronco was ecstatic to get the band back together.

“He felt like we really hadn’t lost a beat,” Lee said. The others agreed. The band played together for another 20 years, doing shows at the Blythewood Beach Bash and the Newberry Opera House, among others.

Wrigley couldn’t remember a time in recent history when the band didn’t sell out a show.

In 2014, The Sensational Epics were inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Awards Hall of Fame.

Five of the band’s original members, including Tronco, have died. They include Ken Campbell, Bill deLoach, Jim Anderson and Jim Brazelle.

Lee described the band as more of a brotherhood, helping each other through hardship and lifting each other up in success.

“What can you say, you have a very good friend, and then all of sudden he’s gone,” Lee said. “It’s just a void in your life.”

Tronco has an online guestbook at dignitymemorial.com, via Dunbar Funeral Home, where friends can share memories. Music by The Sensational Epics can be found on Youtube. Lee maintains a Facebook page called Music Therapy of a Generation, where he posts photos and clips of the band in their heyday.