James Donna looked up the long flight of stairs as he headed to the upper level of The Hub of Jordan, a local coffee shop and general store.

“I remember hauling the heavy equipment to play up here,” he said as he neared the second level, where he and fellow band members of The Castaways played to huge audiences in the 1960s.

Donna, now 77, then stood, gazing at the flooring and a smallish stage with its red velvet curtain – emotionally reminiscing about his younger days with the nationally famous band and the overall impressive Minnesota music scene.

“It all looks so much the same,” he said about the dance hall that was once known as Jordan Teen Town. “It was so crowded, so crazy, so much fun. It was an amazing time.”

Donna is a resident of Sand Creek Township near Jordan, where he lives with his wife, Jane. They have two adults sons, Joel and Jeffrey. Donna has put together a 232-page paperback called “Liar, Liar: From Garage Band to Rockstars, The story of Minnesota’s Castaways in the 1960’s.” It’s being published this week.

The book documents a time when the band largely used one major hit song to rise from its garage-band status to one that was working with such impressive and renowned musical groups as The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, The Lovin’ Spoonful and The Animals, and playing for crowds estimated at 20,000.

The Castaways hit “Liar, Liar” topped rock ‘n’ roll charts in 1965 and was later used in several movies. Its popularity and the band’s talent also earned them tour dates across the county and television appearances, including on American Bandstand.

“Who would have imagined it all? With the book coming out and all the publicity, it’s bringing back a lot of memories,” Donna said. “It doesn’t seem like that long ago, and yet again, it does.”

PANDEMIC PROJECT

Donna, who continues to lead The Castaways, thought for years about writing a book about the group.

“I kept thinking for decades that I wanted write a book, but family, career, you know, good things, kind of got in there,” he said. “I had this huge cardboard box in my office for years and it had lots of Castaways stuff in there – pictures, contracts, letters, fan mail. It had fantastic resources for a book.”

During the pandemic, Donna considered writing a book – about real estate, not the band. A friend suggested otherwise.

“He’s going with me to a CD release party in St. Paul and we’re talking and he asks me why I’m writing a book about real estate when I should be writing one about the band,” Donna recalls. “Well, he was right. Two years of writing, editing, research and interviews and it’s done.”

While Donna chronicles his band’s blossoming and fame, he wants to make sure readers pay attention to the overall theme – one that showcases the amazing music/dance hall tenor from the 1960s and the many talented musicians from the area.

“The book is a celebration of Minnesota bands that were very successful; a celebration of our national hit record; a celebration of the golden age of rock and roll – the 1960s,” he said. “It will shed a little light on what the music scene was back then.”

The book includes recollections about Twin Cities venues Mr. Lucky’s, the Prom Ballroom and Danceland Ballroom, and about other popular local bands. It includes comments from Al Jardine, a founding member of The Beach Boys, as well as quotes from other famous groups who shared the stage with The Castaways.

MUSICAL FAMILY

Donna, who came from a musical family, chuckled a bit when talking about how he got his start in his music career; from taking piano lessons from nuns to stuffing a bulky organ from his family’s home in northeast Minneapolis into the trunk of a 1957 Chrysler for an audition with The Castaways in Richfield in the early 1960s.

“I was enamored with rock and roll; it was intriguing and thought I’d like to play in a rock and roll band,” Donna said, dating himself by mentioning his transistor radio. “A lot of Minnesota kids had that dream. I was fortunate that mine came true a few years later.”

Donna got the chance to meet one of his idols, Jerry Lee Lewis, at Excelsior’s Danceland Ballroom. He saw Lewis and his band behind the ballroom and introduced himself, adding that he played piano. Lewis offered him a sip of whiskey, which Donna declined, in part because he was only 17.

After Lewis’ show, Donna got a chance to go on stage, where he again spoke with Lewis and asked him if he could teach him how to play the song “Great Balls of Fire.” Lewis did and Donna proceeded to go home and “pound out” the song on a piano in the family’s basement until about 3 a.m.

THE CASTAWAYS

Donna joined The Castaways in 1963 and the group, which played mostly cover songs, was routinely playing at pizza places, dances and other smaller venues, he said. The next year, they were growing in popularity and even played at the Prom Ballroom when The Everly Brothers were headlining a show.

“There were hundreds of bands around at that time,” Donna said. “By the time 1965 rolls around, we realized we needed to have a record. If you didn’t have a record on the air in the Twin Cities, you really weren’t going to go very far.”

Donna was at his parents’ house when he says he just started putting down some chords and lyrics, which eventually became the hit song, “Liar, Liar.” The group’s drummer, Dennis Craswell, had stopped in and helped write the song. Even Donna’s sister, Joanne, contributed a few lyric ideas.

“It all came about in about two hours,” Donna recalled, adding that the lyrics are not personal to him. The repeating chorus is: “Liar, Liar, pants on fire. Your nose is longer than a telephone wire.”

When asked where the lyrics came from, Donna said: “It came out of cyberspace. I don’t know where it came from. There was no girl who broke my heart back then; no personal situation. It was just something we created.”

The song received rave reviews at local dances and it was later recorded. It began getting air time on Twin Cities radio stations and eventually throughout the country, where it reached No. 1 in Minnesota, and on both coasts.

“Driving around the Twin Cities and hearing that song on the radio just blew me away,” Donna said.

It wasn’t long before the band was touring the country and sharing stages with industry-leading musical groups. A highlight was being the opening act before about 20,000 fans for an 18-act show at the Cow Palace in California in the fall of 1965.

“We’d gone from playing at Jordan Teen Town to touring with The Beach Boys and leading a show headlined by Sonny & Cher and The Lovin’ Spoonful, packed with thousands of people, all in a relative short amount of time,” Donna said. “That was a crazy time.”

RESURGANCE

The touring ended and the fame dissipated until producers wanted to use “Liar, Liar” in the 1987 movie “Good Morning Vietnam” and other productions, Donna said. “There was a bit of resurgence there.”

“It kind of broke my heart when I had to go back to school, finish my education and enter the corporate world, but it was the right thing to do,” said Donna, who spent most of his career as a real estate appraiser.

But he did reorganize the band in the 1970s and has since been playing at local festivals, county fairs and other events. He is the only original member with the band.

Roy Hensley, an original band member (bass guitar) of The Castaways, died in 2005. Two other original members, Craswell (drums) and Bob Folschow (guitar), both still perform as well. The group has been inducted into rock ‘n’ roll halls of fame in Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa.