St. Petersburg lawyer creates 1966 novelty hit with local band

In the late 1960s, the popularity of the Peanuts comic strip created a cultural moment that record producers in Florida sought to exploit. Sixty years ago this week, a song pairing the character Snoopy with the World War I fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen began dominating AM radio.

The track, titled "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron," was performed by the Royal Guardsmen, a group of teenagers from Ocala, Florida. It sold one million copies before Thanksgiving in 1966. The song reached No. 2 on the national charts, staying out of first place only because of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer." It topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand, where the word "bloody" was bleeped for being a curse word.

The record was produced by Phil Gernhard, a law student at Stetson College of Law in St. Petersburg who had grown up in Sarasota. Gernhard had previously produced work for local garage bands, including the Tropics and the Sugar Beats. He recalled a song by Louisiana musician Dick Holler, titled "The Red Baron," which had never received a proper recording. Gernhard wrote down as much of Holler's lyric as he could remember from a Stetson class and added verses featuring Snoopy.

Holler, who lived in North Carolina, approved the adapted lyrics. Gernhard's other bands rejected the track, calling it bubblegum pop. Before a performance in Tampa, Gernhard presented the song to the Royal Guardsmen, instructing them to keep it simple with a military feel on the snare drum. Singer Chris Nunley and keyboard player Billy Taylor said the band initially planned to mock the song with a corny performance.

The band's lead vocalist, Barry Winslow, noted that they were a rock band and did not usually perform candy pop. Gernhard preferred their hup-two-three-four arrangement and took the group to Charles Fuller Studios in Tampa for recording. Gernhard spent two weeks encouraging the musicians to have fun with the track. Nunley, who studied German at the University of Florida, suggested starting the record with a shouted German introduction.

Gernhard negotiated a deal with Laurie Records in New York. He worried that Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, might sue for copyright infringement because the song used Schulz's character without permission. To protect his investment, Gernhard and Holler wrote a backup version called "Squeaky vs. the Black Knight." This alternate version was released in Canada and some northern US states but was quickly pulled from shelves because it did not sell.

Schulz later learned of the song's success and flew to California to meet Gernhard. They agreed on a financial arrangement where Schulz received more per single sold than the producer, writers, and musicians combined. Gernhard used the proceeds to quit law school and open a production office in St. Petersburg. The Royal Guardsmen continued to release Snoopy sequels until 1969, a period the band members described as frustrating due to the record label's insistence on further novelty material.