#9: You Gotta Have Love by Robbie Lane & the Disciples

City: Saint John, NB
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: September 1966
Peak Position in Saint John ~ #9
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “You Gotta Have Love”
Lyrics: N/A

The Disciples were formed when Robbie Lane held auditions with members of various local bands in greater Toronto during the early sixties. By the summer of 1963 the lineup was Lane, Domenic Troiano on guitar, drummer Sonny Milne, Marty Fisher on piano, bassist Gene Trach, Bert Herriston on sax and flute, and William Cudmore on harmonica, sax and keyboards. After toiling away in the club scene their big break was when Ronnie Hawkins hired them in December of ’63 as a back up plan, since he knew his Hawks were intending to leave the nest.

The Disciples played upstairs at The Hawk’s Nest, Ronnie Hawkins’ nightclub, while The Hawks played downstairs at the Le Coq D’Or. Ronnie Lane played with both bands during the night. When The Hawks left and changed their name to The Band, there were two sides to The Disciples. They were the new version of The Hawks when playing with Ronnie Hawkins, but also kept their own identity recording purposes.

Ronnie Lane and the Disciples settled into this lineup: guitarist Terry Bush, drummer Doug Copeland, harmonica player William Cudmore, keyboardist Paul Denyes, vocalist Robbie Lane, tenor saxophonist Paul Mifsud, and bassist Gene Trach. They recorded three singles and their b-sides with as The Hawks on Ronnie Hawkins Hawk Records label in 1964. These were “Got My Mojo Workin’”/“Let The Good Times Roll,” “Bluebirds Over The Mountain” with “Diddly Daddy” as the B-side, and “Little Red Rooster” with the B-side “Goin’ To The River”.

Their first two singles under their own name was also on Hawk Records, “Fannie Mae”, also in 1964. The single peaked at #11 in Peterborough (ON), and #17 in Toronto. Dominic Troiano  left the group to form The Rogues, later, Mandala, then Bush, and then joined the James Gang, and later the Guess Who. Dominic Troiano also had a successful solo career.

Troiano was replaced by Terry Bush. Born in Toronto in 1942, Terry Bush is the son of Canadian artist John Hamilton “Jack” Bush. During his time at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Terry met with other musicians at the original ‘Blue Note’ on Yonge Street. He joined the house band called The Silhouettes. Later, Robbie Lane approached Bush about joining his band, which at the time was backing Ronnie Hawkins. He played with “The Hawk” until June of 1965.

Robbie Lane & The Disciples released “Ain’t Love A Funny Thing” in 1964, which was produced by Ronnie Hawkins. It reached #16 in Toronto. In 1965,”Sandy” and “Where Has Love Gone” were minor hits. While “Tiger In My Tank” was not so successful.

Robbie Lane & The Disciples landed a TV advertisement jingle deal to help promote Baby Ruth chocolate bars. The song was so catchy that Riley used a stripped down version of the band that featured Lane, Bush, Trach and Shearer to record it as an instrumental single, releasing “Baby Ruth” under the pseudonym of The Butterfingers in 1965 on Red Leaf Records. That same year Hallmark Records approached Lane to record another single on their label under the Butterfingers name, and their second single, “Look What’s New” was released.

In 1966, Robbie Lane & The Disciples had a #10 pop hit on the Canadian RPM Top 100 singles chart.

By 1966 the Robbie Lane band were hired as the house band for a CTV-TV Show, called It’s Happening.

Terry Bush wrote “You Gotta Have Love”. In the song a guy finally figures out there is more to just going to parties and making the scene. He figures out you have to connect with someone and get to know them. This has made him one happy guy.

“You Gotta Have Love” reached #9 in Saint John (NB), and charted into the Top 40 in St. John’s (NL) and Sault Ste. Marie (ON).

In 1967, a single “It’s Happening” was released. By the end of 1968, the band had folded. Robbie Lane continued for a time with It’s Happening. Then he worked on a solo album and travelled to Nashville. But the album was shelved. After an unsuccessful solo career in the mid-1970s, Robbie Lane (aka Robin Curry) and the band re-formed in the mid-1980s. According to Canadianbands.com, as of 2022, Robbie Lane was currently co-hosting “a weekly radio oldies program on 1050 CHUM in Toronto, while keeping the band semi-active doing club dates, mostly in Mississauga.” In 2009, Robbie Lane was on Zoomer Radio in Toronto, hosting an oldies show.

Jingles were originally a sideline, but slowly Terry Bush began writing and producing more commercials. After writing Baby Ruth with Doug Riley he began studying arranging and composition and by 1967 Terry had formed his own jingle company “Terry Bush Productions”. Terry composed and produced “Man That’s Coffee” for Maxwell House with the ‘Baja Marimba Band’ which they ended up recording as a single. He also wrote and sang, “Do You know What You’re Doing?” for the Council on Drug Abuse which went on to become a hit record. Very popular in the States, but it ended up being pulled off the Canadian airways because they thought it was promoting drugs. It did reach #48 on the RPM charts March 6, 1971. Other notable jingles were “I Adore my 64, my Commodore 64”, “I wanna go to the zoo, zoo, zoo” for the Metro Toronto Zoo and “Life in the city” for the opening of the Eaton Center in Toronto.

Around 1978, the producer for the T.V. series The Littlest Hobo approached Terry Bush to create a theme song for the show. Terry came up with “Maybe Tomorrow” as the theme tune for the show. For many decades, Terry Bush has also  taught guitar.

The Citizen Freak website reports that “Gene Trach transitioned into a career as a chiropractor. Sonny Milne became a publisher. Bert Hermiston thrived as a studio musician” and “William Cudmore joined The Majestics.”

March 23, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Robbie Lane & The Disciples,” Canadian bands.com, April 11, 2022.
“Robbie Lane & The Disciples,” Citizen Freak.com.