Phil Gernhard was one of the most important people in Florida popular music. Most people don’t know his name, because he was a behind-the-scenes guy – a record producer – but in the 1960s and ‘70s, he logged more national Top Ten songs that anyone else from the Sunshine State.
And he did most of it from right here in Tampa Bay.
Before Lynyrd Skynyrd or .38 Special, Tom Petty or Gloria Estefan came the Royal Guardsmen, a band of teenagers from Ocala. In 1966, their “Snoopy vs. the Red-Baron” (produced and co-written by Gernhard) went to No. 1 in many countries around the world…