The Untouchable were a five piece all girl rock band founded in 1965 in Princeton, New Jersey who instantly gained notoriety and worked steadily, first in Princeton and later across New Jersey, to Philadelphia and New York City. They were together from ’65 to ‘69.
Founding members, Molly York, Dodie Pettit and Sheri Oman first formed a folk trio on acoustic guitars in 1964 which quickly changed to a rock band (with the inspiration of The Beatle’s success) in 1965 consisting of Dodie playing lead on electric Guitar, Molly bass guitar, Sheri lead vocals, recorder, and tambourine, Dodie’s sister, Kathy Pettit on drums and completing the band, Geri Lombardo on rhythm guitar.
Beginning gigs were mostly free. “Battle of the Bands” at Princeton High School and Princeton Hospital Fete. This instantly introduced them to the local scene and the much-coveted jobs at the Princeton University Clubs on Prospect Avenue. Before the year 65-66 passed, The Untouchable were working almost every weekend.
Notable Gigs and TV Show appearances from ‘66-‘69 include The 1966 Prince Tiger Dance, Princeton University with Jr Walker and the All Stars, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, The Lemon Pipers, The Critters and Lester Lanin and his Orchestra ; Jerry Blavat’s TV Dance Party, The Zachery TV Show, and Ed Hurst’s Aquarama TV show.
Later in ‘67-‘68 they performed at The Palace Theater, Broadway, Central Park and Bryant Park for Helena Rubinstein events; and several times at The Electric Circus on St Marks Place opening for such acts as: The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd & Deep Purple. During this time they also were one of the opening acts for The Beach Boys at Rider College.
A new bass player, Jeanette Huber, joined the band replacing Molly York in 1967 just as The Untouchable gained a new management company, Koppelman & Rubin, in New York. Koppelman & Rubin were the managers of The Lovin Spoonful, Barbra Streisand and The Turtles, who had big hit records at the time. Koppelman and Rubin then paired up the girls with producer John Boylan to record original songs “Toll Booth” and “Sounds of Happiness/ Way to Fly” for single release under a new name chosen for them “Calliope”. Sadly, the band broke up in early 1969 before their big single “debut” could happen.
