About Quarterflash

Quarterflash is a pop-rock group best known for the 1981 hit "Harden My Heart". The band was lead by vocalist/saxophonist Rindy Ross and her husband guitarist Marv Ross. Guitarist Jack Charles, keyboardist Rick DiGiallonardo, bassist Rich Gooch and drummer Brian David Willis rounded out the line-up. Initially known as "Seafood Mama", the group gained a strong local following playing bars and nightclubs in Portland, Oregon. In the spring of 1980, Seafood Mama recorded Marv's song "Harden My Heart" on a private record label. The single received considerable air play on Portland radio stations. Signed by a then young label, Geffen Records, the group released their first album, "Quarterflash", in 1981. The label's marketing organization had urged getting rid of the "Seafood Mama" name, so the first album was self-titled. (The new name came from an coloquial Australian refence to new immigrants as "one quarter flash and three parts foolish".) A new version of "Harden My Heart" was recorded and released; and rose to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album reached number 8 on Billboard's Top Albums, and sold over a million copies, earning RIAA gold certification on February 5, 1982, and platinum status on June 29, 1982. Their follow-up single from the album, "Find Another Fool", reached #16. Quarterflash released their second album, Take Another Picture, in 1983. It reached #34 on Billboard, and scored the single "Take Me to Heart", which reached #14. The group released their final album, Back Into Blue, in 1985. It peaked at #150 in Billboard, and group disbanded after getting dropped from their record label. In 1991, Marv & Rindy Ross were awarded a commision by the state of Oregon to produce a stage musical based on diaries of migrants on the historic Oregon Trail. From that project came a nine disc collection of traditional Americana music, recorded as The Trail Band. "Harden My Heart" still receives air play on "Classic" rock radio.