The Roots of R&B

While the polemics of The New Deal and the Cold War certainly shaped the American Century, it was American culture - and music in particular - that defined it. Jerry Wexler first coined the term "Rhythm and Blues" in 1948 during his tenure at Billboard magazine (Wexler later joined Ahmet Ertegün at his new Atlantic label). R&B's soulful synthesis of country, folk, blues, gospel, and jazz has made American music popular all over the world.

Touring a big band is an expensive affair, and with so many musicians called off to war in the 1940s, it became increasingly difficult to keep the larger swing bands together. Reforming in smaller outfits led to the development of the new styles of be-bop and jump blues. The backbeat and vocal harmonies of the latter would lead to R&B, Soul, Rock and Roll, and Funk.

The founding labels of R&B started in the 1940s: Savoy (1942), King (1943), Imperial (1945), Specialty (1946), Chess (1947), and Atlantic (1948). From these 6 labels came the Roots of R&B. This collection (compiled by Disky records, Netherlands) features 60 original recordings (mainly from the 1950s) from Bert Keyes & His Trio, Big Boy Myles & The Sha-Weez, Bobby Day, Bobby Mitchell & The Toppers, Camille Howard, Chuck Willis, Dave Bartholomew, Edna McGriff, Esther Phillips, Jesse Belvin/The Three Dots & A Dash, John Greer, Kidds, Little Sylvia, Lonnie Johnson, Nellie Lutcher, Ruth Brown, Sonny Til, Sonny Til/Edna McGriff, The Bees, The Blue Notes, The Buccaneers, The Clovers, The Crests, The Crows, The Dreamlovers, The Drifters, The DuPrees, The Ebonaires, The Enchanters, The Feathers, The Five Budds, The Five Keys, The Four Tunes, The Jets, The Metronomes, The Orioles, The Pelicans, The Penguins, The Platters, The Spaniels, The Three Dots & A Dash, and The Wrens.

Roots of R&B - Volume 1

1. Crying in the Chapel - The Orioles
2. I’ll Hide My Tears - The Jets
3. Going Down Town - The Five Keys
4. All That Wine Is Gone - Jesse Belvin/The Three Dots & A Dash
5. You’re Nobody till Somebody Loves You - The Ebonaires
6. You Broke My Heart - Kidds
7. I Went to Your Wedding - Little Sylvia
8. I’ve Lost - The Enchanters
9. No One to Love Me - Big Boy Myles & The Sha-Weez
10. Darling Please - The Bees
11. Are You Forgetting Me - Kidds
12. Shake ‘Em Up - The Feathers
13. I Love You So - The Crows
14. Earth Angel - The Penguins
15. I Want Her Back - The Five Budds
16. Give Thanks - The Platters
17. Ring-a-Ding-Doo - Esther Phillips
18. Hey Miss Fannie - The Clovers
19. Fine Brown Frame - Nellie Lutcher
20. Dear Don - The Metronomes

Roots of R&B - Volume 2

1. Sixteen Candles - The Crests
2. Blue Heaven - Little Sylvia
3. Why Oh Why - Edna McGriff
4. Feeling Sad - Big Boy Myles & The Sha-Weez
5. Ain’t Gonna Do It - The Pelicans
6. Gee - The Crows
7. Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight - The Spaniels
8. Be With the One You Love - Bert Keyes & His Trio
9. Stars Will Remember, The - The Buccaneers
10. Will You Remember (The Answer to Tomorrow Night) - Lonnie Johnson
11. Too Hot to Handle - The Blue Notes
12. I’ll Need You All the Time - The Platters
13. Good - Sonny Til/Edna McGriff
14. Baby You’re the One - The Ebonaires
15. Old Black Mule - The Three Dots & A Dash
16. Call a Doctor - The Crows
17. I’m Blue - Camille Howard
18. Bad Habit - Dave Bartholomew
19. Wedding Bells Are Ringing, The - Bobby Mitchell & The Toppers
20. Glory of Love, The - The Five Keys

Roots of R&B - Volume 3

1. Unchained Melody - Bobby Day
2. When We Get Married - The Dreamlovers
3. How Long - The Five Keys
4. I’ll Surrender Anytime - Edna McGriff
5. Chimes - The Pelicans
6. Baby - The Crows
7. Hey Now - The Platters
8. 5-10-15 Hours - Ruth Brown
9. My Story - Chuck Willis
10. Got You on My Mind - John Greer
11. I Love My Girl - The Metronomes
12. Lonely Wine - Sonny Til
13. Baby It’s You - The Spaniels
14. Can’t Keep From Crying - The Five Keys
15. Three O’Clock in the Morning - The Ebonaires
16. Step by Step - The Crests
17. You Belong to Me - The DuPrees
18. Come Back My Love - The Wrens
19. Marie - The Four Tunes
20. Money Honey - The Drifters

Bert Keyes biography by Bruce Eder:

When the history of New York City R&B is written, the name of Bert (or, sometimes, "Burt") Keyes shouldn't be overlooked — for much of its existence, Keyes was the music director of Rama Records, one of the earlier New York-based R&B labels to find national success. Keyes' career in music as a pianist began in the '40s with Ruth Brown, and in the early '50s he worked with jazz trumpeter Taft Jordan. Keyes got his first big break as an arranger in 1953, when George Goldner founded Rama Records, and Keyes became the A&R director, musical director, and arranger for the new label, handling such acts as the Five Buds, the Blue Notes, and the Larke Sisters. He cut a quintet of singles of his own as a pianist and bandleader for the label, most notably "I Was Such a Fool" and "Write Me Baby," all of it very solid R&B, but it was in his arranger and producer capacity that he shaped most of the label's output for much of its four years in business. He subsequently went on to serve as a pianist with LaVern Baker on Atlantic, and as an arranger and composer for numerous other labels, with artists who included Willie Bobo (on Verve) and Albert King before he made the jump to composing and arranging television and movie music (including Laurence Harvey's Welcome to Arrow Beach and the children's movie Hugo the Hippo) in the '60s and '70s. He continued to work in music well into the '70s, and beyond as well, including arranging music for Sylvia in her pre-disco comeback.

Bobby Day biography by Bill Dahl:

An important cog in Los Angeles' doo wop community during the '50s, Bobby Day wrote three often-covered early rock classics in 1957-1958. Day was part of the Hollywood Flames, one of the area's top R&B vocal groups, and briefly part of Bob & Earl, later to hit without Day on "Harlem Shuffle." Day formed his own group, the Satellites, in 1957, cutting the original "Little Bitty Pretty One" for Class Records. A nearly identical cover by Thurston Harris beat the original out, so Day countered with the driving "Rockin' Robin" in 1958, an R&B chart-topper. Its flip, "Over and Over," was a hit in its own right, although the Dave Clark Five's 1965 revival is better remembered today. Day waxed a few more hits for Class in 1959, including "That's All I Want" and a derivative "The Bluebird, the Buzzard & the Oriole," flitting from label to label during the '60s.

Bobby Mitchell & the Toppers biography by Bruce Eder:

Bobby Mitchell & the Toppers were part of the wave of New Orleans rock & rollers who followed in the wake of Fats Domino and Lloyd Price. Although the group had limited success (their best known song, "Try Rock 'n Roll," climbed into the R&B Top 20 nationally, and "I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday" was a smash in numerous localities without ever charting nationally) and broke up in 1954, Mitchell remained a popular figure in New Orleans R&B for 35 years.

Bobby Mitchell (August 16, 1935-March 17, 1989) was born in Algiers, LA, the second oldest of what were eventually 17 children in a family that made its living fishing the Mississippi River — Mitchell himself contributed to the family's well-being by cutting and selling wood. When he was ten years old, Mitchell got a job after school making deliveries for a liquor store, and it was while hanging around the store that he started singing — he was good enough then that people gave him nickels and dimes for his performances.

Mitchell played football in school until an injury sidelined him permanently, after which he joined the school chorus. By the time he was done with school, the music teacher was giving him solos on numbers such as "Ol' Man River" and "You'll Never Walk Alone." At age 17, he was in his first singing group, the Louisiana Groovers. By that time, Mitchell was falling firmly under the influence of R&B, most especially the sound of Roy Brown.

Mitchell wrote his first original song, "One Friday Morning," a doo wop-style ballad, which he cut as a demo with help from a teacher with a tape recorder (still a relative rarity in 1952). That tape got auditioned at a local radio station, and this led to the formation of a backing group called the Toppers, consisting of Lloyd Bellaire (tenor), Joseph Butler (tenor), Willie Bridges (baritone), Frank Bocage (bass), and Gabriel Fleming (piano). Vocally, they were influenced by acts such as Clyde McPhatter and the Dominoes, although they also listened to the records of Roy Hamilton and Nat King Cole. One factor that prevented them from coming up with a firmer direction of their own at the time was their youth — Mitchell was barely 17 at the time.

Eventually, they hooked up with producer Dave Bartholomew, and at his urging they cut some demos for Imperial Records. The group did as asked, but at the time it seemed as though it wasn't going to work out too well. The six of them were walking eight miles each day to the studio to practice with Bartholomew, and in the end Imperial only wanted Mitchell, until the singer insisted that it was all of them or nothing. Bartholomew relented, and in the meantime, the group had its first original song, "Rack 'Em Back," written by Joe Butler in response to the clowning on those long walks.

This became the B-side of their debut single, while a Lloyd Bellaire original, "I'm Crying," was the A-side. Released in May of 1953, it didn't sell well, although it was a beginning — Mitchell's voice was powerful and extremely expressive but quirkily uneven in the beginning, which made recording him tricky; the Toppers' singing was smooth, and the backing, by Lee Allen on tenor sax, Earl Palmer on drums, and Red Taylor on baritone sax (with Bartholomew on trumpet), was as solid as any rock & roll cut in New Orleans during that era. On stage in those early days, however, the group's instrumental backing was Gabriel Fleming's piano.

"I'm Crying" sold well in places like Cincinnati and Houston, but Mitchell and his group were unable to appear there to push the record any further, largely because of their ages and the fact that they were still required to attend school. Additionally, they weren't able to play any nightclubs even locally because they were underage, so they played high school dances, parties, weddings, and events at places like the American Legion Hall. Their recording career continued with more sessions resulting in classics such as "4x11 Equals 44," a rock tune built around a set of popular lottery numbers.

Mitchell had trouble juggling the requirements of a career with school, and the Toppers endured until early 1954, when they finally split up after a session that included two hot songs, the raucous "School Boy Blues," with its killer guitar intro by Justin Adams, and "Sister Lucy," the latter highlighted by a Lee Allen solo. "Sister Lucy" ended up as the B-side of a local double-sided hit with Bellaire's "My Baby's Gone"; "Sister Lucy" pulled in white listeners, while Bellaire's song reached the black stations and clubs.

The Toppers' breakup came about because of the military draft, which claimed the members as they turned 18. Lloyd Bellaire joined the Army, while Frank Bocage joined the Navy, and Joseph Butler and Willie Bridges joined the Air Force. They did cut one more session late in the year but essentially ceased to exist in the spring of 1954. Ironically, just at that moment "My Baby's Gone" and "Sister Lucy" became local hits. Mitchell and the Toppers were suddenly in serious demand, and with Gabriel Fleming he organized a new group called the King Toppers.

The local success of "My Baby's Gone" was never repeated nationally, and his next record, "Nothing Sweet As You"/"I Wish I Knew," failed to chart. Mitchell was inactive in the studio for 1955. He returned to recording early in 1956 with a song tailor-made for the period, "Try Rock 'n Roll," one of those tunes meant to exploit the now-popular music style and name. That record made it to number 14 on the Billboard R&B chart, although it did far better than that in certain cities, and Mitchell was now getting booked onto all-star shows as far away as New York and Los Angeles.

In 1957 Bartholomew received a song by a Cajun writer named Roy Hayes called "I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday" and gave it to Mitchell to record. It became a hit locally in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Kansas City, among other places, and got Mitchell a spot on American Bandstand. Mitchell also proved something of a surprise to promoters and disc jockeys in those cities where he'd never played before, because they assumed, on the basis of that record, that he was white.

Mitchell's sporadic success on Imperial ended in 1958, as the label dropped most of its New Orleans acts except for Fats Domino. He continued performing and recording, now trying to support a wife and her three children by a previous marriage. He signed with a succession of smaller labels in the early '60s, along the way working with Dr. John. By the mid-'60s, the couple had eight children and Mitchell's career had stalled. He still played shows in Houston and Mobile, but his records weren't selling — he was back with Imperial Records very briefly, and then returned to Rip Records, where he'd previously cut a couple of singles. Those sides for Rip and Sho-Biz were among the finest songs that Mitchell ever recorded, but were largely unheard.

A heart attack in the early '60s brought an end to his career on the road. Mitchell continued performing in New Orleans, where he remained a music celebrity for the next 29 years, performing regularly and eventually finding new recognition. Toward the end of his life, he also saw the first money from his original Imperial recordings with the release of a reissue LP, I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday. Mitchell became one of New Orleans' most visible and forthcoming '50s veterans. He passed away in 1989 after years of worsening illnesses, including diabetes, kidney failure, and two further heart attacks.

Many of Mitchell's early recordings were influenced by the dominant musical personalities of his day, including Roy Brown, Roy Hamilton, and, especially, Fats Domino, which was understandable since he shared the same producer and was on the same label. His voice had a distinct quality all its own, however, which became recognizable once he became comfortable in the studio. The Toppers, who ceased working with Mitchell after mid-1954, were a somewhat unpredictable group musically, mostly owing to their ages, and their sound was consciously derivative of numerous vocal groups of the period, especially the early Drifters. With Bartholomew's top session men backing them up, however, their records were solid New Orleans R&B at its best, and many of the records are classics of the sound from that era, if not on a par with those of Fats Domino then certainly residing on the level just below his and Lloyd Price's.

Camille Howard biography by Bill Dahl:

Piano-tinkling chanteuses were quite the rage during the war years. But Camille Howard's two-fisted thundering boogie style, much like her Los Angeles contemporary, Hadda Brooks, was undoubtedly the equivalent of any 88s ace, male or female.

Howard was part of the great migration from Texas to the West Coast. She was installed as pianist with drummer Roy Milton & the Solid Senders sometime during World War II, playing on all their early hits for Art Rupe's Juke Box and Specialty labels (notably the groundbreaking "R.M. Blues" in 1945).

Sensing her potential following the success of Milton's 1947 hit "Thrill Me" (with Howard's vocal), Rupe began recording her as a featured artist at the end of the year. Legend has it that Howard's biggest hit, the roaring instrumental "X-Temporaneous Boogie," was improvised at the tail end of her first date as a leader (its flip, the torch ballad "You Don't Love Me," was a hit in its own right).

Howard's vocal abilities were pretty potent too. Her "Fiesta in Old Mexico" was a hit in 1949, while "Money Blues," credited to Camille Howard & Her Boyfriends, registered strong coin in 1951. Howard cranked out storming boogies and sultry ballads for Specialty through 1953, then jumped from Federal to Vee-Jay before landing in Los Angeles for good. Howard's strong religious ties put a stop to her secular music career long ago.

Chuck Willis biography by Bill Dahl:

There were two distinct sides to Chuck Willis. In addition to being a convincing blues shouter, the Atlanta-born Willis harbored a vulnerable blues balladeer side. In addition, he was a masterful songwriter who penned some of the most distinctive R&B numbers of the 1950s. He can't be granted principal credit for his 1957 smash adaptation of "C.C. Rider," an irresistible update of a classic folk-blues, but Willis did write such gems as "I Feel So Bad" (later covered by Elvis Presley, Little Milton, and Otis Rush), the anguished ballads "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" and "It's Too Late" (the latter attracting covers by Buddy Holly, Charlie Rich, and Otis Redding) and his swan song, "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes."

Harold Willis (he adopted Chuck as a stage handle) received his early training singing at YMCA-sponsored "Teenage Canteens" in Atlanta and fronting the combos of local bandleaders Roy Mays and Red McAllister. Powerful DJ Zenas "Daddy" Sears took an interest in the young vocalist's career, hooking him up with Columbia Records in 1951. After a solitary single for the major firm, Willis was shuttled over to its recently reactivated OKeh R&B subsidiary.

In 1952, he crashed the national R&B lists for OKeh with a typically plaintive ballad, "My Story," swiftly encoring on the hit parade with a gentle cover of Fats Domino's "Goin' to the River" and his own "Don't Deceive Me" the next year and "You're Still My Baby" and the surging Latin-beat "I Feel So Bad" in 1954. Willis also penned a heart-tugging chart-topper for Ruth Brown that year, "Oh What a Dream."

Willis moved over to Atlantic Records in 1956 and immediately enjoyed another round of hits with "It's Too Late" and "Juanita." Atlantic strove mightily to cross Willis over into pop territory, inserting an exotic steel guitar at one session and chirpy choirs on several more. The strategy eventually worked when his 1957 revival of the ancient "C.C. Rider" proved the perfect number to do the "Stroll" to; American Bandstand gave the track a big push, and Willis had his first R&B number one hit as well as a huge pop seller (Gene "Daddy G" Barge's magnificent sax solo likely aided its ascent).

Barge returned for Willis's similar follow-up, "Betty and Dupree," which also did well for him. But the turban-wearing crooner's time was growing short — he had long suffered from ulcers prior to his 1958 death from peritonitis. Much has been made of the ironic title of his last hit, the touching "What Am I Living For," but it was no more a clue to his impending demise than its flip, the joyous "Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes." Both tracks became massive hits upon the singer's death, and his posthumous roll continued with "My Life" and a powerful "Keep A-Driving" later that year.

Dave Bartholomew biography by Al Campbell:

Dave Bartholomew is the multi-talented figure behind a majority of classic New Orleans R&B of the '50s and the self-proclaimed inventor of the "Big Beat." Bartholomew has over 4000 songs in his enormous catalog and is responsible for arranging and producing timeless records by Shirley & Lee, Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis, and especially Fats Domino. Bartholomew was born in Edgard, LA, on December 24, 1920. His first instruments were tuba and trumpet. He fronted several bands in the Crescent City before being drafted into the army. His military time brought scoring and arranging experience which came in handy following World War II. After his stint in the service, Bartholomew returned to New Orleans and put together a group of musicians that would comprise the bedrock of R&B in the city, including saxophonists Alvin "Red" Tyler, Lee Allen, and drummer Earl Palmer. This became the band that backed up the majority of solo talent traveling through New Orleans. Bartholomew led his first studio session under his own name in 1947 for Deluxe, but the label went out of business shortly thereafter and the sessions went unnoticed. In 1949, Bartholomew met Lew Chudd who was forming a new label, Imperial Records. Chudd hired Bartholomew as house arranger, bandleader, and talent scout, and he immediately started cranking out numerous hits through the '50s for Fats Domino, Shirley & Lee, Smiley Lewis, Earl King, Chris Kenner, Tommy Ridgely, Frankie Ford, Robert Parker, and a host of others. Bartholomew stayed with Imperial until the hits dried up in the mid-'60s, followed by short stays at Trumpet, Mercury, and his own Broadmoor label. In the '70s and '80s, he took various behind-the-scenes musical jobs while living off his many song royalties and formed a Dixieland jazz band that continues to play around the Crescent City. The '90s found Bartholomew being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and releasing two discs: Dave Bartholomew and the Maryland Jazz Band in 1995 and New Orleans Big Beat three years later.

Esther Phillips biography by Steve Huey:

Esther Phillips was perhaps too versatile for her own good, at least commercially speaking; while she was adept at singing blues, early R&B, gritty soul, jazz, straight-up pop, disco, and even country, her record companies often lacked a clear idea of how to market her, which prevented her from reaching as wide an audience as she otherwise might have. An acquired taste for some, Phillips' voice had an idiosyncratic, nasal quality that often earned comparisons to Nina Simone, although she herself counted Dinah Washington as a chief inspiration. Phillips' career began when she was very young and by some accounts, she was already battling drug addiction during her teenage years; whenever her problems took root, the lasting impact on her health claimed her life before the age of 50.

Esther Phillips was born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, TX, on December 23, 1935, and began singing in church as a young child. When her parents divorced, she split time between her father in Houston and her mother in the Watts area of Los Angeles. It was while she was living in Los Angeles in 1949 that her sister entered her in a talent show at a nightclub belonging to bluesman Johnny Otis. So impressed was Otis with the 13-year-old that he brought her into the studio for a recording session with Modern Records and added her to his live revue. Billed as Little Esther, she scored her first success when she was teamed with the vocal quartet the Robins (who later evolved into the Coasters) on the Savoy single "Double Crossin' Blues." It was a massive hit, topping the R&B charts in early 1950 and paving the way for a series of successful singles bearing Little Esther's name: "Mistrustin' Blues," "Misery," "Cupid Boogie," and "Deceivin' Blues." In 1951, Little Esther moved from Savoy to Federal after a dispute over royalties, but despite being the brightest female star in Otis' revue, she was unable to duplicate her impressive string of hits. Furthermore, she and Otis had a falling out, reportedly over money, which led to her departure from his show; she remained with Federal for a time, then moved to Decca in 1953, again with little success.

In 1954, she returned to Houston to live with her father, having already developed a fondness for the temptations of life on the road; by the late '50s, her experiments with hard drugs had developed into a definite addiction to heroin. She re-signed with Savoy in 1956, to little avail, and went on to cut sides for Federal and (in 1960) Warwick, which went largely ignored. Short on money, Little Esther worked in small nightclubs around the South, punctuated by periodic hospital stays in Lexington, KY, stemming from her addiction. In 1962, she was rediscovered while singing at a Houston club by future country star Kenny Rogers, who got her signed to his brother's Lenox label. Too old to be called Little Esther, she re-christened herself Esther Phillips, choosing her last name from a nearby Phillips gas station. Phillips recorded a country-soul reading of the soon-to-be standard "Release Me," which was released as a single late in the year. In the wake of Ray Charles' groundbreaking country-soul hit "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Release Me" was a smash, topping the R&B charts and hitting the Top Ten on both the pop and country charts. Back in the public eye, Phillips recorded a country-soul album of the same name, but Lenox went bankrupt in 1963.

Thanks to her recent success, Phillips was able to catch on with R&B giant Atlantic, which initially recorded her in a variety of musical settings to see what niche she might fill best. It was eventually decided to play up her more sophisticated side and accordingly, Phillips cut a blues-tinged album of jazz and pop standards; her string-laden remake of the Beatles song "And I Love Him" (naturally, with the gender changed) nearly made the R&B Top Ten in 1965 and the Beatles flew her to the U.K. for her first overseas performances. Encouraged, Atlantic pushed her into even jazzier territory for her next album, Esther Phillips Sings; however, it didn't generate much response and was somewhat eclipsed by her soul reading of Percy Sledge's "When a Woman Loves a Man" (again, with the gender changed), which made the R&B charts. Nonplussed, Atlantic returned to their former tactic of recording Phillips in as many different styles as possible, but none of the resulting singles really caught on and the label dropped her in late 1967.

With her addiction worsening, Phillips checked into a rehab facility; while undergoing treatment, she cut some sides for Roulette in 1969 and upon her release, she moved to Los Angeles and re-signed with Atlantic. A late-1969 live gig at Freddie Jett's Pied Piper club produced the album Burnin', which was acclaimed as one of the best, most cohesive works of Phillips' career. Despite that success, Atlantic still wanted her to record pop tunes with less grit and when their next attempts failed to catch on, Phillips was let go a second time. In 1971, she signed with producer Creed Taylor's Kudu label, a subsidiary of his hugely successful jazz fusion imprint CTI. Her label debut, From a Whisper to a Scream, was released in 1972 to strong sales and highly positive reviews, particularly for her performance of Gil Scott-Heron's wrenching heroin-addiction tale "Home Is Where the Hatred Is." Phillips recorded several more albums for Kudu over the next few years and enjoyed some of the most prolonged popularity of her career, performing in high-profile venues and numerous international jazz festivals. In 1975, she scored her biggest hit single since "Release Me" with a disco-fied update of Dinah Washington's "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" (Top Ten R&B, Top 20 pop), and the accompanying album of the same name became her biggest seller yet.

In 1977, Phillips left Kudu for Mercury, landing a deal that promised her the greatest creative control of her career. She recorded four albums for the label, but none matched the commercial success of her Kudu output and after 1981's A Good Black Is Hard to Crack, she found herself without a record deal. Her last R&B chart single was 1983's "Turn Me Out," a one-off for the small Winning label; unfortunately, her health soon began to fail, the culmination of her previous years of addiction combined with a more recent flirtation with the bottle. Phillips died in Los Angeles on August 7, 1984, of liver and kidney failure.

Jesse Belvin biography by Bruce Eder:

While not nearly as well remembered by the general public as either Sam Cooke or Otis Redding, singer Jesse Belvin was in many regards a performer of equal stature whose career was also cut far too short by tragedy. At the time of his death, Belvin was moving in the much the same direction as Cooke (he was even on the same record label, although signed earlier), and was scoring and writing hits long before Redding ever cut a record.

Jesse Lorenzo Belvin was born in San Antonio, TX, in 1932. When he was five, his family relocated to Los Angeles, and by age seven he was singing in church. He discovered R&B in his early teens, and in 1950 joined jazz saxophonist Big Jay McNeely's backing vocal quartet Three Dots and a Dash. Belvin's falsetto was placed up front in his debut release, 1950's "All the Wine Is Gone"; the response was so strong that on the group's next record, his name was placed directly under McNeely's on the B-side, "Sad Story." In 1952, Belvin and bandmate Marvin Phillips signed to Specialty. They cut four singles: the first three — "Baby Don't Go," "One Little Blessing," and "Love of My Life" — were credited to Jesse Belvin, and all failed to chart. The last, "Dream Girl," which featured Belvin on piano and vocals with Phillips on saxophone, was credited to Jesse & Marvin, and got to number two on the R&B charts in 1953.

Unfortunately, just as it looked like Belvin's career was going to take off, he was drafted. While home on leave, he wrote a song called "Earth Angel," inspired by a young white woman who lived near him. The song was subsequently recorded by a semi-professional doo wop quartet called the Penguins and became one of the first R&B singles to cross over onto the pop charts, selling a million copies between late 1954 and early 1955. (A lawsuit later erupted over the authorship and origins of the song, which took almost two years to settle; Belvin was awarded one-third credit for the song, alongside the Penguins' Curtis Williams and a third singer who had a claim to writing it.)

Belvin was a prolific songwriter, but his business approach was rather cavalier. In a period in which millions of dollars were sometimes earned on a carefully protected copyright, Belvin wrote songs as a way of raising quick cash and often sold them outright to others for as little as 100 dollars. The result was dozens upon dozens of songs that Belvin was responsible for as writer and singer on the demo or guide track, few of which he actually received credit for. In 1956, he signed a long-term contract with Modern Records, and also continued to sing for other labels under assumed names, working in the background with other artists. Some of the Modern releases were credited to the Cliques, which was really Jesse Belvin and Eugene Church, but most were credited to Belvin alone.

It was with Modern that he cut his most enduring record. "Goodnight My Love" had been written by producer George Mottola ten years earlier, but he had never been able to finish it; Belvin provided the lines for the bridge that completed the song, but asked for 400 dollars in lieu of co-authorship credit. Mottola didn't have it, but a colleague, John Marascalco, did, and put up the money, receiving co-authorship credit in the bargain. The song reached number seven on the R&B charts in 1956; curiously, the pianist on the recording was an 11-year-old session player making his recording debut named Barry White, who would emerge as a giant in his own right about two decades later. More important at the time, "Goodnight My Love" became the outro theme to Alan Freed's rock & roll radio show, heard by millions of young listeners every night.

Belvin cut ten singles for Modern, of which "Goodnight My Love" was far and away the most successful. In 1958, he was again on the move, recording for Knight, Class, and Jamie Records under his own name, as well as for the Aladdin label in association with the Sharptones. His biggest success that year, however, came through a group called the Shields, which had been formed by George Mottola to record on his own Tender label. Adding his voice to the mix, Belvin joined the group, which also included Frankie Ervin on lead and Johnny "Guitar" Watson on guitar. The Shields' only record with Belvin was "You Cheated," which had already been cut by a white group called the Slades; the Shields' version was the more successful, reaching number 15 on the pop charts in the summer of 1958.

Around this time, Belvin's career took a decided upswing, in part with help from his wife Jo Anne, a fine songwriter in her own right who became his manager and took charge of his career. One of the first results was getting him signed to RCA Records; his first big success for the new label came in April of 1959 with the Top 40 hit "Guess Who." He finished his first album, Just Jesse Belvin, later in the year, developing a more mature studio sound and a somewhat more sophisticated singing style as well. Like Sam Cooke, who would follow him on to RCA with similar goals a short time later, Belvin began to realize that he had the potential to cross over to adult white audiences while keeping his original fans as well. For its part, RCA saw in Belvin the potential for another Nat 'King Cole or Billy Eckstine: a powerful and charismatic performer; he had acquired the nickname "Mr. Easy" for his way with the ballads that increasingly made up his live sets.

In late 1959, with the encouragement of his wife and the support of producer Dick Pierce and arranger/conductor Marty Paich, Belvin went into the studio for three recording dates that yielded a dozen songs, among them intensely soulful covers of standards like "Blues in the Night," "In the Still of the Night," and "Makin' Whoopee." The band included Art Pepper on the sax and clarinet and Jack Sheldon on the trumpet, and the playing was extraordinary all the way around. Alas, Belvin never heard the finished album, Mr. Easy; on February 6, 1960, shortly after finishing a performance in Little Rock, AR, on a bill with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Marv Johnson, Belvin and his wife were killed in a head-on auto collision. Mr. Easy was released later in 1960, his final testament and an enduring legacy.

Big John Greer biography by Bill Dahl:

Never attaining the same glistening level of fame that fellow New York sax blasters Sam "The Man" Taylor and King Curtis enjoyed, Big John Greer nevertheless blew strong and sang long on a terrific series of waxings for RCA Victor and its Groove subsidiary from 1949 to 1955.

Greer was a childhood pal of future King Records producer Henry Glover. The pair attended high school together in Hot Springs and progressed to Alabama A&M College. Glover moved up quickly, playing trumpet and arranging for popular bandleader Lucky Millinder by 1948; when Millinder saxist Bull Moose Jackson split the aggregation to promote his blossoming solo career, Glover called his pal Big John Greer to fill Moose's chair. Greer's first record date as a leader was for Bob Shad's fledgling Sittin' in With label, but the great majority of his discography lies in Victor's vaults.

Initially recording as a singer/saxist with Millinder's unit for RCA, Greer stayed put when Millinder defected to King in 1950. That worked out nicely for Greer, who blew scorching tenor sax behind King stars Wynonie Harris (on "Mr. Blues Is Coming to Town" and "Bloodshot Eyes") and Bull Moose Jackson (on the incredibly raunchy "Nosey Joe"). Greer enjoyed his biggest hit as a vocalist in 1952 with the tasty blues ballad "Got You On My Mind" for RCA. The Howard Biggs-Joe Thomas composition attracted covers over the years from a mighty disparate lot, notably the Big Three Trio, Cookie & the Cupcakes, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Greer's RCA and (from 1954 on) Groove platters were of uncommonly high standards, even for the polished New York scene. But no more hits ensued ("Bottle It Up and Go" and "Come Back Maybellene" certainly deserved a wider audience) for the powerful saxist. Glover brought him over to King in 1955, but a year there didn't slow his slide. Booze was apparently taking its toll on Greer's employment prospects; by 1957, he was back in Hot Springs, through as anything but a local attraction. He died at age 48, forgotten by all but the most dedicated R&B fans.

"Little" Sylvia Robinson biography by Ed Hogan:

Singer/songwriter/producer Sylvia Robinson had two chart toppers: as half of Mickey & Sylvia with "Love Is Strange" and her own solo gold single, the sensuous "Pillow Talk." Through the All Platinum label with husband Joe Robinson, she was instrumental in the careers of the Moments (she produced and co-wrote their number one R&B single "Love on a Two Way Street") and several hits by various artists including Donnie Elbert, Retta Young ("(Sending Out An) S.O.S."), the Whatnauts, Brother to Brother, Linda Lewis, Shirley and Company, the Rimshots ("Super Disco"), and many others. During the '80s, the couple helped launch rap through their Sugarhill Records including Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and the seminal "Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. The grungy sound quality of All Platinum's releases was a sonic alternative to the more polished sounds of the '70s and a precursor to the grainier hip-hop sound of the '80s and 90s.

Born Sylvia Vanderpool on March 6, 1936, in New York City, she made her recording debut while a 14-year-old student at Washington Irving High School. Discovered by a talent for Columbia Records, she recorded blues with trumpeter Hot Lips Page. Later she recorded as Little Sylvia for Savoy. While recording for the Cat label, she met guitarist Mickey Baker who taught her how to play guitar. In 1956, 21-year-old Sylvia Vanderpool met RCA Records producer Bob Rolontz, who had already about her and singing partner Mickey Baker. Signing them to the label, Rolontz produced "Love Is Strange." Produced on October 17, 1956, "Love Is Strange" stayed at number one R&B for two weeks and went to number 11 Pop in early 1957. Other Mickey & Sylvia singles were the two-sided hit "There Ought to Be a Law" (number eight) b/w "Dearest" from spring 1957 and "Baby You're So Fine" from fall 1961. The duo can also be heard on Ike & Tina Turner's "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," which was number two R&B for two weeks in summer 1961. In 1962, Mickey Baker relocated to Paris. In 1964,Sylvia married Joe Robinson.

The Robinsons started their label, All Platinum Records, in Engelwood, NJ, in 1968. The label had its own eight-track recording studio, Soul Sound Studios. "Sylvia Talk" sat around a year and a half before it was recorded. Sylvia says she initially offered the song to Al Green, who took a pass. Sharing the session with Sylvia was drummer Yogi Horton, bassist Fred Pescod, guitarist Walter Morris, veteran arranger Sammy Lowe on keyboards (Lowe arranged several sides for the label), and Craig Derry on congas. The track was the debut release of the Robinsons' Vibration imprint. "Sylvia Talk" held the number one R&B spot for two weeks and made it to number three pop on Billboard's charts in spring 1973. Some of the label's hits, released on Stang, Turbo, Vibration, and All Platinum, included the Moments' "Love on a Two Way Street " (number one R&B for five weeks, number three pop), "Sexy Mama" (number three R&B), and "Look at Me (I'm in Love)" (number one R&B); Donnie Elbert's cover of Diana Ross & the Supremes' hit "Where Did Our Love Go"; The Whatnauts' "I'll Erase You Pain"; Brother to Brother's cover of Gil Scott Heron's "In the Bottle" (number nine R&B); and Chuck Jackson's "I'm Needing You,Wanting You." Angie Stone, whose 1999 debut album Black Diamond includes "No More Rain (In This Cloud)," was a member of the Sequence who hit with "Funk You Up," a 1980 remake of Parliament's gold 1976 hit "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker." Ice Cube's gold 1993 number seven single "It Was a Good Day" was based on samples of the Moments' "Sexy Mama" and the Isley Brothers' "Footsteps in the Dark." Stacy Lattisaw's cover of "Love on a Two Way Street" went to number two R&B for four weeks in summer 1981.

In the '80s, the Robinsons bought the Chess Records catalog and several years later sold the catalog to MCA Records. Their son, Joey Robinson, was a member of rap act West Street Mob.

Sylvia and Joe Robinson are featured in the book The Vibe History of Hip Hop, published by Random House in September 1999.

Lonnie Johnson biography by Bill Dahl:

Blues guitar simply would not have developed in the manner that it did if not for the prolific brilliance of Lonnie Johnson. He was there to help define the instrument's future within the genre and the genre's future itself at the very beginning, his melodic conception so far advanced from most of his pre-war peers as to inhabit a plane all his own. For more than 40 years, Johnson played blues, jazz, and ballads his way; he was a true blues originator whose influence hung heavy on a host of subsequent blues immortals.

Johnson's extreme versatility doubtless stemmed in great part from growing up in the musically diverse Crescent City. Violin caught his ear initially, but he eventually made the guitar his passion, developing a style so fluid and inexorably melodic that instrumental backing seemed superfluous. He signed up with OKeh Records in 1925 and commenced to recording at an astonishing pace — between 1925 and 1932, he cut an estimated 130 waxings. The red-hot duets he recorded with White jazz guitarist Eddie Lang (masquerading as Blind Willie Dunn) in 1928-29 were utterly groundbreaking in their ceaseless invention. Johnson also recorded pioneering jazz efforts in 1927 with no less than Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Duke Ellington's orchestra.

After enduring the Depression and moving to Chicago, Johnson came back to recording life with Bluebird for a five-year stint beginning in 1939. Under the ubiquitous Lester Melrose's supervision, Johnson picked up right where he left off, selling quite a few copies of "He's a Jelly Roll Baker" for old Nipper. Johnson went with Cincinnati-based King Records in 1947 and promptly enjoyed one of the biggest hits of his uncommonly long career with the mellow ballad "Tomorrow Night," which topped the R&B charts for seven weeks in 1948. More hits followed posthaste: "Pleasing You (As Long as I Live)," "So Tired," and "Confused."

Time seemed to have passed Johnson by during the late '50s. He was toiling as a hotel janitor in Philadelphia when banjo player Elmer Snowden alerted Chris Albertson to his whereabouts. That rekindled a major comeback, Johnson cutting a series of albums for Prestige's Bluesville subsidary during the early '60s and venturing to Europe under the auspices of Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau's American Folk Blues Festival banner in 1963. Finally, in 1969, Johnson was hit by a car in Toronto and died a year later from the effects of the accident.

Johnson's influence was massive, touching everyone from Robert Johnson, whose seminal approach bore strong resemblance to that of his older namesake, to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, who each paid heartfelt tribute with versions of "Tomorrow Night" while at Sun.

Nellie Lutcher biography by Scott Yanow:

Nellie Lutcher, a good pianist, had a few vocal hits in the late '40s that gave a permanent momentum to her career. She started playing in public early on. When Lutcher was 14, she played piano behind Ma Rainey at a local booking and the following year she toured with Clarence Hart's band in Louisiana and Texas; her father was on bass. Lutcher worked as a single in obscurity from 1935-47, moving to Los Angeles when she was 23. Her young son told her about a benefit radio program to be broadcast from Hollywood High and at the last second she was able to get booked to close the show. She performed "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else," it was heard by A&R scout Dave Dexter and she was quickly signed to Capitol Records. Her first two sessions (from 1947) resulted in her two biggest hits: "Hurry on Down" and "He's a Real Gone Guy," both of which have remained signature tunes for Lutcher through the decades. Also popular was "Fine Brown Frame." Lutcher's swing-styled piano worked well with her eccentric scatting and exaggerated pronunciation of words. However no other hits resulted and in 1952 she was dropped by Capitol. There were isolated recordings for Epic (1952-53), Liberty (1956) and Imperial but the singer-pianist made very few records after 1957, working instead at the local Musicians Union and gigging locally. Nellie Lutcher continued working on a part-time basis into the '90s, still most famous for her recordings of 1947.

Ruth Brown biography by Bill Dahl:

They called Atlantic Records "the house that Ruth built" during the 1950s, and they weren't referring to the Sultan of Swat. Ruth Brown's regal hitmaking reign from 1949 to the close of the '50s helped tremendously to establish the New York label's predominance in the R&B field. Later, the business all but forgot her — she was forced to toil as domestic help for a time — but she returned to the top, her status as a postwar R&B pioneer (and tireless advocate for the rights and royalties of her peers) recognized worldwide.

Young Ruth Weston was inspired initially by jazz chanteuses Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Dinah Washington. She ran away from her Portsmouth home in 1945 to hit the road with trumpeter Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married. A month with bandleader Lucky Millinder's orchestra in 1947 ended abruptly in Washington, D.C., when she was canned for delivering a round of drinks to members of the band. Cab Calloway's sister Blanche gave Ruth a gig at her Crystal Caverns nightclub and assumed a managerial role in the young singer's life. DJ Willis Conover dug Brown's act and recommended her to Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, bosses of a fledgling imprint named Atlantic. Unfortunately, Brown's debut session for the firm was delayed by a nine-month hospital stay caused by a serious auto accident en route to New York that badly injured her leg. When she finally made it to her first date in May 1949, she made up for lost time by waxing the torch ballad "So Long" (backed by guitarist Eddie Condon's band), which proved to be her first hit.

Brown's seductive vocal delivery shone incandescently on her Atlantic smashes "Teardrops in My Eyes" (an R&B chart-topper for 11 weeks in 1950), "I'll Wait for You" and "I Know" in 1951, 1952's "5-10-15 Hours" (another number one rocker), the seminal "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" in 1953, and a tender Chuck Willis-penned "Oh What a Dream," and the timely "Mambo Baby" the next year. Along the way, Frankie Laine tagged her "Miss Rhythm" during an engagement in Philly. Brown belted a series of her hits on the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo in 1955, exhibiting delicious comic timing while trading sly one-liners with MC Willie Bryant (ironically, ex-husband Jimmy Brown was a member of the show's house band).

After an even two-dozen R&B chart appearances for Atlantic that ended in 1960 with "Don't Deceive Me" (many of them featuring hell-raising tenor sax solos by Willis "Gator" Jackson, who many mistakenly believed to be Brown's husband), Brown faded from view. After raising her two sons and working a nine-to-five job, Brown began to rebuild her musical career in the mid-'70s. Her comedic sense served her well during a TV sitcom stint co-starring with MacLean Stevenson in Hello, Larry, in a meaty role in director John Waters' 1985 sock-hop satire film Hairspray, and her 1989 Broadway starring turn in Black and Blue (which won her a Tony Award).

There were more records for Fantasy in the '80s and '90s (notably 1991's jumping Fine and Mellow), and a lengthy tenure as host of National Public Radio's Harlem Hit Parade and BluesStage. Brown's nine-year ordeal to recoup her share of royalties from all those Atlantic platters led to the formation of the nonprofit Rhythm & Blues Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping others in the same frustrating situation. In 1993 Brown was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and 1995 saw the release of her autobiography, Miss Rhythm. Brown suffered a heart attack and stroke following surgery in October 2006 and never fully recovered, passing on November 17, 2006.

The Buccaneers biography by Bruce Eder:

The Buccaneers were a Philadelphia-based quartet consisting of Ernest "Sonny" Smith, Richard Gregory, Julius Robinson, and Donald Marshall. They initially recorded on the Southern and Rainbow labels ("Dear Ruth" b/w "Fine Brown Frame") and cut two singles ("The Stars Will Remember," "Mission of St. Augustine") for George Goldner's Rama label in the middle and later part of 1953. Julius Robinson was later a member of the Metronomes.

The Clovers biography by Bruce Eder:

The Clovers occupy an exalted place in the history of R&B, if not in the minds of many listeners, other than hard-core devotees of the music's history — the Drifters tend to eclipse them, by virtue of their longer history and the string of hits that the later incarnation of that group had during the 1960s. The truth is that the Clovers not only started earlier than any other act on Atlantic, but they also scored more hits in their six years there than any other R&B act in the label's history.

The group's origins, like those of so many R&B vocal outfits, goes back to the members' middle teenage years. Tenor/baritone Harold "Hal" Lucas, tenor Billy Shelton, and bass Robert Woods were students at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., during the mid-'40s when they formed a trio led by Lucas, who also came up with the name the Clovers. A fourth member, John "Buddy" Bailey, another tenor, joined up and eventually became their lead singer, while Lucas started singing baritone. Their early sound was influenced by the likes of such professional outfits of the era as the Orioles and the Ravens.

The history of R&B isn't easily contained within the boundaries of the post-World War II era, when it began gathering popularity. The Clovers took shape over the next few years, as Woods departed to be replaced by Matthew McQuater, and Shelton was succeeded by Harold Winley, and a fifth member, in the guise of guitarist Bill Harris, joined in 1949. During these years, their repertory was largely drawn from the records and set lists of the Orioles and the Ravens, but as the 1950s dawned, the group had begun to embrace a harder, edgier brand of R&B, with less restraint in their embellishments. They were discovered while playing a club in Washington by Baltimore-based entrepreneur Lou Krefetz, who got them onto a small label called Rainbow Records, where they made their debut with "Yes Sir, That's My Baby." It was Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of the then new label, who interceded and, after getting the group onto his label, started feeding them rougher, more rhythm-oriented material, including the first song Ertegun ever wrote, "Don't You Know I Love You" — according to Nick Tosches, that single was also the first record by an R&B quartet to incorporate a saxophone solo (by Frank Culley) into its structure; the record became a number one R&B hit during the summer of 1951 and heralded a new era in popular music, serving as the template for a decade of R&B hits. Indeed, there are those who identify that record as the very first identifiable rock & roll single.

The group was put in the hands of producer/songwriter Jesse Stone (aka Charles Calhoun), who, with Ertegun, directed them further into this new territory that they suddenly found themselves trailblazing. In April of 1952, "One Mint Julep" became a number two single, and they followed that up in July with "Ting-a-Ling," which also got to number two. The Clovers' fortunes continued until Bailey was drafted during the summer of 1952, and the group didn't see any significant success again until the summer of 1953 when "Good Lovin'" charted at number two with Charlie White, late of Billy Ward's group the Dominoes. They charted again at number three in the spring of 1954 with "Lovey Dovey," and then Billy Mitchell came in as lead singer for "Your Cash Ain't Nothin' but Trash." That single was only a relatively modest hit during the summer of 1954, but it was useful on a whole different level, getting the group a berth in the pioneering rock & roll/R&B short feature Rock 'n' Roll Revue. Beginning in 1955, with Bailey's discharge from the army, he and Mitchell served as joint lead singers in the group.

The Clovers switched to a ballad style in 1955 with the release of "Blue Velvet," which was a modest success at number 14 on the R&B listings. Their next single, "Devil or Angel," the latter an "over-the-transom" submission by an amateur songwriter named Blanche Carter, got to number three, but that marked the end of their run of hits on Atlantic. Ironically, it was those last two singles — which were really the least representative of their sound of any of their hits — became their best known singles, getting the widest airplay, though their version of "Devil or Angel" was later eclipsed by Bobby Vee's recording. Following its release, as the rock & roll boom solidified around white performers, guitar-based acts, and novelty tunes, the Clovers experienced a downturn in their fortunes. They ceased charting singles and after two more years of attempts at reviving their sales, Atlantic released the bluesy sleeper classic "Down in the Alley" (1957), one of the raunchiest songs of its period ever aimed at a mainstream audience, which even had the temerity to project its lustful observations slowly.

Rather than retreat, the act, with the encouragement of their manager, Lou Krefetz, grew bolder. He organized a new label, Poplar Records, and had the Clovers record an entire LP, an extraordinary opportunity for a group that wasn't riding high on the charts at the time — even the Drifters had never recorded an actual LP at the time, their albums being compilations of previously recorded singles. The group scored with the LP and its accompanying single, "Pennies From Heaven," and it looked as though they might pull out of their ongoing commercial slump. Fate then took a hand as Krefetz was offered the opportunity to become the head of sales for United Artists Records, a newly organized label that had the money of one of the top studios in Hollywood behind them. The manager accepted the offer and was able to fold the Clovers, along with their recordings for Poplar, into the larger company. Krefetz next linked the group up with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the result being the biggest pop hit in the group's history, in the form of "Love Potion No. 9," sung by Billy Mitchell, and peaked at number 23 (which, oddly enough, was the same slot it occupied on the R&B charts).

Alas, this was to be the group's last success. They never found another producer as effective as Leiber and Stoller, much less Ertegun or Stone, and even when they returned to work with Stone, they were unable to find a way back to the charts; even re-recording their old hits, such as "One Mint Julep," failed to attract any listeners. By 1961, the group had parted company with United Artists, and soon they were grasping at straws commercially, spiraling down in a series of contracts with ever smaller and weaker labels, losing Matthew McQuater in the process. The group splintered, with Billy Mitchell and Harold Lucas reorganizing the lineup with a pair of members from another group, the Bachelors, James "Toy" Walton and Robert Russell. They made a brief return to Atlantic in 1961 without any resulting rebound in sales, and after that, the group's situation became complicated by the existence of rival incarnations — along with Mitchell's outfit was a group called (at times) "the Fabulous Clovers," led by Bailey. Roosevelt "Tippie" Hubbard succeeded Mitchell, leading a quartet called "Tippie and the Clovers," who cut sides for Leiber and Stoller's Tiger label, among them "Bossa Nova Baby," a number that was even an embarrassment to Elvis Presley when he did it.

By the dawn of the rock & roll revival at the turn of the 1960s into the 1970s, the Clovers' situation had become at least as complicated as that of the Drifters, with multiple groups claiming the name in various performing venues and recording situations. None of it really mattered by then, as the recordings had assumed a life of their own, separate from any performances by survivors or pretenders. The group was honored by the Rhythm-and-Blues Foundation in 1988 with a Pioneer Award, given to surviving members Bailey, McQuater, Lucas, and Winley, and thanks to the CD boom, their classic Atlantic sides have been more readily available since the 1990s than they've been at any time since the mid-'50s, Rhino Records keeping two different hits compilations in print while Collectables Records has reissued their two Atlantic LPs on a single CD.

The Crests biography by Bill Dahl:

One of the most successful integrated doo wop groups, the Crests waxed the classic ballad "16 Candles" in 1959. Formed in 1956, they began recording the next year for Joyce, where they inched onto the pop lists with "Sweetest One." Moving to the brand-new Coed logo, Johnny Maestro's (b. May 7, 1939) warm tenor made "16 Candles" a national smash, and pop/R&B hybrids like "The Angels Listened In" and "Step by Step" also did well. Maestro went solo in 1960, scoring the next year with "Model Girl" on Coed, while the Crests attempted to survive on their own. Maestro eventually reclaimed stardom as leader of Brooklyn Bridge, an 11-piece aggregation that hit with "Worst That Could Happen" in 1968.

The Crows biography by Richie Unterberger:

One of the first doo wop groups, one of the first so-called bird groups, and one of the first acts of any kind to score a bona fide rock & roll hit record, the Crows were among the more important one-shot artists in rock & roll history. Discovered at New York's Apollo Theater in 1952, the Crows were one of the many groups pioneering doo wop with their infectious, cheerful vocals and harmonies, use of nonsense syllables, and modified jump blues instrumental backing. Cut in 1953, "Gee," with its irresistible melody, naively enthusiastic street-corner singing, and Charlie Christian-like guitar solo, was far and away their best single. It was also their only successful one, although it needed almost a year to take off, reaching number 14 on the pop charts (and number two on the R&B charts) in early 1954. Recording about a half-dozen other 45s between 1952 and 1954, the group broke up with little fanfare only months after "Gee" fell off the hit parade.

The Dreamlovers biography by Bryan Thomas:

The Dreamlovers were an early-'60s Philadelphia-based R&B quintet formed in 1956. The group — Don Hogan (lead), James Dunn (bass), his brother Clifton Dunn (baritone), and tenors Tommy Ricks and Cleveland Hammock — were originally known by several other names, including the Romancers (for a demo tape sent to the Cameo/Parkway label) and the Midnighters (for a 1958 jump tune called "The Twist," backing a new personality named Ernest Evans, later renamed Chubby Checker). In addition, they recorded for V-Tone briefly before signing with Heritage Records. Their biggest hit on their own was 1961's uplifting "When We Get Married," a reverent homage in vocal harmony harkening back to doo wop's heyday. The recording featured a full sound of harmony by the group and a strong lead by Hogan over melodic vibraphone instrumentation.

They returned to the charts on a smaller scale the next year with "If I Should Lose You," a ballad for George Goldner's End Records, and then managed to record quite a few delicious samples of East Coast R&B groove and vocal harmony, including a slow doo wop-styled ballad ("I'm Thru With You") and an infectious up-tempo dance number ("Anna Belle Lee"). As they continued recording, their vocal style seemed to change with the times, always sounding ahead of their time. "When We Get Married" was later revived by the Intruders in 1970.

The Drifters biography by Bruce Eder:

The history of rhythm and blues is filled with vocal groups whose names — the Orioles, the Cadillacs, the Crows, the Flamingos, the Moonglows, the Coasters, the Penguins — are held in reverence by fanatics and devotees. The Drifters are part of an even more exclusive fraternity, as a group that managed to carve out a place for themselves in the R&B firmament and also define that music, not only at its inception as a national chart phenomenon in the early '50s but also in the decade that followed. Their place in history is as complex as their role in it, by virtue of the fact that there are two distinct phases to their music and the continuity of their membership, and their extraordinary longevity — only the Platters could claim as great a span of years as an active recording unit, though the latter group, due to major differences in the way they were organized, were far more stable in their membership and output. The Drifters can also claim a unique place in popular music history, as a major R&B group founded at the instigation of a record-label chief.

Their story began in early 1953, when Clyde McPhatter, the soaring high-tenor lead singer in the Dominoes, a vocal quintet formed by Billy Ward three years earlier, quit that group. The Dominoes were playing a scheduled gig at the New York club Birdland, one of their first performances without McPhatter, when one of the audience members present asked after the singer backstage. That fan was Ahmet Ertegun, a one-time record collector who had started Atlantic Records in the late '40s; as soon as he learned of McPhatter's having left the Dominoes, he contacted the singer and signed him to Atlantic.

It was Ertegun who gave McPhatter the impetus, as part of his contract, to start a group of his own, which came to be called the Drifters. The origins of the name and credit for thinking of it are obscure, although no one at Atlantic liked "the Drifters" at first, thinking it sounded too country & western — the explanation sometimes offered by those present was that the members simply drifted in from other groups.

The main source for McPhatter's backing singers was among the ranks of former members of the Mount Lebanon Singers, the gospel group with which McPhatter had sung in the '40s. He went through several attempts at assembling a group that would be acceptable to Ertegun and producer Jerry Wexler, going through as many as a dozen friends and acquaintances, a handful of whom actually made it to formal recording sessions. The initial, unsuccessful lineup, featuring William Anderson, David Baughn, Dave Baldwin (the brother of author James Baldwin), and James Johnson, recorded four songs on June 28, 1953, of which only "Lucille," a McPhatter-authored song, was ever released. In August, a second Drifters lineup was put together, with Gerhart Thrasher, Andrew Thrasher, two very experienced gospel singers on tenor and baritone, respectively, bass singer Willie Ferbee, and Walter Adams on the guitar. From the beginning, the group was unusual among R&B vocal ensembles in that a guitarist was part of their core lineup and the electric guitar central to their arrangements; Jimmy Oliver, who would soon take that spot as his own, also proved to be an important songwriter for the Drifters, especially for tenor Gerhart Thrasher. The new edition of the group cut five numbers on August 9, 1953, one of which was "Money Honey," written by arranger/pianist Jesse Stone. Released within a few weeks, it hit the number one spot on the R&B chart by mid-fall of that year, and it was occasionally cited in later years as the first rock & roll record, and later entered the repertory of Elvis Presley and dozens of lesser talents. The group's career was made after that, at least as long as Clyde McPhatter was singing lead with them.

This success didn't stop the regular lineup changes that would characterize the Drifters' history. By the time the Drifters were enjoying their breakthrough hit, a reconstituted lineup, with bass singer Bill Pinkney and guitarist Jimmy Oliver joining Gerhart Thrasher and Andrew Thrasher, cut their first session. This was the lineup that lasted for the year that followed, and cut "Such a Night," a number two R&B hit, and a second R&B chart-topper with "Honey Love" in early 1954. By that time, the charts and radio play, along with audience sensibilities, had opened up and "Honey Love" also made number 21 on the pop charts late that spring. Not for the last time, it seemed as though the Drifters were headed for big things together, but a key member had developed other ideas by the fall of 1954.

Although he'd been assured of a considerable amount of musical control, McPhatter found that Ertegun and Wexler were, as the producers, always trying to push the group into directions of their own choosing. McPhatter didn't begrudge them their efforts at finding new sounds that might sell records to white as well as black audiences, but he didn't feel like participating. His goal was to cross over to pop audiences as a balladeer, and saw himself as having the potential to become another Nat "King" Cole, or perhaps a black answer to Frank Sinatra or Perry Como. By October of 1954, he had parted company with the group in favor of a solo career that would make him a success for the rest of the 1950s.

Rather than see the group in which they'd invested 18 months of their time go out of existence, Ertegun and Wexler were still interested in recording the Drifters, but that group's internal circumstances were vastly different once McPhatter was gone.

McPhatter had organized the Drifters under the auspices of his own business entity, Drifters Incorporated, so that he would have a share of their earnings, something that he'd been denied in the Dominoes; his own willingness to share those earnings with the other members has never been broached or questioned. He was half-owner of the group with his manager, George Treadwell, a former jazz musician who had masterminded the solo career of his first wife, Sarah Vaughan; when McPhatter left the group, rather than making a provision for the other members and his eventual successor to get his share, he sold out his interest in Drifters Incorporated to Treadwell.

This basically doomed the group to a permanent revolving-door lineup. From that day forward, all of the members of the Drifters were salaried employees, earning as little as $100 a week even into the early '60s, and getting no share of royalties from record sales, no benefits from the concert fees they commanded, nor any claim to the use of the name "the Drifters" if they left, no matter how successful the group became through their efforts. It thus became impossible for the group to hold on to anyone with serious talent or aspirations for a long-term career in music. This made the Drifters, for those present after McPhatter's exit, little more inviting than McPhatter's own tenure with the Dominoes, and he later regretted making the decision, recognizing not only what he had cheated himself of out by not hanging on to his share of the ownership but also what he had done to his fellow musicians.

The immediate problem facing all concerned in 1954, however, was finding a replacement for Clyde McPhatter, and some would argue that they never did. David Baughn, who had sung with a very early version of the Drifters, came in as a temporary replacement, singing at one recording session and serving as lead vocalist for six months' worth of live engagements (which was how the group generated most of its income). Baughn's singing was good enough, but the group sounded like an imitation of the McPhatter-era Drifters, and Atlantic declined to release any of these sides at the time, possibly due to their potential to interfere with McPhatter's solo releases, which were selling well. The label didn't know whether to shoot for an entirely new sound or to try to find a replacement who sounded like the former lead singer who, by 1956, was a major R&B star in his own right. Additionally, Baughn soon demonstrated an erratic personality, sufficiently unnerving to force Treadwell to recruit a second lead vocalist in Bobby Hendricks, who had previously sung with the Five Crowns and the Swallows. Attempts were made to record this lineup, and even bass singer Bill Pinkney was cut doing a lead vocal, but none of it was considered acceptable.

The lineup itself began to shift as Baughn quit, but the group soldiered on, drawing good crowds at their shows based on the quality of their earlier recordings. In 1955, however, they auditioned a young man who approached the group after a show in Cleveland. Johnny Moore had been a member of a group called the Hornets, who had done a little bit of recording without making any more than a local reputation for themselves. He sounded enough like McPhatter, however, with his pleasing high tenor, and was offered a spot in the Drifters the next day. Moore would prove to be a mainstay of the group in two different decades.

The Drifters resumed recording in September of 1955, with Nesuhi Ertegun and songwriter Jerry Leiber producing and with Moore singing lead. The result was a number one R&B chart single, "Adorable," which went a long way toward establishing their post-Clyde McPhatter reputation. This proved to be one of the very few major chart records they would enjoy during this era, however — the Drifters were still absent from the top of the pop charts, where the real money and huge sales figures lay. Their records during the late '50s were overlooked by most young white listeners, despite the presence of future rock & roll standards such as "Ruby Baby" in their output.

Dion would enjoy a much bigger hit with the latter song in the early '60s, but it was an important recording for the Drifters, marking their introduction to the talents of songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who would later take over the job of producing the group. The Drifters' lineup was also stabilized for the first time in over a year. The original Drifters now entered their "silver age" behind Moore's cool high tenor, ably supported by the bass singing (and occasional lead spot) from Bill Pinkney and Bobby Hendricks' tenor. "I Gotta Get Myself a Woman," written by Jesse Stone and cut during the summer of 1956, brought the group a number 11 R&B hit and the group's fortunes once again seemed to be on a consistent upswing.

As it turned out, the black record-buying public wasn't prepared to fully accept a new Drifters, without McPhatter — black audiences practically worshipped the singer, who commanded a passionate loyalty that anticipated the future success of Sam Cooke. Additionally, the music was changing — white teenagers were now a much bigger part of the market than they had been in 1953-54, and Atlantic set its sights on that potentially much richer vein of listeners.

The end of 1956 saw the release of the first album by group, entitled Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters. Such was the popularity of McPhatter at the time, and the tracks that he'd done with the Drifters, versus their recent work, that those 14 songs rated inclusion on an LP well over a year after his exit from the lineup in an effort to sell the music once more to his fans — in that regard, Atlantic was very forward-looking; very few labels in 1956 were releasing LPs aimed at black R&B listeners (apart from Elvis Presley's albums, very little white rock & roll made an impression on the album charts).

Late 1956 was also the point when the consequences of the Drifters' business organization caught up with the group. Their recent hits had led to more bookings than at any time since 1954, which was good for Treadwell and his partners, but difficult for the members, who were still working on straight salary and, by Bill Pinkney's estimation, very low salaries. He approached Treadwell for a new arrangement, or at least more money for the group members, and he was fired. His dismissal drove fellow founding member Andrew Thrasher out of the lineup as well, and out of music altogether. Pinkney and ex-Drifter Bobby Hendricks became the core of a new Atlantic group called the Flyers, who released one single that failed to attract much attention.

The new Drifters lineup was filled by bass singer Jimmy Ricks and then, more permanently, by Tom Evans, late of the Dominoes, and baritone Charlie Hughes. The group's fortunes now took a new turn as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller began producing their sessions in late 1956 — unfortunately, their arrival on the scene coincided with Johnny Moore's receiving his draft notice in early 1957. The group was (no joke intended) adrift once again, in terms of its sound and lineup. Bobby Hendricks was brought back in, and Jimmy Millender took over the baritone chores, but there wasn't a lot of good material that came from those sessions. For a time, in the absence of an ability to create a successful Drifters sound, it seemed as though Atlantic was trying to turn them into another version of the Coasters, doing light-hearted versions of pop standards. In a way, this was understandable — black listeners held this era's Drifters at arm's length, while white teenagers were dominating the pop charts and they seemed, at least potentially, open to new records by anyone, so Atlantic decided to cater to them, hoping for a breakthrough.

By late 1958, Hendricks had announced his exit, and even guitarist Jimmy Oliver, who had managed to get several of his songs recorded during his four-year tenure with the group and was an unheralded mainstay of their sound, finally quit. The remaining members, such as they were, were working as hard as ever and wanted more money and, when Treadwell refused their request, they all walked out (or were fired en masse).

Treadwell was about to find himself without a group and faced with upcoming engagements to fulfill at the Apollo Theater in New York. He spotted his way out of this impasse at the Apollo, way down on a bill on May 30, 1958 on which the about-to-be-fired Drifters were headlining. The Five Crowns, or the Crowns, as they were then known, had been a fixture in Harlem for most of the 1950s, predating the Drifters without ever making a mark as a recording act, and enjoying precious little reputation as performers.

Treadwell approached their manager, Lover Patterson, explaining that he was dumping the existing Drifters and needed a new group to fulfill their performing obligations. Patterson agreed and the group followed suit, and all of the individual members' contracts, except for that of one of the group's two baritones, were sold to Treadwell. In later years, this kind of arrangement would become a little more familiar in the business — the Grass Roots essentially evolved this way, as did the performing version of the group Steam — but it was unusual in those days, and difficult to pull off, and mostly served to keep Treadwell from ending up in court.

The new Drifters lineup consisted of Charlie Thomas on lead, baritone Benjamin Earl Nelson, later known as Ben E. King, Dock Green (who had held the Crowns together) (baritone), and Elsbeary Hobbs singing bass. They did as they were required under the agreement and, for ten months, worked in the shadow of the old group, playing live gigs characterized by the awkwardness of performing the old songs as though they were their own, to mostly black audiences who knew that these weren't the Drifters. Atlantic still hoped to profit from the group, however, and a second Drifters LP, Rockin' & Driftin', was released in late 1958, comprised entirely of single tracks recorded by the 1955-58 lineup. Ironically, in all of their 19-year history with Atlantic Records, the Drifters, in any incarnation, never recorded an actual "album" session; every one of their LPs was compiled from existing single tracks and B-sides and, except for the first album, all have a mix-and-match element to the memberships and, especially, the singers represented.

The group still had a recording contract with Atlantic Records and, despite the fact that the old Drifters' recent releases had done little business, the label decided to try once more with the new lineup and get a record out. On March 6, 1959, they went into the studio with Leiber & Stoller producing, to cut four songs. Charlie Thomas was supposed to sing lead but he developed mic-fright in the studio, and so Nelson was deputized for "There Goes My Baby," which he had co-written, along with "Hey Senorita," and "Oh My Love." "There Goes My Baby," co-written by Nelson and orchestrated by Stan Applebaum, was as much a landmark in the history of R&B and soul as "Money Honey" had been six years earlier. At the time, nobody present was sure of what they had because it sounded so chaotic, strange, and complicated — no one had ever used a string section, much less one recorded as prominently as this one was, on an R&B record, and no R&B record up until that time had ever dared sound so complex, overlaying Latin percussion, violins, and a fiercely passionate performance by the singer. It not only didn't sound anything like the old Drifters, but it didn't sound like anything else that had ever been heard on a commercial recording before. And it was a complete mess in the eyes of some observers, including Jerry Wexler, who said the song sounded like a radio picking up two different stations at once.

"There Goes My Baby" peaked at number two, their biggest hit to that date on the pop charts and their biggest seller up to that time, winning over both R&B and pop audiences and transforming the group and its image. Moreover, it marked the group's first impact on audiences overseas — the earlier Drifters, for all of their impact on rock & roll, never got a record released in Europe, but this new group and their sound would soon find a very important mass audience in England. The group seemed headed for a huge future when the problem of their business set-up came into play again. They'd cut other songs at that same session, including "Baltimore," which sounded like an update of the Cadillacs' "Speedo," but the strings-percussion-echo timbres of "There Goes My Baby," hung around long melodic lines, became the Drifters' trademark sound for the ten years that followed.

This seemed to be a new lease on life to the group, and then more troubles arose from within, owing to the way the Drifters were organized as a business. Ben Nelson wasn't happy working for $100 a week; not with the hundreds of miles of travel between some shows, and as many as six days of shows each week. He was so poor working for the group that he felt compelled to sell off his share of the songwriting on "There Goes My Baby," Accounts differ as to precisely what happened on this issue — some say that he sold the share off to Treadwell and his accountant, while Jerry Wexler claims that he accepted a document from the singer assigning him the copyright, in exchange for $200; Wexler held on to the document, and gave it back to the singer once the song was a hit so he could tear it up.

After approaching Treadwell for more money and being turned down, Nelson saw that there was no future as a member of the Drifters and announced his exit almost as soon as it came time to cut a follow-up. At the same moment, Lover Patterson played his trump card, a separate contract that he'd signed with the singer, as a solo artist, dated before Treadwell's offer. It all could have ended up in court but luckily for the singer and fans of the Drifters, cooler heads prevailed. He remained with Atlantic Records on their Atco subsidiary as a solo artist, and agreed to record with the group until a suitable replacement could be found, singing on "Dance With Me," "This Magic Moment," "I Count the Tears," and "Save the Last Dance for Me," the latter their only number one hit, among other songs, through the spring of 1960. By the time his exit had been arranged, Nelson had changed his name to the more memorable Ben E. King, which was how he emerged in his own right.

The post-1959 Drifters (which also included guitarist Billy Davis) are usually thought of as the "Ben E. King Drifters," but the reality was that King had left the group by the end of that same year. King's first successor was Johnny Williams, who exited suddenly in late 1960, but the Drifters quickly found a replacement in Rudy Lewis. An ex-member of the Clara Ward Singers, Lewis was the singer on "Some Kind of Wonderful," "Up on the Roof" (a Top Five hit), "Please Stay," "What to Do," and "On Broadway" (a Top Ten hit), among numerous other classic tracks by the group. Lewis, tragically, wasn't the longest lasting of the group's lead vocalists but his tenure with the group, following King's, arguably constituted the second half of a second golden age in their history.

Whoever was involved on a particular record, this lineup of the group was once again at a peak of influence in those years. "There Goes My Baby" anticipated the shift to a more pop-oriented brand of soul music, embraced by Sam Cooke and, even more so, by Berry Gordy at his fledgling Motown label. Indeed, the sound of "There Goes My Baby" was practically the prototype for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' landmark single "Way Over There." Others also learned from them, most notably a young producer named Phil Spector, who was working at Atlantic as a session guitarist in the early '60s and ran with the sound he heard in Stan Applebaum's arrangements, expanding it into something new and turning it into his own trademark, imprinted on the work of a dozen top recording acts. And it was during the recording of his own "Please Stay" by the group that Burt Bacharach first encountered a vocalist named Dionne Warwick, who was part of the backing trio for the Drifters.

Between 1960 and 1964, the Drifters achieved a level of stability that was unprecedented in their history, and it was matched by their success. Not that they didn't make mistakes — they turned down "This Diamond Ring," and Atlantic never released their version of "Only in America," both of which became huge hits, in the hands of Gary Lewis & the Playboys and Jay & the Americans, respectively. Still, luck was with them even as essential personnel around them moved on — in late 1963, as Leiber & Stoller shifted their attention to their own record label, Red Bird, the Drifters got a new producer in Bert Berns, a songwriter with a feel for commercial soul music. "Vaya Con Dios," from their first session with the new producer (and which reflected his love of Latin themes), was a moderate pop chart hit. And in the spring of 1964, with Leiber & Stoller no longer writing the way they had been, the group was offered a new song by composers Art Resnick and Kenny Young, called "Under the Boardwalk."

It was scheduled for recording on May 21 of 1964. Then, on the night of May 20, just hours before the recording session, Rudy Lewis was found dead in his apartment under circumstances that are still in dispute — the police suspected a drug overdose, but people who knew Lewis insisted that his only vice was binge-eating, and that he had choked to death. Without any time to reschedule the session, Johnny Moore, who had rejoined the group as second tenor in early 1963, stepped into the breach. Moore, who had previously held the thankless task of leading the late-'50s Drifters, achieved a special magnificence at that session singing "Under the Boardwalk," which became the group's last Top Ten hit in 1964, peaking at number four. He became the longest lasting of the Drifters' various lead singers, lasting into the 1970s and beyond their time as a serious recording act.

By late 1964, Berns was moving on to other projects including the early releases of his new independent label, Bang Records, and the group found itself working with producer Tom Dowd in what were very unproductive sessions. They still had lots of bookings, and enough hits behind them to remain a thoroughly established act, but by that time the whole notion of soul music was changing around them, due in some measure to a vast array of other acts associated with Atlantic Records, including Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Don Covay. The Drifters were never able to make the jump comfortably to this harder brand of soul music, and the loss of Berns as a producer after 1965 seemed to seal their fate. Their own sessions began to show a lack of urgency and organization, exemplified by the fact that one of the very best tracks of Moore's era, "In the Park," was left unfinished (without the group recorded behind him) and in the can for years. The death of George Treadwell in 1967 removed another layer of impetus behind the Drifters' continuation as a going concern.

They continued recording for Atlantic with a succession of producers until 1972. By that time, the company itself was part of a huge corporate conglomerate, far removed from its origins — Led Zeppelin, Yes, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer were the stars of the Atlantic roster then, and scarcely anyone at the company except Ertegun and Wexler likely even remembered who the Drifters were or how they'd started. Johnny Moore still sang lead, but there were no more hits after the mid-'60s. They tried altering their sound to mainstream adult pop, cutting old-style standards in an effort to capture older listeners. As the hits faded away and the bookings dried up, the group broke up yet again — in the end, Johnny Moore was the only recognizable Drifter and he did most of the singing on the records as well.

The 1970s saw a proliferation of acts trading on the Drifters name as the rock & roll revival suddenly made the group's classic repertory profitable again. Founding member Bill Pinkney led a group sometimes called "the Original Drifters" while Charlie Thomas led another version and Johnny Moore kept the fully authorized group under the auspices of Treadwell's widow Faye.

The result was a series of lawsuits that ultimately saw the various claimants divide different territories within the United States between them, while the Faye Treadwell-authorized group, led by Johnny Moore, moved to England, where they enjoyed a Top Ten hit in 1972 ("Come on Over to My Place"), falling under the influence of the Roger Cook/Roger Greenaway songwriting team. This incarnation of the group, no longer signed to Atlantic after 1972, was signed to Bell Records. The British-based version of the Drifters became a dance-disco outfit for a time in the late '70s, virtually irrelevant to the group's history, while Pinkney and Thomas maintained contact with the Drifters' roots, and even Jimmy Ricks, who was only in the group for a few months, turned up at some point leading a combo using the name. Ben E. King even returned to the lineup for a tour in the late '80s.

In the 1990s, after decades of conflicting and contradictory claims, a new court ruling determined that Faye Treadwell owned the trademark of the Drifters' name. The death of Johnny Moore in the 1990s brought the end of the era in the group's history, though Bill Pinkney — the last active original member from the early '50s — continued to front a group of Drifters up until his death on July 4th, 2007. The late '80s and early '90s also saw a full revival of the group's entire catalog; for decades, from the 1960s through the 1980s, fans and collectors in America had to content themselves with a single LP, the 1968 Golden Hits album, consisting of a selection of the group's early-'60s hits — none of the McPhatter-era cuts were around, nor were any other tracks from the '60s era. A pair of Rhino Records-inspired double-CD/LP sets helped break this log-jam in the late '80s, and Rhino's 1996 triple-CD set Rockin' & Driftin': The Drifters Box opened the floodgates of their history. That same year, Sequel Records in England issued seven CDs devoted to the group's history, and more recently Collectables Records has been busy re-releasing the group's classic albums on CD.

The Duprees biography by Richie Unterberger:

One of the final Italian doo wop groups to make a wave in the early '60s, the Duprees were in some senses not a rock & roll act at all. They relied on updates of pre-rock pop standards for most of their material, dressed up in classy big band arrangements. Their New Jersey street-corner roots were still audible in their doo wop harmonies, giving their treatments of moldy oldies enough of a contemporary flavor to compete in the rock and pop marketplace. They were very good at what they did, and in 1962-1963, they were very successful: "You Belong to Me" (previously recorded by Jo Stafford, Patti Page, Dean Martin, and Joni James) made the Top Ten, and "My Own True Love" (from the soundtrack of Gone With the Wind), "Have You Heard," and "Why Don't You Believe Me" were also Top 40 hits. The Duprees were already retro when they were at their peak, and were washed out by the British Invasion, although they continued to record throughout the late '60s, sometimes in a Jay & the Americans/Vogues style.

The Enchanters biography by Ron Wynn:

The Enchanters were the band led by soul vocalist Garnet Mimms in the mid-'60s. Mims disbanded his previous group the Gainors in 1961 and teamed with Charles Boyer, Sam Bell and Zola Pearnell. But Mimms' producer Jerry Ragovoy would sometimes use the Sweet Inspirations to back Mimms rather than the Enchanters, although he would retain the Enchanters name on the session. It was their voices heard on "Cry Baby," Mimms' R&B chart topper and number four pop single in 1963. They were heard on "A Quiet Place," "Baby Don't You Weep," and "For Your Precious Love." Mimms went solo in 1964 and Bells became their lead vocalist. They signed with Warner Brothers, but were unable to make much headway without Mimms. 

The Feathers biography by Jason Ankeny:

Los Angeles R&B group the Feathers was founded in the fall of 1954 by lead tenor Johnny Staton following his stint with the Flyboys, a quintet he assembled while serving U.S. Air Force duties in West Palm Beach, FL. After earning his military discharge, Staton returned to his native Southern California and recruited his tenor brother Louis along with another pair of siblings, Sonny (tenor) and Don Harris (baritone), and bass Mitchell Alexander to form the Feathers. According to Marv Goldberg's profile in the July 1995 issue of Discoveries, the fledgling group soon befriended local R&B star Johnny Otis, who arranged an audition with the small Show Time label. Shortly after their debut single, "Johnny Darling," appeared in mid-1954, Otis convinced the Feathers to ankle Show Time in favor of Aladdin, where they cut a second version of the same record. When Aladdin issued its competing version, Show Time co-owner Peter Morgan filed an injunction, although neither label's release generated much attention at radio or retail. The Feathers' second Aladdin effort, "I Need a Girl," followed in early 1955, and when it met a similar fate, the group returned to Show Time for the follow-up, "Why Don't You Write Me."



The Harris brothers and Alexander quit the lineup soon after, prompting Staton to enlist siblings Lenora, James, and Isaiah for the Feathers' Show Time swan song, "Love Only You." Upon signing to Hollywood Records in late 1955, Harris completely overhauled the roster, adding tenors Roy Allen and Rene Beard as well as yet another sibling pair, Carl (baritone) and Cleo White (bass): "Lonesome Tonight" appeared in January 1956, trailed a month later by "Betty My Darling." When neither sold, the Feathers split for good, although Staton later reunited with Allen and the White brothers as the Unforgettables, releasing "Daddy Must Be a Man" on Pamela in 1961. After a career as a session vocalist, Staton resurrected the Feathers name in 1989, recording three singles for the Classic Artists label with tenor Dave Antrell, baritone Jewel Aikens, and bass Jimmy Colbert.

The Five Keys biography by Jim Dunn & Nikki Gustafson:

The Five Keys are generally regarded by aficionados of 1950s R&B vocal group harmony as one of the finest groups to ever record in this genre. They are best known for their Capitol recordings of "Wisdom of a Fool," "Close Your Eyes," "Ling Ting Tong," and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind." But in collectors' circles their earlier recordings for Aladdin such as "My Saddest Hour," "Glory of Love," and "Red Sails in the Sunset" are even more highly revered and sought after. The group originally consisted of two sets of brothers; Rudy and Bernie West and Raphael and Ripley Ingram all hailing from Newport News, VA, part of the "Hampton Roads" area. This region had a rich history of high-caliber vocal music and had previously spawned great vocal ensembles like the Golden Gate Quartet and Norfolk Jazz Quartet. The West and Ingram brothers initially took on the name the Sentimental Four and soon decided to show off their talents by entering a local amateur program at the Jefferson Theater. After winning three consecutive weeks of amateur contests at the Jefferson, they were invited to perform at the prestigious Apollo Theater in New York City, where they also won.

This led to subsequent engagements at the Royal and Howard Theaters. As the group established their reputation along the Eastern Seaboard, they were noticed by Eddie Mesner, owner of the California-based Aladdin Records, who signed them to a recording contract. About this time, Raphael went into the army and was replaced by Maryland Pierce (formerly of the Avalons). Also added was another singer, Dickie Smith, and a sixth man, piano player Joe Jones. Reflecting the personnel changes, their name was changed from the Sentimental Four to the Five Keys. The Keys toured both the East and West Coasts and their Aladdin songs were recorded in New York and Los Angeles. Some of their approximately 17 Aladdin releases in the early '50s consisted of "Glory of Love," "How Long," "Someday Sweetheart," "Red Sails in the Sunset," and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" with Rudy West and Dickie Smith on leads; and "My Saddest Hour" and "Serve Another Round" with Maryland Pierce on lead.

In 1953, both Rudy and Dickie entered the army and were replaced by Ramon Loper and Ulysses Hicks. By mid-1954, the Keys' contract with Aladdin was expiring and their last Aladdin release, "Deep in My Heart," was reviewed in June of that year. In July of 1954, the Five Keys found themselves in the RCA studios, where they recorded four tracks. Two remained unreleased, and "Lawdy Miss Mary" backed with "I'll Follow You" were issued in August 1954 on RCA's subsidiary Groove label. The Keys' manager, Saul Richfield, must have been working very hard for his group at this time, for on August 29, 1954, Capitol announced that they had signed the Five Keys. RCA immediately stopped production of the Groove release and it is now the rarest of the Five Keys recordings. Now recording for Capitol, the Five Keys released "Ling Ting Tong," with Pierce on lead. The record was successful enough to eventually land them a spot of the Ed Sullivan TV show. When Hicks died suddenly in 1954, and before Rudy returned home from the service, the lead tenor position was filled temporarily by Dickie Smith's cousin, Willie Winfield, of the Harptones.

But by 1955, Rudy West was back and the Five Keys were in the right place at the right time to be recorded using Capitol's advanced audio production techniques. With Rudy on lead, and backed by the Howard Biggs Orchestra (former Ravens arranger) , they recorded "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" and "Wisdom of a Fool." Another great Capitol release, "Close Your Eyes," featured Maryland Pierce on lead, echoed hauntingly by Rudy's high-floating tenor. Tired of touring, Rudy retired from the group in 1958. In 1959, with the addition of Dickie Threat in Rudy's spot, they recorded several sides for the King label, the most notable being "Dream On" and "One Great Love." Perhaps it was because the record market was changing, or maybe the Keys weren't quite the same without Rudy, but they could not sustain the success they had achieved at Capitol. During this time, Rudy also recorded on his own for King, covering the Passions' "Just to Be With You" and the Fireflies' "You Were Mine" with an unlisted group.

In 1962, Rudy West produced and re-recorded "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" with a new group of Keys consisting of Rudy, Bernie West, and Dickie Smith, along with John Boyd and Willie Friday, for Seg-Way Records. On this version, the group's background harmonies were more pronounced than the Capitol release. In 1965, Rudy recorded "No Matter" on the Inferno label with yet another configuration of Keys, consisting of Rudy, Edmond Hall, Ollie Sidney, Theodore Jones, and George Winfield (yes, another of Willie's cousins). This grouping was also from the Newport News, VA, area and had previously recorded as the Chateaus on Epic and Warner Bros.

The mid-'70s saw a resurgence of interest in 1950s doo-wop and Rudy West established another Keys group (similar to the Inferno group) that continued to perform through 1998. In 1992, the United In Group Harmony Association (U.G.H.A.) inducted the original Five Keys in to their Hall of Fame. All original members were present and performed together at the induction ceremony. This was their first time together in 40-plus years and would be the last time they would all take to the stage as a group. Rudy West passed away on May 14, 1998. His last performance was on April 18,1998, at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, NY. Even at that point in time, his voice was still magnificent, and his phrasing impeccable. The audience was justifiably thrilled at what would be the final performance of this legendary R&B artist. Ripley Ingram had previously passed away. The surviving original members are Bernie West, Dickie Smith, and Maryland Pierce. Fortunately, most of the Five Keys extensive recorded output is now available on various CDs.

The Four Tunes biography by Ron Wynn:



This New York City group's origins dated back to the mid-'40s, when they were known as Deek Watson & the Brown Dots. Former Ink Spots member Watson, Pat Best, Jimmy Gordon, and Jimmie Nabbie were the founding lineup. The Four Tunes made their recording debut for Regis in 1945. They did a session for Manor in 1946 as the Sentimentalists, minus Watson, with Danny Owens taking his place. They then became the Four Tunes. Best and Watson's composition "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons" became a smash for Nat "King" Cole and several other performers, while Nabbie's "You Are My Love" was a hit for Jonie James. The Four Tunes did score a pair of triumphs themselves, with "Marie" peaking at number two on the R&B charts (number 13 pop) in 1953 and "I Understand Just How You Feel" becoming a number seven R&B hit in 1954. It was also their lone Top Ten pop single, peaking at number six. Both were for Jubilee Records. The Sid Bass Orchestra backed them on both songs. The Four Tunes continued until 1963. Nabbie maintained a solo career heading an Ink Spots ensemble.

The 4 Buddies (aka The Metronomes) biography by Marv Goldberg:

Based on interviews with Gregory Carroll
© 2000 by Marv Goldberg

There would come a time when Savoy would have many groups: the Dreams, Wanderers, Jive Bombers, Five Wings, Five Pennies, Carnations, Roamers, Carols, and Luther Bond and His Emeralds, just to name a few. But in the beginning, vocal groups were scarce on the label: 1945 saw the Three Barons (aka the Three Riffs) and the Toppers (aka the Five Red Caps); these were pretty much the only groups until the Robins came along in December of 1949. Of course, Savoy's Regent subsidiary had the Ravens, Four Barons (Larks), and Falcons (about whom more later), but Regent's groups had no national chart hits.

For a year the Robins were Savoy's only group, until the December 1950 debut of the Four Buddies (by which time the Robins had stopped recording for the label). The Four Buddies had releases through mid-1953, during which time the only other Savoy groups were the Marshall Brothers and the Gaylords.

In all the time the Four Buddies were together, they were the only Savoy group to have a top 10 national R&B hit ("I Will Wait" reached #3 nationally, starting a 9-week run on the Billboard R&B charts in April of 1951). The only other Savoy acts to make the top 10 in this period were Johnny Otis/Mel Walker, Varetta Dillard, and the Emitt Slay Trio.



In other words, while they existed they were Savoy's mainstay group. This is their story:

John Carroll and Leon "Larry" Harrison were from the Northwest side of Baltimore, and had known each other since elementary school. (Note that at a later date John Carroll would begin calling himself "Gregory" Carroll as a stage name, and eventually make that his legal name). John's older brother, Charlie Carroll, had been in a group called the Four Buds, which had made some recordings with the Earl "Fatha" Hines orchestra. As a further influence, the Vibra-Naires/Orioles were friends from the same part of town; it seemed natural that John and Larry would sing.

And sing they did, taking their talent to other parts of Baltimore. In this way they met William Duffy and Maurice "Tank" Hicks from the South Side. The sound was good and eventually, sometime in 1949, they started calling themselves the Metronomes. Larry Harrison sang first tenor lead, John Carroll was the second tenor, William Duffy the baritone, and Maurice Hicks the bass. They were all between 16 and 18 years old.

Practice paid off, and the Metronomes ended up with a 15-minute radio show, every Saturday, on Baltimore's WITH. Then one day, in May of 1950, they found themselves with a rare opportunity. Baltimore's Royal Theater was host to Savoy's hottest act: the Johnny Otis Show, with Little Esther and Mel Walker. Esther's Savoy recording of "Double Crossing Blues" had hit the charts in February, and was still riding high. Savoy's owner, Herman Lubinsky, came down to Baltimore to record her, and looked around for a group to back her up in the same way the Robins had on "Double Crossing Blues." The group he picked was the Metronomes.

 On May 3, 1950 the guys recorded "Just Can't Get Free" behind Little Esther (they weren't on the flip, "Cupid Boogie" [or "Cupid's Boogie" on the 78 label]). The group credited on the record was "The Beltones," one of the catch-all names that Johnny Otis used for his pick-up groups or singing band members; sometimes he used the name "Bluenotes". Gregory Carroll says that the Metronomes also backed up Mel Walker that day. The only other known master from that session is SBA-674, "My Heart Tells Me," but there's no group present. There are no other SBA masters known ("SBA" stands for Savoy Baltimore), but the next 13 master numbers (through 687) are unaccounted for, so it's reasonable to suspect that a couple of them were used in Baltimore. If so, the Metronomes may have been on one or more; since the masters no longer seem to exist, we'll probably never know. The record was released in May, 1950.

Strangely, their contracts were executed the day after they recorded. On May 4, John Wayne Carroll, William M. Duffy, Maurice Hicks, and Leon Harrison signed on the dotted line.

A few months later, John and Larry said "Hey, we've got a contract, why aren't we doing something about it?" They contacted Savoy and were invited to New York for a session. Although William Duffy and Maurice Hicks enjoyed the group's local success, they weren't confident enough to leave Baltimore. John and Larry got two friends as replacements: Vernon "Bert" Palmer (baritone) and William "Tommy" Carter (bass). After some intense practice, off to New York they went.

 They signed their Savoy contracts on October 9, 1950, and, on October 12, they recorded "Just To See You Smile Again," "I Will Wait, "Why At A Time Like This," and "Don't Leave Me Now." Like the Orioles before them the group excelled at ballads, in fact, their first 12 recordings were ballads (this, in a time when the uptempo tune was usually listed as the "A" side on a group's record). ). In October, Savoy proudly announced the signing of Marilyn Scott, Mary DeLoach, the Jubilators (a six-man group whose secular songs would be released by Savoy as the "4 Barons"; they'd go on to become the Larks), and the Metronomes.

An important change came out of that first session: the name "Metronomes" was dropped. A letter to the group in the Savoy files makes it official: by "mutual consent" the name was dropped in favor of "more of a commercial name." They first chose "Four Buds," after John's brother's group; the first pressing of "I Will Wait" shows this name. A little more thought then went into it and the feeling was that they didn't want to be associated with the original Four Buds' older form of music. The name was simply lengthened to "Four Buddies."

 "I Will Wait"/"Just To See You Smile Again" was released in December, 1950, just in time to compete with the Dominoes' first recording, "Do Something For Me." The Dominoes went faster (entering the charts in February, 1951 and peaking at #6), but the Four Buddies went further (first charting in April, and reaching #3). In spite of its strong showing, Billboard had only rated "I Will Wait" a 68; much lower than subsequent releases. Also around at the time was Billy Eckstine's "I Apologize," Amos Milburn's "Let's Rock Awhile," and Muddy Waters' "Long Distance Call." The Four Buddies were on their way!

The group was unofficially managed by Fritz Pollard (a former Brown university football star), who took an interest in them when they began rehearsing at his Sun Tan Studios in Manhattan.

On January 13, 1951 The Four Buddies returned to the studios to record four more ballads: "Sweet Slumber," "My Summer's Gone," "Moonlight In Your Eyes," and "It Could Have Been Me." The latter two sides were inexplicably never released by Savoy, but are as beautiful as any of the issued material.

In February, "Sweet Slumber" was paired with the older "Don't Leave Me Now" for their second release. At this time, "I Will Wait" had not yet hit the charts. "Sweet Slumber" made some noise in several local markets, but never achieved the status of "I Will Wait." In fact, "I Will Wait" was to be their only Top 10 hit registered on Billboard's national R&B charts.

In May, when they began touring on the strength of "I Will Wait," they decided to add a fifth member. Alvin Bowen became their guitarist and musical arranger. (He doesn't appear in any photos because the group's one and only photo session had already taken place.) He signed with Savoy on May 5, 1951, but the contract was then backdated to October 9, 1950, the same date as the others.

May 23, 1951 saw their third session, which produced another four ballads: "Close To You," "Window Eyes," "I'm Yours," and "I Love You, Yes I Do." Of these, only "Window Eyes" was ever issued.

 June saw their third release: "My Summer's Gone"/"Why At A Time Like This." The fiercest competition they (and everyone else) faced was the Dominoes "Sixty Minute Man." This hit the charts in June and stayed for 30 weeks! Also in June, the Clovers' first record, "Don't You Know I Love You," charted, giving the Dominoes a run for the money. In August, The Five Keys' second release, "Glory Of Love," went straight to the top, and the debut of the Swallows ("Will You Be Mine") was right behind it. In October, the Cardinals' first, "Shouldn't I Know," also zoomed up the charts, along with the Clovers' "Fool, Fool, Fool." The Larks were there too, with "Eyesight To The Blind" and "Little Side Car." All this is to show that in The Four Buddies' first year there wasn't much competition from groups, but what was there was extraordinary. The only other Savoy activity in the Top 10 that year came from Mel Walker (with the Johnny Otis Ork) hitting with "Rockin' Blues," "Gee Baby," and "All Night Long."

In a July, 1951 issue of Billboard, a short announcement was made that Vernon Palmer, formerly of the Four Buddies, would be the baritone lead of a new Savoy group, the Falcons. He was probably planning to break away and front his own group, but his plans didn't work out. The Falcons had one session (on August 20) and some letters in the Savoy files indicate that the group was actually controlled by the other members: female lead Goldie Boots and her brothers, Earl and George Alsup. They weren't pleased with the way things were working out and Palmer remained with the Four Buddies. [Gregory claimed that he knew nothing about Bert Palmer's moonlighting with the Falcons. Considering that Palmer was present on the 4 Buddies session held only a few days later, that was probably true. It's strange, though, that Savoy would release a blurb to the trades about it.]

Three days later (on August 23), the Four Buddies laid down another four tracks: "Sweet Tooth For My Baby," "Heart And Soul," "Sin," and "Simply Say Goodbye." "Sweet Tooth" was the group's first up-tempo recording, featuring bass Tommy Carter in a Ravens-type arrangement. This and "Heart And Soul" are the only numbers on which Larry Harrison didn't sing lead.

In September 1951, their next record was released: "Heart And Soul"/"Sin." When this didn't take off, Savoy paired "Simply Say Goodbye"/"Window Eyes" in December, and then all was quiet for a while.

In November 1951, Savoy's Herman Lubinsky wrote the group a pretty nasty letter. He claimed that he could see the Dominoes and the Clovers all over the charts; where were the 4 Buddies??? He went on to tell them to stop fighting with everyone (and themselves) and to start getting hits. He might have been more tactful, but his points were well-considered.

The early part of 1952 saw, in Billboard's Top 10, such group classics as "One Mint Julep" (Clovers), "Baby Please Don't Go" (Orioles), "Where Are You" (Mello-Moods), "Wheel Of Fortune" (Cardinals), "That's What You're Doing To Me" (Dominoes), and "Have Mercy Baby" (Dominoes).

Finally, on April 10, 1952, after an absence of eight months, the Four Buddies went back to the studios to record "Story Blues," "Nothin' Shakin' Baby," "You're Part Of Me" and "What's The Matter With Me." (For purists, these sides were given master numbers 4579-4582; this was misnumbering on Savoy's part - they should have been 4179-4182.)

In May 1952, "You're Part Of Me"/"Story Blues" was released and not only ran into some of the above-mentioned competition, but also "Ting-A-Ling" (Clovers), "Mary Jo" (4 Blazers), and "Beside You" (Swallows).

The last 1952 release was in October: "What's The Matter With Me"/"Sweet Tooth For My Baby."

After the April 1952 session, bass Tommy Carter left and original Metronome Maurice Hicks was called in to replace him. Around May, Bert Palmer also left. He was replaced by Joseph Walker, who didn't work out, and then by Alvin Bowen, who added baritone singing to his guitar playing.

In January 1953, it was reported in one of those suspicious press agent blurbs that model Lee Knobloch had tossed aside Jimmy Grissom, singer with Duke Ellington, in favor of an engagement to Larry Harrison.

Only a single session remained to the Four Buddies. After almost a year's absence, they recorded again on March 3, 1953: "You Left Me Blue," "Ooh-Ow," "Got Everything I Need But You," and "My Mother's Eyes." Finally, going out the way they came in their last recording was a back-up to a female singer (in this case Dolly Cooper): "I'd Climb The Highest Mountain."

With the March, 1953 release of "My Mother's Eyes"/"Ooh-Ow" and "I'd Climb The Highest Mountain" in April, it was all over. There was little money coming in, either from record sales or from songwriting royalties. They hooked up with booking agent James Evans, but the jobs they got weren’t worth the effort.

Around May, 1953, John Carroll (now known professionally as "Gregory Carroll") joined the Orioles, just in time to be on their smash hit of "Crying In The Chapel." He stayed with them a couple of years before forming his own group, the Dappers. After this Gregory did several years of studio back-up work (much more financially rewarding than group singing), formed a gospel group (the Halos) in the early 60's, went into the production end of the business, sang with Jimmie Nabbie's Ink Spots in the 70's, and then went back to production work again.

After the 4 Buddies, Larry Harrison formed a new group with Roger Wainwright (second tenor), Luther Dixon (baritone), and Danny Ferguson (bass). They first recorded as the Barons on Decca. At a July 1, 1954 session, they laid down "A Year And A Day," "My Baby's Gone," "Forget About Me," and "Exactly Like You." The first two were issued in August, and the others in October.

Later that year, Maurice Hicks replaced Danny Ferguson, and they recorded "I Stole Your Heart"/"I Waited" for Phil Rose's Glory label in early 1955, as the Buddies. By the time the record was issued (in March 1955), Maurice Hicks had departed to replace Johnny Reed in the Orioles.

An interesting side from this period was “Ashamed,” an unreleased Jubilee Ravens recording. The lead on “Ashamed” is a bit of a mystery. After it was suggested to me that the voice was that of Larry Harrison, I first had a couple of singers listen to it; both agreed that it was Harrison. I then tried to find out from Jimmie Steward, the only surviving member of the Jubilee group, but he basically (and suspiciously) refused to answer the question. It looks like, at least for a while in 1955, Larry Harrison replaced Jimmie Steward.

 In August of 1955, Larry Harrison returned to Savoy to record some solo efforts. (These masters, "Move, Baby, Move" and a remake of "I Will Wait," were the last in the 4000 series.) When these didn't take off, he joined Gregory Carroll, both in the Dappers (along with original Raven Leonard Puzey) and in doing back-up work.

The Four Buddies had a unique sound. They deserved better recognition than the record-buying public accorded them in the early 50's. Even most of their unreleased material is top-rate (which can't be said for many other groups).

Special thanks to George Moonoogian and Ray Funk.

The Orioles biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine:

Led by Sonny Til, the Orioles were the first black vocal group to sing music directly for a black audience. Through their early recordings — which were made in the late '40s and early '50s — the band laid the groundwork for R&B vocal groups and doo wop. The Orioles fused traditional pop songs with gospel sensibilities and arranged blues and gospel material with smooth harmonies, designed to appeal to the broadest audience possible.

Based in Baltimore, MD, the Orioles consisted of lead vocalist Sonny Til (born Earlington Carl Tilghman, August 18, 1928; died December 9, 1981), Alexander Sharp (tenor vocals), George Nelson (baritone vocals), Johnny Reed (bass vocals), and guitarist Tommy Gaither. Originally called the Vibranaires, the group formed when its members were teenagers. They came to the attention of Deborah Chessler, a local merchant who also wrote songs; she would write many of the group's subsequent hits. Chessler became the band's manager and she was able to get the Vibranaires a spot on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television show. Although the group lost to pianist George Shearing, they caught the eye of Jerry Blaine, a New York record company executive, while they were in town for the program.

Blaine signed the group to his newly created It's a Natural record label and had the band cut "It's Too Soon to Know," a ballad written by Chessler. After they signed their deal with It's a Natural, the band changed its name to the Orioles. In the late summer of 1948, "It's Too Soon to Know" was released on It's a Natural, but shortly after the single's release, National Records complained about the name of Blaine's new label, so he re-released the song on Jubilee Records, a record label he had previously used to release Yiddish comedy records. "It's Too Soon to Know" became a number one R&B hit and crossed over to number 13 on the pop charts. At the time of its release, no black group had managed to cross over to the pop charts with what was then known as a "race" record. The Orioles immediately followed the success of their debut single with the seasonal "(It's Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas," which reached the R&B Top Ten at the end of 1948.

"Tell Me So" became the Orioles' second number one R&B hit in the spring of 1949, beginning a streak of six R&B hit singles that year. In addition to "Tell Me So," the group charted with "A Kiss and a Rose" (number 12, late summer), "I Challenge Your Kiss" (number 11, fall), "Forgive and Forget" (number five, fall), a re-released "(It's Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas" (number five, winter), and the B-side of "Lonely Christmas," "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" (number nine, winter).

Following their peak year of 1949, the group ran into tragedy. In 1950, Gaither, Nelson, and Reed suffered an automobile accident that killed Gaither and severely injured the other two members; Nelson quit the group later in the year. As Reed recovered from the accident, the group found replacements for Gaither and Nelson, finally settling on guitarist Ralph Williams and vocalist Gregory Carroll. The new lineup of the band had its first hit in 1952, when "Baby Please Don't Go" reached number eight on the R&B charts. The following year, the group had their biggest hit with "Crying in the Chapel." Released in the summer of 1953, "Crying in the Chapel" spent five weeks on the R&B charts and reached number 11 on the pop charts, eventually going gold; Elvis Presley had a hit with the song 12 years later. Toward the end of the year, the group had another Top Ten R&B hit with "In the Mission of St. Augustine." The single would turn out to be their last hit.

In 1954, the Orioles began to splinter, as Sharp and Reed left to join the Ink Spots. Til assembled a new lineup, but the group didn't gain much attention. He continued to lead various incarnations of the Orioles, performing concerts and re-recording the group's old hits, until his death in 1981. Nelson died sometime in 1959 and Sharp died in the early '70s. In 1995, 40 years after the original lineup of the group disbanded, the Orioles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Penguins biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine:

Best known for their hit single "Earth Angel," the doo wop quartet the Penguins were never able to replicate the success of their only Top 40 hit, but the song nevertheless became a rock & roll classic. The Penguins formed in 1954, when the group's members — Cleveland Duncan (lead vocal), Curtis Williams (tenor vocal), Dexter Tisby (baritone vocal), and Bruce Tate (tenor vocal) — were all attending Fremont High School in Los Angeles, CA.

Although he wasn't the lead singer, Williams was the leader of the group. He learned "Earth Angel" from vocalist Jesse Belvin — some sources claim that Williams wrote the song alone, others say he co-wrote the song with Belvin, while others claim Gaynell Hodge, a member of the doo wop group the Turks, wrote the song with the duo (in fact, Hodge won a lawsuit filed in 1956 that gave him a co-writing credit) — and had the Penguins sing the song.

Around 1954, the Penguins signed with the local Los Angeles independent label Dootone Records. The group's first single was going to be the uptempo "Hey Sinorita," and the ballad "Earth Angel" was going to be the B-side. Upon the release of the single in the latter half of 1954, Los Angeles radio stations were receiving more requests for "Earth Angel" than "Hey Sinorita," and the song soon became the record's A-side. By the beginning of 1955, the single had scaled the national charts, spending three weeks at the top of the R&B charts and peaking at number eight on the pop charts.

For the next few years, the Penguins continued to record singles for Dootone Records. Shortly after the success of "Earth Angel," Tate left the group and Randolph Jones became their baritone vocalist. Around 1956, the Penguins left Dootone Records and signed with Mercury Records. After cutting some sides for Mercury, the group moved to Atlantic Records, where they had their second and final hit, "Pledge of Love," which climbed to number 15 on the R&B charts in the summer of 1957. That same year, the group released its only album, The Cool, Cool Penguins.

By 1959, the Penguins had returned to their hometown of Los Angeles; shortly after their relocation, they broke up. Over the next four decades, Cleveland Duncan led various incarnations of the Penguins through reunion tours and re-recordings of their hits. In 1963, Duncan, Tisby, and two new members recorded "Memories of El Monte," a song future Mothers of Invention members Frank Zappa and Ray Collins wrote specifically for the group; the single failed to make any impact. Duncan went back to leading new incarnations of the Penguins, while Tisby briefly joined the Coasters.

The Platters biography by Cub Koda:

The Platters started out as a Los Angeles-based doo wop group with little identity of their own to make them stand out from the pack. They made their first records for Federal, a subsidiary of Cincinnati's King Records. These early sides don't sound anything like the better-known sides that would eventually emerge from this group, instead merely aping the current R&B trends and styles of the day. What changed their fortunes can be reduced down to one very important name: their mentor, manager, producer, songwriter, and vocal coach, Buck Ram. Ram took what many would say were a run-of-the-mill R&B doo wop vocal group and turned them into stars and one of the most enduring and lucrative groups of all time. By 1954, Ram was already running a talent agency in Los Angeles, writing and arranging for publisher Mills Music, managing the Three Suns — a pop group with some success — and working with his protégés, the Penguins. The Platters seemed like a good addition to his stable.

After getting them out of their Federal contract, Ram placed them with the burgeoning national independent label Mercury Records (at the same time he brought over the Penguins following their success with "Earth Angel"), automatically getting them into pop markets through the label's distribution contacts alone. Then Ram started honing in on the group's strengths and weaknesses. The first thing he did was put the lead vocal status squarely on the shoulders of lead tenor Tony Williams. Williams' emoting power was turned up full blast with the group (now augmented with Zola Taylor from Shirley Gunter & the Queens) working as very well-structured vocal support framing his every note. With Ram's pop songwriting classics as their musical palette, the group quickly became a pop and R&B success, eventually earning the distinction of being the first black act of the era to top the pop charts. Considered the most romantic of all the doo wop groups (that is, the ultimate in "make out music"), hit after hit came tumbling forth in a seemingly effortless manner: "Only You," "The Great Pretender," "My Prayer," "Twilight Time," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Harbor Lights," all of them establishing the Platters as the classiest of all.

Williams struck out on his own in 1961 and, by the decade's end, the group had disbanded with various members starting up their own version of the Platters. This bit of franchising now extends into the present day, with an estimated 125 sanctioned versions of "the original Platters" out on the oldies show circuit.

The Spaniels biography by Bryan Thomas:

The Spaniels are best known for their massive 1954 hit, "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" (number five R&B). They were the first successful Midwestern R&B group, coming from Gary, IN, by way of Chicago. Lead vocalist James "Pookie" Hudson was a graceful lead singer who influenced many who came after him, most notably Aaron Neville. They were also one of the first (if not the first) R&B groups to perform with the lead singer on one microphone and the rest of the group sharing another, and initiated a trend toward using tap dance routines in live shows. Their often a cappella recordings showcase the purity of a sound and style uniquely their own. It was also the Spaniels who partially brought about the formation of one of R&B's legendary labels, Vee-Jay, which became one of the most successful black-owned record companies in the country.

The story of how the Spaniels came to prominence begins in late 1952, when lead singer Hudson was convinced by four of his Roosevelt High classmates — Ernest Warren (first tenor), Opal Courtney, Jr. (baritone), Willie Jackson (second tenor), and Gerald Gregory (bass) to join them for a school talent show. They had debuted as Pookie Hudson and the Hudsonaires for the Christmas show and fared so well they decided to continue. Not wanting to join the bird group club (Orioles, Ravens, etc.), they decided on the name Spaniels.

In the spring, the group visited the local record shop owned by James and Vivian Bracken, who had begun developing a record label called Vee-Jay Records. They soon moved their operation to Chicago, in a garage off 47th Street (later they would relocate to offices at 1449 South Michigan Avenue). The Spaniels were one of the first two artists signed to the label (the other was blues guitarist Jimmy Reed). On May 5, 1953, the Spaniels recorded "Baby It's You," released in July. On September 5, "Baby" hit number ten on the national R&B best-seller charts.

The Spaniels' next session produced additional singles, including "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight," which took off in March 1954, but it took about six months for the record to break nationally, charting at number five on the R&B charts. Its success prompted the McGuire Sisters to cover it for the "white" market, stealing a lot of the Spaniels' thunder when their version landed in the Top Ten (number seven).

The Spaniels' next single, "Let's Make Up," earned more for songwriter Hudson as someone else's B-side when it appeared on the flip of the Top 20 hit "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" (number 14, 1955). On June 11, 1954, the Spaniels made the first of numerous appearances at the Apollo Theatre and began touring the greater Midwest. Another single, "You Painted Pictures," reached number 13 R&B in October.

After Opal Courtney, Jr. was drafted, Vee-Jay A&R man and Spaniels producer Calvin Carter was pressed into service during their road trips for a few months until James "Dimples" Cochran took over permanently. Shortly thereafter, Ernest Warren was drafted and the group continued recording as a quartet. Two subsequent Spaniels singles failed to connect. Disappointed, Pookie Hudson and Willie Jackson both decided to leave the group. The Spaniels bravely continued on, with Carl Rainge (lead), Gerald Gregory (bass), James Cochran (baritone), and Don Porter (second tenor). This contingent lasted for only one single until Pookie rejoined.

In April 1957, Vee-Jay released the first full-length album, Goodnight, It's Time to Go. By mid-summer, the group was back to turning out terrific singles. Incidentally, around this same time Hank Ballard (of Hank Ballard & the Midnighters) had just re-written the Drifters' 1955 number two pop hit "What'cha Gonna Do" — already a revision of an old gospel tune, "What're You Going to Do" — and offered his rewrite, called "The Twist," to the Spaniels, but they passed on it. It later became a number one hit for Ernest Evans, who recorded it under the name Chubby Checker.

By 1960, the Spaniels were Hudson, Ernest Warren, Gerald Gregory, Bill Carey, and Andy McGruder (former lead of the Five Blue Notes). They recorded the group's last Vee-Jay single "I Know" in 1960; it reached number 23 R&B that summer. Meanwhile, Vee-Jay Records issued a second full-length album.

A year later, McGruder and Gregory left the group, and the group broke up briefly after trying to sort out what to do. Road manager Ricky Burden took over on bass for the group's recording for Neptune. Hudson did a few solo sides for Jamie and in 1962 recorded with the Imperials (minus Little Anthony) for Lloyd Price's Double-L label. In the late '60s, Hudson formed his own North American Records and issued "Fairytales," which was picked up by Nat McCalla's Calla Records (distributed by Roulette). It became Pookie's last charting single (number 45 R&B) in the fall of 1970.

Two more singles were issued in the early '70s with a new Spaniels lineup: Hudson, Charles Douglas (first tenor), Alvin Wheeler (second tenor), Alvin Lloyd (baritone), and former guitarist for the group Pete Simmons (bass). He was later replaced by Andrew Lawyer (the Truetones) when the group recorded a remake of "Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight" for Buddah. Their last release was for Henry Farag's Canterbury label of Gary, IN, in 1974. Hudson and the Spaniels remained active and were one of the more in-demand acts on the oldies circuit. Pookie Hudson is still performing with a Spaniels group. Courtney and Willie Jackson are also alive. Gregory died in the '90s.

The Wrens biography by Bruce Eder:

The Wrens were one of the best of the dozens of R&B vocal groups who recorded in the mid- to late '50s for George Goldner, signed to his Rama and Gee labels in the wake of his success with "Gee" by the Crows. Lead singer Bobby Mansfield, George Magnezid (tenor), Francis "Frenchie" Concepcion (tenor), and James "Archie" Archer (bass) first started singing together in 1954 at a community center in the Bronx, NY. There they were spotted by Fred Johnson, a promoter who organized local talent shows, and he offered to manage the quartet. The Wrens were known best for their smooth, elegant harmony singing, which elevated both their ballads and their jump numbers above much of the competition. They sang R&B, but it tended more toward mature ballads and serious jump songs, rather than teen novelties.

Johnson got the group an audition with George Goldner's Rama Records and a recording contract followed late in 1954, with the group's first session taking place on November 21 of that year. Fred Johnson played piano behind them on that session and Goldner produced; in later recordings, legendary saxman Jimmy Wright led the band that backed them up. The group's first released single was "Love's Something Made for Two" b/w "Beggin' for Love," featuring Mansfield and Concepcion, respectively. It was their second single, "Come Back My Love," however, that achieved some local popularity in New York early in 1955 and put the Wrens on the map for R&B vocal fans. At their best, the Wrens sounded a lot like the Moonglows — Mansfield's singing at times bore a striking resemblance to Harvey Fuqua of the latter group, and both outfits were at their best doing mid-tempo jump numbers and ballads, though the Wrens' records also had a hard edge from Wright's sax and the bold sound of the Rama house band under his leadership.

Goldner issued a total of six singles by the Wrens, but they never enjoyed a bigger hit than "Come Back My Love," which became their signature song despite competition from a cover version done by the Cardinals on Atlantic that same year. By 1956, however, Bobby Mansfield had split off from the group for a solo career, during which he made some records for Goldner with the Supremes (the male R&B vocal group, not the Motown trio) backing him. The Wrens disappeared into the mists of R&B vocal group history, while Mansfield remained active into the 1990s, even recording with a new group of "Wrens" in the middle of the decade. The original Wrens all lived long enough to see themselves inducted into the United Group Harmony Association's Hall of Fame in 1998. Collectables Records issued a collection of the Wrens' recordings in the early '90s and England's Westside label followed this up in 2000 with Strictly for the Birds, compiling the Wrens' and the Crows' material on one CD.

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes biography by Steve Huey:

Harold Melvin was one of the driving forces behind Philadelphia soul, leading his group the Blue Notes to the top of the charts during their stint on Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International label. Despite Melvin’s billing out front, the Blue Notes’ focal point was lead singer and onetime drummer Teddy Pendergrass, whose surging baritone graced the Blue Notes’ recordings during their glory years of 1972-1975 and gave them a truly distinctive sound. Their output ranged from sweeping, extended proto-disco dance tracks to silky, smoldering ballads, all wrapped up in Gamble and Huff’s lushly orchestrated production. When Pendergrass left for a solo career, Melvin & the Blue Notes’ commercial fortunes largely reverted to the pre-Pendergrass days (of which there were quite a few), although they did continue to record for a time. They never really disbanded, and by the time Melvin passed away in 1997, he’d been leading the Blue Notes for over four decades.

Melvin was born June 25, 1939, in Philadelphia. A self-taught pianist, he began singing doo wop as a teenager with a group called the Charlemagnes, and put together the very first edition of the Blue Notes in 1954. The original lineup was a quintet featuring Melvin as the lead singer (for a time), songwriter, arranger, and choreographer; ironically, he would mostly relinquish those duties by the time the group achieved its greatest success. The other members were co-leader Bernard Williams, Roosevelt Brodie, Jesse Gillis, Jr., and Franklin Peaker. The Blue Notes cut their first single, “If You Love Me,” for Josie in 1956, and turned it into a regional hit. They recorded for several other labels over the next few years, Dot chief among them, before scoring their first R&B chart hit in 1960 with “My Hero” (released on Val-Ue). Numerous personnel shifts kept the group in flux despite steady recording activity, and Bernard Williams split off to lead what he dubbed the Original Blue Notes in the mid-’60s. Melvin assembled a new version of the Blue Notes centered around lead singer John Atkins, who returned the group to the R&B charts in 1965 with the Landa single “Get Out (And Let Me Cry).” Further releases on Arctic, Checker, and Uni followed over the rest of the ’60s, as well as more personnel changes. During the late ’60s, the group toured often with the Cadillacs, whose young drummer Teddy Pendergrass would prove to be Melvin’s greatest discovery.

Pendergrass first joined the Blue Notes’ backing band, but demonstrated so much vocal talent that after John Atkins left in 1970, Melvin soon elevated him to the post of lead vocalist. This move helped them land a deal with Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International label in 1972, just as the company was taking its place as soul music’s new epicenter; Pendergrass’ voice was similar to that of Dells singer Marvin Junior, whom Gamble & Huff had courted heavily. By this time, the Blue Notes consisted of Melvin, Pendergrass, bass vocalist Lawrence Brown, baritone vocalist Bernard Wilson, and tenor vocalist Lloyd Parks. With Gamble & Huff now supplying top-quality material and production, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes would become one of the most popular groups in R&B over the next few years. Their self-titled debut mostly featured songs that had been written in anticipation of landing Marvin Junior. The first single, “I Miss You,” was a hit on the R&B charts, but their second was a smash — the classic ballad “If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” which featured an anguished, star-making vocal turn from Pendergrass. “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” went all the way to number one R&B, and also became their only Top Five hit on the pop side; it was later covered in 1989 for a number one hit by Simply Red.

The Blue Notes scored again in 1973 with the string-laden dance track “The Love I Lost,” credited by many observers as one of the first disco records; it was their second R&B chart-topper and Top Ten pop single. The accompanying album, Black & Blue, produced another R&B Top Ten in the follow-up “Satisfaction Guaranteed (Or Take Your Love Back).” In 1974, Lloyd Parks was replaced by Jerry Cummings, who debuted on the R&B chart-topping LP To Be True. “Where Are All My Friends” and “Bad Luck” continued their string of Top Ten R&B hits, and a new addition to the group, female vocalist Sharon Paige, helped bring them back to the top of the R&B charts in 1975 with the duet “Hope That We Can Be Together Soon.” Another excellent album followed later that year in Wake Up Everybody, whose title track was another R&B number one; “Tell the World How I Feel About ‘Cha Baby” also reached the R&B Top Ten, and the album cut “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was later covered for a disco smash by Thelma Houston.

However, tension was building within the group. The heavily spotlighted Pendergrass was hungry for separate billing, but Melvin, still the group’s chief organizing force, turned him down. In 1976, Pendergrass left the Blue Notes for a solo career that quickly made him one of R&B’s top sex symbols. Sharon Paige helped fill his shoes on lead vocals, as well as new male lead David Ebo, whose sound was fairly similar to Pendergrass’. However, Pendergrass’ departure also signaled the end of the Blue Notes’ relationship with Philadelphia International — their next recordings were for ABC, for whom they hit the R&B Top Ten in 1977 with the title track of Reaching for the World. It would prove to be their last major success, however; after one more album for ABC, they moved to MCA subsidiary Source in 1979 for two LPs that failed to reignite their commercial momentum. Cummings and Wilson had both departed in 1977, replaced by Dwight Johnson and William Spratelly, and Paige and Ebo both left in 1980. Still, Melvin soldiered on, helming one last album of new material for Philly World in 1984’s hopefully titled Talk It Up (Tell Everybody). It was mildly popular in the U.K., but not enough to re-establish them. Melvin continued to tour with versions of the Blue Notes steadily into the ’90s, and Paige eventually returned to the fold as well. Sadly, Melvin suffered a stroke and never fully recovered; he passed away on March 24, 1997, in his beloved hometown of Philadelphia.

Edna McGriff biography from Bell Records:

Edna is a talented teenager at Washington Irving High School in New York City. She is a singer, songwriter, and a pianist. In June of 1951 she mulls contract offers from both Apollo and Jubilee Records. She decides to sign with Jerry Blaine at Jubilee, and time for a recording session is planned. By September of that year her first record is issued - "Note Droppin' Papa" / "Come Back". Nothing much becomes of that session and at the end of the year she is back in the studio, this time with Buddy Lucas and his combo. Early in 1952 Jubilee releases "Heavenly Father" / "I Love You". To differentiate the 'A' side "Heavenly Father", from appearing as a straight gospel music performance, the song is subtitled "A Prayer For Love" in all trade advertising.

By the spring of that year it is apparent that this record is becoming a huge seller. It starts to appear on pop music charts and racks up huge sales in markets usually not receptive to R & B discs. And as always in these instances, the pop cover versions start to appear. First is one by Fran Warren, then the Four Lads, and Evelyn Knight. On the strength of the huge success of the record Edna headlines a show for a week at the Earle Theater in Philadelphia. From there to the Midwest and a number of one nighters with Ohio dj Alan "Moondog" Freed which are huge draws. One such show "The Dance Caravan of R & B Stars" attracts turn away crowds. For the followup release, Jubilee tries an interesting arrangement. They pair Edna with Orioles lead singer Sonny Til and have them record two pop standards "I Only Have Eyes For You" / "Once In A While".

Following the usual derivative format of record producers of the time the next solo release by Edna McGriff repeats the devotional overtones of the successful first record. "Pray For A Better World" / "In A Chapel By The Side Of The Road" are the two songs that are paired by the label. Hopes for a second charted record are not realized and Jubilee goes for another pairing with Sonny Til on "Picadilly" / "Good" a somewhat strange set of choices. Edna McGriff does a number of holiday shows with Sonny and the Orioles. In early 1953 Jubilee releases "Edna's Blues" / "Why Oh Why" as the now seventeen year old takes some time off to recuperate from the effects of her strenuous schedule.

In the late spring Jubilee issues "Scrap Of Paper" / "Be Gentle With Me". The first extensive tour of the Midwest comes about during the summer. In support of the tour Jubilee issues "These Things Shall Pass" / "I'll Surrender Anytime" None of the subsequent recordings sell in any numbers anywhere near that of Edna's first disc. The holiday season finds McGriff doing some shows on the island of Bermuda. Early the following year Jubilee decides to move her to the Josie label. They issue "I'll Be Around" / "Ooh Little Daddy" but that too sinks almost without a trace.

In the fall she signs to record with Favorite Records, a low priced line with no hope of airplay and only sporadic sales. She still has enough name power to appear at the Apollo in October on a bill with the Clovers. She remains with the discount label Bell Records, which sell thirty five cent seven inch 78rpm and 45rpm records. By the spring of 1955 Edna McGriff fades from the scene and becomes just a memory. She is not quite twenty years old.

"Heavenly Father" remains in our memory. A wonderful straight forward vocal by a singer who sounds much more mature than her sixteen plus years. A great melody with superb understated backup by Buddy Lucas and band with organ accents and that strange out-of-place-but-it-fits Hawaiian guitar. If that is all there is then it is a wonderful musical legacy. 

The Sha-Weez biography by Marv Goldberg:

Based on an interview with James Crawford
© 2004 by Marv Goldberg

Most groups are quartets or quintets; at their outset, the Sha-Weez could best be described as a musical mob.

The origins of the oddly-named Sha-Weez go back to 1950, when they formed at Booker T. Washington High School in New Orleans. There were nine of them, mostly instrumentalists: James "Sugar Boy" Crawford (piano and vocals), Edgar "Big Boy" Myles (trombone and vocals), Irving "Cat" Bannister (guitar and vocals), Alfred "Hot Lips" Woodard (trumpet), Eric "Skee-za" Warner (drums), Nolan "Sha-Wee" Blackwell (alto sax), Warren "Jake" Myles (Edgar's brother; piano), Alfred Bernard (tenor sax), and David Lastie (tenor sax). (Bernard and Lastie seem to have been nickname-impaired.)

The guys had a theme song. It was named, for some reason, "Cha-Paka-Sha-Wees" by Nolan Blackwell (although there was no agreement over the years as to how it ought to be spelled). One Saturday morning, the unnamed group made an appearance on Vernon "Dr. Daddy-O" Winslow's radio show, and he introduced them as the "Cha-Paka-Sha-Wees musicians." They did the best they could with that, eventually shortening it to "Sha-Weez" (later "Shaw-Wees). At least, unlike with the "Marquees" or "4 Jacks," for example, fans and researchers would never get multiple groups mixed up.

[I have read that "Chapaka Shawee" is Creole for "We Aren't Raccoons." However, in order for me to buy that, someone would have to give me a detailed explanation of why anyone would call a band "We Aren't Raccoons," whether in Creole or English. Amazingly, I heard from Creole speaker Morgan Landry, who assures me that shee-PA sha-WEE, really is Creole for “we aren't raccoons.” Go figure.]

Like many New Orleans acts, they landed a contract with Aladdin Records. On November 23, 1952, in a Sunday morning session, they recorded four songs at the local J&M studio (at 838 North Rampart Street), owned by the legendary Cosimo Matassa. The lead was supposed to have been James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, but he'd strained his voice at an appearance the night before. Thus, Edgar "Big Boy" Myles took over (with Sugar Boy doing the recitations).

The songs they recorded were "You Made Me Love You," "No One To Love Me," "Feeling Sad," and "Early Sunday Morning." Listen to Sugar Boy's talking part on "No One To Love Me"; you may think that he's putting a lot of emotion into it, but it's really barely-disguised choking. It's not hard to tell that his voice is strained.

Aladdin released "No One To Love Me"/"Early Sunday Morning" in December 1952. The platter was reviewed on April 4, 1953 (both sides "good"), along with Rufus Thomas' "Bear Cat," Scatman Crothers' "Papa (I Didn't Treat That Little Girl Mean)," Dolly Cooper & 4 the Buddies' "I'd Climb The Highest Mountain," Little Esther & Bobby Nunn's "You Took My Love Too Fast," the 5 Crowns' "Alone Again," the Marylanders' "Fried Chicken," and Little Mr. Blues' "Mama, Your Daughter Plays It Cool."

While hardly a national chart-topper, "No One To Love Me" was quirky enough to become a local hit and the guys got a lot of work out of it in the area: New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Johnsonville. They also made it to both Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee, as well as some spots in Mississippi. They got so much work, in fact, that they (at least Crawford and Myles) were full-time entertainers for a couple of years.

For whatever reason, Aladdin never released "You Made Me Love You" and "Feeling Sad," nor did they ever ask the Sha-Weez to record again.

In the fall of 1953, while still under contract to Aladdin, Sugar Boy Crawford and Big Boy Myles began to record for Chess records. Leonard Chess had seen the Sha-Weez rehearse at a radio station and had recorded a couple of their sides: "I Don't Know What I'll Do" and "Overboard." They were just rehearsal tapes, but Chess released them anyway (on their Checker subsidiary), as by "Sugar Boy And His Cane Cutters." According to John Broven's Rhythm & Blues In New Orleans, the group at the time included Leroy "Batman" Rankin (tenor sax), Billy Tate (guitar), Frank Fields (bass), and Chester Jones (drums). It's not clear how many of the Checker sides Big Boy Myles is on. Over the course of a year, they recorded about two dozen tunes, only six of which would be released. None of the Cane Cutters releases were group records, as Sugar Boy Crawford is the only vocalist on them.

"I Don't Know What I'll Do"/ "Overboard" were released in October 1953. They were reviewed ("Overboard" receiving an "excellent") on November 21. Other reviews that week went to Budd Johnson's "Off Shore," the Swallows' "I'll Be Waiting," the Platters' "Give Thanks," and B.B. King's "Blind Love."

In early January 1954, Sugar Boy recorded "Jock-O-Mo" (a local slang term for a joker) and "You, You, You." Snooks Eaglin seems to have been guitarist on these. Released in February, they were reviewed on March 6, along with Jimmy Ricks & Ravens' "Going Home," Earl Bostic's "Cracked Ice," and Jimmy Sweeney & Varieteers' "I've Got A Woman's Love."

Actually, the title "Jock-A-Mo" seems to have come from Leonard Chess himself, since Sugar Boy (who wrote the song) is supposed to be saying "Chock-A-Mo" in the lyrics. (However, let’s not be too hasty to blame Lejzor Czyz (Leonard's real name). "Jock-A-Mo" is what it probably sounded like to his Polish-born ears and it sure sounds like that to me, too.) In 1965, the Dixie Cups would re-do the song as "Iko Iko." The tune, while never a smash hit, became one of those perennial New Orleans Mardi Gras favorites.

The third disc was "I Bowed On My Knees"/"No More Heartaches," released in May of 1954. It doesn't seem to have been reviewed, but it would have, as competition, the Scarlets' "Dear One," Bobby Mitchell's "Angel Child," the Jubalaires' "You Won't Let Me Go," and the Eagle-Aires' "Cloudy Weather." Reviewed or not, on July 24, it was rated a Tip in New Orleans. After this, the Cane Cutters became the resident band at the Carousel Club in Baton Rouge.

With no national hits to their credit, Checker didn't record them again and, in 1955, Big Boy Myles left to join McKinley "L'il" Millet and the Creoles. They were playing the Sugar Bowl in Thibodaux, Louisiana when they were discovered by Specialty's Bumps Blackwell.

There was a session at Cosimo's J&M Studios on September 25, 1955, that had Edgar Myles (vocals and trombone), Lee Allen (tenor sax), McKinley "L'il" Millet (bass), Ernest Mare (guitar), Bartholomew Smith (drums), James Victor Lewis (tenor sax), and Warren Myles (piano). They recorded "Who's Been Fooling You?" and "That Girl I Married." These were released in November 1955, as by "Big Boy Myles and the Shaw-Wees." [Note that even though Myles' name (and voice) were prominent on the record, he only received $41.25 for the session. Lee Allen, as leader, got $82.50. Such are fortunes made.] Also recorded at the same time were "Rich Woman" and "Hopeless Love"; these were released as by "L'il Millet and His Creoles."

Reviewed on December 3, both Sha-Wees sides were ranked "good." Other reviews that week went to Ruth Brown's (backed up by the Drifters) "Ol' Man River," Joe Turner's "The Chicken And The Hawk," the El Dorados' "I'll Be Forever Loving You," the Prestos' "Looking For Love," Ann Cole's "Are You Satisfied," the Sounds' "So Unnecessary," and the Pyramids' "Bow Wow."

It took Big Boy Myles over a year to get back to the Specialty studios (Cosimo's again), where, on October 23, 1956, he recorded "Just To Hold My Hand" and "Hickory Dickory Dock." This time the crew included Myles (vocals and trombone), Alvin Tyler (tenor sax and session leader), Earl Palmer (drums), Lee Allen (tenor sax), Frank Fields (bass), Edgar Blanchard (guitar), and Warren Myles (piano).

Both sides were reviewed (both "good") on December 1. Other reviews that week included Clyde McPhatter's "Without Love," the Youngsters' "Christmas In Jail," Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me," the Moroccos' "Bang Goes My Heart," the Sophomores' "I Left My Sugar Standing In The Rain," and the Counts' "Sweet Names."

James "Sugar Boy" Crawford had four solo releases on Imperial between December 1956 and March 1958, followed by a couple on Montel and one on Ace. Big Boy Myles had two releases on Ace (1960 and 1961), a single release on V-Tone (1961), and one on Huey Meaux' Pic-One (around 1968). These are all listed in the discography.

By 1962, James Crawford not only had a band, but was working with a new quartet (Dianne DeGruy, Linda DeGruy, Irene Williams, and Mary Kelly). The girls had been appearing as the "Little Raelettes" when Crawford teamed up with them, but the night they made their first appearance (at the Safari Club), sax player Batman Rankin, for some reason, announced them as "Sugar Boy and the Sugar Lumps."

In 1963, with a recording date for Peacock Records coming up, the band was traveling to a gig in Northern Louisiana. Sugar Boy had made the mistake of having a new car in an area of the country where blacks weren't encouraged to look prosperous. He was pulled over and pistol-whipped by a state trooper. This put him in the hospital for several weeks and kept him away from entertaining for two years. While he was recuperating, the Sugar Lumps did the Peacock session. However, even though it was credited to "Sugar Boy and the Sugar Lumps," Crawford wasn't on it.

Entertainment was never the same to Sugar Boy after that. After an attempt at a 1969 comeback, his only singing has been in the church.

The Sha-Weez were true exponents of the New Orleans sound. They were fine musicians and fine singers, leaving us with some great music (and a name that makes no sense).

Special thanks to Kirk Roberts and Rick Coleman.