Month: September 2021

1961 The Halos – Nag

A group of doo-wop singers from the Bronx formed in the mid-fifties and included singers J.R. Bailey, Al Cleveland, Arthur Crier, and Harold Johnson. In 1956, J. R. left the group and joined The Cadillacs (who had just had a hit with Speedo) and Phil Johnson took his place.

Producer Morty Craft hired the group to sing background vocals on records he was producing and eventually produced a few tracks for the band itself as well. Group member Arthur Crier co-wrote their first single with Morty, but its release in early 1961 failed to chart.

Arthur wrote their second single, Nag, all by himself. They released the record later in 1961 using a different group name, The Halos. The doo-wop song peaked at #25 in 1961.

A few more singles came and went without attracting an audience. The group remained together as studio singers, and sang background vocals on quite a few other records, including a few hits in 1961:

Barry Mann’s biggest solo hit, Who Put The Bomp, which reached #7 on the Hot 100 in 1961.

Pretty Little Angel Eyes by Curtis Lee. Phil Spector produced the single, which also reached  #7 in 1961.

Gene Pitney’s second charting single, Every Breath I Take. Another single produced by Phil. This one stalled at #42 in 1961 and really should have been a bigger hit.

They went on to sing backup for many other artists, including Connie Francis, Tommy Hunt, Bobby Vinton, the Coasters, Brian Hyland, Johnny Nash, Dion, Little Eva, Shirley and Lee, and Johnny Mathis.

http://www.uncamarvy.com/ArthurCrier/arthurcrier.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Halos

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1960 Carl Dobkins, Jr. – Lucky Devil

Carl Dobkins, Jr. grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents were amateur singers and his mother played guitar. They taught him enough to get him started on the road to professional musician.

Carl recorded a few songs for Fraternity Records, but they sold the masters to Decca. Carl then went to Nashville to record for Decca.

Songwriter Lee Pockriss teamed up several different lyricists and wrote hits including Catch A Falling Star, Johnny Angel, and Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini. Lyricist Hal David is best known as a co-writer who teamed up with Burt Bacharach and wrote a large number of hits in the sixties.

Lee and Hal co-wrote My Heart Is An Open Book, which Carl recorded in his Nashville sessions for Decca in 1959. The rockabilly standard sat on the charts for nearly six months, and his single eventually reached #3 on the Hot 100 in that year.

Wally Gold and Aaron Schroeder would later write two number one singles for Elvis (It’s Now Or Never and Good Luck Charm), but first they wrote Carl’s second top forty single. The single (Lucky Devil) got a slow start, but eventually peaked at #25 on the Hot 100 in 1960.

Carl would continue recording into the mid-sixties without reaching the top forty again, but he still managed to appear on American Bandstand fourteen times.

He later toured in oldies shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Dobkins_Jr.

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1959 Miss Toni Fisher – The Big Hurt

Toni Fisher was born in Los Angeles and first achieved notoriety with a song written for her by her manager, Wayne Shanklin. Wayne had written the song Chanson D’Amour, which became a top ten hit in 1958. He had Toni record The Big Hurt in 1959, and the song is notable because of a production mistake that turned out to be exciting.

Larry Levine engineered the mixing of the recording, and he caused the phasing sound on the record. He accidentally mixed the stereo and mono recordings together, but did so slightly out of sync. Les Paul had experimented with the creation of similar sounds on recordings in the late forties and early fifties, but Toni’s recording was the first hit that used the effect.

Larry went on to work with Phil Spector and helped him implement the Wall Of Sound that he became famous for.

At the time, everybody probably referred to the effect on the record as phasing. John Lennon popularized a new term for the effect: flanging. John grew tired of having to record the same vocals multiple times to produce double tracking on recordings for the Beatles, and asked George Martin if he had a simpler way to create double tracking. One engineer at the Abbey Road studio, Ken Townsend, devised a way to accomplish artificial double tracking (ADT).

When John asked George how it worked, he got a nonsensical explanation: “Now listen, it’s very simple. We take the original image and we split it through a double vibrocated sploshing flange with double negative feedback.” John began referring to the process as flanging, and the term is still in use today. The process got used initially on the song Tomorrow Never Knows and apparently became applied to nearly every song on the Beatle album Revolver.

Toni kept recording into the mid-sixties but only reached the top forty one more time. Her 1962 single West of the Wall dealt with the topical situation related to the Russian-built Berlin Wall. It reached #37 on the Hot 100.

Toni’s career faded after that release. She died from a heart attack in 1999.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanging
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Fisher
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Hurt_(song)

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1958 Moe Koffman Quartette – Swingin’ Shepherd Blues 

Moe Koffman grew up in Toronto and began studying violin when he was nine years old. He found work playing in dance bands and left school without graduating. In 1950, he moved to the United States and played in several big bands, including bands led by Sonny Dunham and Jimmy Dorsey.

Moe returned to Toronto in 1955 and formed a quartet that morphed into a quintet after a few years.

In 1957, his recording of the instrumental Swingin’ Shepherd Blues reached #23 on the Hot 100.

The success of the single helped raise public awareness of his flute-playing ability. It did not lead to more hit singles; his next single (Little Pixie) stalled at #72.

The releases of the single Shepherd Blues Cha Cha in 1958 and Swingin’ Shepherd Blues Twist a few years later both went unnoticed, and he never charted again in the US.

 

Moe modified the straps for his instruments so he could play a tenor and alto saxophone at the same time. As a studio musician, he found work in recording sessions in Toronto for over forty years. He played a rare instrument, the bass flute, and appears on most of the Canadian soundtracks produced during his tenure as a studio musician that used that instrument.

He continued releasing new albums regularly into the mid-eighties.

Cancer ended Moe’s life in 2001.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_Koffman

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1957 Ruth Brown – Lucky Lips 

Ruth Brown grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her father led their church choir, and teenaged-Ruth moved on from there to sing in local clubs and USO shows. When she turned 17, she left home and moved in with trumpet player Jimmy Brown. She and Jimmy were soon married.

Ruth soon sang in clubs on Washington, D.C., and signed with Atlantic Records in 1949. Her first recording session that year yielded the hit So Long, which reached #4 on the R&B chart. By 1957, Ruth charted 16 more top ten R&B records, five of which topped the chart.

 In 1957, Ruth finally reached the Hot 100 chart. She recorded Lucky Lips, a song written by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The single peaked at #25 on the Hot 100 and #6 on the R&B chart.

A few more hits followed, but by 1960, Ruth stepped away from her singing career to stay home with her husband and raise their son.

Redd Foxx convinced Ruth to return to performing in 1975. She not only sang in clubs, but started an acting career as well. She became a regular in the second season of Hello, Larry and appeared in the John Waters film Hairspray. Roles in the Broadway plays Amen Corner and Black and Blue followed. 

They inducted her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Her public appearances only ended with her death from a heart attack and a stroke in 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lips

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1956 LaVern Baker – Jim Dandy

Delores Evans was born in Chicago in 1929. She began singing in clubs in the mid-forties as Little Miss Sharecropper and recorded songs using that name beginning in 1949. Her name became Bea Baker when she signed with Okeh Records in 1951. She finally settled on the name Lavern Baker the next year when she briefly joined Todd Rhodes and his band. She returned to a solo career after leaving the band.

Winfield Scott eventually wrote a few successful songs for Elvis, but his first chart success came when he wrote Lavern’s first chart success, Tweedlee Dee. Her single reached #14 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the R&B chart in early 1955.

The next year she recorded another novelty song, Jim Dandy. Lincoln Chase wrote the song (he later managed Shirley Ellis and also wrote The Name Game and The Clapping Song for her). LaVern topped the R&B chart with Jim Dandy and reached #17 on the Hot 100.

LaVern found her way onto both the Hot 100 and R&B top forty a few more times before the hits ran out in 1962.

In 1966, she recorded an updated version of Jim Dandy: Batman To The Rescue. The single didn’t reach the charts, but years later, somebody created a video for the song using clips from the Batman television show.

In 1985, Black Oak Arkansas covered Jim Dandy and their single reached #25 on the Hot 100.

LaVern released a few more singles in the late sixties and one last album in 1970 before accepting a job as the entertainment director at a Marine Corps Staff NCO club in the Philippines for nearly two decades. She then returned to the US and worked on soundtracks for a few films. She also recorded a live album in 1991 and a new studio album in 1992.

LaVern died in 1997, and they initially buried her in an unmarked grave in New York. In 2008, local historians raised enough money to mark her grave with a headstone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVern_Baker

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1955 Don Cornell – Most Of All

When he was only 18, Luigi Francisco Valaro began working professionally as a guitar player in the band of trumpet player Red Nichols. He eventually began using the professional name Don Cornell and found fame singing in the big band led by Sammy Kaye. Between 1942 and 1949, Don sang on nine top ten singles and another half-dozen top forty singles.

He started a solo career in the fifties and recorded two top five singles in 1952. His most successful song as a solo artist came in 1954. Hold My Hand reached #2 on the Hot 100 in the US and topped the charts in the UK.

Disk jockey Alan Freed signed up to manage a group started by Harvey Fuqua in 1952. He changed the group’s name to The Moonglows the next year. Harvey and Alan wrote the song Sincerely, and the group’s single topped the R&B chart and reached #20 on the Hot 100 in 1954.

Alan and Harvey also wrote the group’s next single, the doo-wop ballad Most Of All. The record did not reach the Hot 100, but it peaked at #5 on the R&B chart in 1955.

Don recorded a cover version of Most Of All that was closer to what pop radio stations wanted to play. His single reached #14 on the Hot 100 later in 1955.

Later that year, Don reached #7 on the Hot 100 with his single The Bible Tells Me So.

He also had two more singles that peaked at #26 and #25 in 1957. He continued recording and releasing records at least through 1966, but never again reached the top forty.

Don received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1963. He continued performing as a singer into the nineties before retiring to Florida.

Don died after in 2004 after battling with emphysema and diabetes.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/don-cornell-mn0000177207/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cornell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moonglows

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While his last solo top forty single came out in 2010, Rod Stewart has continued to release both covers of older songs and some new songs.

This week he released a new single, One More Time.

Rod co-wrote the song with Kevin Savigar.

The video is similar in one way with his 1989 duet with Ronald Isley: Rod is once again backed up by three attractive dancers. This time, however, the trio does a more complete job of lip syncing with the record.

This Old Heart Of Mine reached the top ten on the Hot 100 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart in 1990. We can only hope radio picks up his newest release as well!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Stewart_discography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Old_Heart_of_Mine_(Is_Weak_for_You)

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1987 Level 42 – Lessons In Love

Mark King and Phil and Boon Gould met and began playing in various bands while still in school on the Isle of Wight. Phil met keyboard player Mike Lindup when they studied music in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Robin Scott created the pop project M in the late seventies. The group gained international fame with the song Pop Musik in 1979. Wally Badarou played keyboards on the recording. Phil and Mark also worked as part of that project, and they began rehearsing with Wally to create a jazz-funk style of music.

The group Level 42 grew out of those early sessions. The group soon comprised Phil, Mark, Boon, and Mike, who took their name from the answer to the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Wally did not join the group, but became an unofficial fifth member who co-wrote songs, co-produced their recordings, and even sometimes played keyboards and synthesizers for them.

By 1981, the group had recorded a single that broke into the top forty on the UK chart. More hits followed, but the group did not reach the top forty in the US until Something About You reached the US Hot 100 in 1986. That single peaked in the top ten in both the UK and the US.

While the group’s next single (Leaving Me Now) reached 15 on the UK chart, it did not break into the Hot 100. A remix of the title song from their album World Machine got onto the US Dance Chart, where it peaked at #15.

Level 42 recorded their next album in early 1986. The lead single from the album, Lessons In Love, quickly reached the top of the charts in five countries and #3 in the UK, their highest charting record in their home country. The group toured in the US that year as well, and that helped the single reach #12 on both the Hot 100 and the US Dance chart in 1987.

The group also owed some of their success in the US to a video for the single.

Level 42 had three more top ten singles in the UK in the next year. Nine more of their singles charted in the UK top forty by the end of 1994. Sadly, the group failed to do that well in the US: their next single stalled at #83 on the Hot 100 in 1987, after which they failed to reach any of the US charts again.

Boon and Phil had left the group by the end of 1987. Mark and Mike have recruited new members as necessary and still lead an active group that tours and played a concert in Canada in 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_42
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_42_discography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons_in_Love_(song)

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1986 Van Halen – Love Walks In 

Friction between David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen had grown while the band (Van Halen) grew increasingly successful. David finally left the group in 1985 and began work on a solo career.

Eddie searched around for a replacement and offered the job to several artists who turned him down. Patty Smyth was happy with her solo career and eight months pregnant, so it did not seem like the right time to her. He discussed Daryl Hall was offered the job after Eddie saw a Hall and Oates concert in 1985, but he continued working with John Oates while also releasing solo material.

Eddie’s Ferrari mechanic also worked on Sammy Hagar’s car, and he introduced the two. Sammy had just had the hit I Can’t Drive 55 and a successful tour. The two quickly decided he was a good fit for the band.

Van Halen and Sammy were each scheduled to perform at Farm Aid in September 1985 (Hall & Oates also performed at that Farm Aid). 

Unfortunately for viewers watching the concert on the Country Music Channel, Sammy’s language became offensive enough that the channel cut away from their performance and reran tapes from earlier in the day.

After announcing Sammy’s membership in the group, the band finished and  released the album 5150 in March 1986.

The first single from the album, Why Can’t This Be Love, reached #3 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

The second single from the album reached #6 on the Mainstream Rock chart but stalled at only #22 on the Hot 100. The group created a video for Dreams using a live performance at the Whiskey A Go Go in 1993.

The first song the band wrote with Sammy was Love Walks In, which became the third single from 5150. Sammy has claimed that aliens have contacted him multiple times, and he wrote the lyrics of the song about his interactions with the aliens. Eddie played both keyboards and guitar on the studio recording.

The single also reached #22 on the Hot 100 but did slightly better on the Mainstream Rock Chart, where it reached #4.

Sammy stayed with the band through 1996 and rejoined them from 2003 to 2005. The band had more hit records with Sammy singing lead than they did with David Lee Roth: Sammy had 9 top forty hits on the Hot 100 to David’s 7. On the Mainstream Rock Chart, Sammy initially had 23 top forty singles to David’s initial 13; each of them had two more hits on that chart (but no additional Hot 100 hits) during their later reunions with the group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen
https://societyofrock.com/31-years-ago-a-mistake-brings-sammy-hagar-and-eddie-van-halen-together-onstage-for-the-first-time/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Halen_discography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Walks_In

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