Paste-up photo- Top : Edward Palatella - Bottom (L to R) : Peter Rocco, Donald Fields & John Hopper

The Chancellors (1)  (Port Washington, New York)
aka The Five Chancellors

Personnel:

Edward Palatella (Lead)

John "Jiggie" Hopper (First Tenor)

Peter Rocco (Second Tenor)

Rowland Pinkney (Bass)

Donald Fields (Baritone)

Discography :

The Chancellors (1)
1957 - There Goes My Girl / Tell Me You Love Me (Port 5000)

The Five Chancellors
1957 - There Goes My Girl / Tell Me You Love Me (Port 5000)

Biography :

The Chancellors were a Five-man, mixed racial group consisting of three white and two black members, who came from Port Washington, Long Island. The two black members, Donald Fields (Baritone) and Rowland Pinkney were from Mineola High School and the remaining three guys, Edward Palatella (Lead), John  Hopper and Peter Rocco (Second Tenor) were from Port Washington.  

Jerry Blaine, owner of Jubilee Records send The group to an appearance on the Apollo theatre’s amateur night on February 20, 1957 with other 24 Rock & Roll acts. They became the first mixed racial group to perform at the Apollo Theatre. The group recorded "There Goes My Girl" b/w "Tell Me You Love Me" at the Belltone studios in New York.

Edward Palatella                       John Hopper                            Peter Rocco                          Donald Fields

Somehow, the review of this record in the May 27, 1957 issue of Billboard mistakenly says, "A lively, typical teen-age group side by seven kids from Port Washington, N.Y., High." Due to a threatened lawsuit by another Chancellors group, they quickly changed their name to the Five Chancellors and then vanished into the mists of doo wop soon after.

Songs :

   
There Goes My Girl                     Tell Me You Love Me


…

The Kings And Queens (Queens, N.Y.)
aka The Orioles (2) with The DellTones (1) / Ref The Regals (2)

Personnel :

Della Simpson (Lead)

Sonny Til

Diz Russell

Jerry Holeman

Tex Cornelius

Billy Adams

Bunny Foy

Renée Stewart

Algie Willie

Discography :

1957 - Voices Of Love  / I'm So Lonely (Everlast 5003)

Biography :

Della Simpson of the Dell Tones had met and befriended the Orioles. In fact, she ended up marrying Paul Griffin, their pianist. (In the late 70s, Sonny Til lived in Della's house for the last two years of his life.) Since the Orioles were into modern harmony, they hit it off with the Delltones.

Della Griffin, Renee Stewart, Bunny Foy, Billy Adams, Sonny Till, Aaron Cornelius, Jerry Holeman and Albert Russell
The two groups combined to record "Voices Of Love" and "I'm So Lonely," for Danny Robinson's Everlast label, as the Kings And Queens. Released around June 1957, the personnel consisted of: Sonny Til, Diz Russell, Jerry Holeman, Tex Cornelius, Billy Adams, Della Simpson (who leads both sides), Bunny Foy, Renée Stewart, and Algie Willie (who doesn't appear in the only photo taken of them). This group appeared a couple of times at some New York clubs.

Songs :


Voices Of Love  / I'm So Lonely

….

The Emersons  (Manhattan, New-York)
aka The Demens (1)

Personnel :

Eddie “California” Jones (Lead)

Jimmy Caines (First Tenor)

Thomas Cook (Second Tenor, Lead)

Frankie Cook ( Baritone)

Discography :

The Demens (1)
1957 - Take Me As I Am / You Broke My Heart (Teenage 1006)
1957 - The Greatest Of Them All / Hey Young Girl (Teenage 1008)

The Emersons
1958 - Hungry / Joannie, Joannie (Newport 7004)
1959 - Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde / The Hokey Pokey (Cub 9027)
1961 - Down In The Valley / Loneliness (United Artists 379)

Eddie Jones & The Demons
196? - The Greatest Of Them All / Long Tall Texan (Jim Mann & Demons) (Kairay 1003)

Biography :

The Demens (yes, that spelling is correct) formed in New York City and harmonized on street corners. They may have opted for that spelling of the word demon because of a record label called Demon Records famous for “Western Movies” by the Olympics and "Endless Sleep" by Jody Reynolds. The vocal group consisted of Eddie Jones, Thomas Cook, Frankie Cook, and Jimmy Caines. The group then hooked up with the manager of the Bobbettes of “ Mr. Lee” fame (Atlantic #1144), Jim Dailey, and got to record for the small Teenage record label located on Broadway.

This affiliation yielded two singles—the original version of "Take Me As I Am"  (Teenage #1006), later covered by the Duprees, and the much less successful “The Greatest of Them All” (Teenage #1008). Shortly after the second release by the Demens, the Teenage label folded and its owners seemingly disappeared. Another label had interest in the group, but couldn't find the owners of Teenage to release the group from their contract, so in order to proceed, a name change occurred.

The group became the Emersons and was more likely named for the electronics company than the college. ow with the Newport Records label, the group recorded a ballad called “Joanie, Joanie” and backed it up with a novelty song titled "Hungry" (Newport 7004)  The novelty side became a minor hit, and the owner of Newport Records, Jerry Winston, then brought the group over to MGM's Cub label subsidiary (#9027), where they recorded a two-sided novelty record “The Hokey Pokey” backed with “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

NEven on a major label, the group failed to match the regional success of their earlier releases. They gave it one more try, again for a major label—United Artists (#379—“Loneliness” backed with “Down In The Valley",  but it just wasn't meant to be, and the group disbanded. Lead singer Eddie Jones remained in the music business and the group disbanded. Lead singer Eddie Jones remained in the music business and worked with several girl groups, including arranging and playing piano for the Chantels of “ Maybe” fame. Jones continued to work until his passing on August 24, 2008.

Songs :
(updated by Hans-Joachim) 

The Demens (1)

     
Take Me As I Am            You Broke My Heart          The Greatest Of Them All


Hey Young Girl



The Emersons

     
Hungry                           Joannie, Joannie              Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

   
The Hokey Pokey              Down In The Valley / Loneliness

Eddie Jones & The Demons

The Greatest Of Them All

 ...

Mike Regal

The Romeos (4) (Brooklyn, New York)

Personnel :

Mike Regal (Lead)

Discography :

1962  - The Tiger's Wide Awake (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) / Hitch Hikin (Amy 840 )

Biography :

The Chord-A-Roys are a vocal group from Brooklyn fronted by Mike Regal with Robert Walden, Shelly Weiss and John Christiano. The group cut one single for JDS Records. The group broke up soon after and Shelly Weiss joined Mike Lasman, Allan Senzan and Ian Kaye & formed the Dreamers / the Accents.

In 1962, Mike Regal became lead singer for another group, The Romeos. The Romeos recorded the answer song to the classic Tokens tune "The Lion Sleep Tonight".



Songs :


The Tiger's Wide Awake

 ...

The Runarounds (1) (Brooklyn, New York)
aka The Emotions (1) aka The Moments aka Four Dreams

Personnel :

Joe Favale (Lead)

Tony Maltese (Tenor)

Larry Cusimano (Second Tenor)

Joe Nigro (Baritone)

Dom Collura (Bass)


Discography :

1961 -  The Nearest Thing To Heaven / Lovers Lane (Pio 107)



Biography :

The Emotions was formed in 1958 by Joe Favale and Tony Maltese. Recently discharged from the Navy Joe began singing with a group from lower Manhattan called The Moments. After a couple of years of performing but having no luck getting a record contract they disbanded. At the same time Tony Maltese's group, The Runarounds decided to call it quits.

The Moments

One night while singing Doo-Wop harmonies together in Maple Lanes bowling alley in Brooklyn they decided to join forces and start a new group. They enlisted the services of Dom Colurra, Larry Cusamano and Joe Nigro. They called themselves The Runarounds, and acquired a personal manager named Henry Boye.

   
                                                                                         Tony Maltese's first Runarounds

Henry was responsible for the group's first recording contract with Pio records. In August 1961 their first record of the aforementioned songs was released — and promptly flopped. A year later they changed their name to The Emotions.


Songs :

     
The Nearest Thing To Heaven   /  Lovers Lane

...