The Innocents aka The Echoes (5) (Los Angeles)

Personnel :

Al Candelaria

Darron Stankey

Jim West

Discography :


Singles :

The Echoes (5)
1962 - Time / Dee Dee Di Oh (Andex 22102)

The Innocents
1960 - Tick Tock / The Rat (instrumental) (Trans World 7001)
1960 - Honest I Do / My Baby Hully Gullys (Indigo 105)

1960 - Gee Whiz / Please Mr. Sun (Indigo 111)

1961 - Kathy / In the Beginning (Indigo 116)
1961 - Beware / Because I Love You So (Indigo 124)

1961 - Donna / You Got Me Goin' (Indigo 128)

1961 - Pains in My Heart / When I Become a Man (Indigo 132)
1962 - Time / Dee Dee Di Oh (Indigo 141)
1962 - Oh How I Miss My Baby / Be Mine (Reprise 20112)

1963 - Oh How I Miss My Baby / You're Never Satisfied (Reprise 201125)
1963 - Come On Lover / Don't Cry (Decca 31519)

EP:
1961 - Honest I Do / I Believe in You / Chiquita / Gee Whiz (Indigo EP 1000)

Album :
1961 - Honest I Do / Chiquita / Walking Along / Once In A While / Please Mr. Sun / Girl Of My Dreams / Gee Whiz / Hog For You / It Was A Tear / Donna / My Baby Hully Gullys / I Believe In You (LP Indigo 503)

Unreleased :
N/A - Little Blue Star (Indigo) (Unreleased)
N/A - Sleeping Beauty (Indigo) (Unreleased)
N/A - Time Makes You Change (Indigo) (Unreleased)
N/A - Two Young Hearts (Indigo) (Unreleased)
N/A - I Know A Valley (Indigo) (Unreleased)

Biography :

The Innocents -- James West (lead), Al Candelaria (bass), and Darron Stankey (tenor/guitarist) -- were a smooth harmonizing West Coast pop group from San Fernando Valley CA, whose most successful record was accompanying Kathy Young as Kathy Young & the Innocents on "A Thousand Smiles" (1960 Indigo Records, number three pop/number six R&B).

Kathy Young was the ripe old age of 15 at the time. The trio were friends and members of a local car club name "The Innocents." The artists met at Wink Martindale's local television dance show, where the Innocents were lip-syncing their current single; Indigo producer Jim Lee suggested they record together after talking to Young and her mom at the taping.

The Revileers, a black New York doo wop group, recorded the original "A Thousand Eyes" six years earlier. That connection caused many to mislabel the Innocents as a doo wop group; nothing could be further from the truth.

Solo, the Innocents cut their first single in 1959 as the Echos (West and Stankey) on Andrex Records;

West was brought along to sing he high harmony parts. With the addition of West, the Echos became the Innocents (after the car club) after first rejecting "the Hubcaps". They then inked a deal with Indigo for their first hit "Honest I Do" (number 28 pop) in 1960. That same year, Trans World Records dumped a previously cut track by them, "Tick Tock," on the streets.

Indigo answered with their smash hit with Kathy Young. They rose up the charts again in 1961 with "Gee Whiz" (number 28 pop/ number 11 R&B), and had an LP release Innocently Yours in 1961; its cover, depicting them peering through prison bars, was voted one the 1000 best album covers of all time.

Indigo followed with "Kathy" after Kathy Young but it floundered, and seven singles later they hit an impenetrable wall. The non-sellers include two Reprise singles, a Decca 45, and one Warner Brothers' single. While three other singles charted, they trolled the bottom rungs of the charts.

With Kathy Young they scored two more modest hits: "Happy Birthday Blues" and "Magic Is the Night" (both released in 1961) but six subsequent singles stiffed.

Not only did the Innocents back Kathy Young, they reportedly performed on half the recordings Indigo released. They disbanded in 1964 but their short run was exciting and fulfilling. They appeared on all the top teen shows, and shared stages with hot pop acts like Jan & Dean, Chubby Checker, and others.

Starfire Records released Our Best to You in 1981; the album features the Innocents on one side and Kathy Young on the other. That same year James West had a solo album on Atlantic Records, which preceded their reuniting in 1984 to cut four spanking new tracks; but the timing was bad and they went nowhere. West continued in the music, doing everything from surf music to harmonies to ock & roll on many sessions.

Al Candelaria worked as a session guitarist. All the members are all alive and doing well and like many acts from the '60s, they re-grouped in the '90s for oldie shows, appearing at venues with Kathy Young, the Penguins, Rosie & the Originals, and many others. Ace released the Innocents Complete Indigo Recordings in 1992

~ Andrew Hamilton, All Music Guide

http://www.electricearl.com/dws/innocents.html
http://www.destinationdoowop.com/innocents.htm
http://www.theinnocentsmusic.com/
http://www.colorradio.com/innocents.htm



Songs :

   
Because I Love you               Pain In My Heart


   
Beware                               I Know A Valley


   
Chiquita                              Sleeping Beauty

Cd :

MP3 :

Rickey & Jennell (Los Angeles, California)
(By Hans-Joachim)

Personnel :

Richard Berry

Jennell Hawkins

Discography:

1954 - Each Step / This Time Is Real (Flair 1033)

Biography:

Rickey & Jennell were the male-female duo of Richard Berry and his friend Jennell Hawkins, who put out one single on Flair in 1954, "Each Step"/"This Time It's Real." Both sides were routine doo wop duets - "Each Step" a ballad, "This Time It's Real" in the more uptempo R&B vein - and have been reissued on the Richard Berry compilation Yama Yama! The Modern Recordings 1954-1956. 

 Berry, of course, was just at the start of a career that would find him issuing many R&B and rock & roll records as a solo artist, most famously on the original version of "Louie, Louie" in 1957.
Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

http://www.louielouie.net/03-richardberry.htm
http://www.spectropop.com/remembers/JennellHawkins.htm

Songs:

   
Each Step                             This Time Is Real

...

The Heartbreakers (1) (Washington, D.C)



Personnel :

Robert Evans (Lead)

James Ross (Tenor)

Lawrence Tate (Baritone)

Lawrence Green (Baritone)

Georges Davis Jr. (Bass)



Discography :

1951 - Heartbreaker / Wanda (RCA 4327)
1952 - You're So Necessary To Me / I'm Only Following My Heart (RCA 4508)
1952 - Why Don't I / Rockin' Daddy-O (RCA 4652)
1952 - There Is Time / It's OK With Me (RCA 4849)
1952 - Cry wind cry / I Swear by all the star above (Roadhouse 1007)
1952 - Hey Baby / I only Want To Be Your Guy (Roadhouse 1008)
1952 - Heartbreaker (live) /  Embraceable you (Roadhouse 1010)
1952 - Is it real / Ain't nothing' shakin' (Roadhouse 1011)
1952 - We're gonna have some fun / Goodbye Baby (Roadhouse 1012)
1953 - Don't stop baby (Roadhouse 1014)
N/A - She's Gone (RCA) (Unreleased)
N/A - I Don't Want Anybody (RCA) (Unreleased)
N/A - Movin' Man (RCA) (Unreleased)
N/A - Since My Love Has Gone (RCA) (Unreleased)
N/A - Alone In The Night (RCA) (Unreleased)

Biography :

The Heartbreakers were another one of the Rhythm & Blues vocal groups that pioneered the sound of the era but sadly today are remembered by only a handful of the faithful followers of the music. The group originated in the Washington D.C. area in the time right after the end of the second world war. The original members of the group were the Ross brothers James and William, Lawrence Tate and Fred Holmes. They soon made contact with a budding singer and song writer named Bobby Evans. He wrote a song that he felt would be perfect for the group called "Heartbreaker". The fledgling group made the rounds of local talent shows and amateur nights in the District and soon had an appearance in 1949 lined up with a local radio program that featured local talent called "Art Brown's Amateur Hour". The show which was patterned after the national hit radio show "Amateur Hour" originally hosted by Major Bowes and taken over by Ted Mack. Because of their well received performance on the show, a local Washington area record producer and talent scout named Lillian Clairborne invited the group to appear for an audition.

As the group auditioned, they impressed Clairborne and she told them that she would work to sign the group to a recording contract. Fate and the Korean conflict intervened at this time as William Ross and Fred Holmes were drafted for military service. The new members that replaced ross and Holmes were Lawrence Green and Junior Davis, who had been a member of the singing group The Four Dots ("My Dear" / "You Won't Let Me Go") on the Dot label. Clairborne soon let the group know that she had secured a recording deal with RCA Victor Records. This was a big surprise to the Heartbreakers because they assumed that they would be recording for a small local independent label. The group was managed by Joe Drew and they got ready for the recording session for the major label that they only dreamed about for years.

All of the songs recorded by the group were written by Bobby Evans. Once the group began to record they made appearances at local clubs and on stage on theaters along the TOBA circuit such as the Howard in D.C., the Royal in Baltimore, and the Uptown in Philadelphia. Their first record was released on RCA Victor # 4327 with the tunes "Heartbreaker" and "Wanda". About four months later RCA released "You're So Necessary To Me" and "I'm Only Fooling My Heart" on # 4508. After the second release by RCA Victor duplicated the lack of success, it was apparent to the group that RCA Victor, though a nationally recognized giant in the industry did not have the key of marketing R & B music. The group retained their popularity in the Washington area, but could not break out nationally. One of the problems that the group faced was that RCA tried to market them as a pop group in the style of the Mills Brothers which was not their field. Another block that faced the group was the constant reference of The Heartbreakers to The Clovers a phenomenally successful Washington D.C. group.

In early 1952 RCA released "Rockin Daddy-O" and "Why Don't I?" on # 4662. Later in 1952 "There Is Time" and "It's O.K. With Me" was released on # 4849 which would be the last RCA release by The Heartbreakers. In early 1953 the group broke up with Lawrence Tate and William Ross joining a group called The Griffins who recorded for Mercury, and Bobby Evans and Fred Holmes formed a vocal group called The Topps who recorded for Red Robin Records in New York.
The Heartbreakers descended into obscurity until the early nineteen seventies when vocal group aficionado Les Moss started Roadhouse Records, a small collector oriented label that released six 45's by the group including a wonderful live cut of their signature tune "Heartbreaker" from an appearance at the Howard Theater in D.C. in 1952. Roadhouse also issued an LP album of the Heartbreakers containing some of the RCA unreleased sides by the group.
The story of the Heartbreakers is one heard often from the history of many of the early vocal groups. That they persevered in the face of many of the difficulties facing those groups in the early fifties is a testament to the lasting popularity of the music.
http://home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/heartbreakers.html

Songs :

    
There Is Time                        Why Don't I

The Three Chuckles aka the Chuckles (2) (Brooklyn, NewYork)

Personnel :

Tommy Romano (Vocal,Guitar)

Tommy "Russ" Gilberto (Vocal,Bass)

Teddy Randazzo (Vocal, Accordion)

Discography :

The Three Chuckles
1953 - Runaround / At Last You Understand (Boulevard 100 /"X"0066/Jubilee 5490)
1955 - Foolishly / If You Should Love Again ("X"0095)
1955 - So Long / You Should Have Told Me ("X"0134)
1955 - Blue Lover / Realize ("X"0150)
1955 - Still Thinking Of You / Times Two, I Love You ("X"0162)
1955 - The Funny Little Things We Used To Do / Anyway ("X"0186/Vik 0186)
1956 - Tell Me / And The Angels Sing ("X"0194/Vik 0194)
1956 - Gypsy In My Soul / We're Still Holding Hands ("X"0216/Vik 0216)
1956 - Midnight Till Dawn / Fall Out Of Love (Vik 0232)
1956 - We're Gonna Rock Tonight / Won't You Give Me A Chance (Vik 0244)
1956 - To Each His Own (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - Solitude (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - In The Still Of The Night (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - It's Been A Long, Long Time (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - How Deep Is The Ocean (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - Red Sails In The Sunset (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - Maybe You'll Be There (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 -  (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - Where Or when (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - These Foolish Things (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - Marta (LP Vik LX-1067)
1956 - I Only Have Eyes For You (LP Vik LX-1067)

The Chuckles (2)
1961 - Runaround / Lonely  traveler (ABC 10276)



Biography :

The Three Chuckles sounds like an improbable name for a rock 'n' roll act, and to hear their sound and see them in action in one of the handful of movies in which they appeared -- Rock, Rock, Rock (which was shot in the Bronx, New York) --

they seem an equally unlikely group to be designated a rock 'n' roll act at all. They were more of a harmony pop trio who happened to be young enough to "pass" for a rock 'n' roll act at a time when that designation was a little less well defined than it finally became. Tommy Romano (vocals, guitar) and Tommy Gilberto, aka Russ Gilberto (vocals, bass) hailed from Red Hook, Brooklyn in New York City, and linked up with accordionist Phil Bentl to form the Three Chuckles, the name derived from a popular candy bar of the early 1950's. This all pre-dated rock 'n' roll, and the group established themselves in clubs, lounges, and bowling alleys up and down the East Coast well before the new music was heard by a mass white audience.

They were contemporaries of the Four Lovers and other Italian pop-vocal ensembles of the period, and were obviously good, because they were so busy that it cost them their keyboard man, Bentl deciding he didn't want to spend so much time on the road. The group found a successor in then 15-year-old Teddy Randazzo, more than a decade younger than Romano and Gilberto but already a fine player on the accordion. It was this version of the group that, following a gig in New Jersey, were handed a song called "Run Around" by its author, a truck driver named Cinino Colacrais.

A couple of years later, when they got their first opportunity to make a record, they remembered the song, and it was cut as the B-side of "At Last You Understand". Issued on Boulevard -- the newly-christened pop imprint of the r&b-oriented Great Lakes label -- the record was good enough to be bought out (along with the trio contract) by RCA Victor; it then got flipped over and the B-side slightly revised as "Runaround", and made it to the number 20 spot on the national charts.

The Three Chuckles were suddenly an act with a following far beyond the East Coast, and Randazzo, who'd sung lead on the hit, had emerged as the group's featured vocalist at the age of 17. He would soon emerge as a songwriter as well, initially in collaboration with Colacrais on their second single A-side, "Foolishly", which didn't hit. Their single "Times Two, I Love You" became a minor chart entry, and after that they were moved over to the label's Vik imprint, which had started out as an r&b-oriented label in the early 1950's. And it was there that they topped the charts with "And The Angels Sing", a pop vocal piece with a beat and some emphatic electric guitar, which led to their recording an entire self-titled LP.

By this time, their sound was rock 'n' roll of a sophisticated sort, nicely harmonized and elegant but with Randazzo's lead singing and their choice of repertory achieving a kind of white soulfulness that qualified -- or if it didn't, it was a short jump to doing so, and kids did eat up their records; their original LP reportedly sold 400,000 copies, a figure that one could easily doubt (although if the figure was even an sixth of that, it would be a remarkable achievement for a rock 'n' roll act of the period). In any case, they were good enough to attract the attention of deejay/impresario Alan Freed, who put them into Rock, Rock, Rock in 1956 --

Freed made a point, however, to also give Randazzo a featured spot on his own in the movie. That move, which immortalized the group on film, also spelled their end. Soon after the release of the movie, Randazzo decided that it was time for him to leave the fold for a career on his own. He went on to fulfill all of the promise that those early sides showed, working for a time as a singer and then turning to songwriting and producing and enjoying decades of success. The Three Chuckles soldiered on for a time with Jackie Farrell as the third member, but it was soon apparent that their moment and time had passed.

They never recorded after Randazzo left, and had broken up by 1958, though Tommy Romano remained in the business into the 1970's, and eventually formed a duo with Karen Gayle, working as A Chuckle And A Chicklet. Their sound today seems like a lost trail in the history of rock 'n' roll, most of it not quite hot enough to fit in, but just passionate and soulful enough to qualify. In 1997, Collectables Records issued Golden Classics, an 18-song collection that showed off the group's range to great advantage.

Teddy Randazzo

Those late sides, including "And The Angels Sing", "Gypsy In My Soul" and "We're Gonna Rock Tonight" -- the latter as suggestive a piece as any white group ever did, rivaling "Rock Around The Clock" (its obvious model) and Chuck Berry's "Reelin' And Rockin'" -- show their harder sound and are worth the price of admission.

Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
http://www.spectropop.com/remembers/TRobit.htm




Videos :

Won't You Give Me a Chance


Cinnamon Sinner


We're Gonna Rock Tonight


Thanks To You





Songs :

    
And The Angels Sing             Gypsy In My Soul

   
At Last You Understand          Times Two, I Love You

    
Runaround                          Foolishly

Cd :

The Joytones  (New York)
aka The Hi-Lites (10) aka The Joy-Tones

Personnel :

Lucille "Vicki" Burgess (Lead)

Estelle Harper

Margaret Moore

Discography :

The Joytones
1956 - You Just Won't Treat Me Right / All My Love Belongs To You (Rama 191)

1956 - Gee What A Boy / Is This Really The End (Rama 202) 

1956 - My Foolish Heart / Jimbo Jango (Rama 215)

The Joy-Tones
1965 - This Love (That I'm Giving You) / I Wanna Party Some More (Coed 600)

The Hi-Lites (10)
1958 - Please Believe I Love You / Sweet And Lovely (Reno 1030)



Biography :

In 1955, after some singles with the Charmers, Vikki Burgess joins with Myrna Hamilton and Renee Stewart and form a group called The Solirettes and are signed to top New York independent label Old Town Records. All of the efforts by the group remain unreleased and The Solirettes become a dim memory of the time. Burgess now forms another group with Margaret Moore and Estelle Harper and call themselves The Joytones. They are soon signed to record for George Goldner's Rama Records, and in March of 1956 "All My Love Belongs To You" (originally by The Hearts on Baton) and "You Just Won't Treat Me Right" on Rama #191 is released.

The Charmers

During that summer Barbara Brown replaces Estelle Harper, and The Joytones second record for Rama is released. The songs "Gee What A Boy" and "Is This Really The End?" are released on Rama#202. The record is pushed nationally by Rama hoping for "Boy" to click with the teenage listening public, but that does not happen.  There is another personnel change within the group when Lynn Middleton replaces Barbara Brown before the group's third release for Rama.

In spring of 1957 Rama #215 features "My Foolish Heart" and "Jimbo Jango" which turns out to be the last record by The Joytones. Like the others it does not garner great airplay or sales.By 1958 Vikki Burgess, Lynn Middleton, and Margaret Moore determine that maybe a name change is in order and so The Joytones now become The Hi-Lites and have one record release for the small indie label Reno Records in 1958.

The songs are "Sweet And Lovely" and "Please Believe  I Love You" on #1030. In short order The Hi-Lites were also part of the great memory bank of the 1950s.The Joytones would reappear on record in 1965 in the middle of Motown and the British Invasion with "This Love" and "I Wanna Party Some More" recorded for Coed Records and released on #600.

 A few years later a group called Love Potion comprised of (surprise !) Vikki Burgess, Margaret Moore, and Lynn Middleton, release "This Love", the same take as by The Joytones in 1965. The song is released on TCB #1601 in 1968. One year later the same song is released as by Love Potion on Kapp #979.

Songs :

The Joytones

     
You Just Won't Treat Me Right        All My Love Belongs To You          Gee What A Boy          

       
Is This Really The End                   My Foolish Heart                          Jimbo Jango       

The Joy-Tones

  
I Wanna Party Some More      This Love (That I'm Giving You)


The Hi-Lites (10)

    
Please Believe I Love You                 Sweet And Lovely     

 ...