Original recording group (Top left, clockwise): Ussery, Hicks, Girard, Kelly.

The Castells (Santa Rosa, California)

 

Personnel :

Chuck Girard

Tom Hicks

Bob Ussery

Joe Kelly

Discography :

Singles:
1961 - Little Sad Eyes / Romeo (Era 3038)
1961 - Sacred / I Get Dreamy (Era 3048)
1961 - My Miracle / Make Believe Wedding (Era 3057)
1961 - The Vision Of You / Stiki De Boom Boom (Era 3064)
1962 - So This Is Love / On The Streets Of Tears (Era 3073)
1962 - Oh, What It Seemed To Be / Stand There, Mountain (Era 3083)
1962 - Echoes In The Night / The Only One (Era 3089)
1962 - lown Prince / Eternal Spring, Eternal Love (Era 3098)
1963 - Little Sad Eyes / Initials (Era 3102)
1963 - Some Enchanted Evening / What Do Little Girls Dream Of (Era 3107)
1964 - I do / Teardrops (Warner Bros 5421)
1964 - Could this be you / Shinny Up your own side (Warner Bros 5445)
1964 - Love finds a way / Tell her if i could (Warner Bros 5486)
1965 - An angel cried / just walk away (Decca 31834)
1966 - Life goes on / I thought you'd like that (Decca 31967)
1968 - I'd Like To Know / Rocky Ridges (Laurie 3444)
1968 - Some enchanted evening / jerusalem (UA 50324)
1968 - Two lovers / jerusalem (UA 50324)
1967 - In a letter to me / We better slow down (Solomon 1351)
 

Lps :
1962 - The Castells "So This Is Love" (Era ES 109)
So This is Love / I Get Dreamy / Some Enchanted Evening / The Vision of You / Stiki De Boom Boom / Make Believe Wedding /  Oh! What It Seemed to Be / Sacred / Stand There Mountain / Little Sad Eyes / Clown Prince / Dancing in the Dark

Biography :

The Castells (no relation to the Philadelphia CASTELLES) were a white pop trio formed in Santa Rosa, California, during the late fall of 1958 . The threesome members were Chuck Girard, Tom Hicks, and Joe Kelly. In early 1959 Bob Ussery joined and the group played the usual local gigs until they met mentor and disc jockey Dan Dillon, who whisked a demo of theirs to Era Records' Herb Newman in Los Angeles.

Ed Sullivan Show

Their first single for this HILLTOPPERS/CREWCUTS- styled quartet was"Romeo," which prompted Billboard's reviewer of January 30, 1961, to comment, " Pleasant teen appeal ditty is wrapped up in melodic vocal by lead singer and group." Local airplay lifted the cut only to number 101 on Billboard's Bubbling Under in February 1961, so the Castells tried again with "Sacred" in April, a beautiful full- harmonied tune with Chuck Girard's soft-as-butter lead vocal and a sticks-on-bamboo rhythm right out of Ernie Kovacs's Nairobi Trio.

  
                                                                      With Roy Orbison

The cha- cha rhythmed pop pleaser shot to number 20 nationally by the summer of 1961. A hit is no guarantee of the next single's success, however, and the Castells' next 45, "Make Believe Wedding," reached only number 98; it had a nice semi-ballad arrangement and satisfying vocals, but the song was weak. The group did not write and were dependent on the label for material.  After one more failure, "Vision of You," they came upon a dreamy Steve Howard rhythm ballad right out of the 1955 FOUR COINS- FOUR LADS bag called "So This Is Love." It charted on April 14, 1962, finishing one notch shy (#21) of "Sacred" on the national hit list.

Their last charter was a remake of the Frank Sinatra number one hit from 1946, "Oh What It Seemed to Be," which floated to number 91 in August and sank soon after. Their next single, "Echoes in the Night," had a chime intro and a musical feel that was possibly borrowed three months later for THE EMOTIONS' hit "Echo." The Castells' B side was a castanets -filled, Spanish- guitar-laden, up-tempo 45 called "Only One," which was arranged by Jack Nitzsche about the same time he became Phil Spector's arranger for "Zippity-Doo-Dah."

With Jan & Dean

This new Castells direction didn't impress radio, so in June 1963 Era retreated, reissuing their first single's B side "Little Sad Eyes." A reviewer in Billboard wrote, "The smooth-sounding group with the harmony touch has another neat ballad effort here. It's a fender side and it gets a meaningful performance. Watch it".

Castells live (Van Krugel,Girard,Kelly,Hicks)

The Castells did but it went nowhere. By early 1964 the quartet was on Warner Bros. Records with an exciting Brian Wilson arranged, written, and produced single titled "I Do." Its melody was note-for-note the same as THE BEACH BOYS' 1962 "County Fair," but with a "Spectorized" production, Brian created something like a male RONETTES record out of "I Do." With the cut playing in both the East and West, Warner Bros, must have truly dropped the ball to let this one get away.

When their solid rendering of THE DUBS' 1957 classic "Could This Be Magic" failed in 1964 to get label support the Castells were doomed to travel the desert of record deals, coming upon the occasional oases of Decca, Laurie, and United Artists but with no further success. They disbanded around 1964. Member Chuck Girard later joined the surf rock group The Hondells, and in the 1970s became a popular and pioneering CCM artist

Jay Warner (The Billboard book of American singing groups: a history, 1940-1990)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castells
http://www.chuckgirard.com/


Songs :

       
Teardrops                            Stiki De Boom Boom             Could This Be Magic

     
So This Is Love                        Sacred                             I Get Dreamy

     
Little Sad Eyes                     Echoes In The Night                An Angel Cried

     
    I Do                Love Finds A Way           What Do Little Girls Dream Of

...

 Little Guy & The Giants (1)  (Bronx, N.Y.)
aka  The Twisters (1) aka The Cognacs

Personnel

Harold Johnson  (Lead)

Al Cleveland (Baritone)

Carl Spencer (Baritone)

Arthur crier (Bass)

Discography :

Little Guy & the Giants
1960 - So Young / It's You (Lawn 103)

The Cognacs
1960 - Charlena / Heaven Only Knows (Roulette 4340)

The Twisters (1)
1960 - Turn The Page / Dancing Little Clown (Capitol 4451)

Biography :

In mid 1960, when Arthur Crier, formerly of the Mellows, and Carl Spencer had just recorded "Alley Oop" as the Pre-historics for Edsel Records, they added Harold Johnson (Lead on the Two sides) , Al Cleveland and surfaced under a strange name (Little Guy & the Giants) on their only record for Lawn.

        
Harold Johnson                              Arthur crier                                  Al Cleveland                                  Carl Spencer

Arthur Crier and Harold Johnson  added Buddy McRae (of the Chords) and Bobby Spencer (of the Crickets) and surfaced under the Cognacs, With Carl Spencer instead of Bobby, they are the Twisters on Capitol.. A short Year later, they recorded "Nag" as the Halos and had more success!
http://www.uncamarvy.com/ArthurCrier/arthurcrier.html

Songs :

   
So Young                                                    It's You

 ...

The Del Cades (Brooklyn, New York)

Personnel :

Louis Cennamo (Lead)

Ronnie Nadeau (Lead)

Rudy Polizzi

Joe Cenamo (First Tenor & Alternate Lead)

Discography :

1964 - World's Fair U.S.A. / (It Takes) Two To Fall In Love (USA 175)

Biography :

The Del Cades came from Brooklyn and cut one single for united sound associates. Joe Cenamo sang with The Dahills on Musicor . Ronnie Nadeau  wrote the song "(It Takes) Two To Fall In Love". Flip side "Worlds Fair USA" was written by Rudy Polizzi.

Songs :

   
(It Takes) Two To Fall In Love                            World's Fair U.S.A.

...

The Chordells (2) (New York)
aka The Stereophonics

Personnel:

Floyd S. Thomas (Lead)

Norah Thomas

Discography :

The Stereophonics
1958 - Love Is So Wonderful / No More Heartaches (Apt 25003)

The Chordells (2)
1959 - At Last / September Song (Jaro 77005)

Willie Howard & The Chordells (2)
1958 - Louise / Letter Of Love (Mascot 127)

Little Chips & The Chordells (2)
1961 - Amazon Girl / A Little More Love  (Hull 746)

Biography :

Group From New York, fronted by Floyd S. Thomas, The Stereophonics cut "Love Is So Wonderful" b/w "No More Heartaches" for Apt. Records in 1958. Apt Records was a sub-label from ABC-Paramount Records. The label was started in 1958 and released only singles until it was shelved in 1966. The name was derived from ABC-Paramount's parent company, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres.

The Next year, the same group cut " At Last" b/w "September Song" for Jaro International under the name of The Chordells.  Jaro was a jazz subsidiary label of Top Rank Records established in 1959 in New York City.

      

At the same time, another group of the same name with a male lead (Little Chip aka Willie Howard) with female backing cut two singles for Hull & Mascot records. Mascot was a subsidiary of Hull. it is quite possible that this is the same group with a few personnel changes and all the Labels : Apt, Jaro, Hull and Mascot are from Manhattan... Waiting info ...

Songs :

The Stereophonics

  
Love Is So Wonderful                      No More Heartaches


The Chordells (2)

   
September Song                              At Last

Little Chips & The Chordells (2)


A Little More Love


Willie Howard & The Chordells (2)


Letter Of Love

...

The Chips (1) ( Brooklyn, New York)

Personnel :

Kinrod Johnson (Lead, baritone)

Nathaniel “Lil John” Epps (Falsetto)

Paul Fulton (Bass)

Sammy Strain (First Tenor)

Shedrick “Bubbie” Lincoln (Second Tenor)

Discography :

1956 - Rubber Biscuit / Oh, My Darlin' (Josie 803)

Biography :

The Chips had one record released from August 1956 to April 1980, "Rubber Biscuit," an outrageous novelty song that failed to crack the pop Top 40 but did well along the East Coast. Raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, The Chips formed in 1956.

The members were Charles Johnson (lead), Sammy Strain (first tenor), Shedwick Lincoln (second tenor), Nathaniel Epps (baritone), and Paul Fulton (bass). They created the novelty and its flip "Oh My Darling" while attending a school for delinquent teens. Josie Records thought it had something and released the nutty ditty. After a few appearances at some major R&B venues, the group disbanded; Josie never released another recording by them, though some members enjoyed more success with other groups: Fulton sung with the Velours and the Poets, Lincoln with the Invitations, and Johnson with the Platters.

And Sammy Strain had enjoyed an illustrious career with the Fantastics, Little Anthony & the Imperials, and the O'Jays. In 1979, "Rubber Biscuit" enjoyed another stint of success when the Blues Brothers remade it for a Top 40 hit.The Chips promptly regrouped in 1980 -- minus Sammy Strain, who had connected with the O'Jays -- and recorded "Everyone's Laughing," their first single in 24 years.
http://www.classicurbanharmony.net/

Songs :

   
Rubber Biscuit                                        Oh, My Darlin'

Rubber Biscuit (alt. take)

 ...