The Siberians (Detroit, Michigan)


Personnel :

Otis Williams

Elbridge "Al" Bryant

James Crawford

Arthur Walton

Vernard Plain


Discography :

1958 - Pecos Kid / All of My Life (?)

Biography :

Four of the Distants became members of the world-renowned Temptations, the most popular male recording group ever. They began as Otis & the Siberians with a lineup of Otis Williams, Elbridge "Al" Bryant, James Crawford, Arthur Walton, and Vernard Plain. Detroit DJ Bill Williams discovered them singing at a hop and became their manager, and helped get them their first recording opportunity "Pecos Kid" b/w "All of My Life" for another DJ, Senator Bristol Bryant's label. Williams had little time and no managerial skills, and Bryant had no inclination to promote the record outside of Detroit; so they switched to Johnnie Mae Matthews' Northern Records. Like most groups seeking fame and fortune, the Distants endured many personnel changes, Melvin Franklin nee David English replaced bass singer Arthur Walton. Franklin had recorded with the Voice Masters on "Need It." Then Plain left, which gave Franklin's cousin Richard Street, an opening; he stepped in as the groups' lead singer. And if that wasn't enough change, the Siberians became the Distants.



...

The No-Names (New Jersey)

Peronnel:

Doug Gordon (Lead)

Al Morrison

Ed Sattile

Emiry Rowand

Bob Danzie


Discography :

1964 - Love / Jam (Guyden 2114)


Biography :

The No Names were a South Jersey-based doo-wop group that signed with Guyden Records in July, 1964, to put out “Love,” a composition of two of its members, Al Morrison and Doug Gordon. The other members of the No Names were Ed Sattile, Emiry Rowand and Bob Danzie. They got their name when they took the record they recorded themselves at the Baker studio above the notorious Oasis Motel in Camden, New Jersey, to Jerry Blavat to play on his program on WCAM, the city-owned station in Camden, New Jersey. The studio was in the City Hall. Jerry liked the record, played it, and when he asked the group their name, they admitted they had no name. Hence, "The No Names."


Songs :


Love

...

The Chanteurs (1963)

The Chaunteurs (Chicago)
aka The Chanteurs (1)

Personnel :

Sollie McElroy (Lead Tenor)

Eugene Record (First Tenor)

Robert "Squirrel" Lester  (Second Tenor)

Clarence Johnson (Baritone)

Eddie Reed (Bass)

Discography :

The Chaunteurs
Singles :
1961 - Wishin' Well / New Rockin' Baby (La Salle 501)
Unreleased :
1961 - I'll Do What You Want Me to Do (La Salle)

The Chanteurs (1)
1963 - You've Got A Great Love / The Grizzly Bear (Vee Jay 519)

Biography :

Eugene Booker Record was born in Chicago on the 23 December 1940. As a young boy his interest in music first took hold with song writing and guitar lessons. When he was thirteen at Englewood high school he participated in musical programs and had visions of getting into the music business. At high school he became a member of the vocal group the Wrens.  He next formed the Chanteurs in the late fifties with future Chi-Lites Robert Lester and Clarence Johnson and Sollie McElroy from The Moroccos.

The Wrens with  Eugene Record (Middle)

In 1954, After the first two years of the Flamingos, Lead singer Sollie McElroy sang with the Moroccos for about three years. After scoring several regional hits, The Moroccos disbanded in 1957. In 1961, Sollie McElroy joined The Chaunteurs which included Clarence Johnson (Baritone), Robert "Squirrel" Lester  (Second Tenor), Eddie Reed (Bass) and Eugene Record (First Tenor). Sollie McElroy and Eugene Record shared Lead on the La Salle Label release, which sounds more like a 1957 recording. Burt Bowen (Baritone) replaced Sollie  and in 1963 the group cut "You've Got A Great Love" b/w "The Grizzly Bear" on Vee Jay records in 1963 as The Chanteurs. 

The Chaunteurs (1961) : Clarence Johnson, Robert Lester, Eddie Reed, Sollie McElroy and Eugene Record

The Next Year, Eugene Record, Robert "Squirrel" Lester, and Clarence Johnson) teamed up with Marshall Thompson and Creadel "Red" Jones of the Desidero's to form the Hi-lites. Noting that the name Hi-lites was already in use, and wishing to add a tribute to their home town of Chicago, they changed their name to "Marshall and the Chi-Lites" in 1964. Johnson left later that year, and their name was subsequently shortened to The Chi-Lites.


Songs :

The Chaunteurs

    
Wishin' Well                                   New Rockin' Baby

The Chanteurs (1)

  
You've Got A Great Love                       The Grizzly Bear


...

Chuck Smith (seated) - top : Gary Stem, Richard Elter and Don Nicita

The Dee-Vines (1)  (Westchester County, N.Y)
aka The Quentins

 
Personnel :

Don Nicita (Lead)

Chuck Smith

Richard Elter

Gary Stem
 

Discography :

Neil Stevens & The Dee-Vines (1)
1958 - More And More / What Could Be Better (Brunswick 55095)

The Quentins
1959 - You'll Never Know / Mi Amore (Andie 5014)

The Dee-Vines (1)
1960 - I Believe / Worlds Greatest Lover (Lano 2001/relic 514))


Biography :

in 1959, Laurie Records has launched a new subsidiary label, Andie Records. It will release the same kind of records that Laurie has issued in the pop and jazz fields. But the new label will be serviced by other distributors, according to a.&r. chief Gene Schwartz. First recordings are by the Chippendales, whose disking is "What a Night," and the other is by the Quentins. The group recorded in 1959 the single "You'll Never Know" b/w "Mi Amore". The Quentins come from Westchester County, N.Y. and consisted of Don Nicita (Lead), Richard Elter, Chuck Smith and Gary Stem .

  
Neil Stevens & The Dee-Vines (1)                                                                                                 

However before being called the "Quentins" the group had already recorded a first record where they accompanied the singer Neil Stevens in October 1958 on "More And More" and "What Could Be Better". The single will be released by Brunswick Records as Neil Stevens & The Dee-Vines.  In 1960, Neil Stevens joined the Temptations as Lead singer with Larry Curtis, Artie Sands, and Artie Marin, not to be confused with the famous Motown group by the same name. This lesser-known group from New York released one Top 40 hit, "Barbara," in 1960, about one year before the more famous Temptations were founded. Neil Stevens went solo shortly after the release of "Barbara."

In October,1960 Don Nicita & his fellows recorded "I Believe" and "Worlds Greatest Lover" released by the Rocco Catalano's Lano label from Port Chester,N.Y.. This time they take back their original name The Dee-Vines . The group appeared on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour on May 23, 1960 and perform "Lonesome Road" .

 
Videos :


Lonesome Road

Songs :
 (Update By Hans-Joachim)

Neil Stevens & The Dee-Vines (1)
 
  
More And More                           What Could Be Better

The Dee-Vines (1)

     
     I Believe                                   World's Greatest Lover

The Quentins

   
    Mi Amore                                      You'll Never Know

 ...

Back row. l to r. Bob Hamilton, Eugene Hamilton, Billy Copeland. Front. Freddy Pride.

The Nitecaps (1) (Detroit, MI)

Personnel :

Al Hamilton (Al Kent) (Lead)

Eugene Ronald Hamilton (Ronnie Savoy)

Robert Hamilton (Rob Reeco)

Freddie Pride

Discography :

Singles :
1955 - A Kiss And A Vow / Be My Girl (Groove 0134)
1955 - Sweet Thing / Tough Mama (Groove 0147)
1956 - You May Not Know / Bamboo Rock And Roll (Groove 0158)
1956 - In Each Corner Of My Heart / Let Me Know Tonight (Groove 0176)

Unreleased :
1956 - Snap Crackle And Pop (Groove)
1956 - You're Gonna Be Sorry  (Groove)
1956 - Oh, You Sweet Girl (Groove)


Biography :

Ronnie Savoy had been living in New York since `57', singing lead with a group called the Nitecaps, Freddy Pride, Billy Kopeland, Thomas Davis, and Ronnie Savoy. The group had pretty much dissolved by 1960. After the group broke up due to personality differences. The Nitecaps was one of the three groups that metamorphosed from the original group the Comets, that started on the unabashed streets of Detroit's North End side at 2128 Meade Street, not far from the 6 Mile Projects, north, and Hamtramck to the south slightly infringing borders of Highland Park, where Bobby Reeco Hamilton, Eugene G.G. Capers, Johnny Braxton, Billy Kopeland, and Ronnie Savoy started a group called the Comets with Bobby as their Maestro.

  
The Versatiles : Tom Davis, Bobby Hamilton, Freddy Pride & Ronnie Savoy (Lead)

The Comets had three lead tenors with very different and original styles. A group primed for cross-over music where any and all rhythm and blues forms had to go in order to reach the Pop Charts. The Promise land. Ronnie Savoy's mint tone clear tenor voice was his strong point, but the postscript to his singing style was illuminated in his enunciation, every word noteworthy of the emphasis he bestowed on each particular syllable and phrase. For example, the execution of “Just a Kiss And A Vow” by the Nitecaps, every line so distinctly understood, his influence clearly a throw-back to the days of Nat King Cole and Bill Kenny of the Ink Spot's.  But the ambiguities of the music business took its toll, and soon Eugene G.G. Capers along with Johnny Braxton departed for jobs in the automotive factories, replacing them with Freddy Pride [baretone] and Thomas Davis [bass], then to form the Versatiles.

The Nitecaps at The Fox Theater : Freddie Pride , Billy Kope, Ronnie Savoy & Tom Davis

Bobby Hamilton had dropped the named the Versatiles along with guitarist Arnold Christian, added Billy Kopeland and called the new group, the Nitecaps. The Nitecaps group were in the limelights for years. There parvenu excursions took them throughout the country performing nightly where they were a stable diet of entertainment at the fabulous Cotton Club in New York appearing with the one and only master Cab Callaway and sharing the top billing at the Baby Grand Night Club in Harlem with the combustible Nipsy Russell. The Nitecaps music proceeded doo-wop, ran concurrent with blues ballads for awhile and found a comfortable and esteemed place on the popular music scene , churning out record after record until they rubbed shoulders of high accolades with the Mills Brothers, and the Ink Spots, the Trinaire Brothers and the likes. But it was bass singer Thomas `Bull Yellar' Davis that evolved the group with special renditions from r&b to different popular music styles comprised under the umbrella of old standards. 

  
Ronnie Savoy, Tom Davis, Freddie Pride & Billy Kope                                                          

Two months after signing on the dotted line with Al Green as their personal manager  the Nitecaps recorded their very first song “A Kiss And A Vow ” with Groove Records, a subsidiary of RCA Records introduced in 1954.  The Nitecaps were the first rhythm and blues group in the country to appear on national syndicated television for the Robert Montgomery variety show in New York City`55'.  They tried to sound more pop-orientated and 'modern' especially with the jump tunes from their first November 1955 session for Groove. “A Kiss And A Vow“ resembles The Orioles' ballad style, most likely because of Ronnie’s tenor voice that had the same high soulful feeling as Clyde MacPhatter’s.

"With Snap, Crackle And Pop“ and “Your’re Gonna Be Sorry“ from their second session, they gave us two distinctive jump tunes of the same musical quality. The vocal background on “Snap, Crackle And Pop“ can hear the group singing the sort of nonsense syllables 'doo-Wop', which later gave this music it's name. “Bamboo Rock And Roll“  from their third single fits exactly into the Ling Ting Tong theme popular two years before, “while You May Not Know“ is a ballad par excellence.

Ralph "Crow Peterson", Ronnie Savoy, Freddie Pride ,  Tom Davis & Billy Kope

The sound of the third and last session did not change much towards songs popular at the fall of 1956,  “In Each Corner Of My Heart“ delights much the same way as some Dominoes’ releases, with a heavy bass break and a high tenor. On the fourth song from this session they backed Varetta Dillard. From all the four fantastic releases on Groove, only two “A Kiss And A Vow“ and “Bamboo Rock And Roll“ entered a fen local charts. Nevertheless, the Nitecaps must have been popular for some time, because Otis Williams (of Detroit’s Temptations) remembered having seen them live.

   

Of the Hamilton brothers, Al is well known to soul music fans as Al kent, a name under that he entered both the R&B and pop charts with You Gotta Pay The Price on Ric Tic in 1967. When The Nitecaps broke up, he went to New York with his brother Ronnie to study music. He returned to Detroit in 1961, and then started working for Golden World Records. Later he dealt with a lot of artists on the Ric Tic and Westbound labels and also wrote for Edwin Starr and Jackie Wilson. Ronnie, who sometimes appeared under the pseudonym of Ronnie Savoy, had later success with MGM Records, before he produced Ben E. King.

Custodians of the Hummingbird

Songs :

     
A Kiss And A Vow              Be My Girl                  You May Not Know

     
Bamboo Rock And Roll                   Sweet Thing                         Tough Mama           

     
In Each Corner Of My Heart          Let Me Know Tonight              Snap Crackle And Pop    

  
You're Gonna Be Sorry             Oh, You Sweet Girl   

...