• Brice Coefield, Sheridan "Rip" Spencer, Billy Storm

     

    The Chavelles (Los Angeles)
     aka The Sabers (1)

     

    Personnel :

    Sheridan "Rip" Spencer (Second Tenor)

    Brice Coefield (Baritone)

    Billy "Storm" Spicer (First Tenor/Bass)

    Herbie (First Tenor)

    Walter Carter (Bass)

     

    Discography :

    The Sabers (1)
    1955 - Always Forever / Cool Cool Christmas (Cal-West 847)

    The Chavelles
    1956 - Valley Of Love / Red Tape (Vita 127)

     

    Biography :

    The labyrinthine history of Los Angeles doo wop group The Valiants dates to early 1955, when second tenor Sheridan "Rip" Spencer formed the Sabers with his cousin Brice Coefield, who assumed baritone duties. According to Marv Goldberg's profile on his R&B Notebooks website, the cousins added first tenor Billy Spicer, bass Walter Carter and a first tenor remembered only as "Herbie" prior to issuing their Cal-West label debut single, "Always, Forever," in late 1955.

       
    Sheridan "Rip" Spencer                                                                          Billy Storm

    When the record flopped, the Sabers rechristened themselves the Chavelles, and with the intervention of Coefield's postman father met local jazz pianist Lloyd Glenn, who introduced the group to Specialty Records A&R chief "Bumps" Blackwell. A studio session soon followed, and after Blackwell shopped the master tape to the Pasadena-based Vita label, the first Chavelles single hit stores in the spring of 1956.


    Bumps" Blackwell

    Commercial success again eluded the group, and with the addition of ex-Squires guitarist Chester Pipkin, the core trio of Spencer, Coefield, and Spicer formed yet another vehicle, the Valiants, borrowing the name from the popular comic strip Prince Valiant. (This lineup's first session with Blackwell further added to the confusion when the Aladdin label mistakenly credited their 1957 debut, "Happenin' After School," to the Gents.)
    http://www.uncamarvy.com/Valiants/valiants.html


    Songs :

    The Sabers (1)


    Always Forever / Cool Cool Christmas

    The Chavelles

       
    Valley Of Love                                          Red Tape


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