Cleve Duncan

Cleve Duncan & The Radiants (1) (Los Angeles, CA.)

Personnel:

Cleve Duncan (Lead)

Gladys White

Vesta White

Johnny Pope (Tenor)

Discography :

1959 - To Keep Our Love / I'm Betting My Heart (Dooto 451)

Biography :

Cleveland Duncan was born on July 23 of either 1934 or 1935 in Los Angeles, and learned to sing in his church choir and glee clubs. In 1953 he was singing in a talent show attended by Curtis Williams, an aspiring songwriter and baritone singer who thought Mr. Duncan would best give voice to “Earth Angel.” Mr. Duncan and Mr. Williams decided to form a group. They took their name from a pack of Kool cigarettes, whose advertising mascot was a penguin. The Penguins gathered in a garage to make their first recording, the B side of a record by the Dootsie Williams Orchestra. It went unnoticed. In October 1954 they returned to the garage to record “Hey Senorita,” a song indisputably by Curtis Williams, as the A side, with “Earth Angel” on the back. Disc jockeys started playing the B side, and it took off. After the Penguins broke up in early 1959, Cleve Duncan formed a group with two sisters, Vesta and Gladys White and Johnny Pope. They recorded a single "I'm Betting My Hear" / "To Keep Our Love", under the name Cleve Duncan & the Radiants. Using a two-track tape recorder, Duncan sang lead on one track, then harmonised in the background with the girls on the other.

Songs :

  
To Keep Our Love                     I'm Betting My Heart


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