The Echoes (6)

The Echoes (6) (Brooklyn, New York)
aka The Laurels (5)

Personnel :

Tommy Morrissey

Harry Boyle

Tom Duffy

Discography :

The Laurels (5)
1960 - Baby Blue (demo)
1960 - Every Dream I Dream (demo)

The Echoes (6)
Singles:
1961 - Baby Blue / Boomerang (Segway 103)
1961 - Sad Eyes / It's Rainin' (Segway 106)
1961 - Gee Oh Gee / Angel Of My Heart (Segway 1002)
1962 - Bluebirds Over The Mountain / A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird (Smash 1766)
1963 - A Million Miles From Nowhere / Keep An Eye On Her (Smash 1807)
1963 - If Love Is / Annabelle Lee (Smash 1850)
1965 - I Love Candy / Paper Roses (Ascott 2188)
Unreleased :
1960 - Think It Over
1961 - In A Little Spanish Town
1964 - I Just Can't Help Myself
1969 - A Rose And A Baby Ruth
1983 - Maybe Tonight
1983 - Let's Go To Angelo's
1983 - I Flunked
1983 - It's Party Time
1984 - Little Star
1984 - Hushabye
1984 - Baby Blue Medley

Biography :

The Echoes were a product of the great New York borough of Brooklyn.  Harry Boyle recalls that in 1959 (at the ripe old age of 15) he was singing with a guy named Charlie Morrissey whose older brother Tommy (age 21) was just getting out of the service.  Tommy started signing with some different guys including Bill Perry the lead of Billy and the Glens.  Bill Perry introduced Tommy to Tom Duffy.   Duffy knew two other guys – Sam Capano and Willie Bender.  These five guys started practicing and getting songs together as the Laurels.  Duffy knew Johnny Powers (of Johnny and the Jokers).

The Laurels

 The story goes that two teachers from Brooklyn wrote a song called “Baby Blue.”  Those two were Sam Guilino and Val Lagueux. The two offered the song to Johnny Powers.  Powers didn’t think the song was right for him and he passed it along to Duffy.  In 1959, the Laurels took the song and did a slow, “Earth Angel” type ballad demo version of Baby Blue.  They shopped it around without success.

In 1960, Harry Boyle was asked to join the group as a guitar player.  Capano and Bender left the group and the remaining trio asked Harry Boyle and Tommy Morrissey to start singing.  They renamed themselves the Echoes. Harry Boyle suggested re-recording Baby Blue as a cha-chat.  The group did that, picking up the pace a bit and changing the intro of the song by spelling out the words “Baby Blue.”  It was Duffy, Morrissey and Boyle with Ralph DePalma on drums. They shopped the record at the famous “1650″ building and met up with Jack Gold of Paris Records (of the G-Clefs, Four Esquires, and Newports fame).  Gold liked it and re-recorded it again with a new arrangement that included guitarist Billy Mueller.  That was December 1960.

Baby Blue b/w Boomerange was released in January 1961 on the S.R.G. label (named for Gold’s son Stephen Richard Gold) and Gold leased the rights to Seg-Way (#103 1961).  The song first broke in Cleveland and was a huge hit going all the way to #12 in Billboard and #9 in Cashbox. The Echoes followed up on Seg-Way with Sad Eyes b/w Its Rainin (Seg-Way #106 1961) which did well locally but only reached #88 nationally.  They followed with Gee Oh Gee b/w Angel of My Heart (Seg-Way #1002 1961) which did not chart.  
https://strathdee.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/one-hit-wonders-the-echoes/

Songs :

The Laurels (5)

  
          Baby Blue (demo)                  Every Dream I Dream (demo)

The Echoes (6)

  
Baby Blue                                  Boomerang

  
Sad Eyes                                          It's Rainin'

  
Gee Oh Gee / Angel Of My Heart         Bluebirds Over The Mountain

  
A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird      A Million Miles From Nowhere  

  
Keep An Eye On Her                               If Love Is           

  
        Annabelle Lee                         I Love Candy / Paper Roses


In A Little Spanish Town

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