Freddy Kelley 

Freddie & The Parliaments (3) (Detroit, Mi.)

Personnel :

Freddy Kelley

Fred Kutzke

Harold "Hal" Hedges

Raymond E Hunt

Discography :

1959 - Darlene / That Girl (Twirl 1003)

Biography :

Freddy Kelley (true spelling) was born in Mount Hope West Virginia in 1937, his family moved to Toledo's East Side in 1946 when he was 9 years old, he went to Navarre grade school and graduated from there in 1953 at which time his family moved to Toledo's South End where he attended and graduated from Libbey high school in 1957. As Kelley told me in 1992, at Libbey he got together with some "colored" fellows and claims to have had the first mixed or integrated group in Toledo, they were a vocal group and they called themselves the 5 lyrics, it was Kelley and 3 other guys from Libbey and 1 guy from Scott high school, they did a show at school and did some pretty nice gigs from here to Akron, they were together about a year.

The Five Lyrics 1957/58 (LtoR) George Boykin, "Wardy" Ward, Freddy Kelley, Gene Boykin, Freddy Marshal


Kelley did not play an instrument but music was a part of him and he sang and wrote songs and was always around the early Rock and Roll and R&B scene in Toledo from the late 50's to the mid 1960's. His first recording was around 1959 with all Toledo fellows, Freddie and the Parliaments, he sang one side and Fred Kutzke sang the other. Johnny (Paris) & the Hurricanes were taking their very first steps into the recording studio to provide back-up for Freddie & the Parliaments . Next Kelley recorded for the MGM subsidiary Metro, two songs that he wrote.

   


Around 1961 sometime, Kelley was in T-Bones, a club on Main St. on the East Side that later became Kato's, when he first heard the Raging Storms. He started to work with them and got them a recording deal and wrote the tunes that they were to record, one of which was The Dribble Twist. It became a decent regional hit in 1962 and reached the billboard top 100 for a bit, it was well received in Toledo and got good airplay. He also got the B. G. Ramblers recorded and produced their record on Sparkel. He also wrote and produced a record on Connie Little with the Raging Storms as back up.

Songs :

  
Darlene                                                That Girl


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