• Thanks to Marv Goldberg

    Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars (Newark, New Jersey)
    aka The Gibralters

     

    Personnel :

    Jimmy Barnes (Lead)

    The Gibraltars ???

     

    Discography :

    Jimmy Barnes bb The Gibralters
    1958 - No Regrets / Keep Your Love Handy (Gibraltar 101)

    Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars
    1958 - Be Careful With My Love / I Need You So Much  (Gibraltar 102)
    1958 - Don't Let Nothing Stand In Your Way / Love Made Me A Fool (Gibraltar 106)

    Jimmy Barnes & The Gibralters
    Singles :
    1959 - Our Wedding Day / Crying Cause I lost  (Savoy 1581)
    Unreleased :
    1959 - Stand By Me (Savoy)
    1959 - No More In Life (Savoy)

    Jimmy Barnes
    1959 - Don't Be Mad With Me / You Thrill Me So Much ((Savoy 1590)

    Nappy Brown & The Gibralters
    1959 - My Baby Knows / Down In The Alley (Savoy 1582)

     

    Biography :

    Jimmy Barnes lived in Newark, New Jersey and was a former member of the Jubalaires, a best known gospel singing group. In early 1958, Jimmy Barnes fronted a singing quartet composed of him, another guy and two females  called "The Gilbraltars" sometimes misspelled "Gibralters". At the end of 1958, Jimmy Barnes and the Gibraltars waxed "No Regrets" on the Gibraltar Label. "No Regrets ", a Feb-March 1959 classic R&B swaying ballad written by Otis Blackwell took to # 14 R&B and also had it cross over to the Billboard Pop Hot 100 at # 90. The Single released under the name of Jimmy Barnes (the group is not mentioned )

     Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars     Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars

    The Single came out on a tiny East Orange, New Jersey label called Gibraltar Records (Gibraltar 101 b/w Keep Your Love Handy, also written by Blackwell along with Billy Dawn) that likely had zero promotional funding and (except the Gibralters) which appears to have released just one other single - Sweetpea's In Love (written by Luther Dixon b/w another Blackwell tune, A Love For Only You by The Stereos.) Gibraltar Records and Gibraltar Music Co. Inc were owned by Bill Harrington (William Owen Harrington) and operated from at least four diferent NY and NJ addresses over the years.  

     Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars

    Building on this first success, the group was at the Apollo Theater the week of March 6, 1959 and at the Blue Angel Ballroom (Indiana, Pennsylvania) on November 28, 1959. Jimmy Barnes and the Gibraltars only ever released 2 more singles on the label - "Be Careful With My Love" b/w "I Need You So Much" and "Don't Let Nothing Stand In Your Way" b/w "Love Made Me A Fool" both as Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars.

     Jimmy Barnes & The Gibraltars

    It would appear Gibraltar had some connection to Savoy Records and Otis Blackwell. In early 1960, Savoy released "Crying Cause I Lost" b/w Our Wedding Day (billed as Jimmy Barnes & The Gibralters). The group billed as the Gibraltars backed Nappy Brown on "My Baby Knows" b/w "Down In The Alley" (Savoy 1582).



    Songs :

    Jimmy Barnes & The Gibralta(e)rs

      
          No Regrets                               Keep Your Love Handy

      
    Be Careful With My Love                   I Need You So Much   

      
    Don't Let Nothing Stand In Your Way             Love Made Me A Fool        

      
    Our Wedding Day                            Crying Cause I lost


    Nappy Brown & The Gibralters

      
    My Baby Knows                            Down In The Alley


    Jimmy Barnes


    You Thrill Me So Much

    ...


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