The Biscaynes aka The Viscaynes aka The Vi-Tones (1)

The Biscaynes (Vallejo, CA) 
aka The Viscaynes aka The V-Tones (1)

Personnel :

Sylvester Stewart "Sly Stone"

Frank Arellano

Charlie Gebhardt

Vern Gebhardt

Charlene Imhoff

Maria Boldway

Discography :

The Viscaynes 
Singles:
1960 - Stop What You are Doing / I Guess I'll Be (Tropo 101)

1961 - Yellow Moon / Heavenly Angel (VPM 1006)
Unreleased:
1961 - Just a Fool For Your Love
1961 - You're My Only Love
1961 - Maybe I'm Wrong

The Vi-Tones (1)
1961 - Stop What You Are Doing / I Guess I'll Be (Arleen 1007)

The Biscaynes
1961 - Yellow Moon / Uncle Sam Needs You (My Friend) (VPM 1006)

Jasper Woods (BB Viscaynes)
1962 - I’m Coming Home / Hully Gully Papa  (VMP 1009)

Sly Stone & The Biscaynes
1976 - Oh What A Nite / You've Forgotten Me (Subarro 489)

Danny (Sly) Stewart
1961 - A Long Time Alone / I'm Just A Fool (Luke 1008)

Sylvester Stewart
1961 - A Long Time Alone / Help Me With My Broken Heart ( G&P 901)

Biography :

Sylvester Stewart was the second of five children. After the family moved from Dallas, Texas to Vallejo, California (near San Francisco), he and his brother Freddie and their sisters Rose and Vaetta formed "The Stewart Four" as children, performing gospel music in the Church of God in Christ and even recording a single in 1952.

All of the Stewart children except oldest sister Loretta would later adopt the surname "Stone" and become members of Sly & the Family Stone. Jon Turk a Childhood friend, had watched Sly Perform in Church and in 1958 noticed him playing guitar and keyboards in San Francisco club with local acts like the Webs and Jimmy Terrel. He Got him to join his own band, the Royal Aces.

L-R: Frank Arellano, Charlie Gebhardt, Charlene Imhoff, Ria Boldway, Vern Gebhardt and Sylvester Stewart.

During the same period Sly managed to talk his way into holding down a weekly job as regular fixture on a San Francisco-based television pop show, the Dick Stewart Show.Slay Briefly changed his name to Danny Stewart and tried his luck as a gospel- pop crooner; releasing a song entitled " A long Time Alone" that enjoyed mild popularity within the Bay Area but not enough to convince him to keep the new name.

  
Sylvester Stewart "Sly Stone" ca.1959                                      Sylvester Stewart "Sly Stone" ca.1961

The same year he reverted to his given name, Sylvester Stewart, and released another single, "Help Me With My Broken Heart", that also vanished quickly. Then he joined high school bands The Vicounts. The Vicounts were a Vallejo singing group that was very unique because it was an integrated band. they had a Filipino. Sly was the Afro. There were girls and boys and all different colors. Sly had  a hell of a time back because he was having an affair with one of the white girl in the band - the most beautiful girl - and they had to keep it secret. When they started recording, the group had to change the name to Viscaynes, because the Vicount name was registered to another group.

Left to right: Charlie Gebhardt, Jim Kozier, Sly, Frank Arellano, Mike Stevens, Art Bigornia and Tom Recknagel
The two Gal's are Charlene Imhoff, and Maria Boldway.

They recorded "Stop What You are Doing" for the Trop label in 1960. it xas fooled by "Yellow Moon" and "Heavenly Angel" for VPM in 1961. There was a typographical error on their third record and The Viscaynes was misspelled the Byscanes for "Uncle Sam Needs You". "Yellow moon wasn't a big hit but it got him the attention of Bob Mitchell and Tom Donahue (San Francisco's two most important disc jockeys of the sixties), who hired him to work at Autumn records. In 1961, Arteen Records released "Stop What You are Doing" b/w "I Guess I'll Be " under the name of The Vi-Tones. Then in 1963 he wrote "The Swim" for the black R'n'B singer Bobby Freeman and had his first gold record.

http://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/sstone.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sly_Stone_discography
http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/s/sl/sly_stone.htm

Songs :


The Viscaynes

     
Yellow Moon                   Heavenly Angel                  Stop What You are Doing

     
I Guess I'll Be                Just a Fool For Your Love       You're My Only Love

      
Maybe I'm Wrong              Uncle Sam Needs You      Help Me With My Broken Heart

The Biscaynes


Yellow Moon


Jasper Woods (BB Viscaynes)

   
I’m Coming Home                       Hully Gully Papa

Sly Stone & The Biscaynes

  
You've Forgotten Me                Oh What A Nite


Danny (Sly) Stewart


A Long Time Alone

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