Charles Henderson, Johnny Johnson & Dave Bell - Top : Johnny Banks

The Everglades (1)  (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
aka The Go-Togethers ref The Ebbtides (5)

Personnel :

Johnny Banks

Charles Henderson

Dave Bell

Johnny Johnson

Discography :

The Ebbtides (5)
1956 - Only Be Mine / What's Your Name Dear (Teen 121)

Johnny Banks & The Everglades (1)
1961 - While Sitting In The Chapel / Do You Miss Me (BPV 112277)

The Everglades (1)
1962 - I Went To The S&S / Tell Me Pretty Baby (Brenne 502)

The Go-Togethers
1963 - Train / Time After Time (Coast 100)




Biography :

Charles Henderson began singing with fellow Ben Framklin High Scool. In 1955, Charles Henderson with Johnny Banks, Horace Adams, Robert Lee and Betty McCann formed a group, Following a year of tedious practice, Johnny Banks made the connection with Teen/Sound Records in 1956. At The Reco-Arts Studio , they cut " What's Your Name Dear" with "Only Be Mine". Appearances ensued, most arranged by manage rRobinson. The Baby Grang in Harlem, another in Reading, Pensylvania, the O.V Catto hall at 16th & Fitzwater near Center City, the Ice House in South Jersey, a sleek show at the uptown theater accompanying the Blue Notes the Channels & The Continentals..…

WDAS concert - Uptown Thheater (ca 1960)

Some years later, Dave Bell and Johnny Johnson replaced Horace Adams and and McCann. This reformed aggregation was christened the Everglades by Johnny Banks. Six years or so following their dustup with teen records, they found themselves on the doorstep of BVP Records.  The Everglades cut "While Sitting In The Chapel" /" Do You Miss Me". But the BVP platter wended its way to nowhere and the group cut another record for Brenne "I Went To The S&S" and "Tell Me Pretty Baby". The group have two other songs: "Train" and "Time After Time" released one year later on the Coast Label under the strange name "The Go-Togethers".

Songs :
(updated by Hans-Joachim) 

The Ebbtides (5)

  
Only Be Mine                              What's Your Name Dear

Johnny Banks & The Everglades (1)

  
While Sitting In The Chapel                      Do You Miss Me

 The Everglades (1)


I Went To The S & S / Tell Me Pretty Baby

The Go-Togethers


Train / Time After Time
  

...

The Velvets (2) (Odessa, Texas)
 

Personnel :

Virgil Johnson (Lead)

Mark Prince (Bass)

Clarence Rigsby (Lead Tenor)

William Solomon (Baritone)

Bob Thursby (Tenor)


Discography:

Singles :
1961 - That Lucky Old Sun / Time & Again (Monument 435)
1961 - Tonight (Could Be the Night) / Spring Fever (Monument 441/515)
1961 - Laugh / Lana ( (Monument 448)
1962 - Love Express / Don't Let Him Take My Baby ( (Monument 458)
1962 - Let the Good Times Roll / Light Goes on the Light Off (Monument 464)
1963 - Crying in the Chapell / Dawn (Monument 810)
1964 - Here Comes That Song Again / Nightmare ( (Monument 836)
1964 - If / Let the Fool Kiss You (Monument 861)
1966 - Baby the Magic Is Gone / Let the Fool Kiss You (Monument 961)

Unreleased :
N/A - Be Ever Mine
N/A - You Done Me Bad
N/A - Kiss Me
N/A - Alicia
N/A - Bird Dog
N/A - My Love
N/A - Who Has the Right
N/A - I'm Trusting in You
N/A - Almost But Not Quite
N/A - Husbands & Wives
N/A - I Can Feel It
N/A - Poison Love
N/A - That's Out of My Line
 

Biography:

Virgil Johnson was the lead singer of the Velvets, a vocal quintet from Odessa, West Texas. They are best remembered for their 1961 hit "Tonight (Could Be The Night)", which peaked at # 26 on the Billboard pop charts. On that song the Velvets can be heard chanting "doo-wop" behind lead singer Johnson, one of the first uses of the phrase in a song. Still, the Velvets were not really a doo-wop group. Their sound was highly polished and the backing usually included strings.

Virgil Johnson was a teacher at Blackshear Junior High School in Odessa, where he taught English to eighth grade pupils. It was at this school that he heard two students, Mark Prince and Clarence Rigby, singing as a duo. He recruited two more students, adding Robert Thursby's first tenor and William Solomon's baritone to Rigsby's tenor and Mark Prince's bass. The quintet began to perform at school sock-hops and campus functions, with Johnson as lead singer.

In 1960 they impressed Roy Orbison, who heard them whilst visiting Odessa, and recommended the group to Fred Foster, the owner of Monument Records and the producer of Roy's big hit at that time, "Only the Lonely". Foster signed the group and came up with the name The Velvets. In fact, he decided it should be the Velvets featuring Virgil Johnson because there was another group called the Velvets, years before. They had a song out called "I" on Bobby Robinson's Red Robin label.

The group's first session was held in late 1960, at Nashville's RCA studios and produced four tunes, which would be issued on their first two singles: "That Lucky Old Sun"/"Time And Again" and "Tonight (Could Be The Night)"/"Spring Fever". The two B-sides were from the pen of Roy Orbison, while "Tonight" was written by Virgil Johnson. The accompaniment came from some of Nashville's finest session players, including Boots Randolph and Floyd Cramer. After the success of "Tonight", the group's next release was "Lana"/ "Laugh", both written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson. "We should never have put those two songs out together", says Johnson."

Part of the country was playing one side and another part of the country was playing the other side". "Laugh" stalled at # 90, but "Lana" (soon also recorded by Orbison himself) was # 1 in Japan. Monument continued putting out Velvets' singles, nine in all, until 1966. Some of them were quite good, but there were no further chart entries and the group called it a day and went back to a Texas they had never really left. Johnson kept on teaching, and in 1993, he retired from his job as principal of Lubbock's Dunbar-Struggs Junior High School, a post he had held for 25 years. In Lubbock he also was a deejay on Radio KSEL. Clarence Rigsby died in a car crash in 1978. Johnson is adamant on the reasons for the group's relatively short chart life. "You got to realise, in the early sixties there were two music markets in the US. You had a black market and you had a white market. We were extremely popular with whites, but we were never extremely popular with blacks. We were black and we didn't sound like it. People didn't know we were a black group. We couldn't tour and that really hurt us."

Songs :

     
      That Lucky Old Sun                      Time & Again                Tonight (Could Be the Night)

     
Spring Fever                                   Laugh                                        Lana      

     
Love Express          Don't Let Him Take My Baby            Let the Good Times Roll

     
Light Goes on the Light Off         Crying in the Chapell                       Dawn                    

     
Here Comes That Song Again                 Nightmare                               If                          

     
Let the Fool Kiss You               Baby the Magic Is Gone            Let the Fool Kiss You

... 

Gene & Eunice (Los Angeles, CA)
(By Hans-Joachim)
 

Personnel:

Forest Gene Wilson aka Gene Forrest

Eunice Hazel Russ aka Eunice Levy

 

Discography:

Singles:
1954 - Ko Ko Mo / You And Me (Combo 64)
1955 - Ko Ko Mo / You And Me (Aladdin 3276)
1955 - This Is My Story / Move It Over Baby (Aladdin 3282)
1955 - Flim Flam / Can We Forget It (Aladdin 3292)
1955 - Have You Changed Your Mind / I Gotta Go Home (Aladdin 3305)
1956 - Hootchy-Kootchy / I'll Never Believe In You (Aladdin 3315)
1956 - Let's Get Together / I'm So In Love With You (Aladdin 3321)
1956 - Hi Diddle Diddle / Bom Bom Lulu (Aladdin 3351)
1957 - Strange World / The Vow (Aladdin 3374)
1957 - Don't Treat Me This Way / Doodle Doodle Doo (Aladdin 3376)
1958 - The Angels Gave You To Me / I Mean Love (Aladdin 3414)
1959 - Poco-Loco / Go-On Kokomo (Case 1001)
1959 - Ah! Ah! / You Think I'm Not Thinking (Case 1002)
1959 - You Drive Me Buggy / Without Love (Case 1005)
1960 - Sugar Babe / Let's Play The Game (Case 1007)
1962 - Got A Right To Know / Everlovin' Baby (Lily 512)*
1967 - Soul Loving / Walking Away (Cenco 113)*
*By Eunice Levy and Gene Taylor

Ep:
1960 - Hully Gully / Poco Loco / You Think I'm Not Thinking / Beatnick (Case EP 100)

Unreleased demos:
1954 - Can We Forget It (Combo)
1954 -Flim Flam (Combo)
1954 - I Know A Girl (Combo)
1954 - Move It Over Baby
1954 - Tell Me That You Love Me (Combo)
1954 - This Is My Story (Combo)
1954 - I'll Never Forget You (Combo)*
*Eunice Levy (bb Gene Forrest & The Four Feathers)

Biography :

Gene & Eunice were Los Angeles' answer to New Orleans' Shirley & Lee (their label mates at Aladdin Records), except that Gene & Eunice's duets were much lighter and lyrical. And unlike Shirley, Eunice could actually sing on key. Also unlike Shirley & Lee, Gene & Eunice were actually sweethearts, and the two married and had several children together. Eunice Levy met Gene Forrest at local DJ Hunter Hancock's talent show in Los Angeles. Gene was looking for a girl to sing harmony with his group, the Four Feathers (named after a make of drink). This changed when they began dating, they then started rehearsing and writing in Gene's garage. Older and more experienced than Eunice, Gene dominated the relationship from the start, but Eunice was his co-writer from the beginning. Gene and Eunice wrote most of their own songs.

Hunter Hancock with Gene & Eunice

In the spring of 1954, they pitched a folio of songs to Jake Porter. The outstanding song penned by the duo was “Ko Ko Mo” b/w “You And Me” and Porter released it on the Combo label in the fall of 1954. Aladdin Records, which already had Gene Forrest under contract as a solo artist, claimed ownership of the team of Gene & Eunice in late January 1955 and rushed them into the studio with Johnny Otis's band (billed as Johnny's Combo -- perhaps as a slap at Combo Records) to record a second version of “Ko Ko Mo.” The Combo and Aladdin singles, counted as one unit by Billboard's compilers, climbed as high as #6 R&B in early 1955. They became extremely popular and made appearances in such diverse arenas as the Apollo Theatre and Dick Clark's TV show. The duo returned to the studio for Aladdin to cut “This Is My Story” b/w “Move It Over Baby.” “This Is My Story” reached # 8 R&B, their only purely Aladdin hit. Great songs like “Let's Get Together” and “Bom Bom Lulu” failed to click. A further session didn't improve sales and Aladdin let them go in 1958.

A Canadian company set up a new label, Case Records, and searching for an established act to kick start the label, they signed Gene & Eunice. They cut “Poco-Loco” b/w “Go-On Kokomo“ and it charted in the fall of 1958, reaching # 48 in the hot hundred. Further 45s flopped. By the end of 1960, the duo had parted, Gene back in a blue collar job, whilst Eunice married an English record distributor named Jack Frost. She recorded another duo 45, “Got A Right To Know” b/w “Ever Lovin’ Baby” with Gene Taylor. Mike Gradny’s Cenco Records from Los Angeles issued in 1967 the last record by the pair, “Soul Loving” b/w “Walking Away.” Eunice Levy passed away in 2002 and Gene Forrest died in 2003.

http://electricearl.com/dws/gene&eunice.html
http://www.geocities.ws/shakin_stacks/eunicelevy.txt
http://www.colorradio.com/Gene_And_Eunice.html
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gene-eunice-mn0000801739/biography
https://acerecords.co.uk/go-on-ko-ko-mo
http://www.45cat.com/artist/gene-and-eunice

Songs:

     
Ko Ko Mo / You And Me (Combo)       Ko Ko Mo / You And Me (Aladdin)

     
This Is My Story          Move It Over Baby                   I Gotta Go Home

     
Flim Flam / Can We Forget It               The Vow / Strange World

     
Have You Changed Your Mind     I'll Never Believe In You         Hootchy-Kootchy

     
Let's Get Together        I'm So In Love With You       Bom Bom Lulu

     
Hi Diddle Diddle            Doodle Doodle Doo      Don't Treat Me This Way

     
I Mean Love / The Angels Gave You To Me          Ah! Ah! / You Think I'm Not Thinking

      

 Without Love / You Drive Me Buggy                 Sugar Babe / Let's Play The Game

     
Poco-Loco                       Go-On Kokomo                      Soul Loving

      
Hully Gully / Beatnick                Got A Right To Know / Everlovin' Baby

     
Walking Away              Can We Forget It (demo)            Flim Flam (demo)

     
I Know A Girl (demo)     Move It Over Baby (demo)      Tell Me That You Love Me (demo)

  
This Is My Story (demo)         I’ll Never Forget You (demo)

....

The Twin-Tones (2) (Hicksville, Long Island)
aka The Twins
(updated by Hans-Joachim) 

Personnel :

John Cunningham

James Cunningham

Discography : 

Singles :

The Twin Tones (2)
1958 - My Dear / The Flip Skip (Skip-Tip)  (RCA 7148)

The Twins
1958 - Jo Ann's Sister / Who Knows The Secret  (RCA 7235)
1958 - Gee Whiz / Classroom Rock (RCA 7382)
1959 - Heart Of Gold / Buttercup (Lancer 106)

Eps :

The Twin Tones (2) - Jim & John  (RCA 4107)
1957 - Jo-Ann / Before You Go / My Dancing Lady / One Mail A Day

The Twins (Jim And John) Teenagers Love The Twins
1958 - My Dear / The Flip Skip (Skip-Tip) / I Want A Girl / Together Forever

Lps :

The Twins Jim and John - Teenagers Love The Twins (RCA Victor LPM-1708)
1958 -  Jo-Ann / Who Knows The Secret / My Dear / Before You Go / After Dark / The Flip-Skip (Skip-Tip) / Bubble-ee Bubble-ee Bubble Gum / Jo-Ann's Sister / Give Me Your Picture / You Know You Love It

 Biography :

On 20 December 1957, Jim and John Cunningham, the Twin-Tones, appeared or the 100th broadcast of Dick Clark's American Bandstand, along with Jerry Lewis, who performed his only hit. "Rock-a Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody". The Twin-Tones sang 'Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now". Jim & John were not Patiente and Prudence in drag. They were two good looking blonde boys from Hicksville High School in Long Island, New York.

The boys recorded a cute rock-a-ballad called "Jo Ann" for RCA Victor, which was quickly covered by a group of three chubby comedians called the Playmates who turned the song into a hit for Roulette. RCA did not give up, however, releasing an LP, an EP and several singles, like "The Skip Flip" and "Jo-Ann's Sister" Unlike the  Midnighters, they failed to record  "Jo-Ann Had A Baby".

The reader should not attach any cosmic meaning to the following, but both the Twins' and the Playmates' album covers featured the acts on motor scooters. One may, however, deduce that the Twins' booking on the Alan Freed Holiday Show at the Paramount Theater may have had something to do with the fact that 'Jo-Ann's Sister' was published by Freed's Figure Music. 

The twins didn’t realize and profit for composing the song – nor did they make any money from their RCA Victor long play and such was the business back then.  John Grant Cunningham, born on September 22, 1940 in Flushing, New York, passed July 18, 2016 in Brockwell, Arkansas. His twin brother James William Cunningham died May 29, 2018 in Cullman, Alabama.

(There were in fact two different Twin Tones duets. The Twin Tones on Monte Carlo 005 were girls)

Songs :

(updated by Hans-Joachim) 

  
Jo- Ann                                         My Dear

  
The Flip Skip                           Before You Go

  
My Dancing Lady                           One Mail A Day

  
Jo Ann's Sister                           Classroom Rock

  
   Buttercup                                        Together Forever

  
     After Dark                             Give Me Your Picture

  
Bubble-ee Buble-ee Bubble Gum               Who Knows The Secret    

  
I Want A Girl                                      My Foolish Fling

  
This Feelings Bound To Love                          T.V. Hop                


Heart Of Gold

……

The Ivy Three (Garden City, New-York)

Personnel :

Artie Kaye

Charlie Cane

Don Rubin

Discography :

1960 - Yogi / Was Judy There (Shell 720)
1960 - Alone In The Chapel / Hush Little Baby  (Shell 723)
1961 - Nine Out Of Ten / I've Cried Enough For Two (Shell 302)
1961 - Bagoo / Suicide  (Shell 306)

Biography

A trio consisting of Artie Kaye (nee Berkowitz), Charlie Cane (nee Koppelman), and Don Rubin, the Ivy Three were formed at Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island at the very end of the 1950s, when the three undergraduates started singing together. They were signed to Shell Records in New York, a small independent outfit co-founded by Lou Stallman and Sid Jacobson, a pair of songwriters, and Charles Koppelman helped them finish a song the two were working on called "Yogi," which became the trio's first single.

"Yogi" got all the way to number eight on the national charts in the fall of 1960, but nothing else by the trio ever cut did remotely that well, and they'd broken up within a year. Koppelman and Rubin later formed a management company, Koppelman-Rubin Productions, that handled the likes of the Critters, Tim Hardin, and Gary Lewis & the Playboys, enjoying considerable pop success in the mid-'60s. 

Additionally, the Critters were instrumental in securing the early success of Kama Sutra Records, as well as serving as a vehicle for songwriters Peter Anders and Vince Poncia, two Phil Spector alumni ("Do I Love You," etc.) who were formerly of the vocal group the Videls.
Bruce Eder

Videos :

Songs :
(updated by Hans-Joachim)

 
         
Suicide                          Alone In The Chapel             I've Cried Enough For Two

        
Was Judy There                       Yogi                                 Nine Out Of Ten

Hush Little Baby

CD :

..