The Goldenrods (Gary, Indiana)



Personnel :

Crosby Harris (Tenor)

Hiawatha Burnett (Tenor)

Cleve Denham (Tenor)

Jesse Rodgers (Baritone)

Charles Colquitt (Bass)



Discography :

Singles:
1958 - Color Cartoons / Wish I Was Back In School (Vee Jay 307)

Unreleased :
N/A -  At The Football Game  (Vee Jay)
N/A - Work, You Lazy Bones, Work (Vee Jay)



Biography :

Doo wop group the Goldenrods formed in Gary, Indiana in 1955 , the lineup originally comprised tenors Crosby Harris, Hiawatha Burnett, Robert Garth and Cleve Denham, sibling baritones Sylvester and Jerome Armont, baritone Jesse Rodgers and bass Clarence McClam.

The Vee Jay's Owners : James Bracken, Ewert Abner, Vivian Carter, Calvin Carter

Inspired by local heroes the Spaniels and taking their name from a writing tablet purchased by Burnett for a school project, the Goldenrods made their public debut at their high school talent show, but their large roster proved too unwieldy for their harmonies to truly take flight, and by 1957 the lineup was whittled down to Harris, Burnett, Denham, Rodgers and new bass Charles Colquitt.

Auditions for both Vee-Jay and United ended with the Goldenrods receiving instructions to come back only when they'd written some original material, so Burnett quickly penned four songs, all of which the group recorded for Vee-Jay in late 1958 -- their debut single "Color Cartoons" appeared early the following year, but for reasons unknown the label opted against sending out review copies, essentially crippling the record's shot at airplay.

In 1959 both Harris and Rodgers got married, and their resignations spelled the Goldenrods' end -- Colquitt later toured with the Spaniels, replacing bass Gerald Gregory.



Songs :

  
Wish I Was Back In School                 At The Football Game


Color Cartoons

The Five Quails (Cleveland, OH)
aka The Quails (2)

Personnel :

Woody Woodall

Art Kirkpatrick

Billy Strawbridge

James Williams

Billy Fulgrum

Discography :

The Five Quails
1957 - Hop Scotch Rock / Jungle Baby (Mercury 71154)
1962 - Been A Long Time / Get To School On Time (Harvey 114)

The Quails (2)
1962 - My Love / Never Felt Like This Before (Harvey 116)
1962 - I Thought / Over The Hump (Harvey 120)

Biography :

The Five Quails debuted on Mercury Records in 1957 and cut three singles on Harvey Records in the early '60s. Originally, the Five Stars formed at Kennard Junior High in the mid-'50s with William Fulgham (lead), Harold Sudberry (second lead), Donald Brown, James Williams, and Clarence Williams (no relation). Like most groups, the members changed for a myriad reasons; the changes continued when they graduated to East Technical High and became the Five Quails. With a lineup of Billy Strawbridge, Billy Fulgrum, Art Kirkpatrick, Donald Brown, and James Williams, they cut "Jungle Baby" b/w "Hop Scotch Rock" on Mercury in 1957.

The Five Stars

The novelty didn't chart, but they found work backing singer Chuck Willis, touring with him briefly before he passed in April of 1958. Harvey Fuqua befriended the Quails in the basement of the Apollo Theater in New York when they were touring with Willis. Discovering they were from Cleveland (his old stomping grounds), he promised to help them one day.

  
                       Harvey Fuqua                                                                                       Kirkpatrick & Woodall

After the Willis experience they toured Canada for a year. In 1961, Harvey Fuqua left Chicago for Detroit and hooked up with Gwen Gordy. The two started Tri-Phi and Harvey Records and Fuqua fulfilled his promise to help the Quails.    Their first song was a two-sided classic that sold regionally: "Got to Get to School on Time" and the exquisite ballad "Been Such a Long Time." Junior Walker & the All Stars backed them on the Harvey sessions.   In 1962, they cut two more singles on Harvey records changing their name to the Quails.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/five-quails-mn0001282679

Songs :

The Quails (2)

   
Never Felt Like This Before                    My Love


I Thought / Over The Hump

The Five Quails

   
Hop Scotch Rock                                      Jungle Baby

   
Been A Long Time                          Get To School On Time

...

Tony Mastry & Albert Mastry

The Beverly Hills Painters (Los Angeles, Ca)
aka The Altones

Personnel :

Albert Mastry (Guitar / Vocals)

Tony Mastry  (Guitar /Bass / Harmonica / Vocals)

Ray Sharkey (Drums)

Jack Freeman (Keyboards)

Discography :

The Altones (1)
Singles :
1961 -  Love Me, Love Me / Cileen (inst. by The Craftsman) (Gardena 121)
1961 -  Love Me, Love Me / Summer Love (Archer 104)
Unreleased :
1961 - I Wonder Why / Little Girl

The Beverly Hills Painters
1961 - Model A Heap / Believe Me (Gateway 700)
1962 - Five Foot Three (Little Girl) / I Know Why (Gateway 701)

Biography :

They started as the Altones in about 1959, using the first part of their names AL and TONY-thus the Altones. Albert Mastry (1930-2002) played guitar and was heard on vocals. Tony Mastry (1920- 1997) was on guitar, bass, harmonica, and vocals. The rest of the group included Ray Sharkey on drums and Jack Freeman on keyboards.  The Altones released two records. They had a release on Archer and they split billing on a sole release on Gardena. Apparently, they didn't copyright their name, and it was then taken by a black vocal group.

Tony Mastry was a paint foreman at the Beverly Hills Hotel from 1956 to 1963, and followed the owner, Hernando Courtwright, when Mr. Courtwright bought the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and sold the other. Albert Mastry worked with Tony at the hotel, and moved on to the Beverly Hilton around 1963. Through their common work as painters, they changed their group name from the Altones to the Beverly Hills painters. Under that name, they released two records on the Los Angeles based Gateway records. They had a short run of popularity which included opening for a young but established Aretha Franklin in 1960, and were reigning champs on a short lived "Star Search" type program hosted by used car dealer Cal Worthington around 1960/61, which was pulled off the air after just a few short months. Besides singing, they were frequent writers and arrangers.
http://www.colorradio.com/altones_beverly_hills_painters.html


Songs :
(updated by Hans-Joachim) 

The Altones (1)

  
Love Me, Love Me                           Summer Love

The Beverly Hills Painters

  
Believe Me                            I Know Why

  
Five Foot Three (Little Girl)                       Model A Heap          

 ...

The Del Knights (Philadelphia)
aka The Orientals

 

Personnel :

Arthur Harden (Lead)

Warren Sherrill (First Tenor)

Eddie Edgehill (Second Tenor )

Jerry Abel (Bass)

Frank Washington (Baritone)


Discography :

The Orientals 

Unreleased :
1958 - Can't You Hear The Bells (Unreleased)
1958 - Lonesome (Unreleased)

The Del Knights

Singles :
1958 - Compensation / Everything (Unart 2008)
1961 - I'm Comin' Home / One Two Button My Shoe (Sheryl 339)
1961 - Wherever You Are / Wrapped Too Tight (Chancellor 1075)
1962 - Speedy Gonzales / Everybody Popeye (Bronko 502) 
Unreleased :
1958 - Lonesome (Unart)
1958 - I Am To Blame (Unart)
1958 - Madly (Unart)
  1958 - Don't Cry Anymore (Unart)




Biography :

Philadelphia doo wop group the Del-Knights formed in early 1958. According to Marv Goldberg's profile on his R&B Notebooks website, co-founders Eddie Edgehill (an alumnus of the Valentines, which recorded a series of singles for the Rama label) and tenor Arthur Harden were childhood friends born and raised in the South Philly area.


1959 (Unart) L to R : Jerry Abel, Frank Washington, Dexter., Warren Sherrill, Arthur Harden- Bottom :Eddie Edgehill

First tenor Warren Sherrill, baritone Frank Washington, and bass Jerry Abel completed the original lineup, dubbed the Orientals. Eventually Edgehill reached out to his former Valentines colleague Richard Barrett, now a staff producer for End Records owner George Goldner, and in mid-1958 cut an acetate for the label that Goldner opted against releasing officially. 



 The group nevertheless agreed with his dismissal of their name, and rechristened themselves the Del-Knights before auditioning for Casino label co-owner Barry Golder, who extended a contract offer. Their debut single, "Compensation," appeared on United Artists' Unart subsidiary in late 1958.Despite a rigorous tour schedule that took the Del-Knights into eastern Canada, the record did not sell and their career stalled.

At the Wagon Wheel, NYC L to R: Howard Churchill (guitar), Warren Sherrill, Anthony McKinley, Al ?, Eddie Edgehill

In 1960, a frustrated Harden married and moved away, prompting the addition of new first tenor Anthony McKinley. Washington and Abel soon bailed as well, at which time Edgehill revamped the Del-Knights' approach, recruiting guitarist Tommy Langley, bassist Howard Churchill, saxophonist "Sax" White, and drummer Duke Johnson.

L to R : Arthur Harden, Eddie Edgehill, Herb Benjamin, Al.,  Warren Sherrill

After the early 1961 release of the Sheryl label single "I'm Comin' Home," Harden returned to the lineup and McKinley exited. The one-off Chancellor effort "Wherever You Are" followed in the spring, but while their grinding tour pace continued unabated, the group simply could not score a hit. After one last stab, 1962's Bronko release "Everybody Popeye," the Del-Knights' recording career ground to a halt, although the group continued performing live until 1966, when Edgehill, Sherrill, and Abel joined Terry Johnson's latter-day Flamingos lineup.

http://www.classicurbanharmony.net/eddieedgehilltribute.htm
http://www.uncamarvy.com/DelKnights/delknights.html

Songs :

     
Everything           I Am To Blame / Lonesome           Madly / Don't Cry Anymore

     
I'm Comin' Home                     Wrapped Too Tight                Speedy Gonzales

....

Shelly Weiss, Al Senzon, Mike Lasman, Ian Kay 

The Accents (3)  (Brooklyn, New-York)


aka The Dreamers (16)

Personnel :

Mike Lasman (Lead)

Shelly Weiss (First Tenor)

Alan Senzon (Second Tenor)

Ian Kay (Baritone)

Discography :

 The Dreamers (16)
Single :
1960 - Mary Mary / Canadian Sunset (Guaranteed 219)
Unreleased :
1960- Zing  (Guaranteed)

The Accents (3)
1963 - Where Can I Go / Rags To Riches (Sultan 5500)

Scott English & The Accents (3)
1963 - High On A Hill / When (By the Dedications) (Sultan 4003 / Spokane 4003)
1964 - Here Comes The Pain / All I Want Is You  (Spokane 4007)

Biography :

This doo wop quartet in this segment met on the boardwalk of Brighton Beach and formed a group in 1960. They were Shelly Weiss (first tenor), Ian Kaye (baritone), Allan Senzan (second tenor), and Mike Lasman (lead). They were students at Erasmus and Lincoln high schools. Ian Kay sang with several Doo Wop groups from 1957 - 1963.  His first group was the Vocal Kings from Flatbush.

The Vocal Kings  

Lasman had previously recorded as lead singer of Mike and the Utopians on the Ceejay label. Weiss had recorded for JDS Records in early 1960 as a member of the Bobby Roy and the Chord-a-roys, who also backed Barry Mann on various demo records that reportedly included “Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp Bomp Bomp)” The four boardwalk vocalists originally called themselves the Dreams and practiced regularly on the corner of Church and Flatbush Avenues. They met Jerry Halperin, owner of Halperin Music on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, who liked their intricate pop harmonies and became their manager.

Henceforth the group practiced right in Halperin’s record store.
The boys’ polished pop sound soon earned them a deal with Guaranteed Records of New York, a subsidiary of Carlton Records. The first release was the old standard “Canadian Sunset,” but the bland production and lack of promotion doomed it almost from inception.

Dropped after only one release, the group changed its name to the Accents and its style to doo-wop, putting together a reworking of the old ballad “Rags to Riches.” They also began practicing an old Jewish ballad entitled “Where Can I Go,” complete with middle section sung in Hebrew, and it was this song they performed in an audition for Sultan Records. The audition was successful, and “Rags to Riches” backed with “Where Can I Go” became their first single release as the Accents. “Rags” became a Brooklyn favorite among doo-wop enthusiasts but never hit the charts. It did, however, give them enough exposure to land them a spot in an Allan Freed Show at the Ambassador Hotel in the Catskill Mountains.

The Castaways

Between the group’s local engagements Kaye and Senzan sang backup with the Del Satins on Dion’s hit “Ruby Baby” in late 1962.  Weiss began singing with Jay and the Americans and became that group’s road manager for a period in 1965.The group back up to Scott English on his 1963 Spokane’s sides : "High on A Hill", "Heres Comes The Pain" and "All I Want Is You". And finally broke up.  Mike Lasman  then joined a short lived group called the Castaways with Bobby Kutner, Shelly Weiss and Larry Kasman, who was the lead singer of the Quotations.

Songs :

(Update By Hans-Joachim)

 The Dreamers (16)

    
Canadian Sunset                                  Mary Mary

The Accents (3)

       
Rags To Riches                       Where Can I Go
                     

Scott English & The Accents (3)

       
High On A Hill                  Here Comes The Pain                All I Want Is You

...