The Foster Brothers (Evanston, Illinois)
aka The Foster Bros.

Personnel :

Ray Pettis (Lead)

Lavern Gales (Lead)

Donald Clay (First Tenor)

Lindsay Langston (Second Tenor)

George Lattimore (Bass)

Discography :

The Foster Bros.
1957 - Tell Me Who / I Said She Wouldn't Do (El Bee 161)
1958 - I Could Cry / Never Again (Hi Mi 3005)
1960 - Land Of Love / Let's Jam (Dillie 101)

The Foster Brothers
1958 - Show Me / If You Want My Heart (Mercury 71360)
1959 - Trust In Me / Why-Yi-Yi (Profile 4004)
1960 - Revenge / Pretty, Fickle Woman (B and F 1333)

Biography :

After the Gems broke up, Sometime in 1957, Ray Pettis took over as the lead of another Evanston-based vocal group called the Foster Brothers (although its components were not brothers) They considered themselves ‘foster brothers’ because they had always called group member Lindsay Langston’s mother “Mama.” They sang somewhat anachronistically popular songs from the early 50s and later 40s. Donald Clay formed the group in the late 1930s naming it ‘The Four Harmonizers’, a Gospel quartet. Although its style already came across as dated in 1956, the group recorded for John "Lawyer" Burton's El Bee label that same year, for a tiny label called Hi Mi (1958), for Mercury (the Foster Brothers' only effort for a major company—also 1958), for Mel London's Profile label in 1959, for Bud Brandom's B&F label in 1960, and finally for another boutique label called Dillie (also 1960).  

   
The Foster Brothers                                                                           The Gems                          

As a soloist, Pettis recorded for the Boss and Dee Dee labels (which were co-owned by former Gem Bobby Robinson). He was on singles for Boss released in 1962 and 1963, and on one side of a single for Dee Dee (1963). After a single for Salem in 1965 and one for Exodus (run briefly by Jimmy Bracken and Vivian Carter after Vee-Jay went bankrupt, 1966), Pettis recorded his last two singles for Dee Dee in 1969. Ray Pettis died on December 12, 1991, in Evanston, Illinois.

Songs: :

  
     Tell Me Who                             I Said She Wouldn't Do

  
I Could Cry                                  Never Again

  
Land Of Love                             Let's Jam

  
     Show Me                            If You Want My Heart

  
Trust In Me                                      Why-Yi-Yi

  
       Revenge                               Pretty, Fickle Woman

...