The picture left to right: Junior, Marty, Greg Shannon, Willie, Greg Patterson, Gerry(in back), and Bob.

The Pharaohs (5) (Pittsburgh)
Aka The Pharoh's
 

Personnel :

Dave Detillo

Ron "Junior" Leone

Bob Burnett

Willie McGee

Discography :

1961 - Betty / (no flip side) (Unreleased)
1961 - Come to Me / If I Had the Power (Pharaohs)


Biography :

The Pharaohs were originated in mid-October, 1961, by Bob Burnett and Dave Detillo, Juniors at Baldwin High School in Pittsburgh. They wanted to create a mixed race singing group that would shake up the industry. The other members are  Jr. Leone, and Willie McGee.  Their first record was "Oh Betty", which received numerous plays on Pittsburgh radio stations. This song was the pick of the week on WZUM and also took off on WAMO. They toured with the legendary Porky Chedwick for a couple of weeks performing our hit song. Later the Pharaohs recorded If I Had The Power with the group name being spelled Pharohs and some members changing.  Later members were Stanford Whiting (who joined right after they recorded "Oh Betty), and Greg Patterson (who wrote "If I Had The Power").

  
Porky Chedwick                                                                                                     

Their managers were James Harvey, Joe Talarico, and Bob Mack a huge Pittsburgh promoter. They recorded a major album that was to be released, but Mack's other group, Tommy James and the Shondel's had their single released first.  The group disbanded without the album (which was really good) never being released after Mack spent a lot of money on it. Ron "Junior" Leone went on to "tommy james and the shondells""The only group in Pittsburgh that was known better than us was the guys who did "Blue Moon". I truely felt that if our record would have been released 1st, we would have taken off. We were the mixed group with the white lead singer, who sounded like a black guy and made girls of all races scream. "
Bob Burnett



Songs :

    
         Betty                                               If I Had The Power

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