Jesse Belvin

The Sheiks (2) (Los Angeles, CA)

Personnel :

Jesse Belvin

Mel Williams

Harold Lewis

Discography :

1955 -   So Fine / Sentimental Heart (Federal 12237)

Biography :

Johnny Otis was an American singer, musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, and talent scout. He was a seminal influence on American R&B and rock and roll. He discovered numerous artists early in their careers who went on to become highly successful in their own right. One day while fooling around in his garage studio, Johnny Otis had Jesse Belvin, Mel Williams, and Harold Lewis record a song he had composed titled “So Fine.”

  
Johnny Otis                                                                                                                                                 

Otis released the recording under the group name he gave them on the spot, the Sheiks. It did not sell well, so he recorded it again with Mel Williams alone, but that version did not sell either. Five years later, the song became a hit on an East Coast label forthe Fiestas, a Newark, New Jersey, quartet. The Fiestas' cover version was far more commercially successful than the Sheiks' original (which failed to chart), being a #3 rhythm & blues and #11 pop hit in 1959. Following the success of the cover version, the Sheiks' record was re-released on Federal in 1959, strangely as by the Checkers and again without any chart action.

Songs :

  
      So Fine                                       Sentimental Heart

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