Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters (4)

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters (4) (Philadephia)

Personnel :

Garnet Mimms (Lead)

Sam Bell

Charles Boyer

Zola Pearnell

Discography :

Singles :

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters (4)
1963 - Cry Baby / Don't Change Your Heart (UA 629)
1963 - For Your Precious Love / Baby Don't You Weep (UA 658)
1964 - Anytime You Need Me / Tell Me Baby (UA 694) 
1964 - One Girl / A Quiet Place (UA 715) 
1964 - A Little Bit Of Soap / I'll Make It Up To You (UA 796)
1965 - So Close / It Was Easier To Hurt Her  (UA 848)   
1965 - Welcome Home / The Adventures Of Moll Flanders  (UA 868)
1965 - Everytime / That Goes To Show You  (UA 888)
1965 - Looking For You / More Than A Miracle  (UA 951)
1966 - Prove It To Me / I'll Take Good Care Of You (UA 995)   

Garnet Mimms
1964 - Look Away / One Woman Man (UA 773)

The Enchanters (4) 
1964 - I Wanna Thank You / I'm A Good Man (Warner Bros 5460)  
1965 - I Paid For The Party / I Want To Be Loved (Loma 2012) 
1966 - God Bless The Girl And Me / You Were Meant To Be My Baby (Loma 2035) 
1966 - I've Lost All Communications / We Got Love (Loma 2054)

Lps :

1963 - Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters "Cry baby" (UAL 3305 / UAS 6305)
For your precious love / Cry to me / Nobody but you / Until you were gone / Baby don't you weep / Anytime you need me / Runaway lover / Cry baby / Don't change your heart / A quiet place / So close / Wanting you

Biography :

On returning to Philadelphia in 1958 after completing his military service, Garnet Mimms discovered that times were changing and doo wop music had become serious business. After a brief stint in a secular outfit called the Deltones, Mimms wasted no time in forming a bona fide doo wop quintet, the Gainors, consisting of Sam Bell, Willie Combo, John Jefferson, Howard Tate (another figure destined for great things as a soul singer), and himself.

The Gainors made frequent trips to the recording studio over the next three years, and cut a total of eight singles for three different labels: Red Top (later absorbed by Cameo Parkway), Mercury, and Talley Ho.   With little success to speak of, the Gainors folded in 1961 and Mimms and Bell left to form a new group. Together with Charles Boyer and, unusually enough, a female member, Zola Pearnell, they gave rise to Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters.

Mimms was probably disillusioned with Philadelphia by now (shades of W.C. Fields perhaps?!) and, convinced that the city was more concerned with the teen idol phenomenon, persuaded his new bandmates that the future for their musical direction lay elsewhere.  Relocation to New York brought a meeting with legendary songwriter and producer Bert Berns. Under Berns' wing, they signed for United Artists and began a collaboration with a second historic songwriter/producer, Jerry Ragavoy.

Jerry Ragavoy with Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters

The partnership was immediately fruitful, yielding the classic "Cry Baby", an epic R&B tune which pretty much defined the sixties soul genre. The record was a smash hit, staying in the U.S. R&B chart for three whole months and reaching the no. 1 position. Even more surprising. "Cry Baby" hit number 4 in the pop chart, no mean feat for an uncompromising soul record.

The Enchanters were warming to the task. Another Ragavoy tune, "Baby Don't You Weep" (surely the inspiration for Billy Joe Royal's wonderful "I Knew You When" a couple of years later?), scored a hit later in the year, and this was followed by a peerless cover of Jerry Butler and the Impressions' Abner classic "For Your Precious Love".

United Artists had themselves a star. Garnet Mimms was something different: a singer with an extraordinary range (from powerful tenor to nerve-tingling falsetto) and an ability to switch from one genre to another with the greatest of ease. Indeed, the partnership between the Enchanters on the one hand and Ragavoy and Berns on the other was very much an experiment in applying Mimms' gospel and deep soul roots to the new uptown soul in vogue in New York.

Somewhat surprisingly, Mimms and the Enchanters parted company in 1964 following their sixth United Artists single, an impressive cover of the Jarmels' "A Little Bit Of Soap". The Enchanters did continue with Sam Bell as replacement lead vocalist, but there was little hope of recreating the magic of those previous UA releases. Mimms, on the other hand, was far from finished, and struck out on a promising solo career.
http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/garnet_mimms.htm

Songs :

      
For your precious love       Until You Were Gone                One Girl

       
Ther Goes my baby         Baby Don't You Weep       Dont Change Your Heart

       
A Quiet Place                        Cry Baby                     Anytime You Need Me

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