The Falcons (4) aka The Newports (1)

The Falcons (4) (Detroit)
aka The Newports (1)

Personnel :

Eddie Floyd (Lead)

Bob Manardo (First Tenor)

Joe Stubbs (Second Tenor)

Mark Rice (Baritone)

Willie Schofield (Bass)

Discography :

The Falcons (4)
Singles :
1956 - Baby That's It / This Day (Mercury 70940)
1957 - Sent Up / Can This Be Christmas (Silhouette 521/522)
1958 - This Heart Of Mine / Romanita (Kudo 661)
1958 - Searching For You Baby / Baby Don't You Change Your Mind (Kudo 666) 
1959 - You're So Fine/ Goddess Of Angels (Flick 001)
1959 - You're So Fine / Goddess Of Angels (Unart 2013/United Artists 2013x)
1959 - You Must Know I Love You / That's What I Aim To Do (Flick 008)
1959 - You're Mine  / Country Shack (Unart 2022)
1959 - Just For Your Love This Heart Of Mine (Chess 1743/Anna 1110)
1960 - The Teacher / Waiting For You (United Artists 229)
1960 - I Love You / Wonderful Love (United Artists 255)
1960 - Pow! You're In Love / Workin' Man's Song (United Artists 289)
1962 - I Found A Love / Swim (Lu-Pine 103/1003)
1962 - She's My Heart's Desire / What To Do (Lu-Pine 109)
1962 - Lah-Tee-Lah-Tah  Darling (Atlantic 2153)
1963 - Take This Love I've Got / Let's Kiss And Make Up (Atlantic 2179)
1964 - You're So Fine / Goddess Of Angels  (United Artists 1624)

Eps :
1960 - The Teacher / Waiting For You / You're So Fine / Goddess Of Angels (United Artists 10010)

Unreleased :
1956 - I Love You Dearly  (Mercury) (Unreleased)
1956 - How Could You  (Mercury) (Unreleased)
1959 - This Heart Of Mine (Chess) (Unreleased)
1959 - Romanita (Chess) (Unreleased)
1959 - You're In Love (Chess) (Unreleased)
1959 - No Time For Fun (Chess) (Unreleased)
1959 - Please Don't Leave Me Dear (Chess) (Unreleased)
1960 - Annie  (United Artists) (Unreleased)
1960 - Billy The Kid  (United Artists) (Unreleased)
1960 - Feels Good  (United Artists) (Unreleased)
1960 - You're On My Mind  (United Artists) (Unreleased)
1960 - It Was Meant To Be (United Artists) (Unreleased)
N/A - I Found A Love (Atlantic) (Unreleased)
 N/A - Swim (Atlantic) (Unreleased)
 N/A - Why Didn't Nobody Dance (Atlantic) (Unreleased)
 N/A - No Crying Man (Atlantic) (Unreleased)
 N/A - Alabama Bound (Atlantic) (Unreleased)

 

Wilson Pickett & The Falcons (4)
1966 - You're On My Mind  Anna (Lu-Pine 003)

The Newports (1)
1959 - Chicky-Chop-Chop / Hurry-Arthur Murray (Contour 301)

Biography :

The Falcons didn't start out as a pure rhythm and blues group, nor did they begin with only black members. The group was racially mixed and sang modern and pop R&B harmonizers with a touch of gospel. Bob Manardo and Eddie Floyd worked together in a Detroit jewelry store and decided to form a vocal group. Bob drafted his friend Tom Shetler and Eddie brought in Arnett Robinson.

A local street singer, Willie Schofield, made it a quintet that Arnett dubbed the Falcons. The group had no idea there were previous Falcons groups that recorded for Regent ("How Blind Can You Be," 1951), Savoy ("It's You I Miss," 1953), Flip ("Stay Mine," 1954), and Cash ("I Miss You Darling," 1955). The lineup read Floyd (lead), Manardo (first tenor), Robinson (second tenor), Shetler (baritone), and Schofield (bass). Manardo and Shetler were white and the others black.

This group surfaced years before the same racial combination showed up in THE DEL-VIKINGS and THE MARCELS. The group rehearsed incessantly and was very serious about their singing. Eddie introduced the Falcons to his uncle, Robert West, owner of the Lupine and Flick labels, who arranged a few bookings and signed them to Chicago's Mercury Records for one solid doo wop rocker in a CLEFTONES (Gee)/MOONLIGHTERS (Checker) style with a sax solo and a driving cha-cha beat, titled "Baby That's It."

By 1957 they'd moved over to Ewart Abner's Falcon label for "Now That It's Over" and the rhythmic, harmony-filled flip "My Only Love." Changes were now occurring: Manardo was drafted, Shetler volunteered, and Robinson left, all in the space of a month. Baritone Bonny "Mack" Rice (of the Five Scalders, Drummond) replaced Shetler, Lance Finnie took over first tenor, and Joe Stubbs joined as the new lead singer .

The group now began leaning more toward gospel and blues blended with modern. Singles with Kudo and Silhouette went nowhere so West finally decided to put them on his own Flick label. The first issue was a song written by Schofield, Finnie, and West that would initiate some changes in rhythm and blues music. Released in early 1959, "You're So Fine," with its raw, bouncy, funky, shuffle beat and Joe Stubbs's ough-edged vocal, took the public by storm. Flick made a quick deal with United Artists' Unart label for both the group and the release of the single.

Billboard's March 14th review gave it four stars, commenting, "The group comes through with the authentic church sound on this pulsating effort, sung with feeling by the strong lead with help from the group. It could grab coins."It did, charting number two R&B April 6th and number 17 Pop. Their next charter came from Chess Records, trying to capitalize on the Unart hit by repeating the title melody of "You're So Fine" in the chorus of "Just for Your Love" (#26 R&B, late 1959).

The group had a few sides on the Unart parent label, United Artists, making noise only with "The Teacher" (#18 R&B), with another strong Stubbs lead. Their last UA issue was "Working Man's Song." By now, Stubbs had left (later going on to sing on occasion with his brother Levi's group, THE FOUR TOPS, as well as the Contours and the Originals), replaced by a 19-year-old from Prattville, Alabama, named Wilson Pickett.

He did the lead vocal on their 1962 hit "I Found a Love" (#75 Pop, #6 R&B), but before the year was over the group found West farming them out to another label (Atlantic) to further capitalize on the success he'd built.

None of the three Atlantic sides drew much interest and when Schofield was drafted in 1963,  the group disbanded. Robert West wasn't about to let the golden goose get cooked, however, so he took Carlis "Sonny" Monroe, Johnny Alvin, Frank Holt, and James Gibson, known collectively as the Fabulous Playboys, and made them the Falcons (5).

Jay Warner (American singing groups: a history from 1940s to today)

http://www.uncamarvy.com/Falcons/falcons.html
http://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/falcons.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~v1tiger/falcons.html

Songs :

   
Godess Of Angels                  You're So Fine

   
Can This Be Christmas           This day

   
Sent Up                               I Found A Love



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