The Dusters (1) aka The Duster’s aka The Belvaderes

Tommy Tucker

The Dusters (1) (Ohio]
aka The Duster’s aka The Belvaderes



Personnel :

Tommy Tucker (Tenor)

Clarence LeVille (Lead)

James Crosby (Tenor)

Yonnie Peoples

Dave Johnson (Lead)





Discography :

The Belvaderes
1955 - Don't Leave Me Here To Cry / I Love You (Baby) (Hudson 4)

The Duster’s
1955 - Don't Leave Me Here To Cry / I Love You (Baby) (Hudson 4)

The Dusters (1)
Singles :
1956 - Give Me Time / Sallie Mae (Arc 3000)
1958 - Darling Love / Teen Age Jamboree (Glory 287)
Unreleased:
1956 - Castles In Ihe Sky(Ivory Tower) (Arc)

Biography :

Tommy Tucker was not the real name of Robert Higginbotham, who had himself devised this pseudonym. March 5, 1933 Born in Springfield, Ohio, he learned to play the piano by beobachtete- later he took a local hairdresser playing with his son lessons. He refined his technique at performances in Central Ohio with the Orchestra of the saxophonist Bobby Wood in the early 50's and then founded with trumpeter Clarence LaVell a band that received a firm commitment at a club in Dayton. By 1955, the demand for vocal group music was at its zenith. The Bobby Wood Orchestra was forced to adapt to enable them to find good paying gigs and, more importantly, to strengthen survival against stiff competition. The orchestra split apart and became a doo-wop quartet overnight. Tucker and childhood pal James Crosby sang tenor leads with Dave Johnson (tenor) and Clarence Lavell (bass). Yonnie Peoples joined later when the group recorded. For live engagements, the quartet billed themselves as the Cavaliers.

   

Some time during the spring of 1955, having signed a deal with ARC Records, the Cavaliers entered Syd Nathan's King label Cincinnati studios, ready and eager to record three songs: "Give Me Time," "Sallie Mae" and a tune remembered variously as "Castles In The Sky" or "Ivory Tower".For some reason, perhaps because the Cavaliers did not want to get themselves confused with the Cavaliers on Decca or Atlas labels, the group opted to change their name to the Dusters. The Cavaliers/Dusters waited well over a year before the ARC release. Some eight months prior, the group, perhaps out of impatience, opted to try and find a record company willing to get product onto the market fast. Touring brought the group to East St. Louis where they hitched up with The Ike Turner Band. During their sojourn in the city they met up with a guy named Hudson, owner and proprietor of Hudson Records. After the audition, Hudson took the group to the King Studios in Cincinnati where they had cut previously for ARC. The group, now billed as the Belvaderes, with Crosby and Lavell sharing leads and Tucker shifting more to piano accompaniment and writing arrangements, cut two songs, "Don't Leave Me To Cry" and "I Love You (Baby)." In 1958 James Crosby wrote the splendid "Darling Love" recorded by the Dusters and released The Same year by Glory  Records.




Songs :

  
                      Darling Love                      Don't Leave Me Here To Cry             

  
I Love You (Baby)               Give Me Time

  
Sallie Mae                            Teen Age Jamboree

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