Jess Du Boy & The Hitch-Hikers (Richmond, Virginia)

Personnel :

Jess Du Boy (Lead)

John Kelly

Kay Sanderson

Dick McCray

Discography :

Jess Du Boy & The Hitch-Hikers
1957 - Beautiful Love / Angels Don't Live On Earth (ABC 9848)

Jess DuBoy
1959 - Echos / Puppy Love (Colonial 7002)
1960 - Achin' Breakin' Heart / The Only One I Love (Brooke 121)
1964 - Silhouettes / That's When Your Heartaches Begin (Brunswick 55270)

Biography :

In 1957, Jess Du Boy called up WRVA announcer Stutz, a successful songwriter who had scored a No. 1 pop hit with “Little Things Mean a Lot” by Kitty Kallen, and boldly asked if he would listen to his doo-wop vocal group, Jess Du Boy and the Hitch-Hikers. Stutz ended up hiring Duboy's band to make demos of his new song copyrights. One of these, “Beautiful Love,” eventually was released on the national ABC-Paramount label in 1957 and scored as a big regional hit.  Jess and the Hitch-Hikers embarked on an unusual tour to support the disc, thumbing to gigs across America.

In 1959 he was the lead singer of in the the Rock-A-Teens, a Richmond, Virginia band. They had a couple of hits, and one of them, “Woo Hoo,” has been covered countless times over the years, appearing in numerous films and advertisements.  Though it’s considered an instrumental, the song features vocals (“woo hoo, woo hoo hoo…”) by Jess Du Boy.  He and the Rock-A-Teens recorded the song in Don McGraw’s studio, in Roanoke County.  The song was put out in 1959 (first on McGraw’s label, Doran, but later by Roulette).  The song peaked at #16 on the Billboard pop charts.

Jess recorded some single on Colonial, Brooke and Brunswick. He served as a DJ on WEZL while in college. He then went to WEET, where he developed what is thought by broadcasters to be the first or among the first station identification jingles in the country. Mr. Duboy was program manager and the afternoon DJ at WLEE when he approached J. Sargeant Reynolds, who owned some media, to purchase a radio station for Mr. Duboy to run.
http://www.richmond.com/news/local/article_0d1c4f91-2935-555d-bd25-05d51a3a027a.html

Songs :

Jess Du Boy & The Hitch-Hikers

  
       Beautiful Love                            Angels Don't Live On Earth


Jess DuBoy

  
Puppy Love                             Silhouettes


When Your Heartaches Begin

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