Fifteen
year old Steve Currie formed the Del-Tones with three other Brewer,
Maine high schoolers in the fall of 1956. They Choose the name the
Del-Tones out of admiration for the Del-Vikings whose tunes they often
performed. Jim Winters, star of WABI radio and his own area record hops,
helped launch their career by booking the group all over eastern and
northern Maine.
Hallet, King, Currie, Richardson
They did TV with Curly O'Brian and Dick Curless and in 1957 played to
a capacity crowd at the Brewer Auditorium opening for Curless, who had
just won Top honors on the Arthur Godfrey Talent show. Jimmy Hayden
would sub for the sometimes absent Hallet and Robinson worked
occasionally with the Statics, but for the most patron of the Del-Tones
maintained a steady lineup. In 1959, the guys auditioned for Event
Records who offered to cut a record if the boys coughed up half the
cost. They Didn't and Event didn't.
1960 - You're Too Young / Forbidden Love (Jordan 117)
Biography :
The Sinceres was a mixture of Allentown boys and some boys from
Bethlehem Fronted by bass singer Jay Proctor. A boy named Billy Floyd
wrote a song called 'You're Too Young". There was a guy who owned a
paint company, and he decided he would like to see what he could do with
the group. He took The Group underfoot for a little bit, and he paid
for having a record recorded and stuff. Backed with "Forbidden Love" it
was issued on the Jordan logo in 1960. It sold about 100 copies. That
was the name of the paint company, Jordan Paint. Except for some local
play, the record was ignored, sold poorly.
Jay & the Techniques
George "Lucky" Lloyd arrived in Allentown from Jacksonville, Fl., at
the age of 19 to live with his grandfather. Lloyd was an aspiring singer
who made his first recording in 1959 with a group called the Joylarks and
a second single with the same Group as the Floridians. In Allentown, he
met young Jay Proctor and started a new group, Jay & the
Techniques.
1964 - I Took A Long Time / Ma Ma Marie (Delsey 302)
Biography :
John Bersami, Gus Mellace, Ronny Pro and Ron Santora were practicing
and were always looking for a lead. They met Jack Lodato at the Corner
of Porter and Hutchinson Street. Jack Lodato made his bones chirping
with the Velchords which consisted of Himself, The Bruni Twins (Future
Records), John DePalma (Later in The Prmiers on Mink), Junior Gigliotti
and Bobby Cramatola (Later in the Fantasys).
Bersani,
Lodato (Top), Santora, Mellace
(Bottom)
With Jack Lodato, The Del-Airs returned to rehearsal, learning
such ditties as "Two people in the World", "Tears On My Pillow",
"Teardrops", Long lonely night". They became so accomplished, Bruce
Reed, their Manager, landed them all types of guestings even though they
had no recordings. Joe Rocco (Mellace), Gus's older brother, a music
veteran from the Day Brothers, arranged a get-together with Morris
Ballen, Owner-operator of M.B.S record at Broad & Walmut in center
city. They Cut "While Walkin'" and "Lost My Job" on M.B.S 01.
They appears on television and radio and in 1964, they signed a
contract recording with Delsey Records and cut "I took A Long Time" and
"Ma Ma Marie".
Songs :
While Walkin' / Lost My Job I Took A Long Time / Ma Ma Marie
1955 - Somewhere, Sometime, Someday / Too Bad (Mercury 70557)
1955 - False Alarm / Honeybun Cha Cha (Wing 90013)
Biography :
The Honeytones are a female quartet, in 1955 they closed a successful engagement at Harlem's Baby Grand.
The group includes Shirley Kee, 20, and the Givens sisters —
Jacqueline, 18, Gloria, 19, and Grace, 21, all of whom attend high
school in Jersey City, N. J., and do their homework backstage between
acts.
They have been in show business since winning a I Mack Amateur Hour
show in 1951. The Honeytones cut two singles for Mercury and Wing. Wing
Records was a record label subsidiary of Mercury, founded in 1955.
The Honeytones perform at the Apollo Theater with such greats as Hal Jackson, the Solitaires and the Cadillacs .
1964 - Chapel Of Love / Ain't That Nice (Red Bird 10-001)
1964 - People Say / Girls Can Tell (Red Bird 10-006)
1964 - You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked At Me / No True Love (Red Bird 10-012)
1964 - Little Bell / Another Boy Like Mine (Red Bird 10-017)
1965 - Iko Iko / I'm Gonna Get You Yet (Red Bird 10-024)
1965 - Iko Iko / Gee Baby Gee (Red Bird 10-024)
1965 - Gee, The Moon Is Shining Bright / I'm Gonna Get You Yet (Red Bird 10-032)
1965 - That's Where It's At / Two-Way-Poc-A-Way (ABC Paramount 10692)
1965 - I'm Not The Kind Of Girl (To Marry) / What Goes Up, Must Come Down (ABC Paramount 10715)
1965 - A-B-C Song / That's What The Kids Said (ABC Paramount 10755)
1966 - Love Ain't So Bad (After All) / Daddy Said No (ABC Paramount 10855)
Unreleased:
1964 - Wrong Direction (Red Bird) [released in 1979 on the Charly LP CRM 2004]
Albums:
1964 - The Dixie Cups "Chapel Of Love" (Red Bird LP 20-100)
Chapel
Of Love / Gee, The Moon Is Shining Bright / I'm Gonna Get You Yet /
Ain't That Nice / Thank You Mama Thank You Papa / Another Boy Like Mine /
/Gee Baby Gee / Iko Iko /Girls Can Tell / All Grown Up /People Say
Iko
Iko / Chapel Of Love / Gee The Moon Is Shining Bright / I'm Gonna Get
You Yet / Ain't That Nice / Thank You Mama, Thank You Papa / Gee Baby
Gee / Another Boy Like Mine / Girls Can Tell / All Grown Up / People Say
What
Goes Up, Must Come Down / Two-Way-Poc-A-Way / That's Where It's At /
Sugar That I Need / I'm Not The Kind Of Girl (To Marry) / I've Got To
Get That Boy / Danny Boy / Chances Are / Here It Comes Again / I'll
Never Let The Well Run Dry / Promises, Promises
Biography:
The
Dixie Cups came from New Orleans and had one giant hit along with
several other records before slipping into rock history. The three girls
who comprised the group were Barbara Ann Hawkins [born 1943], her
sister Rosa Lee Hawkins [born 1944] and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson
[born 1945]
. All were from New Orleans. Originally known as Little Miss and the
Muffets, the girls were discovered at a talent contest. New Orleans
record producer/singer Joe Jones, who had a top ten hit of his own in
1960 with You Talk Too Much, liked their act and brought the girls to
the Brill Building in New York.
In 1964 they began to rehearse a song that had been written by Jeff
Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector titled Chapel Of Love. Spector
produced a version of the same song by one of his groups, the Crystals,
that went unissued. He also produced a version by another one of his
groups, the Ronettes, which coincidentally was also comprised of two
sisters and their cousin.
With Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich
Although it appeared to everyone involved that Chapel Of Love had
"hit" written all over it, Spector was somewhat apprehensive about
releasing the song. Barry and Greenwich arranged a rehearsal for the
girls from New Orleans at Red Bird Records, a new label that was owned
by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
The group was renamed the Dixie Cups, and their version of Chapel Of
Love was released in 1964 on Red Bird. It became a huge international
hit, a million seller, and a solid number one record in the United
States. It also was a huge boost to Red Bird, which a short time later
would become the home of another enormously successful girl group from
New York City, the Shangri-Las. Spector later issued the Ronettes'
version of Chapel Of Love on an album.
The Dixie Cups added two more top forty hits in 1964, People Say and
You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked At Me. When there was a pause in
one of their recording sessions, the girls began a chanting song that
they had learned in New Orleans called Iko Iko.
It was a call-and-respond type of chant with some percussion in the
background, and when they recorded it, it became their final top forty
record, in the Spring of 1965. Iko Iko was covered by a British female
band called the Belle Stars in the 80's, and when this version was used
in the movie Rain Man it made a return to the top forty in 1989.
The Dixie Cups' run on the charts didn't last very long, but their
brief run was enough to make them one of the memorable girl groups of
the Sixties.
Movies:
Chapel Of Love
Iko Iko
Songs:
Chapel Of Love / Ain't That Nice People Say Girls Can Tell
You Should Have Seen The Way He Looked At Me No True Love Little Bell
Another Boy Like Mine Iko Iko Gee Baby Gee
I'm Gonna Get You Yet That's Where It's At Gee, The Moon Is Shining Bright
Two-Way-Poc-A-Way I'm Not The Kind Of Girl (To Marry) A-B-C Song
What Goes Up, Must Come Down That's What The Kids Said Love Ain't So Bad (After All)
Daddy Said No Thank You Mama, Thank You Papa Sugar That I Need
I've Got To Get That Boy Danny Boy Chances Are
Here It Comes Again I'll Never Let The Well Run Dry Promises, Promises
