DOO-WOP : EMPIRES (4) - STAGEHANDS - SQUIRES (8)

The Empires (4) (Brooklyn, New York)

aka The Stagehands aka The Squires (8) aka The Two Chaps

Personnel :

David (Jay) Black

Marty Sanders

Eddie Robbins

Gary Kessler

Phil Horowitz

Discography :

The Two Chaps

1960 - Forgive Me / No More (Atlantic 1195)

The Empires (4)

1962 - Time And A Place / Punch Your Nose (Epic 9527)

Linda Lawrence bb The Empires (4)

1963 - At This Stage Of The Game / A Tear For Tommy (Epic 9607)

The StageHands

1964 - Hello Dolly / You Started It (T.A. 101)

The Squires (8)

1964 - Joyce / Can't Believe That You've Grown Up (Congress 223)

Biography :

David (Jay) Black and Marty Sanders were next door neighbors who started to sing together in High School. A friend of theirs took them to Nat Garrick who decided to manage them and took them to Ivy Records as The Two Chaps. Atlantic Records heard the master of "Forgive Me" on Ivy and purchased it. The record didn't do much and that was the brief career of The Two Chaps. Subsequently, Marty formed another group called The Interludes who later changed their name to The Empires when they started recording for Epic.

The Empires (4) aka The Stagehands aka The Squires (8)

The Two Chaps David Black & Marty Sanders The Empires

The group consisted of Marty, Eddie Robbins, Leo Rose (lead) , Phil Horowitz and Gary Kessler. Right after their demo session, Leo dropped out of the group and Marty called in Jay Black. The Empires cut one record entitled "Time And A Place" b/w "Punch Your Nose". Jay and Marty wrote "Time And A Place" and Jay sang lead. "Punch Your Nose" was written by Marty and he sang lead. This too, was a short lived group.

Jay & The Americans

After this release, Jay and Marty left to join the already successful Jay & The Americans. The Other Members with Richie Kaufman continued as the Stagehands for T.A. and as the Squires for Congress Records.

Songs :

The Two Chaps