Clockwise from left : Tonny Giannatasio, Victor Eusepi, Sal DiTroia, George Morton and Marty Monaco
The Markeys (1) (Long Island, New York)
aka The Lonely Ones (1)
Personnel :
George "Shadow" Morton (Lead)
Tonny Giannatasio
Victor Eusepi
Marty Monaco
Sal DiTroia
Discography :
The Markeys (1) Featuring Georgie Morton
1958 - Hot Rod / Yakkaty Yak (RCA 47-7256)
The Markeys (1) Featuring George Morton
1958 - A Time To Love / Make a Record, Man (RCA 47-7412)
The Lonely Ones (1)
1959 - I Want My Girl / My Wish (Sir 270 / Baton 270)
Biography :
George Francis Morton was born in Richmond, Virginia on 3 September
1941 and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York,
where he attended St Thomas Aquinas School. As George entered his
teens, where he seemed he was getting in too deep with the Bed-Stuy
neighbourhood's notorious street gangs, his parents moved the family out
to Long Island- a safer environment, or so they thought. In 1957 George
formed a vocal group, The Markeys, with friends Marty Monaco, Tonny
Giannatasio, Victor Eusepi and Sal DiTroia. Marty Monaco's mother had a
basic recording studio in her basement in nearby Levittown, where the
guys wrote, rehearsed and taped demos of their songs. The owner of a
local record store took a liking to the young quintet and helped arrange
for them to audition for RCA.
George "Shadow" Morton
Billed as The Markeys featurin Georgie Morton, the group made their
recording debut with "Hot Rod", released on RCA in the Summer of 1958
when George was 16. Long Island teenager Ellie Greenwich, behind whom
the guys harmonised at a few of local high school hop, issued her first
single around the same time, also on RCA. Before the year was over, RCA
had released the Markeys' second single, "A Time To Love" and two more
of George's songs had been recorded by Sal Mure for United Artists. For
the next Record - "I Want My Girl ", for The Sir Label in 1959, again
with George on lead vocals - he and his pals changed their name to the
Lonely Ones. After graduating from Bethpage High School in 1959, George
drifted aimlessly through a succession of short-lived jobs- bouncer, ice
cream seller, hairdresser, golf caddie.... George Francis "Shadow"
Morton will become an record producer and songwriter best known for his
influential work in the 1960s. In particular, he was noted for writing
and producing "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", "Leader of the Pack",
and other hits for girl group The Shangri-Las.
