1961 - (I'll Remember) One And All / No Ones Cares For Me (Swan 4074)
The Impacts (3)
1964 - Take My Love / Where Are You Going (PEH 7345)
Biography :
In 1958, the thought that there could one day be a "Rock 'N' Roll
Hall Of Fame" couldn't be anything but a teenage joke. Except for Elvis
Presley and a handful of others, R&R was played by kids, for kids,
and no one expected it to be more than that. Elvis, Little Richard,
Chuck Berry were great but existed in another world - on the radio or
TV. The way youngsters experienced R&R was through the local teen
combo. Every town or high school or parish had its band. Some were
better than others, some could be local stars for awhile after they'd
performed at a dance or hop - but for the most part they were just kids
from the neighborhood, whose celebrity quickly faded.
If you lived in Niagara Falls in the late 1950s the Vel-Tones were
that group. Though their story is a little different. They may not be
well-remembered now but they were able to have records released on two
national labels and have a career that carried them through the glory
days of R&R. Another thing that was unusual was their interracial
makeup which is reflected in their eclectic mix of R&R, R&B,
DooWop and Rockabilly sounds. Calvin 'Cal' Briggs, Ernie Vendetti, Neal
Davis and Emilio Giondomenico recorded two sides in 1958 that were
released on the Coy label. Coy was a label in name only - actually put
out by Fine Records of Rochester, a legendary name itself to many
collectors. Playboy is a greasy teen ballad that is exactly the type of
lowrider doowop that Frank Zappa loved to parody, while Cal's Tune is a
rocker.
(L to R) Emilio Giondomenico, Ernie Vendetti, Calvin Briggs & Neal Davis
In
1959 these were leased to Kapp Records but the versions released by
Kapp are completely different - Cal's Tune had its guitar and piano
solos replaced with an sax solo, and both are more tame. The original
version of Cal's Tune is highly-regarded by Rockabilly fanatics, to the
point that it's recently been reproduced on vinyl. Following this they
returned in 1961 as The Firesiders on Swan Records with two
genre-bending sides that widen their palette to include influences of
country pop and even pre-soul! The rest of their story is mostly
unknown, except that they managed to change styles again and issue one
more record. Under another name, of course. As The Impacts (on PEH
Records) they achieve a typical mid-Sixties garage sound. They will
never be in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame but if you were there a the
right time in the right place, they may have been your Rock 'N' Roll.
