1955 - Zindy Lou / Tears On My Pillow (Specialty 555)
1956 - Chop Chop / Pretty Little Girl (Specialty 574)
Unreleased :
1956 - The Chimes Ring Out (Specialty)
Tony Allen & The Chimes (3)
1956 - Especially / Check Yourself, Baby (Specialty 570)
Tony Allen & The Champs (1)
1955 - Nite Owl / I (Specialty 560)
The Wonders (4)
1958 - Be My Love Be My Love / Tell Me (Forward 601)
Tony Allen & The Wonders (4)
1958 - Be My Love, Be My Love / Tell Me (Tampa 157)
1959 - Loving You / Lookin' For My Baby (Jamie 1119)
Bobby Starr (Tony Allen & The Wonders (4))
1959 - Sweet Man / Please Give Me A Chance (Radio 120)
Tony Allen & The Wanderers (3)
1961 - Everybody's Somebody's Fool / If Love Was Money (Kent 356)
Biography :
In August 1955, The Chimes from South Central, Los Angeles, under
band leader Horace "Pookie" Whooten signed a contract with Specialty
Records. The group consists of Horace "Pookie" Wooten (Tenor), David
Cobb (Second Tenor), Charles Jackson (Tenor), Booker Jones (Baritone)
and Talbert Walton (Bass) . In September, they released "Zindy Lou" and
"Tears on My Pillow" their first single, the A-side with influences of
African rhythm and a hypnotic singing in Los Angeles and Philadelphia,
the local charts reached, but without nationwide reactions.
Tony Allen
Robert Alexander "Bumps" Blackwell songwriter and arranger at
Specialty Records make session With Tony Allen, held at Master recorders
in Hollywood on 12 August 1955 with The Chimes singing behind him even
though they were billed on the Record as The Champs. The Chimes backed
everybody on Specialty. They were properly named on Allen's sequel
Single Especially. The back of Especially was improvised in the studio
based on an idea by Charles Jackson "Check Yourself, Baby". The
collaboration as a session musician with Allen was abruptly terminated
by its breach with Specialty. Then the band released again in April 1956
under their own name "Pretty Little Girl" and "Chop Chop".
David Cobb & Horace "Pookie" Wooten
The
record career of the Chimes was already finished in 1956, but the
connection to Tony Allen was maintained: So supported him Horace
"Pookie" Wooten, Charles Jackson & David Cobb as "The Wonders" and
"The Wanderers" repeatedly in various publications. Horace "Pookie"
Wooten, Charles Jackson & David Cobb would go on to form The Lions
in 1960, and later reformed as The Resonics.
