The Coronets (1) (Cleveland)
Personnel :
Charles Carruthers (Lead)
Lester Russaw (First Tenor)
Sam Griggs (Second Tenor)
George Lewis (Baritone)
William Griggs (Bass)
Discography :
Biography :
The Coronets were Cleveland second most famous R&B vocal group behind the Moonglows. The group started around 1952 when they were students at Edison High School. The group included Sammy Griggs, brother Bill Griggs, Lester Russaw, and George Lewis. Not long after they started performing, Charles Carruthers joined as primary lead singer. The group made a couple demos to WJW DJ Alan Freed and he was able to get them signed to Chess records, at least a year before the Moonglows. The group wrote "Nadine" and that was the A side of their first 45 on Chess, and it was a big R&B hit. When the record was released, Alan Freed had put his name as writer, not the first and last time that happened. They were backed by the Sax Mallard Combo when they recorded at Chess.
The group returned to Chess and cut some more songs, two of them were released on a second., less successful 45. Meanwhile the success of "Nadine" got them shows at chitlin circuit stops in the Great Lakes and Midwest. Russaw and Carruthers left and the group replaced them with Bobby Ward. By 1955, Chess was no loger interested in them, and Freed and long given them up as both Chess and Freed picked the Moonglows to promote. The Coronets recorded a bunch of new songs locally (believed to have been done at Schneider), and were signed on to Sterling records, a short lived label run by Shelly Haims and Irving Lief. On the recordings, they were backed by the Cleveland R&B group the Bill Reese Quintet, who also recorded on their own for Sterling. Other names show up on the Sterling 45, LaMotta and Schroeder.
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