Personnel :
Oliver "Sunny" Stevenson (Lead)
Jay Payton (Tenor)
Hank Swarn (Baritone)
Billy Ray Williams (Bass)
Ralph Helms (High Tenor)
Discography :
Biography :
The Rovers formed in 1954, and They recorded for Music City as both the rovers and The Five Rovers. Payton was about ten years older than the others.
By the middle of 1954, they'd added high tenor Ralph Helms to the group. Another student at Grant Union, he was one of those guys who just hung around until one day you noticed he was part of the group. Most of the songs that the Rovers practiced were either by the Clovers or tunes that they'd written themselves. All the tunes that they ended up recording were original songs.
"Ichi-Bon Tami Dachi" means number one girlfriends. Payton wrote the song based on his time in the service in Japan. Just after recording their one disc as the Rovers for Music city, it was leased out to Capitol records for greater distribution as sales began to increase.
Songs :
The Rovers