The group was formed by five young men from Coatesville when they
were students at Scott High School – Tommy Bryant, Arnold Runner, Curtis
Allen, Nathan Alston and James Toland. They formed the doo wop group
because they used to practice music on the streets of Coatesville for
fun. The band was originally going by the name, Little Tommy & the
Germs, but then they ended up using the Elgins moniker, named after the
watches that were manufactured in Elgin, Illinois. Alston and Allen were
the guitarists for the band, while Toland, Bryant and Runner performed
vocals.
Little
Tommy and the Elgins played at many college campuses in Pennsylvania,
such as Muhlenberg College and Shippensburg University. Many of the
bandstands were at fire stations, so they would play there, and they
also played at some venues in New Jersey. One the band’s biggest
concerts was at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City in the summer of 1962,
and many of their fans from Coatesville made the trip out to the shore
to see them play. The concert was also broadcast in black and white on
Grady and Hurst’s “Summertime on the Pier” television show.
Little Tommy and the Elgins’ two most well-known hit songs are “I
Walk On” and “Never Love Again.” The band had record deals with three
companies for these songs: Elmar, ABC-Paramount and Sparton. Their first
band manager under Elmar Records was a man named Billy Jackson, from
Philadelphia, who was a founding member of another doo wop band called
The Re-Vels. The Same years, Nate Alston composed “Jump & Shout“
(Part I & II) released as the Elgins on Nite and as T. B. & the
Germs…
