Frank Williams (Lead)
James Sutton
Howard Bell
Frank Williams, James Sutton, Howard Bell and Jay Hooker were so proud to be from Toledo in the Nord of Ohio that they called themselves The Toledos. The group signed for the blues label New Song, label founded by Porter Roberts in the late 1940s. New Song was based in Toledo, Ohio, about ninety miles south of Detroit. Renamed the Highlighters By Porter, the group recorded a couple of single that passed without pain or glory : "Flang Dang Do" b/w "The Bull" in 1958 and "Well" b/w "Las Vegas Drive" in 1962. By the way, they were instrumentally accompanied by Fred Harris' Red Top Trio composed by Fred Harris (Organ), Big Joe Burrell (sax) and Louis "Swing " Lee (drums). Both disks came out under two different names, The Highlighters with Fred Harris' Red Tops Organ Trio and Fred Harris' Red Tops Organ Trio vocal by Highlighters.
After their first single on New Song, The Highlighters backed Chuck Dockery on "Baby Let's Dance" and "I Just Love You" (New Song 117/118). Chuck Dockery is native of northern Ohio his real name was Charle. Dockery was employed as an insurance salesman and as a bassist for some country artists. Dockery began a solo career when he was presented with the opportunity to record on the New Song blues label of his countryman Porter Roberts. He turned New Song into a rocker label thanks to songs like "Baby let's dance" (1958) or "Rock while we ride" (1960), but with no success he left the music almost totally.
