Top : John Thomas Steele and Ralph Martin - Bottom : Tony Middleton, Joe Martin and Richie Davis
The Willows (1)(Harlem, New York)
aka The Five Willows
Personnel :
Tony Middleton（Lead）
Richie Davis（First Tenor）
Ralph Martin（First Tenor）
Joe Martin（Baritone）
John Thomas “Scooter" Steele（Bass）
Discography :
The first release for Allen under the name of The Five Willows was the street song "My Dear, Dearest Darling", introducing for the first time the famous bass intro by John Thomas “Scooter" Steele to the public. This gimmick was carefully planned to be their trademark. later reviewed in "Little Darlin'" and "Do You Love Me". Billboard magazine called this release in June “kinda weird and somewhat hypnotic", and so you can hear the group sometimes out of key, while the flipside "Rock Little Francis" (the obligary iump) sounds amateurish, but nevertheless interesting. Tony was also featured as lead on "The White Cliffs Of Dover". While he shared the vocals with Richie on "Dolores" - the latter coupled with "All Night Long" on their second Allen release in September. At the end of 1953, their third Allen record was out, but again no chart entries were noted for "With These Hands" (lead by Richie). When Pete Durain decided to part business with Mr. Allen. The Willows went with him and recorded their next release for Pee Dee Records in early 1954, entitled "Love Bells" b/w "Please Baby". Pete Durain himself went out of business in 19510, but the group was able to record four sides for Herald in the same style, but again without success.
When Tony met Morty Craft in 1955, who had just left his partners at London Records to form his own Melba label, a chance to record again was in sight. TheWillows (as they were known now, just dropping the “Five") offered him a ballad entitled CHURCH BELLS MAY RING. which was written by Tony from an idea of his wife Betty. When first released as "Church Bells May Ring" (mislabeled on early copies), it had transformed into a wonderful rocking tune with a now famous bass bridge (“Hello hello again,my friend, I'm hopin‘ that we'll meet again"). close harmony-and as a gimmick chimes (played by the still unknown Neil Sedaka from a suggestion by Morty Craft) plus a shuffle rhythm. Hitting the R&B charts on April 18,1956, the song reached no. 11 and stayed for 2 weeks, but it had more success before on the pop charts, first appearing at no. 74: on March 28 then climbing to the middle of the Top 100 listing. Soon cover versions by The Cadets. Sunny Gale and The Diamonds followed, and The Diamonds' version nearly outsold The Willows original on all main markets.
The same story happened again, and so the guys didn‘t get paid more then S 200 for their million seller, even after they took Morty Craft to court, where he declared bankruptcy then. Ironically. the bass bridge at the hit song was sung by Richard “Rico» Simon, a neighborhood friend just substituted for “Scootem" Steele for that session only. Two more records on Melba followed in late 1956, early 1957, but no follow-up gave The Willows the succes the sure had exspected. Especially "Little Darlin‘ " was in the same vain as "Church Bells May Ring" . While "My Angel" was one of the earliest writing affords of Neil Sedaka and his school pal Howard Greenfield. All Melba recordings featured the bass riffing of Freddie Donovan. because “Scootem" permanently missed rehearsals, and Tony had to let him go.
When they left Melba through the help of attorney Aber Greenberg, who had sued Morty Craft for the missing royalties and got their release. they turned the contract over to Carl Edelson, who had his office of Club Records in the same building (1550 Broadway) as their attorney (and Melba Records, too). Four songs were recorded at a September 19,1556 session, but only two were released (see Relic LP 51122) in November on Club,while “Frantically» stays in the can (Edelson later re-released the Club record on his Michelle label in 1963). Eldorado Records, owned by Buchanan and Goodman(of “Flying Saucers» fame) was their next stop in early 1857 (also located 1550 Broadway). and a big band style recording was released in April - "First Taste Of Love" b/w "Only My Heart". They eventually went to Mercury, recording two songs with piano backing by Fats Domino. which were their best tracks according to Richie, Joe and Ralph.
