The Diamonds (2) (Toronto, Canada)
(By Hans-Joachim)


Members :

Dave Somerville (Lead) (replaced by Jim Malone 1961)

Ted Kowalski  (Tenor) (replaced by Evan Fisher 1958)

Phil Levitt (Baritone) (replaced by Mike Douglas 1957)

Bill Reed (Bass) (replaced by John Felten 1958)

Discography :


Singles

1955 - Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots / Nip Sip (Coral 61502)
1955 - Be My Lovin' Baby / Smooch Me (Coral 61577)
1956 - Why Do Fools Fall In Love / You Baby You (Mercury 70790)
1956 - Church Bells May Ring / Little Girl Of Mine (Mercury 70835)
1956 - Love, Love, Love / Ev'ry Night About This Time (Mercury 70889)
1956 - Ka-Ding-Dong / Soft Summer Breeze (Mercury 70934)
1956 - My Judge And Jury / Put Your House In Order (Mercury 70983)
1956 - A Thousand Miles Away / Ev'ry Minute Of The Day (Mercury 71021)
1957 - Little Darlin' / Faithful And True (Mercury 71060)
1957 - Words Of Love / Don't Say Goodbye (Mercury 71128)
1957 - Zip Zip / Oh, How I Wish (Mercury 71165)
1957 - Silhouettes / Daddy Cool Mercury 71197)
1957 - The Stroll / Land Of Beauty (Mercury 71242)
1957 - Straight Skirts / Patsy (Mercury 45223) (Canada)
1958 - High Sign / Chick-Lets (Don't Let Me Down) (Mercury 71291)
1958 - Kathy-O / Happy Years (Mercury 71330)
1958 - Kathy-O / Where Merry Go (n/a)
1958 - Happy Years / Honey (Mercury 71782)
1958 - Walking Along / Eternal Lovers (Mercury 71366)
1959 - She Say (Oom Dooby Doom) / From The Bottom Of My Heart (Mercury 71404)
1959 - Mothers Love / Gretchen (Mercury 71449)
1959 - Holding Your Hand / Sneacky Alligator (Mercury 71468)
1959 - Young In Years / Twenty Second Day (Mercury 71505)
1959 - Oh Carol / Believe Me (Mercury 45325) (Canada)
1959 - Walkin' The Stroll / Batman, Wolfman, Frankenstein Or Dracula (Mercury 71534)
1960 - Tell The Truth / Real True Love (Mercury 71586)
1960 - Passion Flower / San Antonio Rose (Mercury 45349) (Canada)
1960 - Slave Girl / Pencil Song (Mercury 71633)
1960 - You'd Be Mine / The Crumble (Mercury 71734)
1961 - I Sho Lawd Will / You Short Changed Me (Mercury 71782)
1961 - Munch / Woomai (Mercury 71818)
1961 - One Summer Night / It's A Doggone Shame (Mercury 71831)
1962 - The Horizental Lieutenant / Vanishing American (Mercury 71956)
1963 - Melody Of Love / The Slide (Nathaniel)

Albums

1957 - 'Til My Baby Comes Home / Shoo Ya Blues / Oh, How I Wish / One And Only / Honey / Girl Of Mine / /Honey Bird / For You Alone / My Dog Likes Your Dog / Zip Zip / Cool, Cool Baby / You Are The Limit (Mercury LP 20309)

1958 - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away ) / Baby Won't You Please Come Home / The Best Things In Life Are Free / Ain't Misbehavin' (I'm Savin' My Love For You) / Until The Real Things Comes Along / I'll Always Be In Love With You / Will You Still Be Mine / Tenderly / For All We Know / One For My Baby (And One More For The Raod) / Lulu's Back In Town / You'll Never Walk Alone (Mercury LP 20368)

1958 - The Stroll / You Baby You / Ev’ry Night About This Time / Ka-Ding-Dong / A Thosand Miles Away / Ev’ry Minute Of The Day / Little Darlin’ / Faithful And True / Straight Skirts / Silhouettes / Passion Flower / Daddy Cool (Mercury-Wing LP 12114)

1959 - Cool Water / San Antonio Rose / Beautiful Brown Eyes / High Noon / Wagon Wheel / Gold Mine In The Sky / My Little Buckaroo / Cattle Call / Empty Saddles / Streets Of Laredo / Train Of The Lonesome Pine / Home On The Range (Mercury LP 20480)



Biography :

The Diamonds were a clean-cut white vocal group that had sixteen hits between 1956 and 1961, ten which were covers of songs sung by black R&B artists. The original group, formed in 1953, consisted of Dave Somerville, Phil Levitt, Ted Kowalski, and Bill Reed. In the beginning the group practiced several types of vocal styles, including four part "barber style" harmony. The Diamonds began their singing in local clubs, school functions, church socials, and anywhere they could find an audience.

They came to the attention of Coral Records, a subsidiary of Decca Records, where they covered two records, Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots (a hit for the Cheers) b/w "Nip Sip" (a Clovers song) during the summer of 1955. Neither sold well enough to convince Coral to retain them. However, Bill Randle, an influential Cleveland deejay, liked them enough to mention their name to an executive at Mercury Records. The Diamonds signed with one of the labels that developed the market for "covers."
The Diamonds decision to cover rhythm and blues artist was the result of economic reality: cover records sold very well in markets where the original versions wouldn't be acceptable. Among their hits in 1956 were "Why Do Fools Fall In Love," "Church Bells May Ring," "Love, Love, Love" and "Ka-King-Dong," originally recorded by The Teenagers, The Willows, The Clovers, and The G-Clefs, respectively.

     
Their biggest hit was a cover of The Gladiola's "Little Darlin'." The Gladiolas version came out in the first week in February, 1957. In less then two weeks the Diamonds version was out. Legend has it that prior to the recording session the group rehearsed the song all night in their hotel room, becoming so fed up that they exaggerated the bass and falsetto parts in an attempt to turn the song into a satire of itself. This is only partly true. Maurice Williams, The Gladiola's lead singer, invented all the vocal trills and hiccups. However, the spoken bridge was not performed by The Gladiolas.

The Diamonds continued covering other artists and their version of "Words of Love" brought the song's writer Buddy Holly his first significant royalties. By late 1957, the music industry began to accept as true that what had been known by teenagers for two years: original rock and roll couldn't be copied just by anyone. Rock and Roll was a form of expression that relied as much on delivery as on lyrics and musical notation. Rock and Roll singers learned this lesson for themselves as they many switched from small companies to major labels. Often their first session's attempted to record their earlier hits by copying the original style.

Seeing the future The Diamonds sought an original song to record. In the late spring of 1957, Chuck Willis' "C.C. Ryder" became the first of a string of rhythm and blues songs based on a dance named the Stroll. Clyde Otis, a songwriter who had with Nancy Lee written a song based on the new dance, approached the Diamonds. "The Stroll" became a huge hit partly as a result as a result of repeated airings on American Bandstand. "The Stroll" was perfect for television because it was exuberant and photogenic.
The groups popularity waned after "The Stroll." By 1959, after "She Say (Oom Dooby Doom), the group's popularity was over as they no longer appealed to the teenagers. During the next two years the Diamonds became a popular attraction on the dinner club circuit in Las Vegas, New York, and Chicago. They had a minor hit in 1961 with a version of the Danleers 1958 hit, "One Summer Night." Soon thereafter, the group disbanded.

   
The Diamonds became inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.

http://www.min7th.com/diamonds
http://www.doowopy.de/old/02page/D/eDiamonds.html
http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/diamonds.htm
http://www.vocalgroup.org/inductees/the_diamonds.html

Videos :

CD :

The Versalettes (Chigago)
aka The Trinkets (2)

Personnel :

Viola Floyd

Vera Regulus Wallace

Kathleen Spates Robinson

Theresa Legg

Helen Greenfield

Discography :

The Versalettes
1963 - Shining Armor  / True Love Is A Treasure (Witch 116)
1964 - Don Juan In Town / Don Juan In Town (Witch 120)

The Trinkets (2)
1964 - The Fisherman  / Nobody But You (Cortland 111)

Biography :

The Versalettes were an exciting Chicago female group of the mid-'60s whose records never amounted to anything. Forming at Marshall High School in 1961, Theresa Legg, Kathleen Spates, Vera Rugulus, and Viola Floyd built a reputation doing talent shows and community functions. Personnel at Cortland/Witch Records caught wind of the Versalettes' buzz and signed them in 1963, while they were still in high school.

Donald Jenkins worked with them and imprinted his doo wop sound on their recordings, which, supposedly, they hated. At the urging of their manager, Bobby Mason, they added Helen Greenfield before cutting their first single, "Shining Armor" b/w "True Love Is a Treasure," in 1963 on Bill Erman's Witch label; the Blenders ("Daughter") recorded the B-side a year earlier.

Disc jockeys Lucky Cordell and Herb Kent gave it perfunctory hometown spins; for this favor, the Versalettes did free record hops for them. Around this same time, Erman released "The Fisherman" b/w "Nobody but You" on his Cortland imprint and credited it to the Trinkets, who were really the Versalettes. Again, sales were virtually nonexistent.

A third single, "Don Juan in Town," a dated doo wop, floundered as well; the Witch recordings never captured the group's essence. The song was an answer to "Don Juan," which was recorded by Donald Jenkins and Ronnie Strong as the Starr Brothers. Cortland also issued the song by the Ideals on the B-side of "Gorilla." Jenkins (Delighters) got them ready to record, but Bob Catron, the A&R man, got the production credits. Cortland/Witch stopped making records in 1964, and the original Versalettes took the opportunity to axe Greenfield, whom they considered a wayward outsider anyway. After graduating from high school in 1965, they continued the community gigs but didn't record again for awhile.

A final single surfaced in 1968 on Okeh Records. The nondescript sides "So Glad Your Love Don't Change" b/w "Love Made to Order" didn't have a chance. The group never even knew Okeh released the single until the '90s because nobody bothered to tell them; Okeh credited it to the Little Foxes. Bill Erman is reclusive about his Cortland/Witch recordings, which is why they aren't found compiled on any albums, cassettes, or discs. ~ Andrew Hamilton

Songs :
(updated by Hans-Joachim)  

The Versalettes

   
Don Juan In Town                           Shining Armor

   
Shining Armor                   True Love Is A Treasure

The Trinkets (2)

   
Nobody But You                                    The Fisherman

...

The Squires (8) (Brooklyn, New York)
aka The Stagehands aka   The Empires (4)

Personnel :

Richie Kaufman

Eddie Robbins

Gary Kessler

Phil Horowitz

Discography :

The Two Chaps
1960 - Forgive Me / No More (Atlantic 1195)

The Empires (4)
1962 - Time And A Place / Punch Your Nose  (Epic 9527)

Linda Lawrence bb The Empires (4)
1963 - At This Stage Of The Game / A Tear For Tommy (Epic 9607)

The StageHands
1964 - Hello Dolly / You Started It (T.A. 101)

The Squires (8)
1964 - Joyce / Can't Believe That You've Grown Up (Congress 223)

Biography :

David (Jay) Black and Marty Sanders were next door neighbors who started to sing together in High School. A friend of theirs took them to Nat Garrick who decided to manage them and took them to Ivy Records as The Two Chaps. Atlantic Records heard the master of "Forgive Me" on Ivy and purchased it. The record didn't do much and that was the brief career of The Two Chaps. Subsequently, Marty formed another group called The Interludes who later changed their name to The Empires when they started recording for Epic.

   
The Two Chaps David Black & Marty Sanders                                                    The Empires                                                   

The group consisted of Marty, Eddie Robbins, Leo Rose (lead) , Phil Horowitz and Gary Kessler. Right after their demo session, Leo dropped out of the group and Marty called in Jay Black. The Empires cut one record entitled "Time And A Place" b/w "Punch Your Nose". Jay and Marty wrote "Time And A Place" and Jay sang lead. "Punch Your Nose" was written by Marty and he sang lead. This too, was a short lived group.

Jay & The Americans

After this release, Jay and Marty left to join the already successful Jay & The Americans. The Other Members with Richie Kaufman continued as the Stagehands for T.A. and as the Squires for Congress Records.

Songs :

The Two Chaps

  
Forgive Me                                         No More

The Empires (4)

  
Time And A place                          Punch Your Nose

Linda Lawrence bb The Empires (4)

  
At This Stage Of The Game                    A Tear For Tommy
 

The StageHands

  
Hello Dolly                                   You Started It

The Squires (8)

  
Joyce                                  Can't Believe That You've Grown Up

..

 The Passions (1) (Brooklyn, New York)

Personnel :

Jimmy Gallagher (Lead)

Tony Armato (First Tenor)

Albee Gallone (Second Tenor)

Vinnie Aceierno (Baritone)

Discography :

1958 - Tango Of Love / Nervous About Love (Dore 505)
1959 - Just To Be With You / Oh Melancholy Me (Audicon 102)
1960 - I Only Want You / This Is My Love (Audicon 105)
1960 - Gloria / Jungle Drums (Audicon 106)
1960 - Beautiful Dreamer / One Look At You Is All It Look (Audicon 108)
1960 - Made For Lovers / You Don't Love Me Anymore (Audicon 112)
1961 - I Gotta Know / Aphrodite (Octavia 8005)
1962 - Lonely Road / One Look At You Is All It Look (Jubilee 5406)
1963 - The Bully / Empty Seat (ABC 10436)
1963 - Sixteen Candles / The Third Floor (instrumental) (Diamond 146)

Biography :

One of the best of Brooklyn's white doo wop groups, the Passions helped to further the careers of two top writer/artists. The group members were among those vocalists whose harmony haven was the alley of Loew's Oriental Theatre in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. The nearby Kelly's pool room served as an occasional rehearsal hall.

1958 - The Sinceres  

When five of the bunch formed the Overons (who later became the Mystics), the remaining members became the Sinceres. They included Tony Armato, Albee Galione, Vinny Acierno, Nicky Lombardi and John Pangi.The quintet recorded a few demos in 1958, at which time Tony, Albee and Vinny began looking for replacements who were more career-minded.

Another group in Bensonhurst had what they needed; when the three Sinceres heard Runarounds lead singer Jimmy Gallagher, they knew he was the one for them (Jimmy’s previous group, the Palladiyms, included Joe DiBenedetto, who later formed "The Four-evers".)

The Sinceres weren’t sure how to approach Jimmy, so they followed him home one night and knocked on his door. After convincing his mother that they only wanted to sing with her son, not mug him, the foursome went to a nearby park and ended up harmonizing for hours. They were now a quartet, with Jimmy on lead, Tony on first tenor, Albee on second tenor, and Vinnie on baritone. In 1959, while the Mystics were recording "Hushabye" at their first session, their friend Tony Armato was there cheering them on promoting his own group to their manager, Jim Gribble. Gribble soon signed the Sinceres and renamed them the Passions. He gave them a demo by a duo of studio singers who called themselves the Cousins. The song was "Just to Be with You" written by Mary Kalfin. The Cousins were Paul Simon and Carole King.

Released in August 1959 on Sol Winkler’s Audicon label, the Passions’ impeccable harmonies and Gallagher’s impassioned lead put "Just to Be with You" on radios across America. It was a top 20 hit in many eastern cities and it charted nationally, rising to number 69. The follow-up out of Audicon’s 1674 Broadway digs was twice as good. Both sides—the harmony filled "I Only Want You" and the beautiful Billy Dawn Smith ballad "This Is My Love" –vied for radio play and sales throughout the states.

A reviewer in the in the January 11, 1960, issue of Billboard commented, "The group could score again via either of these rock-a-ballads. On both, the lead comes through with fine readings and he gets good group assists. Both remind of their previous hit, "Just to be with you.’" "I Only Want You" eventually took the lead, but the split play killed any hopes of one single becoming a national hit. "I Only Want You" stopped at number 113 in March 1960.

  

The group attracted a great deal of attention from these singles and toured with some of the industry’s top talent, including Chubby Checker, Dion & the Belmonts, The Skyliners The Isley Brothers, and of course their Kelly’s pool room pals the Mystics. They also appeared on Dick Clark’s Tver, Alan Freed’s "Big Beat" TV show, and Clay Cole’s show while performing at the Brooklyn Fox with Alan Freed.

By the time the group recorded "Gloria" Vinny had left and been replaced by Gallagher’s friend Lou Rotondo. Also in 1960 Lou Rotondo and Albie Galione, along with Albie Contrera of the Mystics, sang behind Clay Cole on "Here, There, Everywhere" (Roulette), single that became popular in the New York area. Audicon Records lost the group’s next release, the harmony rocker "Made for Lovers."

The group recorded a few more sides for Audicon which were leased to Jubilee and Octavia.By 1962, Gallagher had joined the navy and Gribble had died. The group signed with producer Teddy Vann, ABC Records and drafted Joey O’Neal for the lead. Before Joey could sing, however, Jimmy returned on leave and joined with the Passions to record "The Bully" (ABC, 1963) and an up-tempo version THE CRESTS’ "Sixteen Candles" (Diamond, 1963).

When both went out unpromoted, Gallagher returned to the navy. Graham Lee True (the Hitones, Fonsca) took over the lead, but they only recorded unreleased demos. The group broke up in 1963.
http://www.saddlebrooketimes.com/mp3/Passions/Passions.html


Movies :


Just To Be With You

This is My Love

Songs :

     
Just To Be With You / Oh Melancholy Me      I Only Want You / This Is My Love         Gloria / Jungle Drums

     
Beautiful Dreamer                             Aphrodite                   Made For Lovers / You Don't Love Me Anymore

   
Lonely Road / One Look At You Is All It Look           The Bully

  
The Empty Seat                      Sixteen Candles

....