From:  "Gino A." 
Date:  Thu Jan 13, 2005  9:55 am 
Subject:  Scan Do - The Cadillacs

THE CADILLACS

By Sal Mondrone, Tom Luciani, Steve Flam & Ralph Newman - Bim Bam
Boom Vol. 1, No. 5, April - May 1972

Once again Bim Bam Boom brings you a feature article on one of the
most popular vocal groups of the 1950's, a group so talented they
set the style and standards for the many others that followed. They
came from the streets of New York and rose to fame with a lot of
class, a tremendous amount of talent, and a very polished act. I
guess by now you know that I am speaking about the CADILLACS. No
Rock and Roll group ever made an impact like the Cadiliacs did in
the mid 1950's.

The following article is compiled from interviews with some of the
people who made the name "Cadillacs" famous: Eart "Speedo" Carroll,
lead singer and backbone of the group, Esther Navarro, their manager
and writer of most of their material; and Bobby Spencer, lead singer
of the second Cadillacs group.

Our story begins in the streets of Harlem in 1953, where several
young men, Earl Carroll, Laverne Drake, Robert Phillips and we
believe Gus Wittingham (Earl Carroll and Esther Navarro could not
remember the fourth original member. Earl stated that he knew him as
Johnny. This may have been his nickname. Phil Groia informed us that
the fourth member was Gus Wittingham). They met and harmonized on
the tenement stoops and in the hallways. These four lads attended PS
139 at 140th Street and 7th Avenue and billed themselves as the
Carnations. Their trade mark was a white carnation in their jacket
tapels. They sang in school and the other kids encouraged them to
cut a record. After building a reputation as the best group in the
area, the Carnations took on all comers at the Saint Mark's Church
in the battle of the groups and scored week after week as the top
group.

While singing at the Saint Mark's Church, the group heard about
Esther Navarro and decided that they were good enough to audition.
In late 1954 they went to Esther's office at 177 West 48th Street in
Manhattan. As fate would have it. Lover Patterson, manager of the
Five Crowns, was in the office that day. The boys auditioned and
Esther loved their harmony and casual happy character. Lover
conferred with Esther and decided that the group was lacking that
little extra something and suggested that Papa Clark of the Five
Crowns would add that polish. Esther agreed and signed the
Carnations to a personal recording contract.

There are two versions of how the name Cadillacs came about. Esther
stated that all the "bird" names had been exhausted. They were
trying to find another name and as they looked out the window of
Esther's office they saw a Cadillac pass and thus the name was born.
Another version comes from an old Rhythm and Blues publication.
Charles Brooks put it this way. "We wanted to please the girls. What
do girls like? That question we asked ourselves all the time. We
even ran some polls of our own, each of us talking to the girls we
knew. After a while it became pretty clear that one of the things
they realty dug was a cat with a fine set of wheels to ride them
around. For the ladies, then, we decided to call ourselves the
Cadillacs." I believe the version told to us by Esther is the truth
and the Charles Brooks version was done for publicity since he came
into the group after the first four sides were released. You take
your choice.

The Cadillacs were born with talent, but Esther developed that
talent with care and patience. Earl Carroll stated that they
idolized the Moonglows and Orioles and tried to pattern their
harmony after them. Esther took the group to many record companies
but met with tittle success. She was so convinced that they would be
stars that she took them to Beltone studios on 31st Street between
6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan and paid for the session herself.
The following personnel were on the first session: Earl Carroll,
Laverne Drake, Robert Phillips, Papa Clark and we believe Gus
Wittingham. This session produced four sides, Gloria, I Wonder Why,
Wishing Well and I Want To Know About Love. Rene Hall and his band
backed the group on these sides. Historically, Gloria which was
named after Gloria "little Miss Muffet" Smith, a singer under Miss
Navarro's management, is the most famous of these four sides today.
It has been covered by many vocal groups, including the Passions,
Escorts, Vito & the Salutations and the Darchaes.

The latest recording of this tune is by Earl Lewis and the Channels.
Gloria became the standard song for most street corner groups. If
your group couldn't sing Gloria, then they were considered second
rate. Surprisingly, Gloria was not a big hit when it was first
released. The flip, I Wonder Why was the side that was played on the
juke boxes and radio stations. But that's getting a little ahead of
our story.

Esther took the masters to Jerry Blaine, owner of Jubilee Records in
New York. Jerry liked the songs and released I Wonder Why and Gloria
on his Josie label. I Wonder Why sold well and the Cadillacs were on
their way. About this time a conflict developed among various
members of the group and Papa Clark and Gus Wittingham left and were
replaced by Charles Brooks and Earl Wade. Earl had been the lead
singer for a group called the Crystals that recorded Come To Me
Darling on the Luna label and That's My Desire on the Apollo label,
where they were billed as the Opals (Formerly the Crystals).

In order for the Cadillacs to stand out among the other groups of
the day, they had to have that little something extra. Miss Navarro
took the boys to the famous Charlie Atkins (who was once part of the
famous Coles and Atkins dance team) for dancing lessons, since they
wanted their act to stand out in every way. Every number they did
was produced with fancy choregraphy and elegant orchestration. In
order to make an even better appearance on stage, the group wore
some of the most fantastic outfits ever seen. Who can forget the
boys on stage with their red and white jackets, red slacks and white
shoes. The Cadillacs were the "class" qroup of the day.

The Cadillacs went into the studio a second time in the later part
of 1954 and consisted of: Earl Carroll, Robert Phillips, Laverne
Drake, Earl Wade and Charles Brooks. This session also produced four
sides, and from this time until they left Josie, Jessie Powell and
his band backed them up. In early 1955 No Chance, which was
written by Esther's girlfriend, Jeanee Burns, was released and sold
very well. Alan Freed liked this song a lot and played it constantly
on his radio show. Their fourth release, Wishing Well did not sell
in large numbers but set the stage for their big hit Speedoo. Alan
Freed was thinking Of putting on a show at the Academy Of Music in
New York City and was at Esther's office talking to her about it.
The Cadillacs were also in the office rehearsing Speedoo and Alan
flipped over it. He talked Esther into recording the song. Speedoo
came about this particular way. Earl Carroll's nickname was "Speedy"
and the other members of the group used to tease him about it. They
started fooling around with it and Earl turned to Esther and
said "They often call me Speedy but my real name is Mr. Earl." They
changed it to Speedoo and thus the song was born. The rest is
history, the record sky-rocketed almost to the top of the charts
within eight weeks. Today Speedoo ranks among the ten most played
oldies along with Earth Angel and In The Still Of The Night. An
interesting fact is that Steve Lawrence covered Speedoo for the pop
market. Can you imagine Steve Lawrence singing Speedoo?

Freed opened his show at the Academy and the Cadillacs ripped the
show apart. Their fantastic harmony, standout uniforms and dance
routines drove the audience crazy. This act set the standard for
group personal appearances for years to come. Every group that
followed tried to outdo each other with fancy clothing.

Their follow up to Speedoo was Zoom b/w You Are, another example of
the group's consistency. This is what CASH BOX had to say about
Zoom, which captured the Record of the Week Award: The Cadillacs
came off Speedoo with another hot plate, Zoom, that races with break-
neck speed and is accorded a great spirited reading by this high
flying group. The team inject an excitement that infests the
listener. In this release, a torrid horn is accompanied by staccato
hand clapping and in one's mind's eye you can see the group moving
about with their choreographic skill. The flip, You Are, is a slow
ballad. The lads give it a strong workout but it's Zoom all the
way."

Betty My Love was their next record and was a take off on Eddie My
Love although it does not sound like the Teen Queens' classic.
During this period and right up to My Girlfriend the group's
personnel remained basically the same except that Jimmy Bailey
came in and out of the group at various times. At this point,
dissention developed and Earl Carroll left the group. Charles
Brooks, Bobby Phillips and Earl Wade left also and joined Earl and
formed the Original Cadillacs. Bobby Spencer, Jimmy Bailey, Roland
Martinez, Laverne Drake and an unknown fifth member joined Esther
and recorded My Girlfriend. Bobby Spencer informed us that Ray
Charles inspired My Girlfriend for he was in the studio that day
giving the boys advice on how to put it together. The disc has very
little instrumental accompaniment and set a trend that is still
around today and is known as Accapella. Carroll with his group
remained with Josie and released Hurry Home b/w Lucy. Billing
themselves as the Original Cadillacs. On their next release, Josie
829, Buzz Buzz Buzz b/w Yea Yea Baby they billed themselves as
Speedo and the Original Cadillacs. Josie 834, Ain't You Gonna by
Jesse Powell and the Caddy's is the Spencer Cadillacs. About this
time, Earl Wade left the group for good. The two
different "Cadillacs" groups lead to a lot of difficulty and
bookings were becoming a problem. After a few meetings with Esther
Navarro, the two Cadillacs groups merged under her guidance and they
released Speedo Is Back. The personnel on this record was Earl
Carroll, Bobby Spencer, Roland Martinez, Jim Bailey and Laverne
Drake. Charles Brooks and Robert Phillips left the recording scene.
After this record, Earl Carroll left the group for good and joined
the Coasters and is still with them today.

Josie 842, Holy Smoke Baby b/w I Want To Know consisted of Bobby
Spencer, Roland Martinez, Jim Bailey Laverne Drake and an unknown
member. This record sold poorly and Drake left the group also.
Starting with Josie 846, Peek A Boo their second biggest hit, the
three remaining members. Spencer, Bailey and Martinez formed the
nucleus of the group until the present. Other members came and went
at various times and it is impossible to figure out who was on each
record. Bill Lindsey, Champ Roland, Howard Guyden from the Pearls
and Milton Love of the Solitaires were some of these members.
Starting with Peek A Boo, The Caditlacs adopted a Coasters type
sound. They recorded such novelty tunes as Jay Walker", Copy Cat,
Please Mr. Johnson, Cool It Fool, Romeo, and Bad Dan McGoon. Right
before Romeo was released, Josie 865, Who Ya Gonna Kiss b/w
Naggity Nag was released and the record is billed Speedo and the
Pearls. This record was taken from the can by Josie and it is the
Pearls not the Cadillacs backing Earl Carroll. Right after Bad Dan
McGoon, Josie released 876 It's Love b/w Tell Me Today and it's
bitted as Speedo and the Cadillacs. Earl Carroll sings lead on these
sides and we believe that they were also taken out of the can. The
master numbers fit the sequence but Eart Carroll, when interviewed,
stated that once he joined the Coasters he never returned to record
with the Cadillacs. Josie 833, The Boogie Man, was the next release
and continued to follow the Coasters type sound, featuring Spencer,
Bailey and Martinez plus two various members. Josie 915 was the last
Cadillacs side released by the Josie label.

Miss Navarro stated that due to so many personnel changes it was
very difficult to keep the photographs of the group up to date and
many times the pictures on the billboard were different from the
group on stage. This also explains why so many pictures of the group
in various R/B magazines have different names under them than
the people that appear in the photo. Esther attempted to keep the
group going and moved them over to the Mercury label, this met with
little success and soon the boys found themselves on Capitol. The
Capitol group consisted of Spencer, Bailey, Martinez and Champ
Roland. They recorded four sides for Capitol at one session. White
Gardenia was released first and sold poorly. Their next side on
Capitol was La Bomba and was billed as Bobby Ray and the Cadillacs.
Bobby Ray was Bobby Spencer under a different name. Esther was
unhappy with the promotion given to the group by Capitol and formed
her own Artic label and released one more side by the group. This
too sold poorly. The group returned to Mercury and released one disc
on it's subsidiary, Smash. This record went nowhere. This was the
last record by the Cadillacs with which Esther had anything to do
with. The group continued to make appearances with Spencer, Bailey
and Martinez. Several years later they recorded for the Lana label
and recently for Polydor. The group today is making the Revival
scene and consists of Spencer, Bailey, Martinez, and they have added
Leroy Bines from the Charts and Eddie Jones Jr. on piano from the
Demens.

Looking back over the years, one is struck by the fact that the
group was best known for their up-tempo, novelty sides. In reality
their battads can be compared with any other early fifties vocal
group. Gloria, an all time standard, as we said before, will be sung
for years to come. Let Me Explain, which was written by the late
Chuck Willis, was a fantastic effort. On this side we have Earl Wade
singing lead on perhaps his finest effort and also a tenor who
carries this record right through the paces of this classic R&B
ballad. Their list of ballads reads like an R&B Hall of Fame -
Window Lady, You Are, Betty My Love and The Girl I Love are some of
the finest ballads we have ever heard.

Bim Bam Boom salutes the Cadillacs, one of the finest vocal groups
of our age. We all wish the group lots of luck on the come back
trail and will be waiting for their new release with open arms. The
Cadillacs, one of the groups that made it all possible. We thank
them for the many hours of enjoyment that they have given to the
world.