THE CARDINALS - by Al Kelly

One of the originators of the "bird groups", the Cardinals started out
in Baltimore, MD as the Mellotones in '46 with Ernie Lee Warren as
lead. 

One of the members, Donald Jack Johnson, the baritone, worked in a
record shop and was often visited by Ahmet Ertegun & Herb Abramson, both
founders of Atlantic Records and Herb was a native of Baltimore. On one
of the two record execs visits, the Mellotones were singing in the shop.
They were signed to a contract with Atlantic but felt the group needed a
new name so called them the Cardinals, mainly because there was another
Mellotones. 

The group changed their style from Pop to R&B. Lead Ernie Warren was 
drafted in '52 and missed one session and recorded while on leave. 
Leander Lance Tarver filled in till '54 when  Warren finished his
military duty. Actually the group stayed together till '56 and recorded
12 releases for Atlantic and "The End Of The Story" was their next to last 
release with Warren on lead too.  

The group tired of traveling and being away from family broke up. In '58, 
Warren re-formed the group and they stayed together for a short time and 
then the Cardinals became an integrated group with four white members 
singing with Warren. 

Later those four formed the Trend-Els on Tilt label. Every song by this 
group was great, the harmony along with a great lead always finds this 
group at the  top of the 50's groups.