THE CHARADES by Al Kelly

The Charades were from  CA, actually there were two groups from there at
almost the same time, the other group was led by Billy Storm and the
Chambers Bros. 

This Charades started out in Central CA., in a town called Tulare. They 
formed a Doo-Wop group in high school in '57. They consisted of Johnny 
Johnson  on lead, Syl Grigsby, Al Pilkington, Lavern Butler and Ray Baradat 
and were called the Latin Kings, they were an instrumental group also with 
Easy Pena, Eddie Cuellar and Tommy Johnson on guitar and piano. 

The group made their first recording session in Fresno, CA in a small 
studio but Butler had dropped out of the group before the session. They 
covered a James Brown tune called "Try Me" along with with two other songs 
but nothing ever happened with the songs. 

Next they did a four song tryout with Hunter Hancock's Swingin'
label and again no releases on the songs.  Next they met Tony Hilder, a
local promo man  and label owner, again they did four songs for Hilder
and after several months, the group  demanded the songs be released or
they were leaving him. Tony released  "Surfn' Stomp" b/w "For You" on
the  Northridge label($200). Next the following year they hit a break by
recording "Please Be My Love Tonight"  which appeared on the part owner
Fred Astaire's Ava label. Tony Hilder gave them the song and it got good
airplay and is associated with this group. Tony Hilder released an
answer to this song on his Impact label in '64.  Tony released another
Charades record on his Impact label but never saw daylight. This was
their final release on the Original Sound label owned by LA DJ Art
Laboe. Hilder leased the record to the DJ in hopes he would play it and
get some sales off of it. The group never recorded again but continued
to work local dates.