From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Jul 23, 2003  1:11 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Cleve Duncan
 
CLEVE DUNCAN

Born Cleveland Duncan, 23 July 1935, Los Angeles, California

And yet another One-hit-wonder : The Penguins! This group DID find
a place in Wayne Jancik's book, but if their hit had peaked a few
weeks earlier, it would have fallen outside the rock and roll era, which
is defined by Wayne as starting on January 1, 1955.

Lead singer Cleve Duncan and tenor Dexter Tisby formed the Penguins
with bass Curtis Williams and baritone Bruce Tate in 1954, naming
themselves after the penguin on Kool cigarettes. They were one of the
first R&B groups to crack the Top 10 of the pop chart, when their second
record for Dootone, "Earth Angel", peaked at # 8 (and # 1 R&B) in early
1955. Wayne credits the song to Curtis Williams, but the history of the
song is complicated. Over the years a consensus has been reached
that its roots can be traced, at least in part, to the pen of Jesse Belvin.

The era of white covers was far from over and the Crew Cuts beat the
Penguins in the pop charts, taking their version to # 3. But now, hardly
anyone remembers their cover and sales of the original rendering may
well have exceeded the 10 million mark. It was actually an unfinished,
garage-made, one-track demo recording. In fact, the classic hit has the
first five seconds of the intro clipped off and starts abruptly (though no one
noticed).

Unfortunately, the Penguins wound up involved in almost as many
lawsuits as they had Dootone releases. Though they sought out the 
help of Buck Ram (who not only was an arranger and songwriter, but
also a lawyer) to manage them, all the legal troubles seriously damaged
their career. Ram signed them to Mercury Records (using his power as 
representative of the Penguins to get a Mercury deal for another of his
groups, the yet unknown Platters), but none of their eight singles for
Mercury/Wing nudged the nation's notice. Atlantic released one single
by the Penguins (a cover of Ken Copeland's "Pledge of Love"), which
spent one week at # 15 in the R&B charts and then disappeared quickly.
They never had another hit. Duncan, who owns the Penguins name,
re-formed the group several times for oldies shows. All the surviving 
original members of the Penguins (Bruce Tate passed away) have now 
given up entertaining altogether.

Further reading: Jay Warner, The Billboard book of American singing
groups (1992), page 272-275.
CD : The Penguins, Earth Angel (Ace 249). 21 Dootone tracks.
Website: http://www.electricearl.com/dws/penguins.html