THE FALCONS - by Al Kelly

The Falcons  were formed in '55 and originally had two white members.
Eddie Floyd was the lead singer for the Falcon along with Joe Stubbs 
(brother of Levi, who was with the Four Tops), who sang  lead on several 
of their releases.  The group by the way, was from Detroit, MI.  In '56 
they had their first release on the Mercury label, the record did get some  
small action but not enough to record them again. They signed with Robert 
West, noted Detroit small time label owner, to his Kudo label, they recorded 
"This Heart Of Mine" and got lost in the shuffle, next was a couple more  
on Bob's Flick label with the first being "You're So Fine", (lead is Joe Stubbs, 
many thought it was Eddie Floyd)  which was picked up by Unart for national
distribution, the record was a big hit. Before the record hit nationally, 
it started out slow and the group thought it wouldn't happen, they recorded 
"This Heart Of Mine"with a different style for the Gwen Gordy & Billy Davis' 
Anna label, Chess picked that record up, now all of the sudden "You're So 
Fine" is all over the Charts and Chess says they have this group under contract 
too so they asked the group to use the Chess Studios and rerecord "This Heart Of 
Mine" with a quality studio and production. Meanwhile Joe Stubbs  had left the 
group and Wilson Pickett replaced him. On the third cut of the song is Eddie
Floyd  and Wilson Pickett singing  their hearts out. The group stayed
with Unart Records where "You're So Fine" was released again in '62  and
climbed the charts again. After leaving Unart, they moved to their
buddy, Robert West (also their manager too) and his LuPine label, where
Wilson took over with "I Found A Love" and "Anna" Next the group moved
to Atlantic Records in '62 where they had some minor sucess but the
group disbanded right after the session in '63.  West, not aboout to
lose his bread and butter got one of his LuPine  groups called the
Fabulous Playboys and renamed them the Falcons.  A month later there was
even a second Falcon group after the first didn't work out. Wilson had
left in '63 and Eddie left in '60 so the group hade four or five small
time records and that was the end of the Falcons. Eddie went on to a
greeat single career and his big hit was "Knock On Wood" on the Stax
label and of course Wilson went on to be The Great Wilson before he was
killed in his prime.