From:  "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Sep 28, 2004  1:33 am 
Subject:  This Is My Story : The Marcels

THE MARCELS

The Marcels were the most successful representatives of the surprising
doo-wop revival of 1961. Their current status doesn't seem to be very
high, not even (or perhaps especially) among doo-wop fans. Jim Raper
did not include a single Marcels record in his list of "The 1,000 Best
Doo-Wop Songs" in Now Dig This. One the other hand, Jay Warner*
calls them "one of the best vocal groups of all time". I wouldn't go that
far, but the group certainly deserves a better fate than being known
only for their Bomp baba bomp dang a dang dang "slaughter" of
"Blue Moon", the 1934 standard by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
The group had a strong, distinctive lead in Cornelius "Nini" Harp and
made some worthwhile records.

Though they sound very black, the Marcels were originally a racially
mixed group : Richard Knauss (baritone) and Gene Bricker (second
tenor) were white, Cornelius Harp (lead singer), Ronald Mundy (first
tenor) and Fred Johnson (bass) were black. All five were natives of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group was formed in 1959 and named
after Harp's hairstyle, the marcel. Their repertoire consisted of 1950s
R&B songs, several of which were performed on a demo tape that they
sent to Colpix Records. Stu Phillips, A&R director for Colpix, liked the
tape enough to invite the group to New York, where (at RCA Studios)
they had their first session on February 15, 1961 and recorded seven
songs. The last one of these - with only eight minutes of studio time left -
was "Blue Moon", which was done in two takes, using the same bass
intro arrangement of the Cadillacs' "Zoom" that was also on their demo
tape. An overzealous promotion man for Colpix heard "Blue Moon" and
asked for a copy of the tape, which he gave to Murray the K at WINS,
who - according to legend - played it 26 times during his four-hour show.
Reaction was so strong that the label rush-released the single in late
February.

Even the Colpix people were not prepared for what happened next.
In four weeks it was # 1 on both the pop and R&B charts, having pushed
no less than Elvis Presley out of the top spot. "Blue Moon" also reached
# 1 in the UK, and went Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Spain,
France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, South Africa, Denmark and Israel.
Three weeks after "Blue Moon" was released, the Marcels were brought
into the studio again for a let's-get-an-album-out-quick session (six
tracks) and on April 11 they were recording yet again. Eighteen songs
had been recorded before their second single, "Summertime", was issued,
which stalled at # 78. In the summer of 1961, the group appeared in the
film "Twist Around the Clock" with Dion and Chubby Checker, and in
July, Colpix released an LP called "Blue Moon". However, the group was
no longer intact when the LP came out. Knauss and Bricker left the group
and were replaced by Allen Johnson (Fred's brother) and Walt Maddox.
The now all-black quintet's first session, on September 1, 1961, yielded
another big hit (# 7) , a remake of Guy Lombardo's 1931 hit "Heartaches",
done in "Blue Moon" style, with its opening nonsense chant and upbeat
rendition of the melody. "My Melancholy Baby", recorded in December
1961, was the group's last hit (# 58), in February 1962. By then, Fred
Johnson's exaggerated bass had developed into self-parody. Though
there were no more hits, the group made some of their best recordings
in 1962. My personal favourites are "Friendly Loans", an amusing slice
of social criticism, and "I Wanna Be the Leader", an answer to Johnny
Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man", which satirized the Marcels style.
Cornelius Harp, the heart of the Marcels, left in 1963. The group then
left Colpix and continued to record for Kyra, Queen Bee, St. Clair, Rocky
and Monogram with varying lineups until 1975. By then they were working
the oldies circuit.

* Jay Warner, The Billboard Book of American Singing Groups" (1992),
page 417-419. (For further reading.)

CD : The Marcels, The Complete Colpix Sessions (2 CD-set, issued
in 1993). Sequel NED CD 264. 38 tracks.