Gary Stites (born July 23, 1940) is an American pop singer
who enjoyed brief success in the late 1950s.
Gary was born on July 23, 1940 in Denver, Colorado. He
attended Wheat Ridge High School and worked in his father’s Gulf service
station. When he turned 15 his musical career started with the group “The Rocking
Rhythm Kings” at the Grubstake Saloon in Denver. The only other local group
were “Del Toro & The Rockers” Some
of both band members decided to join together resulting in “Gary Stites &
The Satellites”. The group were popular at the local teen dances, sock hops and
beer joints.
The local program director at KIMN radio was a friend of record
label owner Joe Carlton in New York, and got Gary to sing “Lonely For You” to
him over the phone. This resulted in a contract.
Gary recorded for Carlton Records, the same record company
that fellow label mate Jack Scott recorded for.
On April 13, 1959 he charted his biggest hit, “Lonely For You”. The record climbed the Hot 100 to #24 and had
a 14 week stay on the pop chart. “Lonely
For You” had an arrangement similar to Conway Twitty’s hit “It's Only Make Believe”.
His follow-up single, "Starry Eyed", peaked at No.
77 later that same year. It would hit the No. 1 spot in the UK for Michael
Holliday. Stites released a full-length album “Lonely For You” issued in mono
and stereo editions, on Carlton Records in 1960, but it was his only LP.
In addition to the
hit title track, the album contains his minor hits also the flip side of
"Lonely for You" ("Shine That Ring") and a cover of Faye
Adams' 1953 R&B chart-topper, "Shake a Hand." Stites proves
himself adept at teen ballads ("Don't Wanna Say Goodbye"), rockers
("Chicken Shack"), and call-and-response party records ("Hey,
Hey"). He is a competent singer with a voice vaguely similar to Johnny
Tillotson.
In February of 1960 Gary charted his last Hot 100 record,
the old R&B favorite, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”.
It was his highest charting hit since “Lonely For You”, making it to #47
and remaining on the Hot 100 for 9 weeks.
That would be his last record to reach the Hot 100 chart. There are some artists that you feel are only
going to have one hit and that’s it, but Gary Stites was one artist that really
should have had a better chart history than that of a One-Hit Wonder
In the sixties, Stites started his own record label, Living
Legend, where he produced obscure groups like the Birdwatchers, the Gents Five
and Tommy Strand and the Upper Hand, all without success. He dropped out of the
music business in the seventies and switched to work in horse racing. Stites
wasn’t heard from again until 1998 when his cassette "The Old Racetracker” was
recorded under the singular name Cloud, saluting his first love – horse racing.
Collectors with a fondness for the early-'60s "teen
sound" will appreciate Stites' well-executed recordings and formulaic
songs, but it would be a stretch to argue that he created anything out of the
ordinary. The Carlton tapes have been lost, so any reissues of Stites' material
will be mastered from vinyl. Buyers beware of a poor-quality "gray market"
bootlrg CD, also titled Lonely for You, that contains 30 scratchy disc dubs
containing more or less his complete
recorded output.
(Info at first was sparse but I have managed to get a decent
amount to edit for this bio after trawling through numerous sources – too many
to mention.)
Here’s a rare film clip of Gary Stites singing Starry
Eyed from 1959.
1 comment:
For “Gary Stites – Lonely For You” go here;
http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/UZ09BciF/file.html
1. Hurry Down
2. Lonely For You
3. I Tried
4. Shine That Ring
5. Shake A Hand
6. Chicken Shack
7. Gloria Lee
8. Don't Wanna Say Goodbye
9. Lawdy Miss Clawdy
10. Starry Eyed
11. Little Linda
12. Hey! Hey!
A big thank you to Ludovico @ Entre Musica blog for original link.
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