John
Perkins (top right in above photo) (born
August 28, 1931) was best known as the lead singer of The Crew Cuts. The Crew-Cuts were
a Canadian vocal quartet, that made a number of popular records that charted in
the United States and worldwide. They named themselves after the then popular
crew cut haircut, one of
the first connections made between pop music and hairstyle. They were most famous for their recording of a cover version of The Chords hit record, "Sh-Boom."
the first connections made between pop music and hairstyle. They were most famous for their recording of a cover version of The Chords hit record, "Sh-Boom."
Other
members of the Crew-Cuts were: Rudi
Maugeri (January 21, 1931 - May 7, 2004) (baritone), Ray Perkins (born November 24, 1932) (bass)
(John Perkins' brother) and Pat Barrett (born September 15, 1933) (1st
or high tenor)
They
all had been members of the St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, which also
spawned another famous quartet, The Four Lads. Maugeri, John Perkins, and two
others (Bernard Toorish and Connie Codarini) who later were among the Four Lads
first formed a group called The Jordonaires (not to be confused with a
similarly named group, The Jordanaires, that was known for singing backup
vocals on Elvis Presley's hits) and also The Otnorots ("Toronto"
spelled backwards being "Otnorot"), but they split from the group to
finish high school. When the Four Lads returned to Toronto for a homecoming
concert, John Perkins and Maugeri ran into each other and decided that they
could themselves have a musical future. They joined with Barrett and Ray
Perkins in March 1952. The group was originally called The Four Tones (not to
be confused with The Four Tunes, a group on the borderline between pop music
and rhythm and blues).
A
Toronto disk jockey, Barry Nesbitt, put them on his weekly teen show, whose
audience gave the group a new name, The Canadaires. All four of the members
were at the time working at jobs with the Ontario government, but quit their
jobs to sing full-time. They worked clubs in the Niagara Falls, Ontario, and
Niagara Falls, NY area, but saved up their money and drove to New York City, so
they could appear on Arthur Godfrey's television and radio program, Talent
Scouts, where they came in second to a comedian. While they did get a record
with Thrillwood Records and recorded a song titled "Chip, Chip Sing A Song
Little Sparrow", this led to no improvement in their fortune, however, and
they continued playing minor night clubs.
In
March 1953, they returned to Toronto and appeared as an opening act for Gisele
MacKenzie at the Casino Theatre. She was impressed with them and commented favourably
to her record label, but could not remember the group's name!
They
were playing in a Sudbury, Ontario, night club in a sub-zero Canadian winter
when they received notice that they had been invited to appear as a guest on a
Cleveland television program. They drove 600 miles at -40° temperatures to
appear on the Gene Carroll show, where they remained for three appearances and
also, while in Cleveland, met local disk jockey Bill Randle. On his show, on
Cleveland AM radio station WERE, he coined the name that would from that point
on belong to the group. In addition, Randle arranged for them to audition with
Mercury Records, who liked them enough to sign the quartet to a contract.
The
name Crew Cuts refers to their short hair as opposed to long hair, which
implied classical music at the time. It was a decade later that long hair came
to be associated with the counter-culture movement.
Although
their first hit, "Crazy 'Bout You, Baby," was written by Maugeri and
Barrett themselves, they quickly became specialists in cover recordings of
originally-R&B songs. Their first cover, "Sh-Boom" (of which the
R&B original was recorded by The Chords) hit #1 on the charts in 1954. A
number of other hits followed including "Earth Angel" which rose to
the number 2 spot on the charts and had great success in England and in
Australia.
Interestingly,
many of the non-cover songs of theirs that became hits in Canada were unknown
in the United States of America, while it was only their covers that had great
success in the United States.
John Perkins |
(Info mainly Wikipedia)
4 comments:
For “Rock And Roll Bash – Crew Cuts” go here:
http://www73.zippyshare.com/v/9914584/file.html
01 Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)
02 Earth Angel
03 Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)
04 Crazy 'bout You
05 Gum Drop
06 Angels In The Sky
07 Oop Shoop
08 Don't Be Angry
09 A Story Untold
10 Young Love
11 Seven Days
12 Mostly Martha
13 Tell Me Why
14 Chop Chop Boom
15 I Sit In My Window
16 Be My Only Love
17 Two Hearts
18 Honey Hair, Sugar Lips, Eyes Of Blue
19 This Is My Story
20 Keepers Of The Flame
21 Oh Yes I Know
22 In A Little Spanish Town
23 Out Of The Picture
24 I Like It Like That
25 Fraternity Pin
26 Hey, You Face
27 Love In A Home
28 Do Me Good Baby
29 I Spoke Too Soon
30 Can You Hear Me
31 Angela Mia
32 Moments To Remember
A big thank you to Thierry @ the Vocal Group harmony blog for link.
You're welcome Bob. But who is Thierry ?
OOps, apparently he's one of your many followers. I should have scrolled down the page a bit more. Sorry Jake, just put it down to a silver surfer moment!
I worked with Danielle Perkins many years ago I think the daughter if Ray. But nioyhing saud about him. She was living with parents in Orange County Calif at the time 1980's I think. Ann Andeeson. She worked with my twin before that. They owned a printing company at that time.
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