Bullseye B 100 (New York)
THE CROWS hatten die Backing Vocals gesungen:
"Sometime in late 1951 a quintet of teenagers from Harlem calling themselves The Crows (lead Daniel "Sonny" Norton, tenors Harold Major and Jerry Wittick, baritone/tenor Bill Davis and bass Gerald Hamilton) entered the famous Apollo Theatre amateur show and suitably impressed one Cliff Martinez who already had a local Doo-Wop group under his wing called The Crickets (not the band that later backed Buddy Holly). He became their manager as well and soon had them in the studios of Jerry Blaine's New York City-based Jubilee Records where their first experience with a recording was to back the Frank (Fat Man) Humphries Orch on both sides of Jubilee 5085 - I Can't Get Started and Lulubell Blues - but with their name on the label changed to The Four Notes - curious choice since there were 5 voices. It was released in June 1952 but made no impact on the national charts.
Still, it was something they could point to and say "that's us" - which wasn't the case with their second experience which was to sing background for another of Martinez' clients, Viola Watkins, on Paint A Sky (For Me) where they rated no mention at all on September 1952's Jubilee 5095 (that isn't here - nor were they involved with the flipside). Around this time Wittick left to enter military service with his replacement being guitarist and sometime vocalist Mark Jackson, following which Martinez took them and Watkins to a New York garment dealer named George Goldner who was just starting what would become a multiple label Latino music/R&B/Doo-Wop empire spawning many great groups.
Assigned to his Rama Records, their first crack at fame as The Crows came in April 1953 with, of all things, a cover of the 1953 Country hit by The Carlisles called No Help Wanted as Rama 3 b/w Seven Lonely Days by Viola Watkins with The Crows backing. Neither side charted and in July it didn't look any better at first after Goldner released Gee b/w I Love You So as Rama 5, although the B-side was receiving some attention in Philadelphia, L.A., Dallas and St. Louis. Then, much later, when Djs began flipping it over giving Gee some airplay it struck gold on the Billboard Pop charts by reaching # 14 in March 1954, followed in April by a # 2 on what then passed for the R&B charts. It would be their only claim to national chart fame.
Meanwhile, it was also in July 1953 that Call A Doctor (the actual title, although when singing it they say "call the doctor") had been released, with West Coast distribution for some reason, showing them as The Jewels, b/w Heartbreaker as Rama 10, and in May 1954, Untrue b/w Baby was released as Rama 10. At much the same time they did the backing, uncredited, for Lorraine Ellis' Perfidia on Goldner's new Gee label b/w a solo effort by Ellis as Gee 1."
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