The Marcels

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Marcels - Blue Moon

The Marcels were an American vocal group in the doo wop style of the early 1960s.

Beginnings

The Marcels were 1959 in Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania founded), as the baritone Richard F. Knauss, after hearing the bass Fred Johnson, the city match along with this decided the best singer at a vocal ensemble. For the voice of the second tenor they won Gene J. Bricker and Ron "Bingo" Mundy as first tenor, and finally Cornelius Harp as lead singer. The newly founded formation decided to name themselves Marcels after a hair fashion of the time. The group initially performed in Pittsburgh until manager Jules Kruspir became aware of them. Since the group had no song material of their own, they recorded well-known doo-wop songs, and Kruspir sent a demo tape to the record company Colpix Records in New York, a sub-label of Columbia Records .

Stu Phillips, Colpix's A&R manager, brought the group to New York, where they recorded their own Doo Wop version of the 1935 classic Blue Moon by Glen Gray in the RCA studios on February 15, 1961 . Shortly after the recording, the company sent a tape with the title to disc jockey Murray the K. , who was so enthusiastic about the song that he played the song 26 times during his four-hour radio show. The response from the audience was so great that Colpix brought the record onto the market in February.

The successful year 1961

As early as March 6, 1961, the track Blue Moon was placed in the US Billboard charts for the first time, reached the top 10 on March 27 and pushed Elvis Presley's song Surrender from number 1 on the charts on April 3 , the Blue Moon for three weeks could last long. Overall, the single stayed in the charts for 14 weeks. The single also reached first place in the R&B charts. In Great Britain, the title was also able to occupy first place in the singles charts. In the German singles charts, the title landed at number 13.

On March 16, 1961, the Marcels recorded six more titles, on April 11, 1961 another five, including their next single, Summertime from the opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin . However, the record only reached number 78 on the Billboard charts. That summer, the Marcels appeared with Dion and Chubby Checker in the rock and roll film Twist Around the Clock . The album Blue Moon was released in July

In the original line-up, the Marcels only recorded 18 tracks, because in August 1961, after a dispute between the manager Jules Kruspir and the ensemble founder Richard Knauss, he and Gene Bricker left the group. They were the two white singers in the mixed group of whites and blacks. They were replaced by the baritone Alan Johnson, the brother of Fred Johnson, and by the second tenor Walt Maddox, so that the group consisted only of blacks.

This new line-up recorded the next songs on September 1, 1961, including the title Heartaches , a 1931 hit by Guy Lombardo . Heartaches became the group's second and final top ten hit, reaching number 7 on Billboard Pop Charts and number 19 on the R&B charts.

At the end of 1961, Ronald "Bingo" Mundy left the group. At the beginning of 1962 the Marcels tried to get into the charts with another classic song, My Melancholy Baby by Walter van Brunt from 1915. However, the single only reached number 58. The subsequent single Twistin 'Fever could no longer place in the charts. Colpix published five singles of the group in 1961, and increasingly went over to releasing some of the older material as singles.

Further career

Success did not come from 1962, and at the end of the year Cornelius Harp also left the group. Another album called Honestly Sincere (Colpix 454) was released in 1963. When the other three singles were unsuccessful by the summer of 1963, the group left Colpix Records and signed a contract with Kyra Records. The two singles released by Kyra in 1964 were also unsuccessful, and the Marcels did not get another record deal.

After Alan Johnson left in 1964, the head of the group, Fred Johnson, put together a quartet that consisted of Walt Maddox (lead singer), Richard Harris (baritone), William Herndon (tenor) and Fred Johnson (bass). It wasn't until 1973 that the Marcels got a record deal again, and between 1973 and 1975 they released a total of six singles for four different labels, but there were no successes. The quartet continued to perform until the 1980s. A 1982 comeback attempt by Maddox as Walt Maddox and the Marcels failed in 1983 after two unsuccessful singles.

A few more albums were released by the Marcels, but most of them were new compilations of the song material. Colpix (Colpix CP 520) released a sampler called Heartaches with 21 recordings. In the mid-1970s, Crystal Ball Records released an album by the Marcels Quartet, produced by Adam Pick, on which Doo Wop songs are sung. In 1986 Murray Hills Records released a compilation of old Marcels titles (MHR LP # 229).

In 2002 the band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame .

In 2006, their hit "Heartaches" was rediscovered by Peugeot for a commercial .

Members

  • Cornelius Harp
  • Ronald "Bingo" Mundy
  • Gene Bricker
  • Dick Knauss
  • Fred Johnson

Discography

Only titles that could be placed in the relevant charts are listed here. A complete singles discography can be found at Warner, an incomplete discography of the singles and albums at Gribin / Schiff and an overview of the albums with cast and included song material at Tilch.

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE UK UK US US R&B R&B
1961 Blue moon DE13 (8 weeks)
DE 		UK1 (13 weeks)
UK 		US1 (14 weeks)
US 		R&B1 (11 weeks)
R&B
B-side: Goodbye To Love
Summertime - UK46 (4 weeks)
UK 		US78 (3 weeks)
US 		-
B-side: Teeter Totter Love
Heartaches - - US7 (12 weeks)
US 		R&B19 (3 weeks)
R&B
B-side: My Love For You
My melancholy baby - - US58 (5 weeks)
US 		-
B-side: Really Need Your Love

literature

  • Warner, Jay: The Billboard Book Of American Singing Groups. A History 1940-1990 . New York City / New York: Billboard Books, 1992, pp. 417-419.

swell

  1. ↑ Blue Moon / Goodbye To Love , US catalog number: Colpix 186; The song is a pop song written by Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics) in 1933.
  2. ^ Warner, Jay: The Billboard Book Of American Singing Groups. A History 1940-1990 . New York City / New York: Billboard Books, 1992, pp. 417f
  3. ↑ For more information on the song, see Bronson, Fred: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. 3rd revised and expanded edition. New York City, New York: Billboard Publications, 1992, p. 87
  4. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Billboards Top 10 Charts. 1958-1995 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc., 1995, pp. 56f
  5. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Singles 1955-1993 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Ltd., 1994, p. 378
  6. ^ Whitburn, Joel: Top 40 R&B and Hip-Hop Hits. 1942-2004 . New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 369
  7. ^ Nugent, Stephen / Fowler, Anne / Fowler, Pete: Chart Log of American / British Top 20 Hits, 1955-1974 . In: Gillett, Charlie / Frith, Simon (eds.): Rock File 4 . Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books, 1976, p. 236
  8. ↑ Ehnert, Günter (Ed.): Hit balance sheet. German chart singles 1956-1980 . Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 134
  9. ↑ Summertime / Teeter Totter Love , US catalog number: Colpix 196
  10. ↑ US catalog number Colpix CP 416. For more information on the line-up and songs, see Tilch, KD: Rock LPs 1955-1970. Vol. 3: MS . 3rd ext. Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, p. 1031
  11. ↑ The title became number one on the Billboard Charts in 1947 in the version of Ted Weem's . US catalog number: RCA Victor 2175; see Whitburn, Joel: Top Pop Records 1940-1955 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1973, p. 47
  12. ↑ My Melancholy Baby / Really Need Your Love , US catalog number: Colpix 624
  13. ^ Warner, Jay: The Billboard Book Of American Singing Groups. A History 1940-1990 . New York City / New York: Billboard Books, 1992, p. 419
  14. ↑ Gribin, Anthony J. / Schiff, Matthew M .: Doo-Wop. The Forgotten Third Of Rock 'n' Roll . Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 1992, pp. 416f
  15. ^ Tilch, KD: Rock LPs 1955-1970. Vol. 3: MS . 3rd ext. Hamburg: Taurus Press, 1990, pp. 1030f
  16. ↑ Chart sources: DE UK US

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