News — 1960s

Located on 17th Avenue, North and Jo Johnston, Pearl High School (now Martin Luther King High) was a rich source of black sports and musical talent. In the early 1960s the Bard sisters Francesca (“Fran”, b. unknown d. 1991) and Beverly (now Bard-Smith, b. unknown) formed their group, The Avons, along with schoolmate Paula Hester. Their recordings should not be confused with at least two other groups with same name who recorded around the same time outside of Tennessee. The Avons first taste of the studio was an initial one-off hire for budget label Hit, providing uncredited backing vocals to...

“There were three of us, eighteen months apart” says Brenda Kippa, sister of Dan Folger. “My first brother was born in 1941, then came Dan (b. 1943 d. 2006) and finally me. We lived in La Honda, a suburb of San Francisco. We were comfortable financially and lived in a lovely home. However, there was great trouble in the marriage between our parents, and finally my mother called her father who came to California and brought us all (except my father) back to Texas. My mother couldn't find work, so she initially left us with her parents and found work...

The Delacardos were an all black vocal and instrumental group from Charlotte NC, and formed at high school. They made at least nine records between 1959 and 1967, some of which received national release on major labels. Vocalists included Vernon Hill, Chris Harris, Harold Ford and Robert Gates and later George Morris. Publicity shots generally featured the vocalists only, but regular musicians included Luther Maxwell (tenor saxophone and band leader), Amos Williams (guitar), Ronnie Grier (bass), Dallas Steele (drums), Timothy Donald (baritone saxophone), and on piano and guitar, Jeremiah Shepherd and James Knight. Ronnie Grier wrote most of their sides...

Some have been asking where this is at, so thought a brief update is in order. Currently I'm about 25,000 words into the Tempests book venture, covering early days of the band, including the Atlantic and Smash recordings through to the present. The purpose of the project is also presenting the story of individual band members' careers after the Smash line-up disbanded; the story of how the northern soul scene picked up on the Tempests' recordings in the 1980s, and latter day formal recognition for the Tempests (and now posthumously for Hazel Martin later this year) at the CBMAs. Got...

Bob Collins and the Fabulous Five from Greensboro, NC were a popular booking throughout the Carolinas and Virginia. Venues in the 1960s included the Polo Club (Winston, Salem), the Casino (Nags Head, NC) and the National Guard Armoury (Greenville, NC). Their largest mainstream hit in the mid 1960s was “If I Didn’t Have a Dime” a.k.a. “Jukebox”, a previous minor hit for Gene Pitney. Their version was released on the Greensboro label Jokers 3. The band was originally formed in 1961 and continued until 2007. It had at least twenty-five members in its long history. From a northern soul perspective,...