Friday, April 18, 2008

THE V(B)ISCAYNES aka THE VI-TONES (Their Complete Bio)


In late 1959 at the Vallejo High School in Vallejo,California Frank Arellano and Charlene Imhoff were part of the vocal group The Viscounts and Sylvester Stewart "Sly Stone" part of another school group named The Webs.


When these two groups disbanded Frank,Charlene and Sly with others classmates Maria "Ria" Boldway and brothers Charles and Vern Gebhardt form their own Vocal group. They continue with the name The Viscounts (see above picture).



But when the Viscounts of _Harlem Nocturne. fame emerged they changed their group name to The Viscaynes (inspired in the Chevy model car) but with a V in honor to their hometown,Vallejo.


This interracial group (a flipino,a black and four white members) for a long time singing in school dances and local shows when in 1961 are invited to sing in a contest for the Dick Stewart Dance Party TV Show and this perfomance moved the group to cut their first record in VPM Records_Yellow Moon / Heavenly Angel.


Later VPM send the group to Los Angeles for a record session with George Motola where the group recorded new several sides and re-recorded their VPM sides. 


Finally two more singles were released one in VPM with their revised tune_Yellow Moon.with the B side_Uncle Sam Need You (My Friend). issued as The Biscaynes.

LISTEN...



And another single on Trop Records with_Stop What You Are Doing / I Guess I'll Be. as The Viscaynes & The Ramblers. in first pressing and as Sly Stewart & The Viscaynes on 2nd pressing.

LISTEN...




Also the group back up to Jasper Woods on their VPM sides_I'm Comming Home  /Hully Gully Papa.

LISTEN...



By November 1961_Yellow Moon. was a regional Hit but in this time the boys and girls were out of School and the group are broke up.

In 1976 two unreleased sides were released in the Subarro label_Oh What A Night / You're Forgotten Me. under the group name of Sly Stone & The Biscaynes.

LISTEN...



Others unreleased tunes of the group were_You're My Only Love / Maybe I'm Wrong. or the girl group sound_Just A Fool For Your Love.

To Listen or Download_Just A Fool For Your Love. please visit;http://www.box.net/shared/h2tkn359ih

Unreleased sides...

 

Additional Note...


Their Single_Stop What You Are Doing / I Guess I'll Be. was released this same year by Arteen Records from Hollywood under the group name of The Vi-Tones. also in this label Dal La Roc released their version of the A side produced by Motola.

LISTEN...


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