In 1956 five boys from the Garfield High School in Bergen County, New Jersey formed a vocal group,first know as The Bel-Airs and finally The Shal-Vans they were Dave Brigatti(Lead),Pete Grieco(1st Tenor),Ronnie Menhardt(2nd Tenor),Howie Lanza(Baritone) and Rudy Jezerak(Bass).by the next two years they sang at school affairs,dances and amateur shows some of these in the Apollo Theatre.
In 1958 their manager,Junie Dee send the group to Decca Records for an audition,the label liked the group but not like the name Shal-Vans and change their name to The Hi-Fives also the label changed their original black vocal group sound to a pop vocal group sound. The first recording came out in February,1958_My Friend/How Can I Win. the A side became very popular.
Two months later their second recording was out_Dorothy/Just A Shoulder To Cry.the B side have the background copied from The Heartbeat's tune_Crazy For You.
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_Dorothy. was a small hit in New York and a top ten in Hawaii the group did a lot of touring with this recording incluide Hawaii.
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In the summer of 1958 they recorded the side_Lonely. with words in italian and the B side_What's New,What's New. in this recording Joey Dee of The Starlighters fame(see in this blog) replaced Howwie Lanza.without success and disgusted with Decca the group finally disbanded and only Dave Brigatti continuing to sing.
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Below a rare set of photos of the group on a live perfomance...
Click to enlargue...
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