Friday, July 3, 2009

RARE WHITE DOO WOP PICTURE SLEEVE


Gary Mears (aka Frederick Gary Mears) formed the Casuals with Jay Joe Adams and Paul Kearney in Dallas in the Summer of 1957. Don Robey's A&R man Joe Scott (the bandleader on most of Bobby Bland's classic side on Duke) flew to Dallas to record "So Tough" / "Listen My Darling" at Sellers Studio in October 1957.The Song became an immediate hit in Houston and Dallas regions where Robey held sway among influential Dee jays but was slow to move elsewhere. In December, Challenge Records of Hollywood recorded a cover version with a black vocal group, the Kuf-Linx, and this too became a territorial hit, mainly o the West Coast.

1958 they recorded this EP for Back Beat Records.




Robey sent the Casuals out on the road to visit disc jockeys and on 19th February 1958, the trio lip-synched "So Tough" on American Bandstand. On 24 February, the song entered the Hot 100, rising to #42.  At that point another group staked a prior claim to the Casuals' name and  on subsequent pressings of "So Tough" (in fact, the Majority) the trio were listed as the Original Casuals. Mears remained on the fringes of the Dallas Rock'n'roll scene and later penned "Summer's Comin" by Kirby St Romain, A Top 50 US hit in 1963.

LISTEN...

 

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