Frankie Spinale was born in 1941 in Boston. In 1958, he found a bunch of guys who felt the same way: the Crescents. That was his first vocal group and they were together for three years. They did a lot of record hops. Frankie took the name Paris from another singer he saw in Boston who was working in the clubs, he had the name Bobby Paris. Frankie need a name that is gonna be easy, Americanized. So he changed it up. Then in 1962, Frankie Paris ventured into New York with eighty bucks in his pocket on a Greyhound bus, with one suitcase. He met this guy, who was also in a singing group. His name was Al Vega. They went to Broadway a week later, and met two other guys. The first was Glen Hockaday playing a guitar. He came from Washington, D.C.. So they started singing. And the harmonies sounded great. So then the three walked farther up towards the Ed Sullivan Theater. And a guy comes down the street, his name is Chuck Howard, he hears the harmonies and join the group. An interracial group, Frankie Paris was Italian American, Al Vega was Spanish, the other two guys were black. They started singing in the streets. Later on they got the name the Wonders. here was this rehearsal studio at 1697 Broadway, at 53 rd Street.
The Crescents L to R : Nelson Caruso, Jack Carroll, Frankie (Spinale) Paris, Butch Russo.
They rented a hall, for like a buck and a half. And we started rehearsing, singing different songs and next room over was a production company. Independent producers were the thing at that time. They meet the Independent producers, there's four of them, and they’re The Tokens. The Tokens tell them - "The sound is interesting. Go write some songs. Come back on Monday." So The Wonders went to Glen Hockaday 's house in Brooklyn, wrote two songs, came back on Monday. They heard one song, they loved it and signed the Wonders to a two-year contract. in 1963 they had a record out, "Say There." The B-side was "Marilyn," written by the Tokens themselves.They got a lot of airplay, although the "Say There" side failed to crack either the Billboard or Cash Box "Top 100" it was a "Top 40" hit in several markets between August and October, 1963...Springfield, MA, Baltimore, MD, Bakersfield, CA, Detroit, MI, Pittsburgh, PA and Columbus, OH. ..also "Top 50" in Buffalo, NY .
In 1965 Frankie Paris took off for Vegas with one of the members of the original Wonders, and they put a band together. They were called Satan's Four (above picture) and did a Motown repertoire, rhythm-and-blues stuff. They were at a club called the Pussycat A Go- Go. The Satans Four recorded "I Can't Find The Girl On My Mind" and "Oh Kathy" released on the B.T. Puppy a company established by The Tokens.
LISTEN...
No comments:
Post a Comment