Sunday, June 7, 2020

THE 45's...The Continentals


According to doo wop music expert, Gerry Diez, this vinyl from the Continentals is one of the rarest  white vocal group recordings with a price of 3,000 dollars.

The Continentals And The Counts Of Rhythm.

-Hey Senorita  / Don't Leave Me. Muncie records - 1958.

LISTEN ...



This is the known story of this recording ...

In 1958, the doowop sound became more and more powerful and attracted the attention of the teenagers, and that is how five students from the Muncie Central High School in Indiana (Theotis Barnes, Phil Butts, Ralph Kersey, Ray Jimmerson and Elsworth Williams) decided to form a vocal group under the name The Continentals, after several weeks of rehearsals they brought together a band of school musicians (The Counts Of Rhythm; Jim Cox, Roy Alexander, and Bud Cole) and moved to Cincinnati to record a 45 rpm paid for themselves.

They recorded the Penguin´s song "Hey Senorita" and on the flip side "Don't Leave Me" the boys only had money to make 100 copies that were finally distributed locally in Indiana and its surroundings.

 
As you can read this is a private recording without any record label, but in Jeff Keiter's doo wop guide it appears under the label "MUNCIE" which is actually the group's hometown.

BUT...
 
 
Actually this is a black vocal group (see the above photo) maybe the confusion is due to the fact that their song "Don't Leave Me" has a white sound.

LISTEN...





1 comment:

BRONXGIRL10 said...

Fantastic uptempo "white group" sound not recorded by a white group! However,I did guess correctly that it was done by a black group!