Lost & Found, Treasures from the Past

Poor Rock ‘N Roll It was the night of May 3, 1958 at the Boston Arena. A concert like any average Rock ‘N Roll concert hosted by DJ Alan Freed full of teens. This concert however took a turn for the worst, it broke out into a riot. This whole event led to the inspiration of “Poor Rock ‘N Roll”, a song released on the small “KLIK” label from New Haven, Connecticut; performed by the talented vocal group: The Nobles. The entire song explains the events of the night, and upon it’s release, it upset Alan Freed VERY much. Parents and even some senators had hated Alan Freed, this incident was such a big deal that they went after him. Alan was charged with inciting a riot, and quit his job as a DJ. Not only did he get into trouble with the riot, he got caught up in the “Payola Scandal” and was arrested and imprisoned. Payola is the illegal practice of payment by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, where the song is presented as being part of the normal day's b...

  (Original 1965 pressing from my collection)     Chicano groups from East L.A like "The Ambertones" have left their mark on the raza's musical history. The Ambertones were special however, because they could pull off almost ANY sound! Be it: Surf, Garage, Doo Wop, R&B, Blues,  and Soul - The Ambertones could play them all. They started out as "The Scepters" in the early 60's, while the group's members attended Roosevelt & Garfield Highschool in East LA. Their main style at first was surf, and later on in about '63, they started doing R&B covers and getting more and more into their own sound. The Ambertones eventually played for school and teen dances, and even won first place prize at Battle of The Bands at the Hollywood Palladium. In October of 1965, while on their second record label (and by now about to record their third release) - The Ambertones did a GORGEOUS cover of the Lenny Welch tune, "I Need Someone".  ...

(Label scan of this rare single from my collection)     Recorded in 1964, we see a very rare piece of group harmony history from Texas. Chase & Gene are Chase Canfil, and Gene Paul who met at a bar in Port Arthur, TX. Gene Paul, having recently been discharged from the United States Air Force, bought a $8 bus ticket that landed him in that area of Texas. Although Gene had been in the Air Force, he was also a jazz pianist, and Chase was a barber. Chase and Gene began to hang out, and eventually formed a band. Although Chase & Gene were white musicians, their 4 piece band consisted of only black musicians; EVEN despite the strong  racism present at the time. This combo only worked for about a year, but they recorded 2 singles for "Dart" records before dropping them. The combo was dropped due to the fact of race issues, police always gave the group a hard time, and were even banned from some Honky Tonks. In 1964, "You're Everything To Me" & "I Need...