LEADS-Pat Spann The Cleftones (Queens, New York) Personnel : Herbie Cox（Lead） Charles James（Tenor） Berman Patterson（Tenor） William "Buzzy" McClain（Baritone） Waren Cobin（Bass） Biography : In 1955, at Jamaica High School in Queens, New York, two singing groups - The Clefs and The Silvertones - merged to form The Cleftones. The lead singer was Herbie Cox and other group members were Berman Patterson, Warren Corbin (bass), Charlie James and William "Buzzy" McClain. Vocal battles were regularly fought with other local groups, including Gene Pearson's Rivileers and James Sheppard's Hearts (later The Heartbeats). The Cleftones, all aged between 16 and 18, practiced in the back room of a beauty parlour owned by Buzzy's parents on 107th Avenue and Merrick Road. Their early influences were The Swallows, The Diamonds, The Cardinals, The Moonglows and The Penguins. However, as the group developed, they began to favour the more up-tempo songs and began to write in that vein. (Charles James, William McClane, Warren Corbin, Marlene, Berman Patterson and Herbert Cox) In late 1955, encouraged by their school-friend manager Dave Ralnick, the boys auditioned for Apollo, Baton and Old Town, but were turned down by them all. The next stop was Rama Records at 220, West 42nd Street, in an office over the PAL (Police Athletic League). Label owner George Goldner auditioned them and immediately signed them to his newly-formed Gee label (named after The Crows mega-hit which had been the making of Rama's fortunes in 1954). "You Baby You"/"I Was Dreaming" (Gee 1000) was released in December 1955 (just a month later, Elvis was appearing on The Dorsey Brothers' TV Show and RCA were putting all their resources behind "Heartbreak Hotel"). "You Baby You" followed its label-mate "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" into the Billboard Pop charts and reached #78, selling an estimated 150,000 copies. The next release was Herbie's own competition "Little Girl Of Mine" (Gee 1011) (hands up all Shakers singing "Diddle liddle liddle liddle lit, yeah"). It sold over 750,000 during its heyday, and probably close to a million more since then. The record was released in the UK on Columbia 3801 (45 and 78), with the earlier hit "You Baby You" on the flip. Needless to say, the sales hardly registered a blip on the graph, hence it's supposed value of £400 (mint) in the Record Collector "Rare Record Guide". Subsequent releases through the remainder of 1956 and 1957 included "Can't We Be Sweethearts?", "String Around My Heart", "Why Do You Do Me Like You Do?", "See You Next Year", "Hey Babe" and "Lover Boy", most of which can be found on the 1990 Rhino CD "Best Of The Cleftones" (B0000032S9), but the sales never matched those of their first two releases. The group's first big live show in 1956 was at Detroit's Fox Theatre with The Cadillacs, Lavern Baker, Lonnie Donegan, Bobby Lewis, Bob Crewe and The Royal Jokers. The group were visually exciting and were always in demand for live appearances. They set a record by appearing 12 times in one year at Murray The K's Apollo Theatre dance parties. Alan Freed used them on nine holiday special shows (on one such Paramount show in 1957 the group backed up Charlie Gracie singing his hit "Butterfly" while singing from the wings - the group, that is, not Charlie). In the summer of 1958 the Cleftones recorded their first Roulette record (#4094) "She's So Fine" and "Trudy". Once again it was not a big hit. In 1959 they made another record on Roulette (#4161)