The Avalons (1) - It's Funny But It's True - 1956 Groove 0141 -B.wmv

The Tidewater area of Virginia (Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach) has long been a hotbed for quartet singing. From it's roots with the Norfolk Jubilee Singers and Golden Gate Quartet to the Five Keys, the Avalons and Chateaus of the 1950's, the area has been known for it's great singers.

The Avalon's George Cox began singing during the late 1940's in Booker T. Washington High School's school choir, the same Norfolk high school attended years earlier by several members of the Golden Gate Quartet. At the same time, he started a vocal group there called the Bob-O-Links. Besides George, the group contains Bernard Branch, a fellow called Bachelor D. and a couple of other members whose names have been lost with time. The Bob-O-Links soon landed their own weekly radio show on station WRAP, hosted by Bob King and aired every Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, across the river in Newport News, two other singing groups were attracting attention. The Sentimental Four, a group that would eventually evolve into the Five Keys, consisted of two pairs of brothers, Rudy and Bernie West and Rafael and Ripley Ingram. They added Edwin Hall as a fifth member.

A second Newport News group formed, initially consisting of Bernard Purdie, his brother-in-law Charles "Bobby" Crawley, Ulysses Hicks and George Leroy Harris. At some point Maryland Pierce replaced Ulysses Hicks. This group was at different times called the Chimes, the Four Bees and the Five Chimes. It would eventually evolve into Encores and then be renamed the Avalons.

As is often the case with groups from the same locale, the Sentimental Four and Four Bees ended up exchanging members frequently. This was not done intentionally. It's just that when one singer found himself out of one group and another needed a singer, things happened. Thus, at one time or another, Edwin Hall and Rafael Ingram sang in the Four Bees, while Ulysses Hicks and Maryland Pierce ended up in the Five Keys.

Thus the Encores ended up composed of James Dozier (tenor), George Cox (tenor), Bobby Crawley (baritone) and Bernard Purdie (bass). In the early 1950's, the Encores joined the Silas Green tent show which took them into Canada for the first time. Even after leaving Silas Green some months later, the Encores decided to remain in Canada, playing clubs there, mostly in Montreal and Quebec.

In 1955 the Encores acquired Fanny Wolff as manager and she got them a recording contract with RCA's Groove label subsidiary. At Groove, the group would change its name to the Avalons and record the classics "Chain Around My Heart" and "It's Funny But It's True".

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[harptone55]

NICE!

[myraredoowop]

@harptone55 ,,, it's my pleasure,thanks.

[MartinGro131]

wooo u-u-uhooooo grohoooovey :D