Vocal Group Roll Call

Clarence Burke, Jr., lead vocalist for Chicago's '60s soul group the Five Stairsteps died on May 26. He turned 64 the day before his death. The Stairsteps were a family group consisting of four (later five) brothers and a sister. They had 17 songs on the R&B charts, but only one of them, “O-o-h Child” cracked the top 10. Here's my favorite of their hits.

The first tenor of the Bronx group, the Regents, Sal Cuomo, died on June 10. (Guy Villari was the lead singer.) Cuomo had been a recluse and in poor health for many years. The Regents had a top 10 hit in 1961 with “Barbara Ann,” followed by a lesser hit, “Runaround.” “Barbara Ann” was covered by the Beach Boys in 1965. A parody of this song, “Bomb Iran,” was recorded during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980 by Vince Vance and the Valiants. The song returned to prominence when John McCain sang it during the 2008 presidential campaign, when it was situationally inappropriate, helping Barack Obama to win the election.

Cornelius “Nini” Harp, lead singer of the Marcels, died in Homestead, PA on June 5. The Marcels were a bi-racial Pittsburgh group who had a #1 R&B hit, “Blue Moon,” in 1961. It, and a followup, “Heartaches,” are best remembered for the power bass part by Fred Johnson. Harp's lead singing can be better appreciated on this ballad, “Goodbye to Love.”

The Marcels are members of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. In spite of the group's popularity in Pittsburgh, no obituary of Harp appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Here are the original members reunited for one of T. J. Lubinsky's PBS specials.

The bass singer of the Youngstown, Ohio group, the Edsels, Marshall Sewell, died of esophageal cancer on June 5 at the age of 75. The group originally recorded “Rama Lama Ding Dong” in 1958, but it went nowhere. Due to a printing error, the label read “Lama Rama Ding Dong,” making this disc a collector's item. It was reissued in 1961 and became a best seller, but their only hit. Sewell was a Cleveland policeman for many years.

Jimmy Steward, the last member of the late '40s-early '50s supergroup, the Ravens, died May 18 in Jacksonville, FL at age 86. He was a substitute member during the Ravens' declining years, replacing Leonard Puzey as second tenor from 1951-1953 while Puzey was in the service. He rejoined them in 1954 and stayed until they broke up in 1956. Although he was usually in the background, on this song, “Green Eyes,” he sings second lead to bass man Jimmy Ricks.

Finally, Moses “King Moe” Uzzell, of the Corsairs died on May 11 in Newark, NJ. He was 80. The Corsairs, from LaGrange, NC, consisted of three brothers, Jay “Bird” Uzzell, the lead singer, James and Moses, and their cousin, George Wooten. Their 1962 hit, “Smoky Places,” had a similar sound to the early '60s Drifters. Its lyrics were slightly more adult than the typical pop song of that era. Their followup, “I'll Take You Home,” was covered by the Drifters.

I'm grateful to the editors of Blues and Rhythm, a great magazine from England, for keeping me up to date on R&B deaths that typically don't make the newspapers in this country.