Dean Barlow (1934-2013)

One of the last outstanding '50s R&B vocal group lead singers has died. Grover “Dean” Barlow was the voice of the smooth Bronx group, the Crickets—not to be confused with Buddy Holly's backup band. He also was the lead of the Bachelors, also known as the Montereys, and was a solo performer. He died in an Edenton, NC nursing home on September 29. He had been suffering from dementia.

Grover Barlow was born in Detroit on Christmas Day of 1934. He moved to the Morrisania section of the Bronx in 1951 when he was 16. At the Forest House Community Center, he met an untitled vocal group in search of a lead. The group consisted of Grover Barlow, lead; Harold Johnson, tenor and guitar; Eugene Stapleton, tenor; Leon Carter, baritone; and Rodney Jackson, bass. They sang pop standards and some original tunes by Johnson and Stapleton.

They acquired an agent, Cliff Martinez, who introduced them to Joe Davis, a veteran producer of race records whose career began in the 1920s. He had previously released records by many jazz and R&B artists, including Coleman Hawkins and Savannah Churchill. It was Davis who named them the Crickets. He wisely copyrighted the name and in 1958 received a large cash settlement from Buddy Holly's manager, Norman Petty. Davis also suggested that Barlow use the first name “Dean”—apparently “Grover” sounded too old-fashioned for a pop star—but Barlow remained “Grover” to his friends and family.

On December 2, 1952, the Crickets recorded four sides that Davis leased to M-G-M records. Two of them, “You're Mine” and “For You I Have Eyes,” are widely acknowledged classics of the group harmony genre. “You're Mine”/”Milk and Gin” was released in February and reached #10 on the R&B charts. “For You I Have Eyes”/”I'll Cry No More” was issued in June but did not chart. 

Davis released 13 other Crickets sides on his own labels, Beacon, Davis and Jay-Dee. They are all worth listening to, but none had the magic of the first two. Barlow sang lead on all of their songs except “Man in the Moon,” which features Harold Johnson. They can all be found on the out-of-print Relic CD, Dreams and Wishes, which is well worth seeking out.

In late 1953, Davis encouraged Barlow to embark on a solo career and the group broke up. Johnson went on to be a member of the Mellows, featuring lead singer Lillian Leach, who died in April. Barlow released about 15 records as a single artist between 1955 and 1964. None of them were very successful. They are hard to find, but not all necessarily worth finding.

In 1956, Barlow formed the Bachelors, who had two releases on the Earl label which, to the best of my knowledge, are not available on CD. In 1957, they changed their name to the Montereys and recorded four songs for Sammy Lowe's Onyx label. One of them, the up-tempo “Dearest One,” on which Barlow harmonizes with William Lindsay, was a New York favorite but never charted. The last two Onyx songs were not released until a couple of decades later. All four can be heard on another out-of-print Relic CD, The Best of Onyx Records.

After retiring from the music business, Grover Barlow worked for Western Union as a Director of Community Relations. He put together a Crickets group on the '90s to perform at oldies shows in the Northeast. Here he is singing "You're Mine" at a PORCC show in Pittsburgh in 1992, accompanied by three Bronx vocal group veterans, Freddy Barksdale, Bobby Mansfield and Milton Love.

He joined with Lillian Leach and several neighborhood friends to form the Morrisania Revue. They released a CD in 1994. The Crickets were inducted into the United in Group Harmony Association Hall of Fame in 1999. 

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