The Diamonds

src: i.ytimg.com

The Diamonds is a Canadian vocal quartet that became famous in the 1950s and early 1960s with 16 Billboard hit records. The original members are Dave Somerville (lead), Ted Kowalski (tenor), Phil Levitt (baritone), and Bill Reed (bass). They are best known for interpreting and introducing rhythm and blues vocal music groups to a wider pop music audience. Contrary to popular myth, Tom Hanks's father was never a member of the group.

Video The Diamonds

History

1950s

In 1953, Dave Somerville, working as a sound engineer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, met three other people on a singing night as much as he did. They decided to form a stand-up quartet called The Diamonds. The group's first show was in the basement of St. Thomas Aquinas in Toronto, singing in Christmas evangelistic shows. The audience's reaction to the Somerville-led group was so positive that they decided that night they would become professionals.

After 18 months of practice, they drove to New York and tied for first place at Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts. The prize of being a guest artist for a week at the Godfrey show resulted in a recording contract with Coral Records. Professional musician Nat Goodman became their manager. Coral released four songs, the most famous being "Black Denim Trousers & Motorcycle Boots", written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

The next big step is auditioning with Cleveland, Ohio, disc jockey radio, Bill Randle, who has helped in the success of several popular groups, such as The Crew-Cuts. Randle was impressed with The Diamonds and introduced him to a producer at Mercury Records who signed the group to a record deal.

The first record of The Diamonds for Mercury is "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (originally from Frankie Lymon and Teenagers), who reached # 12 in the US as their first hit, and their follow-up hit single, "Church Bells May Ring" (initially by The Willows), reaching # 14 in the US

The biggest songs of The Diamonds were "Little Darlin" in 1957 (originally recorded by The Gladiolas, written by Maurice Williams) and "The Stroll" (1957), an original song written for the group by Clyde Otis, from an idea by Dick Clark.

Though they signed for rock and roll, Mercury also paired them with jazz composer and arranger Pete Rugolo, in one of the series' Meet series. The album, titled The Diamonds Meet Pete Rugolo , allows them to go back to their origins and perform some set of standards.

The group sang "Little Darlin" and "Where Mary Go" in the movie The Big Beat, and sang the theme song for another movie, Kathy-O .

Their television appearances include TV shows from Steve Allen, Perry Como, Vic Damone, Tony Bennett, Eddy Arnold, and Paul Winchell. They also appear on American Bandstand .

By the late 1950s Reed, Kowalski and Levitt left the group and were replaced by Mike Douglas, John Felten, and Evan Fisher.

1960s and 1970s

Despite the rock & amp; roll and their mercury contract expires, The Diamonds goes on tour to the country. After Dave Somerville left the group in 1961 to pursue a people's singing career as "David Troy", he was replaced by Jim Malone. No more hit records by The Diamonds after Somerville left. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s The Diamonds were done mostly in Las Vegas led, initially, by Mike Douglas, then continued by Glenn Stetson. At one time, there were at least two groups appearing under the name of The Diamonds, the others primarily led by John Felten until his death on May 17, 1982, in a plane crash. This created a problem in the late 1980s that eventually led to the trial. The right to use the name "The Diamonds" is given to Gary Owens (member of the Felten group) with the original members allowed to use his name on special occasions every year. Owens, along with members of Bob Duncan, Steve Smith (both former band members and television program Lawrence Welk), and Gary Cech, released the 1987 album, "Diamonds Are Forever", which contains two songs that go to the bottom of the Music Diagram Country, "Just a Little" and "Two Kinds of Women". In 2014, this "trademark" group is still on tour with Owen, Jerry Siggins, Sean Sooter, and Jeff Dolan.

2000s and so on

The Diamonds received national attention once again in 2000, when original members were invited to sing in the production of PBS TJ Lubinsky from Doo-Wop 51 , and again in the production of PBS entitled The Magic Moment-The Best Of '50s Pop in 2004.

Stetson received a heart transplant in 2000, and died in 2003. The original member Kowalski died on August 8, 2010, due to heart disease, at the age of 79 years.

In 2012 The Diamonds is listed as a guest star with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies at the Plaza Theater in Palm Springs, California. The Diamonds is on the Live On Stage list 2013-2014 for a nationwide community concert tour.

Somerville died on July 14, 2015, in Santa Barbara, California.

Maps The Diamonds

Original member

• Dave Somerville - Lead (died 2015)/Replaced by Jim Malone 1961
• Ted Kowalski - Tenor (died 2010)/Replaced by Evan Fisher 1958
• Phil Levitt - Baritone/Replaced by Mike Douglas 1957 (died 2012)
• Bill Reed - Bass (died 2004)/Replaced by John Felten 1958 (died 1982)/Replaced by Gary Cech until 1992 (voluntarily quit the group).

src: cdn1.thr.com

Member replacement

• Glenn Stetson - Main vocalist/replaced by John Felten in 1968. Mike Douglas remained with this group as the only original member recorded for Mercury in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Diamonds currently comprise Glenn Stetson (Canada), Harry Harding (Canada), Danny Rankin (USA), and Mike Douglas (Canada).
• Joe Derise - Vocalist and composer joined in 1969.
• Jerry Honeycutt - with John Felten in the mid-1970s, right up to the death of Felten.
• Steve Smith - from the The Lawrence Welk Show fame has been with The Diamonds since 1982.
• John Wagner - Vocalist, tenor and tenor sax, joined Glen Stetson in 1983 and with Stetson until 2003 when Stetson died. The Diamonds continued to perform until the death of Stetson. It should be understood that the group that evolved when Somerville left The Diamonds in 1961 and Mike Douglas continued this group is the same group that continued until his death in 2003. The continuation of history that began in 1968 ended with the death of Stetson./li> Mike Douglas and Joe Derise rejoined The Diamonds in 1988. Derise eventually died and Mike Douglas (one of the original singers of the Mercury group days) died in the summer of 2013.
• Bob Duncan, tenor, started singing with John Felton in 1979.
• Gary Owens, baritone, joins John Felton in 1975. He sings, plays saxophones and flutes, and performs most of the vocal settings for the group.
• Gary Cech, bass, started singing with Bob Duncan in 1982 shortly after John Felton's death and left the group in 1982.
• Jerry Siggins, bass

Jim Malone does imitation and also sings. He and Evan Fisher leave The Diamonds to form Fisher & amp; Malone.

John Felton reformed The Diamonds with vocalist Ron Neuman in the mid-1970s with Bob Duncan's tenor, Don Wade singing baritones, and with John Felton singing bass. The group continued until the sudden death of John Felton, which took place in 1982, while performing at John Ascuaga Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada. At this point there are several Diamond Groups popping up all over the United States. That's when Bob Duncan formed his Diamond version, Glen Stetson continued The Diamonds that evolved from the original group in the 50s, and Gary Owens also formed it. With all the confusion on behalf of The Diamonds, Neuman decided to move into the State market and Gospel, the trademark 'The Diamonds Vocal Band'. It left two groups of Berlian. The Stetson group has historically been ongoing since the birth of Duncan's group and group that evolved from the John Felton group from the 70s. Stetson has joined the Diamonds around 1970 as the lead singer.

src: i.ytimg.com

Discography

Original album

• Number One Stylist Maker in America
• The Diamonds Meet Pete Rugolo (Mercury, 1958) with Pete Rugolo
• Songs from Old West
• Laughs, Singing, Laughs

Compilation album

• American Famous Stylists
• Pop Hits
• The Best of The Diamonds: The Mercury Years
• Little Darlin '
• Scrapbook of Golden Hits
• Hall of Fame
• Best of The Diamonds
• The Diamonds Songbook (2007)
• The Stroll - 2 CD Set (2011)
• The Diamonds - 4 Classic Plus Albums (2015)

Singles

src: i.ytimg.com

Movie appearance

• The Big Beat (1958)

src: img00.deviantart.net

TV Shows

• The Eddy Arnold Show (1956)
• The Steve Allen Show (1957)

src: i.ytimg.com

Awards and honors

• In 1984, the Juno Canada "Hall of Fame" award by the Canadian Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• In October, 2004, was inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Sharon, Pennsylvania.
• In 2006 was inducted into The Doo-Wop Hall of Fame.

src: www.mm-group.org

See also

• Canadian Stone
• Canadian music

src: www.mm-group.org

References

src: i.ytimg.com

External links

• Official Fan Sites
• 'Vocal Group of Fame Vocal Diamonds'
• The Diamonds I
• The Diamonds II
• The Diamonds III
• The Diamonds IV
• The Diamonds at AllMusic
• Single Diamonds discography

Source of the article : Wikipedia