The Sparrows are most known for “Love Me Tender,” a song that was released to take advantage of Elvis' tune. However, the songs were different, the Sparrows had nothing to do with the decision, and, in fact, were no longer even in existence when the event occurred.

Perry Heyward was born in South Carolina, and came to New York around 1944. Growing up on a southern farm, he wasn't used to big city ways. Says Perry, “We made slingshots to shoot birds.... I was 13 when I saw my first Apollo show. They had the Orioles and I fell in love with the music right then.”

The Sparrows were born in the spring of 1952, when Perry, a student at the New York Vocational High School, saw a crowd of people on the street one day. Investigation showed that there were three guys singing, and a lot of spectators. When the crowd had dispersed, Perry asked if they knew the new Dominoes' tune, “Have Mercy Baby.” They did, and, with Perry in the lead, the Sparrows were born. The others were: David Martin (second tenor), Henry “Claude” Brown (baritone), and Joseph “Rocky” Washington (bass). They were all around 16 at the time.

The Sparrows began practicing songs by the Dominoes and Orioles, but their specialty was “Danny Boy.” “We sang it on streets and in the subway. Once we were in the subway, and a guy that was with us held out his hat, for a joke. People started putting money in it. A fireman put in a $20 bill.”

Soon enough they starting writing their own material. They worked with an arranger named Collier, who lived on 73rd Street and Central Park West. He was a pianist to whom they were introduced by trumpeter Hot Lips Page. While he helped them with some of their arrangements, it came as a surprise to Perry that his name appears, as writer, on every Sparrows tune (along with Rocky's).

There was a girl who lived next door to Perry, and through her the Sparrows would be invited to parties (to sing, of course). It was at one of these, in early 1953, that the Sparrows met a couple of the Checkers. It turned out that Checkers' bass Bill Brown was a cousin of the girl that Perry was to marry.

A few months later, Perry was told that the Checkers wanted to see him. He looked up Bill Brown and was told that the group's lead singer, John Carnegie, was being drafted. Since they were impressed with his singing, they wanted him to try out for the lead chores. Perry accompanied Bill downtown to the studio where the auditions were being held. About seven singers had already tried out, with some ten more waiting. Once Perry sang “When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano” for them, the others were sent home.

At this point, the Checkers weren't working all that much, and spent a lot of time practicing. Perry was also practicing with the Sparrows, who weren't working at all! Aside from bass Bill Brown, the other members of the Checkers are only remembered as “Joe” and “Teddy.”

On April 17, 1953 (the day your author turned 9), the Checkers went into the studio to cut two sides for King Records: “I Wanna Know” (a cover of the Du Droppers tune) and “Ghost Of My Baby.” Perry did lead on both sides (with help from Bill Brown on “Ghost”). “Ghost Of My Baby” is one of my favorite songs. If you've never really paid attention to it, it's about a guy who has such a high opinion of himself as a lover, that he dreams his recently-deceased girlfriend comes back “all the way from heaven, just to be with me once more.” Perry wasn't happy with “Ghost Of My Baby,” however, since he had to sing in a range with which he wasn't comfortable.

The record was released later that month, and received good reviews the week of May 16, 1953. Other records reviewed that week were: Goldie Boots & the Falcons' “You're The Beating Of My Heart,” the Blenders' “If That's The Way You Want It Baby,” the Treniers' “Rockin' Is Our Bizness,” Gene Ammons' “Red Top,” and Tiny Bradshaws' “The Blues Came Tumbling Down.”

Since Perry was now the tenor lead of the Checkers, when they played Brooklyn's Baby Grand, he got to do lead on their former releases, like “Night's Curtains” and “Flame In My Heart.” However, this turned out to be their only appearance while he was with them, although they did a lot of parties. (I don't know about you, but I find it hard to imagine the Checkers doing parties!) When Perry sang “Ghost Of My Baby,” it was an emotional affair: “I used to fall on my knees to sing it.”

With nothing happening with the Checkers, and with Perry about to be married, he left within a few months to concentrate on the Sparrows. His replacement in the Sparrows was Little David Baughan, whose voice was nearly a carbon copy of Clyde McPhatter's.

In the meantime, someone in the Sparrows had interested Joe Davis in recording them for his Jay-Dee label; Perry has no memory of how it came about, nor does he remember Joe Davis. The contract that they signed lists six names: Perry, David, Henry, and Joseph, along with Leo Fuller and Eugene Merriday. Leo (better known today as “Tiny,” a member of Joe Duncan's Vocaleers) was a friend of the group and used as a substitute singer. Says Perry: “He was one of the guys who liked to sing. He was a fill-in singer.” According to the contract, so was Eugene Merriday, but Perry doesn't remember the name at all! Others who sang with the Sparrows on and off were Floyd Adams (later to become lead of the Keynotes) and the enigmatic “J.D.,” lead of the 5 Crowns on Gee (whom I interviewed in the 70s, but who wouldn't tell me his name: “Everyone just knows me as 'J.D.'”).

The first Sparrows session took place on September 17, 1953. They recorded four songs that day: “I'll Be Lovin' You” (led by Rocky, “Tell My Baby” (led by Perry), “Love Me Tender” (Perry again), and “Why Did You Leave Me” (with David in front). The sparse instrumentation was provided by Gil Stevens (piano), Tony Guttusso (guitar), and Frank Carroll (bass). Was Perry nervous? “I was so nervous, I hardly remember anything.”

Possibly hedging his bets, Joe Davis waited until a week after the session to announce to the world that he'd signed both the Sparrows and Otis Blackwell. (On the same date, September 26, Herman Lubinsky announced that he'd signed the Wanderers to his Savoy label.)

While Davis was making up his mind what to release, he scheduled a second session for the Sparrows. This one took place on October 10, 1953, and the guys recorded another four songs: “Hey!” (led by Rocky), “Come Back To Me” (with Perry out front), “I'm Gonna Do That Woman In” (Rocky), and “I'm Gonna Hold My Baby Tight” (Rocky again). The musicians were the same, except that this time Al Williams was on piano.

The interesting song here was “Hey!,” written, as stated before, by Washington and Collier. However, the song originally saw the light of day as a Cap-Tans record (“Crazy 'Bout My Honey Dip”) back in August of 1950. In October of 1955, the Saigons would also “write” it, when it was released on Dooto as “Honey Gee.”

Finally, in November 1953, Davis released a Sparrows record: “Tell My Baby” (printed as “Tell Me Baby” on the label), backed with “Why Did You Leave Me.” The disk doesn't seem to have been reviewed, but it was competing with the Dominoes' “Rags To Riches,” the Clovers' “Comin' On,” the Du Droppers' “Don't Pass Me By,” the Lamplighters' “Be-Bop Wino,” the Flairs' “You Should Care For Me,” the Swallows' “I'll Be Waiting,” the Platters' “Give Thanks,” the Shadows' “Don't Be Bashful,” the Spaniels' “The Bells Ring Out,” Little Esther's “Stop Cryin',” and Budd Johnson's “Off Shore.”

The record failed to take off, and in February 1954, Joe Davis released “Hey!,” coupled with “I'll Be Lovin' You.” He was trying for a different sound here: the first two songs were tenor-led; these were both bass-led. The record was reviewed the week of March 20, along with Louis Jordan's “Oo Wee,” Jimmy Forrest's “Flight 3-D,” T-Bone Walker's “Vida-Lee,” and the Meadowlarks' “LFMST Blues.”

And what kind of appearances were the Sparrows making during this time? Almost none! They had done the Apollo amateur show, and mostly went around to small clubs and bars asking if they could perform. They went to Small's Paradise (when it was still owned by Edwin Small; Tommy “Dr. Jive” Smalls wouldn't purchase it until November 1955) and “we asked the owner if we could sing.” When they were lucky enough to get onto a stage, they were paid, at most, $5 each and some food. Nipsey Russell got them a gig at Brooklyn's Baby Grand. Hot Lips Page got them into a benefit show which also had the Heartbeats, the Valentines, and Edna McGriff. Bandleader Lucky Millinder also got them some gigs. However, they never appeared anywhere outside of New York City.

Finally the lack of work got to them. To place the blame, Perry says: “We didn't have anybody to manage us.” With wives and children to support, anything looked better than singing. But they never gave up entirely.

In mid-1954, David Martin became the second Sparrow to join the Checkers. Along with bass Bill Brown, lead tenor Eddie Harris, and baritone James Williams, they did the last “real” Checkers session for King on October 1, 1954. Recorded that day were “Mama's Daughter,” “Can't Find My Sadie,” “Trying To Hold My Gal,” and “I Wasn't Thinking, I Was Drinking.”

In mid-1955 Rocky Washington replaced army-bound James “Archie” Archer as bass of the Wrens. With them he recorded “Hey Girl,” “Serenade Of The Bells,” “Betty Jean,” and “She's My Everything” in October 1955, “What Makes You Do The Things You Do” and “I Won't Come To Your Wedding” in November 1955, and “C'est La Vie” in January 1956. He also appeared with the Wrens at the great Alan Freed Christmas show at the Academy Of Music on 14th Street and 3th Avenue in Manhattan. Other acts on that bill were the Heartbeats, the Valentines, Count Basie, Boyd Bennett & the Rockets, Lavern Baker, the Bonnie Sisters, and the Cadillacs. I'm happy to say I saw that show (however, the operative word here is saw; everyone was screaming so much that I couldn't actually hear any of the acts - and the only way I could see at all was by standing on the seat like everyone else!). Note that Rocky had written “Betty Jean” and “She's My Everything.”

Then, in 1956, Perry and Rocky decided to have another go at it. Along with tenor Freddy Johnson, and his brother, baritone Gilbert Johnson, they formed the Performers. Freddy Johnson had been associated with the Sparrows, too. He'd done some arranging for them and helped them get some gigs. (David Martin occasionally joined them, but he wasn't on their record.)

Somehow they got a recording session with All Star Records, owned by Leo Rogers and Sid Arky. Around August, 1956 they recorded “Give Me Your Heart” (led by Perry) and “I'll Make You Understand” (fronted by Freddy, with great bass work by Rocky). The record was released in September.

It's interesting to lift aside the curtain and look behind the scenes in the recording industry. According to Donn Fileti of Relic, the copyrights of the two songs were split between Acme Music (owned by Rogers and Arky) and

“ADT Music, attorney Warren Troob's front for WINS deejay Alan Freed. 'I'll Make You Understand' got a few weeks of concentrated play on Freed's important evening 'Rock and Roll Party' on WINS....”

It doesn't stop there. There was a deal to have the record distributed by Tico Records, which was owned by George Goldner, whose partner was Joe Kolsky, whose brother was Phil Kahl, whose partner was Morris Levy, who was Alan Freed's manager. A pattern emerges!

With all this, the record doesn't seem to have been reviewed, but the competition it faced was from Lavern Baker's “I Can't Love You Enough,” the Teen Queens' “Red Top,” the Hearts' “He Drives Me Crazy,” the Penguins' Mercury remake of “Earth Angel,” the Falcons' “Baby, That's It,” the Vocaltones' “My Version Of Love,” the Pyramids' “Okay Baby,” the Keynotes' “Now I Know,” the 5 Lyrics' “I'm Traveling Light,” the Clouds' “Rock And Roll Boogie,” the Sophomores' “Linda,” the Turbans' “It Was A Night Like This,” the Monarchs' “Pretty Little Girl,” the Pearls' “Let's You And I Go Steady,” the Platters' “You'll Never, Never Know,” the Dells' “Oh What A Night,” the Chestnuts' “Forever I Vow,” the Teenagers' “The ABC's Of Love,” Fats Domino's “Blueberry Hill,” Big Maybelle's “Mean To Me,” the Cadets' “Dancin' Dan,” the Heartbeats' “A Thousand Miles Away,” and the Calvaes' “Mambo Fiesta.” That's some competition!

It was right around this time that Elvis Presley's first movie, “Love Me Tender” opened; of course the title tune went skyrocketing straight up the charts. Joe Davis, or one of his a&r men, remembered that a couple of years before, someone had recorded a song with the same title. A little digging produced the Sparrows master, which was released, in October 1956, on the Davis label; the flip was “Come Back To Me.” Although Davis was only trying to make a quick buck from people who might mistake the tune for the Elvis opus, the public got another two chances to hear Perry Heyward singing lead.

“Love Me Tender” was reviewed (quite poorly) the week of November 3, 1956, along with Ivory Joe Hunter's “Since I Met You Baby,” Screamin' Jay Hawkins' “I Put A Spell On You,” B.B. King's “On My Word Of Honor,” the Cadillacs' “Shock-A-Do,” the El Dorados' “Bim Bam Boom,” the Midnighters' “I'll Be Home Some Day,” Bobby Mitchell's “You Are My Angel,” the Robins' “That Old Black Magic,” Prentice Moreland's “I've Never Been There,” and the Dukes' “Wini Brown.”

And then the Performers met the same fate as the Sparrows. The guys were married and couldn't devote the time; they had no agent to watch out for them; they got no bookings; they got no money. The usual.

Is Perry sad that there was no financial success with any of the groups he was with? Not really. “We didn't think of things like that. We thought of singing and girls, not money.” Still, it's a shame there couldn't have been appearances and recognition (and a few bucks too).

JAY-DEE
783 Tell My Baby (PH)/Why Did You Leave Me (DM) — 11/53
790 Hey! (JW)/I'll Be Lovin' You (JW) — 2/54

DAVIS
456 Love Me Tender (PH)/Come Back To Me (PH) — 10/56

      UNRELEASED SPARROWS
            I'm Gonna Do That Woman In (JW)
            I'm Gonna Hold My Baby Tight (JW)

ALL STAR
714 Give Me Your Heart (PH)/I'll Make You Understand (FJ) — 9/56
Also released on TIP TOP 402, later in 1956

KING
4626 Ghost Of My Baby (PH/BB)/I Wanna Know (PH) — 4/53

KING
4751 Mama's Daughter (EH/BB)/I Wasn't Thinking, I Was Drinking (EH/BB) — 11/54
4764 Can't Find My Sadie (EH)/Trying To Hold My Gal (EH/BB) — 12/54