The start of this whole mélange goes back to Sheridan "Rip" Spencer, who attended Los Angeles' Jordan High School, and his cousin Brice Coefield, who attended L.A. High. The cousins sang together and, as usually happens, they decided to "form a group". The group they formed was called the Sabers, and consisted of a first tenor remembered only as "Herbie", second tenor Rip, baritone Brice, and bass Walter Carter.
They auditioned for Hite Morgan, owner (with Jack Arbuckle) of Cal-West Records, and one day in the Fall of 1955, went to Morgan's studio in the Silver Lake district (near Hollywood), to record a single side, ALWAYS, FOREVER. Rip sang lead on this tune, which he had written. And then, without having recorded a flip, they went home and added a new member! First tenor (and bass) Billy Spicer was a schoolmate of Brice's, and was in L.A. High's choir. Brice was impressed with Billy's high voice (another singer who was heavily influenced by Clyde McPhatter) and recruited him for the group. (Incidentally, Billy usually used his mother's last name, calling himself Billy Jones, but was also known, over the years, as Billy Fortune and Billy Storm. "Spicer" is his original name, however.)
Then it was back to Hite Morgan to record a flip for ALWAYS, FOREVER; it was a Christmas ditty entitled COOL, COOL CHRISTMAS, with Brice on lead. The record was released in late 1955, but failed to set the world on fire. The Sabers faded into history by the simple expedient of changing their name. One day the "Sabers" became the "Chavelles".
Brice's father was a postman, who worked in the Sugar Hill District (an area of Los Angeles where famous black stars like Lena Horne, Joe Louis, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson lived). One of the stars that Mr. Coefield delivered mail to was jazz pianist Lloyd Glenn, to whom he mentioned that his son was part of a singing group. Glenn showed some interest, and eventually met the Chavelles, giving them a song that he'd written: RED TAPE. Actually, the best thing that Glenn did for the group was to introduce them to Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, an A&R man for Specialty Records. Bumps started coming to Chavelles' rehearsals at the Coefield home (Mr. & Mrs. Coefield always enthusiastically backed Brice and Rip), and finally arranged for a session to record RED TAPE and VALLEY OF LOVE, a ballad written by Billy and Brice. The sides were recorded at the studio of the legendary Ted Brinson, who had recorded the Penguins' EARTH ANGEL.
Bumps took the masters and presented them to Larry Mead and Mike Gradny, of Pasadena's Vita Label, who released the sides in May of 1956. (Bumps handled it all; the Chavelles never met either Mead or Gradny.) VALLEY OF LOVE featured Billy on lead, and RED TAPE was led by Brice. Actually, none of the Chavelles even knew that the record was going to come out on Vita; they only found out when they received copies. Once again there was no action, and this time Herb left to pursue a religious career and Walter joined another group.
But Billy, Rip, and Brice were determined to sing! As the Chavelles, they'd been doing shows at the American Legion Hall in Pasadena; it was at one of these that they met the Squires (who were actually their labelmates on Vita, except that the Chavelles had never been to Vita). Chester Pipkin was the guitarist for the Squires (also singing first and second tenor), and the Chavelles appropriated him to accompany them at rehearsals. "This is where we met the Squires, which Chester was in. Chester played guitar and we kinda needed somebody to help us along at our rehearsals that could play an instrument and we recruited Chester. He was still with the Squires, but they were in the process of breaking up.... Every Sunday, for months, we would go up to Chester and he would rehearse us and eventually he would put in his voice with what we were doing and we formed the Valiants." It was only Billy, Rip, and Brice who rehearsed with Chester; Herb and Walter had already left.
So Billy Storm, Rip Spencer, Brice Coefield, and Chester Pipkin became the Valiants, named after the "Prince Valiant" comic strip. Note that they not only added Chester's voice, they appropriated his house to practice in!
The Valiants would have ended up recording for Specialty had Bumps not had differences with the management there. As it was, they met several people who were associated with Specialty: Sam Cooke, Little Richard, Lou Rawls, Sonny Bono, the Pilgrim Travelers, and John Marascalco (about whom more later).
Bumps recorded about ten sides with the Valiants, in three independent sessions. The first two masters had only a trio (for some reason Billy wasn't on these). Bumps took them and placed them with the Mesner brothers' Aladdin label (which was right down the street from Specialty). HAPPENIN' AFTER SCHOOL and MY UNFAITHFUL LOVE would have been the first record by the Valiants, except that Aladdin credited them as the "Gents" on the label. (It's not certain whether the record came out first on Aladdin or on its Lamp subsidiary.)
Bumps' sessions had mostly the same musicians: Earl Palmer, Googie Rene, Ernie Freeman, Plas Johnson, and Jackie Kelso. Since they were basically jazz musicians, they brought with them a wealth of talent. As a matter of fact, since Bumps and Earl Palmer were such good friends, he was the one who placed the groups' first masters with Aladdin (since he produced many of the Shirley & Lee sessions there).
And then, taking Specialty artist Sam Cooke with him, Bumps left Specialty, making a deal with John Siamas of Keen Records (on West Third Street, in West LA), to become A&R man there. (Siamas had made his money during World War II, when he owned a company that supplied aircraft parts to the government.) Most of the Valiants' masters were released by Keen and its subsidiaries, Ensign and Andex. While Bumps was never their manager, he did look after the Valiants' interests: they became BMI and AFTRA members, and, as such, were paid union scale for their sessions. While they'd never get rich that way, they did get paid. In addition to sessions, Bumps promoted live concerts with Sam Cooke, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Young Jessie, and up-and-coming acts like Jan & Dean. When these shows played the West Coast, the Valiants were Sam Cooke's opening act.
The Valiants had two more sessions with Bumps at this time. The first produced THIS IS THE NIGHT; GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY; LOVER, LOVER; WALKIN' GIRL; and FRIEDA, FRIEDA. At the second they did TEMPTATION OF MY HEART, PLEASE WAIT MY LOVE and WE KNEW.
Finally, Rip, Brice, Chester and Billy got their break: the first record released on Keen (in November 1957), THIS IS THE NIGHT, took off. With Billy in the lead of this pretty ballad penned by the entire group, it reached #43 on the R&B charts and #69 Pop. This may not sound like much, but consider that the vast majority of songs released never make the charts at all! The flip was a tune that had been co-authored by Bumps Blackwell: GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY. While Little Richard had recorded the song earlier, the Valiants' version was actually released first. That's Billy doing his best Little Richard imitation on it. The song was recorded at a much faster tempo than Little Richard's, and they kept singing it take after take after take (Don and Dewey were present at the session: Don as bassist, and Dewey on piano and overdubbed guitar). Rip says, "Bumps was experimenting with GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY even though he'd already recorded Little Richard with it. Boy, was it ever fast! Whew, I mean fast!"With only a single record released, the Valiants were brought back into the studio on February 4, 1958, to record WE KNEW and PLEASE WAIT MY LOVE. At the same time, they backed up Kylo Turner (former member of the Pilgrim Travelers) on three sides: WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY, HEAVENLY, and SKINNY MINNY.
While the Valiants never had a real manager, John Criner served, on occasion, as their road manager. Criner, manager of the Olympics and owner of the Shade and Spot Record companies, was also married to singer Effie Smith.
February 1958 saw their next Keen release: LOVER, LOVER (once again written by the group and led by Billy) paired with WALKIN' GIRL (led and composed by Brice). At the time it was recorded, Bumps was involved with an instrumental group from Nicaragua; he was experimenting with a Latin sound. While neither side charted, someone at Keen had high hopes for WALKIN' GIRL, as it was released three times.
This was followed by FRIEDA, FRIEDA and TEMPTATION OF MY HEART. Billy led the former (once again doing his Little Richard imitation on his own composition), and Chester fronted TEMPTATION OF MY HEART.
Next, in October 1958, was PLEASE WAIT MY LOVE (with FRIEDA, FRIEDA on the flip), which also did nothing. Their final release, in May 1959, was on Keen's Ensign subsidiary: WE KNEW and WALKIN' GIRL. While WE KNEW received a lot of airplay (at least in New York), it never made the charts. "We were becoming real tight in our harmony and real tight as a group at that time. But Billy had other ideas and WE KNEW was the very last song we recorded as the Valiants." Not only were the Valiants getting disillusioned, Keen was close to going out of business.
When no further success seemed forthcoming, Billy left the group and teamed up with the remnants of the Vita Squires, recording EVERY WORD OF THE SONG and LISTEN TO YOUR HEART for Hite Morgan and his wife Dorinda. This 1958 pairing was released on the Morgans' Dice label as by Billy Fortune and the Squires and on their Deck label as by Billy Storm and the Squires. No matter, for a storm, it made no waves.
Also in 1958, Billy did some recording for the Barbary Coast label, with the Squires as an uncredited backup group. THE WAY TO MY HEART and ANGEL OF MINE were recorded at Hite Morgan's house and released in August.
1959 saw Billy's only hit record. Switching to Columbia (whose files indicate that his contract was purchased from Barbary Coast for $1700), he did I'VE COME OF AGE, which made it to #28 on the Pop charts. Mitch Miller handled the session, in which a vocal group chorus was used. A second 1959 session had no group. In 1960 and 1961 he had two sessions for Atlantic records (produced by Phil Spector) which resulted in three singles. On at least two of them he had abandoned his Little Richard imitation for his Clyde McPhatter imitation (which was quite good). Most of the songs were old R&B standards: DEAR ONE, WHEN YOU DANCE, A KISS FROM YOUR LIPS, and HONEY LOVE. He also threw in the pop standard IN THE CHAPEL IN THE MOONLIGHT. However, none of these charted. Billy was to drift in and out of whatever group Rip and Brice were with over the years, depending on how broke he was.
Meanwhile, back at the Valiants, Rip, Brice, and Chester got a couple of new members. It was hard, at first, to find someone to replace Billy Storm. One summer day, while on a bus going to see "Porgy And Bess," Rip met Don Trotter, who recognized Rip from a Valiants performance in Fresno. Rip invited Don to a rehearsal, at which he was hired. (Don, a first and second tenor, actually had a voice like that of James "Pookie" Hudson of the Spaniels. He was also one of the writers of LOVE LAND, a 1970 hit for Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band.) Don then introduced them to bass Ed Wallace, with whom he'd been in the Air Force; Ed was also hired.
They did one last record as the Valiants, on the Shar-Dee label (distributed by London Records) in 1959. One side was DEAR CINDY (a reworking of the Squires' SINDY) with Chester in the lead. The flip was SURPRISE, a kind of companion piece to Bobby Darin's SPLISH SPLASH, written and led by Brice. They then changed the name of the group to the "Untouchables." Rip says "we thought our singing was so great we just felt it was untouchable." He's very adamant that the group wasn't named after the hit TV show, but with its notoriety, it's difficult to see how it couldn't have had some influence on the decision.
At this point, they hooked up with Herb Alpert and Lou Adler, both of whom (with Bumps Blackwell) had been A&R men at Keen Records. "Bumps was a big influence on many of the black artists ... and Lou and Herbie picked up a lot of tricks and wisdom for the business through Bumps Blackwell." Lou and Herb approached the Untouchables, saying that they had some things in mind and wanted to produce them. "We got along pretty good and they presented to us a music track that was recorded on the East Coast — something happened to that group — they wanted us to listen to that track and see if we could make a song out of it." What resulted was POOR BOY NEEDS A PREACHER, recorded for Madison, a new label from New York (Lou Adler was somehow involved with owner Larry Uttal). Note that there's a Brice Coefield release on Madison too: CHA-CHA TWIST/TEMPTED. This came out around October 1960, while the group was still together.
Lou and Herb were the Untouchables' producers. They had an office on Sunset Strip, where the group would sometimes go and rehearse. Herb Alpert was just beginning to play the trumpet and "while we'd rehearse, Herbert would put his little licks in between. We used to tell Herbie, 'Hey man, don't do that, you're throwing us off.' He really couldn't play trumpet at that time, but boy, look at him now!"
Most of the Untouchables leads are by Brice, but Ed Wallace is featured on POOR BOY NEEDS A PREACHER and 60 MINUTE MAN, and Don Trotter, Brice Coefield, and Chester Pipkin share the lead on a nice updated version of the Spaniels' GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART GOODNIGHT. Rip wasn't on 60 MINUTE MAN or its flip, EVERYBODY'S LAUGHING; his place was taken by Chester's cousin, Gary Pipkin. Also, Billy Storm returned for the GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART GOODNIGHT session.
In whole or in part, Chester wrote EVERYBODY'S LAUGHING and Brice wrote DO YOUR BEST. Several of the other tunes were written by Herb Alpert and Lou Adler: POOR BOY NEEDS A PREACHER, NEW FAD, and VICKIE LEE. The sound of the Untouchables tried to mimic the hitmakers of the day: NEW FAD had a definite Olympics flavor to it; POOR BOY NEEDS A PREACHER and RAISIN' SUGAR CANE were heavily influenced by what the Drifters were doing.
The Valiants and the Untouchables did a lot of TV shows at Pacific Palisades and received union scale. They also did a lot of record hops, but there was little money in it.
The Untouchables took a little side trip to Screen Gems in early 1961. Screen Gems was forming a record company as a sidelight to their movie business, and the Untouchables were one of the first to record for it. Lou Adler was the one who got them a session at the new label (Jerry Moss, who would later be Herb Alpert's partner in A&M Records was there at the time). They recorded a single tune: SUMMERTIME NIGHTS. Once again, without their knowledge, the group's name was changed: when the DJ dubs were pressed, they were called the "Happy Tones." Rip heard the song on the radio, but has never seen a copy. It was probably only pressed as a single-sided disk to be sent to a few DJs to test its marketability.
With no hits on Madison, the group switched to the Liberty label around March of 1961, releasing two records. Brice does lead on all of them, including (MY BABY LOVES A) MEDICINE MAN, which did for the current spate of TV doctor shows what the Olympics' WESTERN MOVIES did for TV westerns. LOVELY DEE and YOU'RE ON TOP were written by Brice and Chester, and PAPA was written by Chester and Billy (that's Brice you hear as "Papa" and Chester as the "child"). The trumpet on YOU'RE ON TOP is done by Herb Alpert. Says Rip, "I believe this is his first trumpet-playing recording."
The Untouchables fell apart in 1961, before their second Liberty record was even released. Then, later in 1961, Chester Pipkin formed the Electras along with lead tenor Warren Joyner (who had been in the Misfits on Aries and the Brentwoods on Dore), Billy Mann (second tenor), and cousin Gary Pipkin (second tenor). They recorded for Infinity (owned by John Marascalco, who had written GOOD GOLLY, MISS MOLLY along with Bumps Blackwell). Of course, there were others in the group: Lonnie Willis (baritone/second tenor) made an occasional appearance, as did Rip Spencer, and Billy Storm was the bass on YOU LIED. When YOU LIED/TEN STEPS TO LOVE was reissued on Constellation in 1963 it was by the "Freedoms." In 1962, they had releases on Lola, another Marascalco label. Marascalco also used them for a lot of background work, a quick way of picking up an extra $10, $15 or $25 per song. Note that one of the Electras' records, "Snacky Poo," credited the "Ring A Dings." When that record was re-released on Mercury a couple of years later, it was credited to the "Del-Mars."
In 1962, Billy Storm did a session with the Nuggets on RCA. The others at the time were: Herman Pruitt, Lorenzo Adams, Stewart Crunk, Sydney Dunbar, and Warren Joyner. JUST A FRIEND/CAP SNAPPER was released, but a prior record by the group didn't have Billy or Warren. (Note: there’s a Valiants group on Fairlane and Imperial from 1961 - 1963; it’s possible that Billy is in it, but Rip doesn't recognize any of the voices on the songs.)
By late 1962, Lou Adler and Herb Alpert had broken up (Herb went on to trumpet stardom and also formed A&M records with Jerry Moss). Lou had his own label, but also remained an independent producer. He was friends with Phil Spector, and it was arranged for some of the singers to be "leased" to Phil (although they were under contract to Lou) in order to do a tune called PUDDIN N' TAIN. The song had been written by Brice, Gary Pipkin, Lonnie Willis, and Rip (uncredited on the label, he penned the bridge). While I spent years trying to figure out what the song meant (for example, "tain" is the backing on a mirror), it turns out to be a schoolyard chant, meaning: ask me the same question again and I'll give you the same answer. The name "Alley Cats" was given to them by Lou, and the group consisted of: Brice, Rip, Gary, and bass James Barker. Bobby Sheen ("Bob" of Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans), who had been doing a lot of things with Phil, was hired by Phil especially to be the high tenor on the session. The tune was released on Spector's Phillies label and was the biggest record Brice and Rip ever had: it rose to #21 on the R'n'B charts in February of 1963). The photo of the Alley Cats didn't have Bobby Sheen, who wasn't expected to appear with them; it also didn't have Rip, who wasn't around for the photo session (it's Billy Mann who's sitting in for him).In 1962-3, Los Angeles night clubs started on an "Oldies But Goodies" kick. Since Rip's uncle, Marvin Phillips, had decided to retire from "Marvin & Johnny," Rip took over the name. Appearing over the years as "Marvin" (a name close to my heart), like his uncle he had a succession of "Johnny"s, the first being James Barker. They hooked up with a promoter, Bob Price, a good friend of Wolfman Jack, and ended up touring through the San Joaquin Valley with the Wolfman. Others to play "Johnny" were Bobby Sheen, Don Julian, Ron Shy, and Johnny Starks (who has the distinction of being the only "Johnny" who was actually named Johnny).
Meanwhile, Billy Storm had switched over to Infinity Records in 1962, and then Disney Studios’ Buena Vista label. Some of the sides featured a female group. (While he was recording for Disney, he also did some character voices in Disney cartoons.) In 1964, he was lead of the Charades on Skylark (probably remnants of the Squires), which gave a nice interpretation of the 1941 Herb Jeffries/Duke Ellington oldie, FLAMINGO.
In June of 1963, Colpix released a record by the Happy Tones (SUMMERTIME NIGHTS/PAPA SHAME). The group that did “Papa Shame” consisted of the old gang: Brice Coefield, Chester Pipkin, Rip Spencer, Don Trotter, and Ed Wallace. However, SUMMERTIME NIGHTS had been recorded a couple of years before, appearing on a single-sided Screen Gems DJ disc in 1961.
The Electras had a couple of records released as the “Del-Mars.” The first of these, YOU KNOW/THAT'S MY DESIRE was issued on ABC-Paramount in May 1963. The other, SNACKY POO (Parts 1 and 2) came out on Mercury in February 164.
In 1966, there was another Electras group: Billy Storm, Rip Spencer, Brice Coefield, Chester Pipkin, Billy Mann, and Warren Joyner recorded a couple of sides for the Ruby-Doo label. The session was produced by John Marascalco.
Finally, in late 1968, they all became the soul group Africa, recording for Lou Adler's Ode label (a subsidiary of Columbia). Africa consisted of (in various combinations): Billy Storm, Brice Coefield, Rip Spencer, Chester Pipkin, Gary Pipkin, Ed Wallace, Billy Mann, and Freddie Willis (second tenor/baritone). They recorded eight sides for Ode, which were released on an album (called "Music From 'Lil Brown'"). "We used to rehearse at Gary Pipkin's house and he had this little brown shack, a playhouse in the back yard, for his kids." For some reason they decided to name the album after it. (Strangely, Africa's name didn't appear anywhere on the outside of the album.) Lou Adler got a mobile recording studio, and the tracks were mostly recorded at Gary's house. A large mural of Africa's photo was painted on the outside of the Whiskey à Go Go on the Sunset Strip in order to promote the album; it remained there for several months.
All the recordings, done in late 1968, had Brice, Chester (who also did the arrangements), Gary, Ed, and Freddie. HERE I STAND was written by Billy Storm (he also does part of the lead on it), WIDOW and SAVIN' ALL MY LOVE were written by Chester, Gary, Brice and Billy. Five years later, Africa recorded ten more tracks for MGM, but all remain unreleased.
Billy Storm, too, popped up on Ode at this time. Signing his contract "William Hamlin Jones." On October 1, 1968, he had a single session, which was produced by Lou Adler.
While Africa was around, most of the members turned up in the Brothers And Sisters Of Los Angeles, a 28-person group that also recorded for Ode. The members were (take a deep breath): Shirley Allen, Sherrell Atwood, Ginger Blake, Hazel Carmichael, Merry Clayton, Marjorie Cranford, Oma Drake, Georgette Finchess, Brenda Fitz, Joseph Green, Andrew Herd, Patrice Holloway, Gwen Johnson, Ruby S. Johnson, Gloria Jones, Clydie King, Jesse Kirkland, Sherlie Matthews, Barbara Perrault, Chester Pipkin, Billy Storm, Julia A. Tilman, Ed Wallace, Lolietha White, Carolyn Willis, Fred Willis, Edna Wright, and Don Wyatt.
The guys still sometimes appear as the Valiants/Alley Cats. In October 1990 Rip and Brice did a show at Los Angeles' Greek Theater, with former "Johnny" Ron Shy and lead Donald Evans. They were part of K-Earth's annual "Legends Of Rock 'N' Roll Concert". Others on the bill were: Freddy Cannon, Joanie Sommers, Jack Scott, Bobby Lewis, Jody Reynolds, Ray Peterson, Sonny Knight, Frankie Ervin, Terry Stafford, Paul & Paula, Mel Carter and the Pentagons. In 1993, Marvin Phillips came out of retirement to perform, with Rip, as "Marvin & Johnny."Lately, Rip has become an Artist Representative, a natural because he knew many of the acts in the area, having appeared with them over the years. He's also an independent record producer, working on an album with Levon Harris (Thurston Harris' grandson), and a music publisher (S.E. Spencer Music Company).
Special thanks to Victor Pearlin, Ferdie Gonzalez, Dave Antrell, and Bruce Dumes, and Andreas Grabsch.