Spotlight on the Skyliners
- DooWopDave
- Sep 23, 2021
- 4 min read
If you were to put together the harmonies of the best ‘50s R&B groups and mix them with The Four Freshmen and The Hi-Los, the result would be the Skyliners, an unbelievably perfect blend of voices emanating from five white Pittsburgh teenagers. The group was formed of members from their different local groups, the Crescents, the Montereys, and the El Rios. In 1958, the Crescents attended St. George’s Catholic School in the Allentown area of Pittsburgh’s South Hills. Former vocalist (the Marquees, studio singers) Joe Rock, now a promo man heard the group and took note of the promising 13-year-old Wally Lester on tenor (although the group as a whole wasn’t completely together). Sometime later, Rock attended a local record hop hosted by Al “Nickles” Noble of KTV’s “Jukebox.” He saw an a cappella group called the Monterey’s and flipped over the 14-year-old bass singer, promptly drafting him for the Crescents. The kid’s name was Jimmy Beaumont, and as good as he was on bass, when he sang in tenor voice he floored everyone; he immediately became the Crescents’ new lead singer.
Around this time, the Crescents heard about a young South Hills High School guitarist. Jackie Taylor’s Hank Ballard guitar style was warmly received, and he too joined the group.
After doing a demo tape of a few originals along with “Sympathy” (THE CADILLACS) and “Please Don’t Tease” (THE SPANIELS), Rock sent the tape to ABC Paramount. The company eventually offered them a contract. In the interim they auditioned for Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller, who also wanted the teenage group; Leiber and Stoller even volunteered to write for them. But somehow both deals were blown.
At Rock’s request, a promotion man from Specialty Records came to Pittsburgh to hear the group, but half of the demoralized Crescents decided to go joy riding rather than meet with him. The three who showed up were Jimmy, Wally, and Jackie. Jimmy was so upset about the missed opportunity he sought out another local quartet that included Janet Vogel (top tenor), Joe VerScharen (baritone), and Richie Atkins (bass), and asked the three if they’d like to join the Crescents. Janet and Joe jumped at the offer and Richie declined. The group had everything but a bass until Jimmy realized their rockin’ guitar player Jackie had a voice that could cover a range from bass to falsetto.
In mid-1958 the Crescents were now Jimmy Beaumont (17, lead), Janet Vogel (16, top tenor), Wally Lester (16, tenor), Joe VerScharen (17, baritone), and Jackie Taylor (17, bass).
Joe Rock, while sitting in his car between stoplights, wrote a lyric titles “Since I Don’t Have You” about the girl who had just left him. Jimmy wrote the music the next night. Someone brought in a tape recorder and a rough a cappella demo was done. Janet, thinking the tape had been turned off, kept riffing at the end, weaving up to an incredible high C finale.
It was this tape that Rock sent to 13 established labels, including Chess, ABC, Imperial, and RCA. All 13 came back with rejection notes. One said the song was negative and should have been “Since I Have You.” Another wrote, “A song with 13 ‘yous’ at the end will never sell!” Undaunted, the group thumbed through the phone book and came up with Calico Records, which was owned by Lou Caposi and Bill Lawrence and had Lenny Martin as A&R head and arranger. The Crescents, who were influenced by the Cadillac’s, the Spaniels, THE EL DORADOS, the Four Freshman, and the Hi-Los, practiced their hearts our and on November 3, 1958 Dodge, sped off, and promptly became involved in a head-on collision. Miraculously, no one was hurt and they arrived in time to audition. After singing ”Since I Don’t Have You” and “One Night, One Night,” Martin said, “Hold it, no need to go any further. That’s my group.”
“Since I Don’t Have You” was recorded on December 3, 1958, at Capitol Studios in New York. 18 musicians were used, an awesome number for a teen vocal group at the time and the first time a full orchestra had been used with a rock group. When the test pressing came back there was no group name on the label, which prompted Rock and the Crescents to think about a new permanent moniker. They came up with the title of an old Charlie Barnett 1945 hit (#19), “Skyliner.”
“Since I Don’t Have You” was released the day after Christmas 1958. The record was soon number one in Pittsburgh, and Dick Clark invited the Skyliners to appear on his February 13th “American Bandstand” show (after their performance he announced the song was an old standard a tribute to the songwriting of Rock and Beaumont). Within three days of the Dick Clark performance “Since” had charted on Billboard’s Top 100 and had sold 100,000 records. Beaumont and company’s debut single did better R&B (#3) then Pop (#12), and the group began to perform on the chitlin circuit, including the Apollo on eight occasions.
Jay Warner - "American Singing Groups" (A History from 1940 to Present)
The "Spotlight on the Skyliners" playlist is now available on "The Malt Shop JukeBox" You Tube channel.
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