One
of my favourites vocal groups of the late 50's will always be the Aquatones.
Why......because they recorded some of the greatest ballads . " You
"....their biggest hit from the summer of 1958 , " Say You'll Be
Mine ", " For You, For You ", and the song that will
always be in my personal favourite top 10 of all time, their version of "
Crazy For You " , but they also recorded some of the best Rock & Roll
uptempo songs like " Every Time ", " Wanted ( A Solid Gold
Cadillac ) " , and the one that is very popular here in Europe, the
B-side of " You " their hit of 1958, " She's The One For
Me ". While on my trip last June 2000 I met Dave Goddard ,
former member of the Aquatones. Dave, along with Larry Vannata, were the
writers of almost every song the Aquatones recorded in those days. And I can
assure you, after some emails received from him since then, Dave is still a
" Writer ". Sorry Dave....I have to be honest ...... In one of those
emails Dave told me he had reformed (because he found Colette Delaney) the
Aquatones and that he is still busy writing some new songs for a new CD that
he hopes to release by the end of this year( This was written in 2000 ).....but
is now on the market in 2002.
The Aquatones were formed as "The Rhythm Kings" in September
1956. The original members were
Dave Goddard, Larry Vannata, and Gene McCarthy.
They got together to record a song written by Dave for their junior class play
at Valley Stream
Central High School on Long Island. All of them played instruments as well as
sang -
Gene on clarinet and tenor sax, Larry on alto and tenor sax, Dave on piano.
They added a drummer - their friend Bob Boden - to perform their music live.
They were never a dance band.
All of their songs were original and they hoped to be "discovered" and
become recording stars.
They played some of their home recordings for a classmate's father, a record
distributor,
and he suggested that they needed a high voice in the group. Shortly thereafter,
Larry met Lynne Nixon at a dance, found out that she sang, and asked Gene and
Dave to give her an audition.
They agreed and were happy to hear Lynne's beautiful voice. At first, she sang
only backgrounds,
until Larry wrote the song "You" for her to sing.
After changing their name to the Aquatones
- so the guys could wear a "cool" shirt from the 1950s (aqua with a
black velvet "V" down the front)
as a uniform - the group continued their efforts to land a recording contract.
In November 1957 they appeared in a talent show in the neighboring town of
Malverne, NY.
At that show, they were heard by Lou Fargo, a local realtor who wanted to get
into the music business
- and Fargo asked them the question they'd been waiting to hear:
"How'd you like to make a record?"
Fargo was interested in working with a vocal group, so Bob, the non-singing
drummer, left.
The group's very first release, in January of 1958, was the ballad "You",
with the rocker "She's The One For Me" on the flip side. Helped by
airplay on American Bandstand,
"You" soon hit the Top 40 charts all over the country.
It reached #7 in New York, #1 in Boston, and #21 on the Billboard national pop
charts.
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