Ruby and the Romantics
Akron, 1961-71
One of the biggest hits by any Ohio artist was created by Ruby and the Romantics with their first 45 "Our Day Will Come". Even though they never topped it, they had a long recording career that is still well regarded by fans of group harmony.
The group was formed when Ruby Nash was invited to sing with an Akron male vocal group called the Feilos. Feilos member Leroy Fann had seen Ruby perform and he asked her to audition.The group clicked and they honed their sound by performing at local shows. In the fall of 1962 they decided to spend some time in New York City and see if they could get a record deal. As mentioned before, Northeast Ohio didn't reall have much of a recording industry, especially for black artists, so in order to do anything they had to go to out of the area to make contacts. Several members of the Feilos had been in an earlier group, the Supremes (yes, there were two vocal groups in Ohio named the Supremes) that had recorded in NYC so they had a couple contacts. After an audition they were signed to Kapp records. Besides Ruby, the other members of the group were Leroy Fann, Ed Roberts, George Lee, and Ronald Mosely. Amazingly, the group stayed intact throughout their existence.
The group recorded "Our Day Will Come" and several other songs in NYC using studio musicians. After many weeks the record topped the Billboard pop charts for one week. It also topped the R&B charts. Over the next couple years, the group continued to release records and tour. They had relocated to the NYC area by now. Most of their recordings were standards and more pop songs. Although this sound was increasingly out of fashion, the quality of the singing and production was kept pretty high.
In 1967 the group moved from Kapp to ABC. Trying for a restart to their career, ABC modernized their sound a bit, as they were now recording comtemporary pop hits and a little more soulful sounding original songs. This didn't pan out either, so they tried one more time, on A&M records now. The lone 45 they cut for A&M was "Hurting Each Other", a song that their label had a massive hit by the Carpenters three years later. Unfortunately for Ruby and the Romantics, it was their last 45.
More information on the group can be found on the internet
Discography
Our Day Will Come / Moonlight and Music - Kapp 501, Nov1962