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Cleveland, 1969-early 70s

The story behind this Cleveland soul group is rather mysterious. They were a 5 member group at the beginning, strongly influenced by the Temptations, but also older Cleveland groups like the Imperial Wonders.

They made a 45 for DeBrossard in the spring of 1970 and it got some airplay and local sales. It seems to have the largest pressing run of any 45 on the label, with 2 different labels, with and without the grand piano graphic. The songs were recorded at Agency and are both excellent. Hank Jones wrote "I Can't Find Her" and James Bell wrote "Searching In Vain". Tom Baker is credited with arranging. 

From here the story gets mysterious and confusing. It seems that one, or two, members of the group were shot and killed not long after the 45's release. They supposedly found replacement(s) and got a a gig in Pennsylvania where they were seen by the Philadelphia production team of Charles Bowen and Manny Campbell. They recorded a few songs in Philly. Sonny Thompson is claimed to be the lead singer, it's not known if he was in the group on the DeBrossard 45/

One 45 was issued at the time on the Law-Ton label, a subsidiary of Avco records. In the late 1970s, Manny Campbell took a couple of the recordings and issued them on his own Emandolynn label. However, the record mastering had a mistake where the song "When He Slowly Moves Away" instead plays "Don't Ever Hurt Me Girl", the B-side of the Law-Ton 45. In the 2000s, this record was re-issued with the correct songs.

The trail for the full story on the band goes dead, now.

Discography:
I Can't Find Her / Searching In Vain - DeBrossard 111, summer 1970
If I Could Be Like Columbus "Where Would We Be" / Don't Ever Hurt Me Girl - Law-Ton 1550, 1971
When He Slowly Moves Away / We Want Freedom - Emandolynn 12224, late 1970s