Castle In The Sky and My Darling To You - The Bop-Chords (Holiday Records) 1956, 78 rpm!
The lead singer of the group was Ernest Harriston, the tenor voices were William Dailey and Butch Hamilton, the baritone was Mickey Smarr, and the bass was Leon Ivey. Although all had spent some time harmonizing in the area, only Hamilton had some extended experience appearing on a record made by a little kown group called The Five Wings and had also crossed paths with a fine vocalist who would become famous in years to come as Ben E. King. So there they were, five voices in search of a record company joining so many others on this same maiden voyage. Soon they were put in touch with record man Danny Robinson who was just putting the final touches on his new recording enterprise he called Holiday Records located on Eighth Avenue in uptown New York City. They all agreed that a song that the group had toyed with called \"Castle In The Sky\" was a good first choice to put on wax. This tune coupled with \"My Darling To You\" was released on Holiday #2601 in late May of 1956.
The up tempo \"Castle\" was an immediate favorite of New York dj's Hal Jackson and Tommy \"Dr. Jive\" Smalls and both got many requests for the tune. The chime intro, the loping beat, and hook laden bridge section of the song made it very recognizable and gave it that \"X factor\" that is so much a measure of success - it was a song that was sung (on and off key) by people on the street and had a maddening way of staying on someone's mind for days. It had all the makings of a winner. Soon the group was asked to appear at that temple of talent, the Apollo Theater in Harlem with the Dr. Jive Revue along with LaVern Baker, Vicki Nelson, Billy Bland, and the parade of groups - The Schoolboys, Cadillacs, Jayhawks, and Cookies. The Bop Chords had made it !
