SPOTLIGHT ON ONE HIT WONDERS And CHANGING GROUP MEMBERS

SPOTLIGHT ON ONE HIT WONDERS And CHANGING GROUP MEMBERS


Todays blog is a discussion on some of the "one hit wonders"
and changing group members of famous groups....IN case you don't know
the term...it means someone or some group that had one hit song, and
could not duplicate the chart success, even tho they released more
material...

ON my mind is a group who recently toured with a friend of mine..MOises
Melchoir of Los rhythm Rockets out of Los Angeles. They recently did a
stint in Spain with "The Bobbettes" a girl group who had one hit with
a song called Mr. Lee..
Having had the hit way back when, the group nameThe Bobettes" generated
enough of an I.d. for the group (who probably only has one original
member left, if any)for them to perpetually tour for the next hundred years..

Even worse, in my opinion, are the "Big" groups of the 50's and 60's
who had a revolving door as far as their personnel was concerned.
One of the biggest offenders was The Drifters...It got to where their
manager George Treadwell took legal action to "incorporate" the name,
and thus was able to control the rights to the group, hiring and firing
as he chose fit. NOt only that, but even with this legal action of
"owning" the intellectual property of the name "Drifters", there were
and are what we call "Splinter Groups" and/or Fake groups roaming
around the contryside doing concerts claiming to be "The Drifters"
It would not be unusual at any given time, to have several of thses
Drifter groups roaming the countryside...and so, on an unsuspecting
public, as long as a Drifters group showed up...looked and sounded
reasonably like the record, folks think they got to hear the great
Drifters! Huh?
Yeah...crazy..Other groups like this are the the Coasters and The
PLatters. In the latter case, only one original member is left,
their bass singer becoming now the lead singer...(Herb Reed)
I guess because so much time has gone by and many or most of the groups
members being dead, this would be a natural evolution, but it was not
so in the late 60s and 70s..plenty of rogue groups romaing around at
that time..

Alas,I assume its not a big deal for most, as long as they remember
the name of the group, and reminisce about their younger days...got
to a concert and see and hear a group, any group...with "the correct
name"...this satisfies their nostalgia...

Steveo
A realated story
A person who was very smart businesswise from the very beginning was
Mrs. Jerry Lewis..(PAtti Lewis)When her son Gary decided to form a
group, she seeked out legal councel and incorporated the name of
Gary Lewis and The PLayboys, forming a production company Esta music..
thus, each member of the group were "employees" and were paid as such,
with the inability to control any part of the entity..Gary had his
first hit in early 1965 with This Diamond Ring, but by the end of
1965 only one or 2 original members of the group were left...
Soon thereafter, again, group members became a revolving door...
When researching the original group, there is not much to go by, as
it lists the orignal members, but they were not arond long enough to
build any type of bio history.

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