The Calvanes

They were one of the sweetest sounding of all group harmony artists.   Silky smooth and so cool.  The Los Angeles group - the Calvanes - brought us some of the most beautiful group harmony music during their brief recording career.

The story begins in south-central Los Angeles where a bunch guys started signing together for fun in 1953.  As Bobby Adams remembers, "we would just get together and sing....we had four or five guys singing and at least two-part harmony....that's it....if someone was going flat....that's alright, we still had two-part harmony."  Original members - Bobby Adams (lead and tenor), Herman Pruitt (lead and tenor) Stewart Crunk (baritone) and Jack Harris (bass) went all the way back to elementary school together.   They all attended John Muir junior high school where they met up with another guy named Joe Hampton (second tenor).  Adams went on to Fremont High School while the rest went on to Manual Arts.

Adams, Crunk and Sterling Meade were singing in a garage on Broadway and were overheard by Carlyle Dundee (aka Robert Mosely) who had a studio nearby.   Dundee liked what he heard and brought the guys over to his studio.  Dundee started playing the piano and the guys started singing.   The result was Never b/w Evil One on the Space Label (Space 201 - 1954).  The artist appears as "Carlyle Dundee and the Dundees."  The guys were all of 14 (except Stewart who was 16).   They would later rename themselves the Wonders and with Bobby Adams on lead would release Little Girl b/w Bop Bop Baby (Space 202 - 1954).

Herman Pruitt joined the group at that point.  Bobby Adams tells the story - Pruitt had moved into the neighborhood from Alabama.  Nobody knew he could sing until one day Crunk, who lived near him, was walking by an open window and happened to hear Pruitt singing.  Stewart liked what he heard and asked him to join the group.  After convincing his mother, Pruitt joined the group.  The Calvanes were born with Pruitt, Adams, Crunk, Hampton and Harris.

"We always  believed we could sing," recalls Bobby Adams.  "Of course, looking back at it, we couldn't sing that well when we first got started."  The group that inspired them to try to find a record label and record were the Penguins.   "We didn't know them but we idolized them."  The Penguins' 1954 recording of Earth Angel on Dootone probably inspired a lot of kids in the south-central area of LA that wanted to reach stardom through group harmony singing.  Dootone Records' local studio at 95th and Central was so close that the guys wanted to head right over and try out.

One day, all five of the guys walked into Dootsie Williams' office and told him "hey - we can sing!"   This, after singing together for only about 4 months.  Williams took them into the back room and preceded to audition them.  They sang "Don't Take Your Love From Me, One More Kiss, Crazy Over You and They Call Me a Fool."  "Don't Take Your Love From Me" and "Crazy Over You" were selected as the songs to record and release first with the others selected to be saved for later release.

"Dootsie was very pleased," recalls Bobby Adams.  "Doing a session we would always do the A and B song."  "Everybody was in the same room - one lead mic and one mic for the group.  Jack Harris (the shortest) had to stand on a telephone book to reach the mic."  The band didn't need a mic.  Having the band right there made for a feeling of camaraderie, says Bobby.  "Everybody was on the same page and when the band hit something - man!  We would slap hands and say 'that was
good.' "  They did a lot of takes (sometimes 18 or 20) but finally hit a final version.   I asked Bobby Adams what it was like to work with Dootsie Williams in the studio:  "We was somewhat meticulous but he was easy to work with.  He would always give you that sly grin of his over his eyeglasses," says Bobby.   And at the end of the session, Dootsie would simply say "that was good."

The group's first release - Dootone 371 is one of the great "two-siders" of all time - two great songs in one - the slow, beautiful ballad Don't Take Your Love From Me on the A Side and the uptempo burning rocker Crazy Over You on B.  It was released in September 1955.  This is one of the greatest recordings in the history of group harmony.  Two fantastic selections - so well recorded and so well performed.  Don't Take Your Love From Me was written by Crunk and Crazy Over You by a friend of the group - Nellie Brown.  Adams isn't exactly certain how they came across Crazy Over You.  Crunk arranged the song.  "He was the most gifted guy in the group," says Adams.  "He could arrange, he could play the piano and he had a great ear."  Pruitt sang lead on the song.  "The band, when they heard that song, they got into it.  They were moving!"

Off the release of the record, the group found success in the LA area and on the west coast including an appearance on the Al Jarvis TV show with the Teddy Bears ("To Know Him Is To Love Him") and Ritchie Valens ("La Bamba").  They performed R&B shows at places like the famous El Monte Legion Stadium and the Shrine Auditorim.  They even sang a show with the original Platters at a high school!  What a treat for those kids!  And of course they never got paid for any of it, sadly enough.

Bobby Adams recalls one show at the Shrine Auditorim.  They had befriended Don Julian of the Meadowlarks ("Heaven and Paradise").  Ronald Barrett was one of the Meadowlarks and also sang with the Medallions.  Barrett had chosen that night to sing with the Medallions, leaving Julian a singer short for his Meadowlarks show.  Julian asked Adams if he would sit in for the Shrine Auditorim show - since the Calvanes were going to be playing there too.   He took Barrett's on-stage outfit and brought it over to Adams' house - fire engine-red shoes, dark brown pants, beige sport coat and a red knit tie!  Wow!  What a sight!  Adams sang with the Meadowlarks and Calvanes that night.  Bobby says that, other than the Penguins, who were in another world, the Dootone artists (Meadowlarks, Flairs, Calvanes, Medallians) had a nice relationship with each other.  And they all admired the Penguins who they all wanted to follow.

The group's second record on Dootone was Florabelle and One More Kiss (Dootone 380 - 1956).  Bobby Adams recalls that Dootsie Williams had a DJ friend named Zeke Manners who's girlfriend was named Florabelle.  Apparently an under-the-table payola deal was struck for a Dootone group to record the song Florabelle.  Dootsie chose the Calvanes to be the group.  "We did not like that song," says Adams.  "That was the name of a cow!"  But Dootsie insisted that they record it.  The largely forgettable Florabelle was released to some local fanfare.   Apparently Zeke Manner's girlfriend was happy.  Many years later, Adams became a decorated officer in the Los Angeles police department and then went on to provide security work for stars.  He was providing security for legendary alternative rocker Frank Zappa who, when he heard that Adams was a member of the Calvanes, commented - "The Calvanes?  They made 'Florabelle,' didn't they?!?!?"

Forgotten is the beautiful B side - One More Kiss which is another incredibly beautiful love song.  If you take Don't Take Your Love From Me, One More Kiss and the unreleased They Call Me Fool, you have a trifecta of perfectly- recorded, stunningly-beautiful group harmony ballads - as wonderful as any other group recordings of the 1950's.  While they never hit the Top 40 of pop charts they stand as a testament to the incredible power and vocal abilities of this terrific group.  Its hard to believe that Herman Pruitt was only 15 years old when he sang that song.  There is such a maturity in his high falsetto.  Adams recalls that during a radio interview, the group's members were asked what they sang.  Each responded in a rather high voice "I sing first tenor, I sing second tenor," and when they got to bass singer Jack Harris, not to be left out, he also responded in a high falsetto-sounding voice "I sing bass!"  Ha!

Following their bad experience with Dootsie, the group broke up in 1957.  Herman Pruitt went on to record with the Youngsters appearing on their Empire release (Empire 109) Dreamy Eyes b/w Christmas in Jail.  In 1958, the guys reformed with a new bass singer - Freddie Willis.  The group practiced and made an attempt to transition to what Bobby Adams calls "modern harmony" - a more white, "standards" sound ala the Four Freshman and the Hi-Lo's.  This was four part harmony with no doubling of parts.  "Man, what those guys could do with their voices just thrilled us so," recalls Bobby.  The group produced a series of unreleased recordings in 1958 where the group sang such numbers as "Button Up Your Overcoat," "Summertime" and "Sunday Kind of Love."  Its incredible to hear these recordings and know that its the Calvanes singing.  They sound so completely different.  These recordings certainly underscore the group's versatility.

With the current formation of the group, two recordings were made for Hite Morgan's Deck label in 1958 - Dreamworld b/w 5, 7 or 9 and My Love Song b/w Horror Pictures.  Willis was the author of My Love Song.  Adams believes that My Love Song was the prettiest song the group recorded.  Horror Pictures, with Fred Willis' great horror voice effects, was the prototypical west coast novelty/party record of the type done by the Olympics and Coasters at the time.  There were also two unreleased recordings done for Deck - Lavender and  You're Only Young Once.

Following the Deck releases, Bobby Adams recorded with Val Poliuto, Rodney Green and two other guys as the Hitmakers on the Original Sound label doing Chapel of Love and Cool School (Original Sound 02 - 1959).  And later, Adams, Pruitt and Crunk got together with Sidney Dunbar and went to RCA record to record as the Nuggets releasing two records in 1961 and 1962.  That was the end of their original recordings.

In 1990, the group was inspired by the Southern California Doo-Wop Society to come back.  Adams, Pruitt and Willis formed a new group and started performing at shows.  They recorded for Classic Artists in 1990 doing Take Me Back b/w Have You No Heart (Classic Artists 127 - 1990).

This lead to the group doing a great job backing up Big Sandy on his 1998 Hightone CD - Dedicated to You.
 
 
 

Following the rave reviews of the Big Sandy recording, the Calvanes produced their own CD in 2001 on Hightone - In Harmony.   Its a terrific mix of Calvanes originals and remakes of great group harmony selections.  Its so great to hear these guys singing again.  And the Calvanes continue to be one of the most sought-after group harmony acts, performing numerous times a year.

CURRENT INFORMATION

Click here to purchase the Calvanes new CD: Hightone