The Kool Gents

One of the most interesting groups to emerge from Chicago in the '50s was the Kool Gents. An early incarnation called the Golden Tones had a couple of releases on two fly-by-night labels. The original members consisted of <a href="spotify:artist:2nwp4tMqtzXGNHAFn1GUhf">Cicero Blake</a>, James Harper, Howard McClain, Teddy Long, and John Carter. <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Delecta "Dee" Clark</a>, John McCall, and Doug Brown replaced Harper, <a href="spotify:artist:7ERhQyRZQpfYARqiv4L9Dh">McClain</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2nwp4tMqtzXGNHAFn1GUhf">Blake</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:0iTkPxRldzi5lmS6qZ70JV">McCall</a>, not <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Clark</a> originally sung lead until Vee Jay's A&R man <a href="spotify:artist:5vv15JEswVSLelN7w10eo2">Calvin Carter</a> recommended that <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Clark</a> sing lead. <a href="spotify:artist:0kK3ZgTw6mvlYgekz4xf18">Long</a> served as the groups' main songwriter. <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Clark</a>, from Arkansas, had previously recorded "Hambone" with <a href="spotify:artist:5vGl5JiofyyduS4nscFgq3">the Red Saunders Orchestra</a> as a member of the Hambone Kids.

They renamed themselves after disk jockey Herb "Kool Gent" Kent, who introduced them to <a href="spotify:artist:5vv15JEswVSLelN7w10eo2">Calvin Carter</a> and Vee Jay Records. Their first release, "This Is the Night" b/w "Do Ya Do" sold locally in 1956. A second release, "I Just Can't Help Myself" b/w "You Know" did fine in Chicago also, but failed to make any inroads outside the city.

The Kool Gents didn't burn up the charts, but they sounded good, so <a href="spotify:artist:5vv15JEswVSLelN7w10eo2">Calvin Carter</a> and Ewart Abner decided to spoof the Democratic National Convention by releasing "The Convention" as "the Delegates" (aka the Kool Gents). It received a tremendous amount of airplay, which unfortunately didn't transform into a tremendous amount of sales. A second Delegates single, "Mother's Son" b/w Teddy Long's "I'm Gonna Be Glad" didn't even excite Chicagoans.

In 1957, <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Dee Clark</a> decided to go solo (with <a href="spotify:artist:5vv15JEswVSLelN7w10eo2">Calvin Carter'</a>s OK), and the Kool Gents and the Delegates recording activity ended. Some members of labelmates <a href="spotify:artist:2a6TNADvz1rRCUfAcUSvww">the El Dorados</a> ("At My Front Door") left the group, leaving only lead Pirkle Lee Moses, so Calvin crowned the Kool Gents the <a href="spotify:artist:2a6TNADvz1rRCUfAcUSvww">New El Dorados</a> and they backed Moses for two fruitless years.

John Carter resurrected the Kool Gents and they gigged until 1965 but never had any other recordings released. <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Dee Clark</a> recorded several successful singles including "Rain Drops" (number two Pop), "Just Keep It Up," "Your Friends," "Nobody But You," and "Hey Little Girl." <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Dee</a> recorded for many labels before suffering a fatal heart attack in Atlanta, GA in 1990, at the age of 52. <a href="spotify:artist:2nwp4tMqtzXGNHAFn1GUhf">Cicero Blake</a>, an original member of the Golden Tones, also went solo, but never received the chart popularity <a href="spotify:artist:6PyZY3e7wgYgRdegqvqhSo">Clark</a> did, though he's enjoyed a long career. <a href="spotify:artist:2nwp4tMqtzXGNHAFn1GUhf">Blake</a> recorded some marvelous records, including "You Got Me Walking," "Sad Feelings," and "Love Is Like a Boomerang" on a variety of labels. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Solid+Smoke+Records%22">Solid Smoke Records</a> released His Best Recordings: Dee Clark & the Kool Gents & the Delegates, in 1984, but omitted "The Convention" from the compilation. ~ Andrew Hamilton, Rovi