YOU’RE EVERYTHING, The Danleers, Unreleased (Mercury) 1958

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YOU’RE EVERYTHING, The Danleers, Unreleased (Mercury) 1958
Here’s another really great unknown ballad from my music collection. The Danleers hailed from Brooklyn, New York. Group members were, Jimmy Weston (lead), Johnny Lee (1st tenor), William Ephraim (2nd Tenor), Charles “Nat” McCune (baritone) and Roosevelt Mays (bass). As with countless groups before them, the group honed their sound on the street corners, playgrounds and tenement hallways.

They were lucky to meet Danny Webb, a singer/songwriter who had his own group, The Webtones. The Webtones recorded “MY LOVE LOST/WALK TALK AND KISS” (MGM #12724) 1958. Danny Webb became their manager and mentor. He gave them their name ‘The Danleers’ and wrote most of their songs.

Their biggest hit written by Danny Webb, “ONE SUMMER NIGHT” (AMP 3 #2115) 1958 became The Danleers’ signature song. It charted nationally on Billboard in July 1958 for 13 weeks and reached #7. It was such a big hit that Mercury records, which had the distribution rights with AMP 3, re-released “ONE SUMMER NIGHT” on (Mercury #71322).

Now with the “powerful” Mercury records and distribution behind them The Danleers hit the big time. Mercury put the group at the head of all of its advertising that summer ahead of such pop music stalwarts as The Platters, Diamonds, and Patti Page!

By August the group was as hot as an attraction could be and were a natural to be part of Alan Freed's Labor Day extravaganza at the Brooklyn Fox to give the boys a festive homecoming. The show would headline Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and the Everly Brothers.

Soon after the Freed show The Danleers were signed for a big national touring show. The headliners of that show were a who's who of the rock 'n roll scene in late 1958 : Frankie Avalon, Bobby Darin, Eddie Cochrane, Connie Francis, Dion & The Belmonts, Jimmy Clanton, Buddy Holly & The Crickets, Clyde McPhatter, The Coasters, Elegants, and Little Anthony & The Imperials. "One Summer Night" had made it into the top five national pop music best sellers and went over the million mark in sales, quite a monstrous achievement for an R & B vocal group in 1958!

About this time the second recording by The Danleers, “I REALLY LOVE YOU"/"MY FLAMING HEART" (Mercury #71356) 1958 was released. Again, both were written by Danny Webb.

But this time the spell was broken as the record failed to garner much support among record buyers or radio DJ’s. By the end of the year another of their Mercury recordings of "A PICTURE OF YOU"/"PRELUDE TO LOVE" (Mercury #71401) 1958 did nothing on the charts and was ignored by the public.

They tried one last time in March of 1959 with "YOUR LOVE"/"I CAN'T SLEEP" (Mercury #71441) and that record went nowhere, too, causing Mercury to drop the group.

After the Mercury group of ‘The Danleers’ broke up, Webb put Jimmy Weston together with three members of his other group, The Webtones to form a NEW Danleers group. This new group’s members were Weston, Louis Williams (first tenor), Terry Wilson (baritone), and Frankie Clemons (bass). The fifth member was Jimmy Weston's brother-in-law, Doug Ebron (second tenor). Doug Ebron was also the brother of Duke Ebron, another of the Webtones. (The fifth member of the Webtones had been Bruce Cooke.)

The new Danleers group recorded a couple of records that also went nowhere: "IF YOU DON'T CARE"/"HALF A BLOCK FROM AN ANGEL" (Epic #9367) 1960 and "I'LL ALWAYS BELIEVE IN YOU"/"LITTLE LOVER" Epic #9421 1960. That was the end of The Danleers. There were two releases for Smash in the mid-1960s and other releases on Everlast and Le mans but they were by a completely revamped lineup and really had no connection to the original group.

The reason I decided to write so much about The Danleers’ recording career with this upload of “YOU’RE EVERYTHING” is because it isn’t the only recording that was unreleased by The Danleers for Mercury records. As you can see from this bio I’ve provided, The Danleers recorded a lot of songs and in my opinion; the group was thrown under the bus. There is absolutely no reason for Mercury to have ignored this beautiful song. In fact, as I think more about it, they really missed the boat on this one!

Please enjoy this great unknown ballad “YOU’RE EVERYTHING” by The Danleers with Jimmy Weston singing lead.