Posted by Archie Holloway on 8/28/2005, 3:14 am, in reply to "THE ORIGINAL IMPERIAL WONDERS the complete story by the originator ROBERT BROOKS AKA WRIGHT" --Previous Message--
69.174.112.196
: Hello Mike! Even though we have not met I
: feel rather obligated to add further
: substance and additional information
: regarding the IMPERIAL WONDERS, the group
: that was originated by me in Cleveland,Ohio
: along with a gentleman by the name of
: Clarence Covington. We originally started
: with just the two of us, playing the blues
: and the Motown sounds. I was the
: neighborhood paperboy and Al Boyds' family
: was one of the recepients of the Cleveland
: Press, an evening paper. One day, while
: delivering the paper I met Eloise, Al Boyds'
: youngest sister, and we were immediately
: attracted to each other, puppy love, that
: sort of thing. That is how I first met Al.
: He was trying to learn how to play the
: guitar, one his father had around the house
: from previous years. After spending some
: time with Al and taking him on my paper
: route with me I soon learned that he had an
: ear for music and could, in fact, sing, just
: needing a little coaching. I talked with
: his mother, Mrs. Ida Boyd and asked
: permission to recruit Al into my group, THE
: IMPERIAL WONDERS. Because he was so young,
: about 12 years of age I guess, he had to be
: home BEFORE the street lights came on. Mrs
: Boyd insisted upon that and we complied,
: finising our music sessions on his front
: porch. Clarence wasn't too interested in
: changing the format and resigned to continue
: on with his unique and well cultured style
: of music. He is, to this date, an
: accomplished guitarist, as I am. Al and I
: developed a lot of techniques together and
: both of us played the guitar and sang. We
: achieved some noterity in our neighborhood
: and surrounding areas. Both Al andd I are
: Virgos and we are particular with our social
: lives. What I mean by that is we often met
: people who claimed they could sing, or could
: sing, and often had lots of raw talent, but
: becaus of our strict adherance to preserving
: a quality group we passed many by who wanted
: to be in the group. We often went to visit
: with Fred Butler who was a practicing
: pianoist and singer, song writer at the
: time. During this particular era, the 60's,
: Fred was a dear friend but we felt we could
: not use him because his instrument could not
: be taken with him. We loved to walk and
: sing and please the crowds that would gather
: around to hear us. One day, we met Kennedy
: Holman and his brother Montana Holman
: (deceased), and we found out that they could
: really sing and they were not afraid to do
: it. After a while we became a foursome and
: Mrs Boyd became a bit more lenient and
: allowed Al a bit more freedom regarding his
: curfew because she saw that I took real good
: care of him. This became the IMPERIAL
: WONDERS that I still remember to this date,
: the beginning. We later had some changes
: and Walter Chaney was recruited to join the
: group. Now we were semi-professional, doing
: choreographies, buying uniforms and we
: started doing real show. My own mother
: became our manger at first because we were
: all minors and she protected our interests
: and made sure that we were not financially
: violated. Our group was a drug/alcohol free
: group and I frowned upon anyone of us who
: even looked at a drink when we were working
: the night clubs. One of the original
: members of the IMPERIAL WONDERS was JOYCE
: KIRKLAND, who later became my wife. Joyce
: was replaced with Kenny Stover and that made
: us five members. Kenny had knee problems
: and did not feel comfortable with the many
: choreograpies that Walter, Kennedy (AKA
: Sonny T), and Al presented. By this time I
: was the only offical guitar player in the
: band. Originally, when the BEATLES were
: hot, we briefly changed our name to the
: BROWN BEATLES
: and sang mostly BEATLE hits. Al, Sonny, and
: I played the guitars and Montana played what
: drums he coud find. Later Walter Chaney and
: his brother Robert Chaney would play drums
: for the band, Robert on special occaisions.
: We sometimes had a very fine percussionist
: from the
: S.O.U.L. band, Larry, sit in on some of our
: sessions we often did in the open air-open
: air concerts you might say today. We became
: very popular in the Cleveland area and one
: of the local DJs', Ken Hawkins did lots of
: excellent commentaries about our group. Of
: course we did have, as Al mentioned, lots of
: good competion but we were solid-real solid
: and it showed. It showed so much in fact
: that we won our very first recording
: contract with JOHNNY NASH, who had a big hit
: out at the time, I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW.
: This was a far cry from the very first time
: that Al and I first recorded a record (of
: sorts) in the recording booth of F.W.
: Woolworths, a novelty store at the corner of
: Hough and Crawford Avenues. It was a simple
: plastic disk but Al and I treasured it like
: it was gold. JOHNNY NASH was scheduled to
: record us and wanted us to get together some
: material and so I came up with a tune I
: wrote called YOUR'E A LUCKY GUY and WALTER
: CHANEY was given the lead. However, much
: to our surpris, JOHNNY NASH sold our
: contract to a group of businessmen
: associated with RCA VICTOR RECORDS. This
: created a problem because of several
: reasons. We were all under age and did not
: have proper representation and above
: everything else the producers did not
: especially like the way that
:
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