Who was/is Tyrones, The ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more

Protégés of Bill Haley and His Comets, The Tyrones hailed from Philadelphia and rocked in the same style as The Comets or fellow City of Brotherly Lovers Freddie Bell and The Bellboys. But clearly The Treniers influenced The Tyrones the most. Their performance of Blast Off in the ’58 film musical ‘Let’s Rock’ showed the self-contained septet’s stage setup, attire, instrumentation, choreography, and sound were all copped from the supremely entertaining Las Vegas veterans.

Ballads weren’t usually on The Tyrones’ menu. Their 1956 debut on Mercury’s Wing subsidiary paired the relentless The Campus Rock and (She Wants) Candy And Flowers, the group vocally urging on alto saxist Al De Nettis (aka Al Dean) during his solo on the latter. Later that year they encored on the parent imprint with two more blazers, Year Round Love and the modulating My Rock ‘N’ Roll Baby. A juiced-up revival of Joe Liggins’ 1945 R&B chart-topper The Honeydripper was the band’s first offering on Mercury’s 1957 release slate, its vocal handled by group member George Leser. He also fronted its flip Street Of Memories, their only ballad.

Then it was over to Decca for their infectious early ’58 release Broke Down, Baby, written by none other than Haley himself along with Rusty Keefer, Comets producer Milt Gabler, and Catherine Cafra (actually Comets steel guitarist Billy Williamson—Catherine was his wife). Decca altered the surname spelling of The Tyrones’ lead singer to ‘Lesser’ on the label. Considering that the sizzling guitar riffs closing off the B-side Giggles (sung by Al’s brother Tyrone De Nettis, ostensibly the group’s namesake) replicated the ending on Haley’s Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie, it’s an excellent bet that Franny Beecher was doing some moonlighting.

The explosive Blast Off, penned by R&B songsmith Ollie Jones (a member of The Cues, one of New York’s top studio backing vocal groups, who cut the tune in 1956 for Capitol as Destination Twenty-One Hundred And Sixty-Five), was The Tyrones’ Decca followup that spring. Since it ran under the opening credits of ‘Let’s Rock,’ the song didn’t lack for exposure. Haley and his posse conceived the B-side of the 45, I’m Shook. A 1959 farewell on the tiny Philly-based Dahlia logo, My Love, was milder than anything The Tyrones had waxed previously, though its hand-clapping plattermate Bring Back displayed some of the old fire.

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