THE BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY:: BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " THE RAYS " WAS AN AMERICAN GROUP FORMED IN NEW YORK IN 1955 AND ACTIVE IN THE EARLY 1960's : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

Friday, 2 May 2014

BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " THE RAYS " WAS AN AMERICAN GROUP FORMED IN NEW YORK IN 1955 AND ACTIVE IN THE EARLY 1960's : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY The Rays was an American group formed in New York in 1955, and active in the early 1960's. They first recorded for Chess Records. Their biggest hit single was "Silhouettes," a moderately-slow doo-wop piece of pop music that reached #3 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1957 on Cameo after being initially released on the small XYZ Records. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[1] The song was written by Bob Crewe and Frank Slay, Jr.^[1] Also on XYZ, they had a minor hit with "Mediterranean Moon" a mid-chart hit with "Magic Moon" (by this time, XYZ was being nationally distributed by London Records).

They also recorded the original version of "Daddy Cool", which was used as part of a medley with Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It" for U.K. band Darts which made the U.K charts (#6) in 1977.

"Silhouettes" was also released by The Diamonds in 1957 reaching #10 on the charts and later in a slightly faster cover version by Herman's Hermits in 1965, reaching #5 on the U.S. charts. It was also covered by Bob Dylan, but still unreleased, from his Basement Tapes sessions in the late 1960's.