Lead Singer of The Penguins Dies Casting Vote
Cleveland "Cleve" Duncan, lead vocalist for the highly influential doo wop group The Penguins, passed away Tuesday in Los Angeles while in the process of casting his vote in the US Presidential Election. He was 77.
Cleve sang lead on the group's one big hit, "Earth Angel," a groundbreaking doo-wop ballad that was actually released as a b-side in 1954; enterprising DJs flipped it and made "Angel" one of the first big rock and roll records. Their manager, Buck Ram, sold the group's contract to Mercury Records after "Angel" broke on the condition they also take another of his acts, The Platters; Ram gave the best material to the Platters instead, and the Penguins never recovered.
The group soldiered on until 1962, but Duncan reformed it many times with different members, becoming a fixture on the oldies circuit. The Penguins were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004. "It's a timeless song," Duncan once said of "Angel." "People will always want to hear it." November 08, 2012
Cleve Duncan of the Penguins Passes Away at 77
Cleveland "Cleve" Duncan , the lead singer for the Penguins , passed away this week at the age of 77. Little information is available on his death with some sources saying it occurred on Tuesday while he was at a voting machine and others saying that he died on Wednesday.
Duncan and Curtis Williams, former high school classmates, formed the group in late 1953 with Dexter Tisby and Bruce Tate. Williams, who was a former member of the Hollywood Flames, brought along a song called Earth Angel which the group recorded with Duncan on lead vocals.
Dootone Records picked up the record, along with the song Hey Senorita , and released a single in late 1954. While Earth Angel was the b-side, a DJ flipped the record over to feature the now classic Doo Wop song. The song shot to number 1 on the R&B and number 8 on the Pop chart, ending up the group's biggest hit.
Buck Ram picked up the group, hot off their hit, and brokered a contract with Mercury Records that included the group and the still fledgling Platters. The latter group ended up the hitmakers in the deal as the Penguins never had another national hit except for Pledge of Love which made it to 15 on the R&B chart after they moved to Atlantic Records.
Through the rest of the 50's, the group went through numerous lineup changes with Duncan being the one constant. The remnents of the original group broke up in 1962 but Cleve continued recording under the name with a variety of other performers through the decades. The performed on the PBS Doo Wop 50 special and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.
CLEVE DUNCAN
Born Cleveland Duncan, 23 July 1935, Los Angeles, California
And yet another One-hit-wonder : The Penguins! This group DID find a place in Wayne Jancik's book, but if their hit had peaked a few weeks earlier, it would have fallen outside the rock and roll era, which is defined by Wayne as starting on January 1, 1955.
Lead singer Cleve Duncan and tenor Dexter Tisby formed the Penguins with bass Curtis Williams and baritone Bruce Tate in 1954, naming themselves after the penguin on Kool cigarettes. They were one of the first R&B groups to crack the Top 10 of the pop chart, when their second record for Dootone, "Earth Angel", peaked at # 8 (and # 1 R&B) in early 1955. Wayne credits the song to Curtis Williams, but the history of the song is complicated. Over the years a consensus has been reached that its roots can be traced, at least in part, to the pen of Jesse Belvin.
The era of white covers was far from over and the Crew Cuts beat the Penguins in the pop charts, taking their version to # 3. But now, hardly anyone remembers their cover and sales of the original rendering may well have exceeded the 10 million mark. It was actually an unfinished, garage-made, one-track demo recording. In fact, the classic hit has the first five seconds of the intro clipped off and starts abruptly (though no one noticed). Unfortunately, the Penguins wound up involved in almost as many lawsuits as they had Dootone releases. Though they sought out the help of Buck Ram (who not only was an arranger and songwriter, but also a lawyer) to manage them, all the legal troubles seriously damaged their career. Ram signed them to Mercury Records (using his power as representative of the Penguins to get a Mercury deal for another of his groups, the yet unknown Platters), but none of their eight singles for Mercury/Wing nudged the nation's notice. Atlantic released one single by the Penguins (a cover of Ken Copeland's "Pledge of Love"), which spent one week at # 15 in the R&B charts and then disappeared quickly. They never had another hit. Duncan, who owns the Penguins name, re-formed the group several times for oldies shows. All the surviving original members of the Penguins (Bruce Tate passed away) have now given up entertaining altogether.
Further reading: Jay Warner, The Billboard book of American singing groups (1992), page 272-275. CD : The Penguins, Earth Angel (Ace 249). 21 Dootone tracks. Website: http://www.electricearl.com/dws/penguins.html
May the Wee Folk bless you today!
Blessings, Jodi
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