Little
Anthony & The Imperials
Featuring
the high-pitched vocals of Anthony Gourdine and a brace of solid
material, Little Anthony & the Imperials had a much longer
chart run than the majority of doo wop from the '50s. When the
dust finally settled, the group clocked in with a total of ten
entries in the Hot 100 between 1958 to 1974, including "Tears
on My Pillow," "Two People in the World," "Wishful
Thinking," "Oh Yeah," "So Much," "Shimmy
Shimmy Ko Ko Bop" (not to be confused with the similarly
titled "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Wop" by the El Capris),
"When You Wish Upon a Star," "Going Out of My Head,"
"Better Use Your Head," and "Hurt So Bad."
Gourdine formed
the group in the mid-'50s after his previous group, the Duponts,
disbanded. Grabbing friends Clarence Collins, Ernest Wright, Tracy
Lord and Nat Rogers, the group was originally called the Chesters,
but had their name changed to the Imperials by popular New York
disc jockey Alan Freed. Gourdine's vocal similarities to the popular
Frankie Lymon-inspired "kiddie group" sound, coupled
with a tendency to chop up syllables and overstress lyrics, made
theirs a style deceptively simple yet enduring. After revamping
the group in 1964 down to a quartet (Lord and Rogers left, and
Sammy Strain joined), the sound changed from doo wop to a harder,
more uptown R&B sound, best exemplified on hits like "I'm
on the Outside Looking In." Little Anthony decided to work
as a solo artist in 1975, while Collins continued the act in Las
Vegas for many years. Sammy Strain went on to great success as
a member of the O'Jays, and Ernest Wright joined as one of the
Platters and sang with the group Europa. For many lovers of the
genre Little Anthony & the Imperials are simply New York styled
doo wop at its smoothest and finest.
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