Of The 50s  –   The Artists  – The Songs

 The Golden 50sThe Golden  60s The Golden  70sArticles    Home  

CRESCENDOS

OH JULIE

(Kenneth R. Moffit, Noel Ball)

Nasco 6005

No, 5    March 3, 1958

.

.

“I’ve heard talk on this DALE WARD [a credible Elvis stylist who later charted with “Letter for Sherry”]

 being a member of our group.  Well, absolutely not!   And all the other guys that claim they were with

us–Wanda Burt and this Clarence Wittenmeier; never met ’em,” said George R. Lanuis in an exclusive

interview.   “Now, Janice Green is something.   She wasn’t one of the guys, but Janice was the female

voice heard on ‘Julie,’

.

“We were only together for a year.   So, bogus groups started to use our name; ah, even while we were

still together.   I think, Ward was probably affiliated with our manager Noel Ball, possibly Ball sent

him out with some others as us, Noel passed away, several years ago, so we’ll never have the true

story on that.”

.

Lanuis, a Nashville realtor for much of his life, was the real thing, an original member and the lead

vocalist on one of rock’n’roll’s most cherished and underplayed ’50s one-time classics.

.

“The Cresendos were five guys.   Besides myself, there was Tommy Fortner, Kenneth Brigham, Jimmy

 Hall, and my cousin Jim Lanuis.   We’re the  originals.   We’re it.   We met and formed the group while

we were all attending Cumberland High in Nasville.   In ’57, we started doing talent shows and it was

at one of these that this Nashville DJ [Noel Ball] recognized us.   He took us to Nasco.  And he gave us

‘Oh Julie’ to record.   The label says Ball and Ken Moffit wrote it, but if the truth were to be known,

it was  Moffit’s song.

.

“Our situation was like a lot of acts back then, a bunch of naive school kids being taken under the

wing by individuals who took most of the profits.   And we got the leavings.   I still hear the record on

the radio and sometimes they mention this Ward fellow.   It’s still in print, and we haven’t gotten a

royalty check since 1963; if I’m not mistaken.  We traveled a year on ‘Oh Julie,’ which did sell a million

and [for] which we didn’t get the gold record.   We did get to see it though, hanging on the wall at our

manager’s office.

..

“We didn’t get incredibly wealthy.  You might’ve guessed that.  But, I do remember one royalty check

for about $6,500 [per man].   That wasn’t bad, then.   Touring we made about $300, a piece, per week.

And all expenses were paid.   We toured with the ‘Show of Stars.’   With us were the Everly Brothers,

Brenda Lee, Sam Cooke, LaVerne Baker, and I believe Frankie Valli and the Four Lovers.

…

“Probably the reason we broke up was we had burnt our selves out.  We were just out of high school

and on the road for nine month straight.  And that will burn you out really quick.  And then three of

the boys went to college.   Two of us got married.   And all that makes it hard to get together.  We were

burnt and we had this bad taste in our mouths on how things had been handled.  The rest of our

records–there was only three more!  [“School Girl” b/w “Crazy Hop”; “Young and in Love” b/w 

“Rainy Days”; and some canned cuts for Nasco leased a few years later to Scarlet Records, “Strange

Love” b/w “Let’s Take a Walk”].   The rest–all of ’em–were by bogus groups.   Our follow-ups probably

didn’t sell well ’cause we’d had it and had stopped traveling and promoting.

..

“We’ve all done really well, though.  None of us went on any further in music.  Nah.   l’m in real estate.

Ken’s a doctor.   Tommy’s an architect-builder.   Jim’s an accountant.   And Jimmy Hall has been working

for years at Ford Motors.”

..

Have you ever tried to go back, to make the rounds on the oldies circuit?

“No, we never did.”

Are you still friends?

“Yeah.   We all live within a 15-mile radius of each other.”

Do you ever get together?

“Nah.”

.

George Lannis died in 1996.