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DELEGATES

“CONVENTION ’72”

(Nick Cenci, Nick Casel)

Mainstream 5525

No. 8   November 18, 1972

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The Daddy-O·s was a non de plume for Billy Mure and a mess of studio cats he enlisted to dash-off

a “The Delegates were myself and two other principals,” Tampa DJ Bob DeCarlo explained in an

exclusive inter­ view.”   One was Nick Cenci.   The name might ring a bell with some because a long

time ago, he was involved in a record distributorship in Pittsburgh called Co & Ce.   He also had a

label [bearing the same name] and han­dled Lou Christie and, early on, the Vogues.   The other guy

was his partner, Nick Kousaleous [a.k.a. Nick Casel].   They would handle Motown and some other

labels in the tri-state area.

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“We played golf together, all three of us.   And we’d been kicking this idea around for a long time.

It seemed no one had done a break-in record [wherein a narrative is intercut with excerpts from

then-current hits] in a long, long time, and here was this convention.   So, we decided to do it.   I

brought over a bunch of singles from KQU, where I worked, and we sat in my kitchen and wrote it.

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“Cenci set out to sell it.   He must have visited all the offices he could.   Buddah, Motown–no one

wanted to press it.   Then Mainstream, the jazz label, comes up and says ‘Sure, let’s do it.’   It was a

shock, like ‘Really, you will?’   Cenci had 10,000 copies pressed, and it started to take off in

Parkersburg, West Virginia.

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“I worked at KQU, one of the big pop stations and an ABC affiliate, at the time.  They thought it

smacked of payola if they played the tune, so they didn’t …   But it made the Top 10, and without

any airplay, on WLS in Chicago, another affiliate.   And we got no play in New York.   But wherever

it was played, it sold well.   It was a cute record.”

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When “Convention ’72” hit big, the Mainstream label issued a now-rare but low-grade album that

included Nick Casel lisping his way through “My Way.”   “I have one of the few copies of that thing;’

continued DeCarlo.   “It was a whole album of crap, that’s what.   It stunk to high heaven … but, the

label called for a fol­low-up LP.”   Bob’s station forbade him to be involved with the project, and

recording funds were in short supply.   “They wanted us to pay the costs of producing that thing, so

you can believe me when I say, we put nothin’ into it; it sucked.

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“We were sued by everybody, for copyright infringe­ ment.   We called up Dickie Goodman [creator

of the break-in genre], and he said use whatever you want and let them sue you.   It don’t mean

nothin’.   Eventually, everyone dropped their suits:’

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An obscure follow-up single, “Richard M. Nixon­ Face the Issues, Pt. 1 & 2,” appeared under the

“Dele­gates” name, but DeCarlo has denied any knowledge of its existence.   Almost as quickly as

they appeared, the Delegates vanished into pop oblivion.

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Bob DeCarlo was born January 9, 1941, in New York City.   “I went to college, Penn State.   I was

gonna be an actor, but I got dragged into spending a lot of time working at the campus radio

station, WDFM.   Before I knew which way my life was going, I was aDJ.   I went to WMAJ in

Providence, R.I.; next WICE, where I worked my way up from all night man to program director.”

Into the ’90s, Bob worked the morning drive time on WUSA, an “adult contemporary” station out of

Tampa, Florida.