The “Golden Hits Of The 50s” 

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VINCE MARTIN WITH THE TARRIERS

“CINDY. OH CINDY”

(Bob Baron, Burt Long)

Glory 247

No. 9    December 22, 1956

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Critics reporting on a few of Vince’s East Coast appear­ances at the South Boston or the Village Vanguard in

the mid-to-late ’50s noted that he was a “tall, personable,” but “shy-appearing youngster.”  He was usually

accompanied on two guitars and banjo by Alan Arkin, Bob Carey, and Erik Darling, THE TARRIERS.

Midway through their act, Vince would come out and sing “Casey Jones,” “So Long It’s Been Good to

Know You,” and “Cindy, Oh Cindy;’ and then he’d walk off.

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Arkin, Carey, and Darling were also present on Vin­nie’s hit making vinyl excursion.  “When we signed on

with Phil Rose’s Glory Records, they had another artist, Vince Martin,” said the Tarriers’ Erik Darling in

an exclusive interview. “Where he came from I will never know.  They had ‘Cindy, Oh Cindy,” that some

New York pop writers had taken a Jamaican melody from and written some words for.  Originally it went

something like:  ‘Pay me, pay me, pay me my money down/pay me my money or go to jail.’   We arranged it

in a calypso style and sang behind this guy, Martin.   That was issued first before any stuff we’d do; much to

are chagrin.   We wanted our record out [“Banana Boat”].  We didn’t wanna sing with a Vince Martin.  He

wasn’t a folksinger, in any manner or form.  I mean, the last thing he knew anything about was folk music’:

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No one could have guessed it–though Erik and his buddies hoped it–but months later, the Tarriers would

create their own momentous moment with “The Banana Boat Song.”

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Although Martin, with and without the Tarriers, appeared on a few other 45s, nothing further clicked.

Vince continued to work at a low-profile music career well into the ’70s.  ABC-Paramount and Elektra

issued a  few singles; Elektra even shipped an LP as a duo work with “true” folkie Fred Neil (1964).  In

1973, during the height of the singer-song­ writer epidemic, Capitol made a last-ditch effort to revive

Martin’s flagging popularity with an album titled, dull but logically enough, Vince Martin.