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QUIN-TONES 

“DOWN THE ISLE OF LOVE”

(Quin·Tones)

Hunt 321

No. 18    September 15, 1958

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While his name never dangled on many a lip, Doc Bagby was a fairly successful organist and bandleader.

More importantly, he was a man with a knack for finding and shaping potential hit makers.  For a brief

spell in the late ’50s, Doc set up the Red Top label in Philadelphia with lrv Nahan and Marvin Schwartz.

During his time with the label, he recorded the Students (not the Chess/Note group),  the Sharmeers,

Tony & The Twilights  (later billed as Anthony & The Sophomores, noted for their “Play Those Oldies,

Mr. DJ”), a group  assembled by Curtis Mayfield called Kingsmen (not to be confused with THE

KINGSMEN, known for “Weekend,” nor the “Louie Louie” guys), and the Ivy Tones.

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The most successful and seemingly short-lived of all the Red Top recording artist was the Quin-Tones.

Rober­ta Hayman and her back-ups–Phyllis Carr, Eunice Crist, Caroline “Cissy” Holmes, Ronnie Scott,

and lone male Kenny Sexton–hailed from York, Pennsylvania.  “The group started in 1957,” explained

Phyllis Carr, in an exclusive interview. “I was the last added.  All of us attended William Penn Senior

High; only a year sepa­rated us.  We did shows around our hometown, playing teen halls, like the Odd

Fellows Hall on Maple Street.  We were the Quinteros then.  I don’t know why we changed our name,

 We were singing one night at a little dance.  I had Sam Pendleton come in and hear us.  He suggested

that maybe we should talk to this DJ out of Harrisburg.  Paul Landersman was his name.  He was at

WHGI, and was promoting dances held at the Nowhere Club and Dance Land.  We did a show at the

Nowhere, and he was impressed and said, ‘If you stay with me, I’ll have you on “American Bandstand”

within a year,’ which he did.

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”He became our manager and had us record our first session [in February 1958] at the Reco·Art Studios

in Philadelphia.  We did four originals:  “Bells,” “I Try So Hard,’ ‘The Stars,’ and ‘Please Dear.’  Through

Landers­man’s radio connections, arrangements were made with a regional distributor for Chess Records

to issue “I Try So Hard” (renamed “Ding Dong”).

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“It wasn’t a big hit or anything,” explained Carr, currently a caseworker with the Pennsylvania

Department of Public Welfare, “but we did get to tour off that record.  I remember clearly–and there’s

so much I don’t remember as the years pass on–that we were seniors in the fall of 1957, so we had to

ask our principal for permission to go out on the road, which he gave us.  It was somewhere in the

middle of the tour that we wrote ‘Down the Aisle of Love.”

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“Doc Bagby’s band backed us.  Our manager believed in ‘The Aisle’ so much he took it to Dick Clark.

And somewhere in there, I understand, that 95 percent of our contract [reported by Phil Schwartz in

the Recorder as “95 percent of the publishing royalties”] was sold to Dick Clark.  They switched it over

switched it to Hunt [Records] and Dick Clark began playing it a lot.  Of course, we didn’t understand that,

then…”

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“Down the Aisle was a “drag,” that’s a slow number with a beat, a “ladies’ choice,” a rockaballad.  It was

one of the best darn drags in “first phase” rock’n’rock history.  Reported­ly, near a million copies were

sold.

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“People may not believe this but we’ve yet [as of the fall 1989) to receive royalties on that record.  Never,

not ever, did we get anything!  l don’t know what 800,000 copies would bring.  I didn’t even know till

recently that many wore sold.  lt’s all so frustrating, so, so frustrating.  We were just kid, too young,

didn’t know nothin’.  We didn’t know we had any recourse.”

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On August 28, 1958, they appeared at the Apollo Theatre with the Coasters, Olympics, Spaniels, and the

group’s rivals, the Chantels.  “They had their hit with ‘Maybe: and we had ours, and we, and not they.

received a standing ovation. . . . We never saw any money–and it took years to say this–but we got an

experience that money can’t buy.”

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“There’ll Be No Sorrow” and a remake of Edna McGuff’s  1952 R & B

charter “Oh Heavenly Father” were issued each in turn, but sales were minuscule.  No further recordings

were ever issued by the Quin-Tones.

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“By 1960, it was over.  Roberta got married and whatever happens to groups happened to us.  We had to

make a living and just went our own way.”

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Kenny Sexton joined the servive, not to return to York.  Scott lives in Arkansas, Sexton in San Diego.

All of the othera, but Roberta Hayman, who works in a hospital in Harrisburg, still reside in York.

Caroline Holmes is a receptionist.  Eunice Crist is involved in church activities. [All said activities, as of 1

989]

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All of the women, except Crist, are involved in the reformed Quin-Tones (with a line·up that includes

Ron Webb and Phyllis’s brother, Vance).

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“In 1986, this DJ [Mix Oates] called us out of Flint, Michigan, he said that he had been looking for the

Quin-Tones for 25 years.  I said, ‘My gosh, we’ve been here all the time,”‘