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ECHOES

“BABY BLUE”

(Sam Guilino, Val Lagueux)

Seg-Way 103

No. 12    May 1, 1961

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Harry Doyle (b. 1943),  Tommy Duffy (b. 1944), and Tom Morrissey (b. 1943)  were some  Brooklyn-

born’n’bred boys who liked to hang out and harmonize.  They were calling themselves the Laurels when  a

friend of Duffy, Johnny Power, turned them on to “Baby Blue,” a tune that Long Island High assistant

principal Val Lagueux and his music  teacher Sam Guilino had handed him.   Powers own group,  Johnny &

the Jokers, passed on the song to record their own “Do-Re-Mi Rock” for Harvard Records.

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Meanwhile, the Laurels changed their name to the already overused “Echoes” name–a moniker yet to be

used by BONNIE GUITAR and DON ROBERTSON on their lone pairing and 1961 charting “Born To Be With

You.”   With funds from their own pockets, the guys cut a demo of  “Baby Blue”–a slow, a cappella

rendition.   They brought the track to Jack Gold at Paris Records.   Gold, who had formerly worked on

recordings by THE TEMPOS (creators of the original “See You In September”) and JOE BENNETT & THE

SPARKLETONES, liked the group’s gentle sound  and that baby-talkin’ tune.   He took the tape back into the

studio to add instrumental backing and speed up the tempo.   To release the disk, he formed the SRG label

(named after his newly-born son, Steven Richard Gold).

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The  initial response to “Baby Blue”–which the group misspells in the song as “B-a-b-b-y    B-b-l-u-e”- -was

promising.   A slightly larger independent label, Seg-Way Records, picked up the group’s contract and the

rights to the recording, and the Echoes had their first and only momentous moment.   A number of fine

follow-ups were issued, but nothing else nudged the nation–not “Gee, Oh Gee,” not their cover of  Ersel

Hickey’s “Bluebirds Over The Mountain,” not their moving remake of Brook Benton’ s “A Million Miles From

Nowhere.”

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When  last noted, in the mid-‘7Os, Tommy was still working with a new edition of the Echoes; Tom and

Harry had a group called The Red Hook; sounds like the may have grown their hair long.