My Favorite Group of the 1950s, The Diamonds
Barry Worrell Aug, 09

It was once said that Canada was the breeding ground for great quartets. Back in the 50's with Canadian groups as The Crew Cuts, The Four Lads, and The Diamonds, that case could certainly be made. The Diamonds were a very versatile group fronted by the great lead voice of Dave Somerville, bass extraordinaire Bill Reed, baritone Phil Levitt, and tenor Ted Kowalski. During their recording contract, Mercury Records had them mostly "covering" the recordings of black artist.

The concept of "covering" could be described as releasing a recording that was in direct competition with the same song of the artist who released it first. At this time it was mainly because of segregation on the airways. You may remember Sh-Boom, by the Crew Cuts. This was a cover of a black R&B group called The Chords. The Diamonds took more than their share of flack by music purist for this practice while the record companies were trying to capitalize from the popularity of back artists. The Diamonds, doing as they were told and proving they were up to the task,  did it to the perfection that some thought they were a black group. They even show up on R & B charts.

As individuals, I don't think the Diamonds started out to be recording artists, except perhaps Dave Somerville, the lead singer. Dave came from a family of professional musician and he was currently studying with a noted voice teacher. But let's start at the beginning.

In the summer of 1953, Phil Levitt, and his friend Stan Fisher were on vacation. Just for fun they started harmonizing and to their surprise, it impressed the ladies. Needless to say, they harmonized a lot on that vacation. That fall Phil and Stan entered University of Toronto, Phil to study electrical engineering and Stan to study law. Phil's class, during a surveying trip on campus, was in one of the groups with telescopes and tripods. Ted Kowalski, whom Phil barley knew, was observing some girls though the scope and yelled out "Wow"! Phil said, "You sound like a tenor". Ted said he was and Phil said he had a friend he harmonized with and would Ted be interested. Ted agreed, they got together and they were pleased with the sound the trio had. They had a lot of fun singing when Ted later mentioned a friend, Bill Reed, who sang bass and suggested they get him to join the trio to become a quartet. They arranged to meet Bill at a dance club and when he arrived they got in to Phil's beat-up 47 Chevy and sang a few songs in the car. It was love at first sound. The mix was great and, as of that moment, they were a group.

At this point this unnamed group was Stan Fisher-lead, Phil Levitt-baritone, Ted Kowalski-tenor, and Bill Reed-bass.  Over the next few months they worked up a few songs and sang them at parties, at The Lebanese Club (in Toronto), on streetcars, in restaurants, in the subway and pretty much wherever they went. Invariably people would stop to listen and would praise their efforts. At one point, because all these positive responses seemed to indicate that they had something good, they felt it was time for a group name and Ted suggested "The Four Diamonds". He thought it would be good because he could visualize a professional card or brochure with a photo of each member at the four points of a diamond.

The guys had a repertoire of about six or seven songs, and with such an impressive array, they decided to enter a local talent show called "Pick The Stars". The show was produced at the Canadian Broadcasting Company, where a young engineer named Dave Somerville was working. Before they were to go on, they were practicing in the hall way when they met Dave by chance when he stopped to listen to them. When he learned details of the group, especially the extent of their repertoire, he told them that he didn’t think they were ready to do the show. He told them that he was knowledgeable in music and that he worked at C.B.C and could get them into studios to rehearse, and he offered to become their manager. They accepted.

As promised, Dave got (sneaked) the group into studios which, with pianos, were ideal for rehearsing and they built up their repertoire. He had a musician friend at C.B.C who arranged a couple of songs for them and these were included. Dave turned out to be a trained singer with a great voice, and knew quite a bit about singing and about music in general.

At Christmas, Bill arranged for their first gig, the annual minstrel show at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Toronto. It happened that the show was on the night before one of Stan Fisher’s term exams, and Stan opted out to study. Dave knew all the songs and took Stan’s place. At the show they absolutely brought the house down. They did an encore and the audience applauded wildly again. They were ecstatic and, that night, vowed that they were going to become professional. They talked with Stan the next day, but he made the decision to stick with school (of course he hadn’t experienced the previous night’s wild applause first hand), so Dave became the permanent lead singer. Somewhere around that time, they shorted their name to "The Diamonds"

With every possible moment not taken up by jobs or school, they began to rehearse. They met Bill’s dad, who had sung on radio with a locally well known barbershop group, The Garden City Four. Although suffering with respiratory problems, a permanent reminder that he had been gassed during the First World War, he could still sing and they had some very enjoyable times with him. He taught them barbershop technique and a few tunes, extending their repertoire.

One day Bill Reed mentioned that a black vocal group called The Revelaires, out of Detroit, was performing at a small downtown hotel, and the Diamonds went to catch their show. They sang spirituals and gospel songs, and the Diamonds were absolutely blown away. The Revelaires' rhythm, dynamics, vocal ability and showmanship were unlike anything the Diamonds had ever experienced. The tenor soared up high in a mellow falsetto and the bass singer absolutely rumbled on the bottom. Bill was somewhat familiar with the singing of groups like The Dixie Hummingbirds and Golden Gate Quartet but the other three were totally uninitiated. Star-struck, the Diamonds approached them after the set, introduced themselves, told them how fantastic they thought they were and begged them to teach them some of their music. The Revelaires took a liking to their new admirers and took them under their wing. They were semi-professional, with day jobs at home in Detroit. Their type of music did not generally command a living wage in those days. The Diamonds got together whenever The Revelaires came into town. They did their best to un-square the Diamonds....to make them cool. They taught them to snap on the off-beat, to give dynamics to lyrics, to feel the music, i.e., to swing. Some took to it better than others, Bill probably the best and Phil the least. Although Phil loved it and tried his utmost, it was hard to throw off the yoke of 19 years of square breeding. They taught them a few spirituals and gospel songs from their sizeable repertoire. Typically the Diamonds would go to the Revelaires small hotel room and, baritone sitting knee-to-knee with baritone and tenor with tenor, etc, etc, they would teach each their parts. Because of their influence there was a significant transformation in the Diamonds style and abilities. The Diamonds had started their career on the songs of the Four Lads, Mills Brothers, Ames Brothers and Crew Cuts but the major influence on their singing was that of the Revelaires.

In the spring of 1954 Ted and Phil finished their first year of college and decided not to go back to school in the fall. Now there was lots of time for rehearsals. Around this time the Diamonds realized they needed a real manager. Dave got an audition with a local C.B.C radio and TV celebrity who introduced them to Nat Goodman, a professional classical musician who was interested in finding an act to manage. He liked the Diamonds and became their manager. Now things started to move as Goodman got them some professionally prepared arrangements. At this point, Goodman insisted Dave and Bill quit their jobs so the group could get really serious about rehearsing.

In the summer of 1955 Nat arranged for the Diamonds to sing for food and board at a resort in Greenwood Lake, about an hour’s drive from New York City. He got them on the Arthur Godfrey talent show and they tied for a win with a female classical pianist, resulting in a week on his morning talk/variety show. Phil recalled: "If we had been a little more aggressive and lively at the time we might have made an impact on the US TV viewers then and there, but we were pretty timid and sat quietly while more outgoing types like Pat Boone schmoozed amiably with Mr. Godfrey".

As a result of the Godfrey appearance Nat Goodman was able to get them a recording contract with Coral Records. They made two records for Coral in New York, one side being "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots", which they learned from sheet music. After the session, as they began the drive back to Greenwood Lake, they turned on Alan Freed’s show on the car radio. He was playing his top 40 songs for the week and told his listeners that the last one he would play that afternoon would be the number one song, "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots". The Diamonds were in shock, amazed at the ability of the record company to put out the disk in this ridiculously short time. Those Yanks could do anything! They sped back to Greenwood Lake so that they could tell the good news to their friends at the resort, and gather around the radio with them to await the magic moment. After what seemed like hours, Freed finally said "And now here it is, your number one song, "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots"...... by THE CHEERS!" Such was their introduction to the record business.

The Diamonds' version of the song didn’t do much, selling a few thousand copies, mainly in Toronto, resulting in a bit of fame locally. As a result of this disappointing experience their manager got serious about learning the inner workings of show business. He found that there was a disc jockey, Bill Randle, broadcasting at station WERE out of Cleveland, who apparently was responsible for the discovery of some very successful talent, including The Crew Cuts. He had an uncanny ability to recognize songs that had hit potential, and when a song started to make its way up the hit parade, it inevitably began its rise on his show in Cleveland, then moved up in places like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (Toronto was far down the list in those days). When the Diamonds went to Cleveland to play The Alpine Village night club, Nat Goodman managed to get them an audition with Mr. Randle. Sitting in the waiting room outside his studio the guys struck up a conversation with a friendly young aspiring singer, even sang a bit of barbershop with him. He had a terrific voice and his name was Andy Williams.

After the audition, Mr. Randle recommended the Diamonds to Mercury Records. Mercury liked the group and, upon hearing their spirituals they decided to slate them for rock ‘n roll. Shortly after this the Diamonds signed a contract and began to record in Chicago.

The Diamonds first recording was, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", a cover of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Shortly after the session Mercury sent them on the road in a Chevy Impala sedan (perhaps a Ford or Mercury would have been more appropriate) to promote the song. They rushed from city to city, town to town, mostly throughout the eastern and Midwestern U.S.A., doing nothing but visiting disc jockeys in a tour which lasted 5 or 6 weeks. The record did well, ultimately charting in the top 20, according to the national magazine Billboard, and the group was very excited.

They did a number of other recordings in Chicago, all under the direction of Mercury’s David Carroll, a.k.a. Nook Schreier, who they greatly admired, and these did well, all hitting the charts. They were "Church Bells May Ring/Little Girl of Mine", "Love Love Love/Every Night About This Time", and "Ka-Ding Dong/Soft Summer Breeze". Then someone at Mercury decided to have them record a couple of songs in New York. These were originals; "My Judge and My Jury" and "Put Your House in Order". The Diamonds were not exactly thrilled with the songs; also, the writers were white, and one of the songs was a "spiritual"!! However they really didn’t have much voice in these decisions so, reluctantly and rather embarrassed, they did the recordings. They were not surprised when they did poorly, and in fact privately felt vindicated.

Through the success of the recordings the Diamonds became a reasonably established act and toured the U.S. and Canada appearing in night clubs and on radio and television. However this success, while satisfying and fairly substantial, was limited, and they began to look for the big one which would make "The Diamonds" a household name.

In 1956, back at their beloved Chicago Mercury studios, they were played a demo record of a ballad with a Hawaiian flavor called "Faithful and True". The Diamonds really liked it and persuaded Mercury to let them record it. Mercury agreed, and told them that the flip side would be a cover of a song called "Little Darlin’" by The Gladiolas, led by Maurice Williams who had written it. The group spent a lot of time and effort working up "Faithful and True", then whipped up a version of "Little Darlin’", complete with an Ink Spots-like spoken bass solo. That evening they recorded both songs in a long, late session. The Diamonds tried to concentrate on "Faithful", while David Carroll kept them working on "Darlin’" until they had a pretty creditable version, which included what must have been a first, a Latin rhythm cowbell (David Carroll’s brainchild).

The Diamonds were excited as they were sure they had a real winner with "Faithful". They went back on the road and kept an anxious eye on the charts, but were surprised when "Little Darlin’" started to chart very quickly, while "Faithful and True" was well behind. "Just wait!", they said. "Little Darlin’", of course, wound up as the big winner, reaching #2 nationally. In fact it was on the verge of hitting #1 when Elvis Presley’s "All Shook Up" overtook it for the top spot. Earning them a gold record (actually four gold records), "Little Darlin’" led to further and better TV and nightclub appearances and to many increasingly popular one-nighters. It secured a solid niche for the Diamonds in the archives of rock ‘n roll - they had made it.

In the spring of 1957, Phil had grown weary of being on the road and longed to return to University to complete his engineering studies. He was replaced by fellow Canadian Mike Douglas, who also was a friend of Ted's.  In July, 1957, Phil went back to Toronto and that fall entered second year engineering.

Bill and Ted left the group in the latter part of 1958, being replaced by John Felten - bass, and Evan Fisher - tenor. The Diamonds now were Dave Somerville, Mike Douglas, Evan Fisher, and John Felten. They went on to record two new albums and 26 more singles for Mercury Records, charting another 6 songs on Billboard, making a total of 16 charters for Mercury. Dave Somerville left in 1961 and was replaced by Jim Malone. Bill went into record promotion and apparently never sang with another group, although he had many offers. Ted returned to University of Toronto to finish his studies in electrical engineering. He also sang with several groups and big bands over the years. Dave has always been involved singing solo, groups, and acting, and as of this writing, he still is.

Over the following years the original four would occasionally get together for an "oldies" show.

In 1984 the Diamonds were awarded a Canadian Juno "Hall of Fame" award by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

The Diamonds received national attention once again in 2000, when the original four were invited to sing in T. J. Lubinsky’s Public Broadcasting Service production of “Do-Wop 51”, and again in another PBS production of “Magic Moments-The Best Of '50s Pop” in 2004. That was the last performance with the original four.

In June 2004, the Diamonds were invited to Hawaii to perform. Bill was ill and wasn't able to make the trip. Trying to recover fully from an aneurysm operation, he had also developed cancer and passed away on Oct. 22, 2004. The Diamonds lost a good friend, and the world lost a truly fine singer.

In October, 2004, they were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Sharon, Pennsylvania.

In 2006 they were inducted into The Doo-Wop Hall of Fame.

From the time of their formation in 1953, to the end of their Mercury recording contract in 1961, the group released four new albums, each featuring a different musical genre, 63 singles, three of them gold, and 16 charted hits on Billboard. They appeared 20 plus times on American Bandstand and perform on countless TV programs and in night clubs. They also had international popularity taking their talents to Australia. They were part of the first major Rock & Roll tour in 1957. Even Hollywood called them on three occasions to guest star in the film “The Big Beat” and to sing the theme song for the films, “Kathy-O, and “The Horizontal Lieutenant”. This is not a stellar legacy by today standards, but in perspective a very admirable one.  Importantly to their credit, they created a fan base that for over fifty years, still runs strong.  In fact, on my website I continually track visitors from all over the world.

Note: The bulk of this article, as told to me by Phil Levitt of the Diamonds,  comes from my website, "The Original Diamonds of the 1950s",  where you may learn even more of this fantastic group.