The Clovers hailed from Washington DC, where they initially formed just after the Second World War as a conventional 1940s vocal group.
Their founder, Harold “Hal” Lucas, chose their name in the hope it would bring them luck.
After several years on the local nightclub circuit, they travelled to New York to make their first record.
Given that their live performances stuck to a repertoire built around the old standards favoured by their models, The Mills Brothers and The Ink Spots, it’s no surprise the A side was Yes Sir, That’s My Baby, which had been a hit for Gene Austin in the 1920s.
Released on the tiny independent label Rainbow, The Clovers’ Yes Sir, That’s My Baby was charming. But it wasn’t the sort of material favoured by Ahmet Ertegun, the head of a more ambitious and rising New York label – Atlantic Records.
Even so, already on the lookout for a vocal group he could use to capitalise on the rising popularity of R&B or “jump music”, he put the group under contract, intent on steering them towards edgier material.
They recorded a bluesy mid-tempo number Ertegun had written, Don’t You Know I Love You, in 1951, adding a saxophone and a Fats Domino-styled piano figure. After a slow start, the record caught on with buyers and the disc reportedly sold around 250,000 copies.
Atlantic lost no time in putting out a follow-up in a similar style, Fool, Fool, Fool, which did even better, selling half a million, and then One Mint Julep – which has subsequently become one of the standards of the entire 1950s vocal group genre.
One Mint Julep was written by Rudy Toombs in the wryly humorous style that Leiber and Stoller would perfect with The Coasters.
Sticking to the bluesy mid-tempo formula in 1952, Ting-A-Ling was another hit, but Hey, Miss Fannie, one of Ertegun’s compositions, can be classed as a hard-driving proto-rocker.
Yet it was the flipside I Played The Fool that had the sound of what we’d now recognise as a proper doo-wop ballad, with enchanting falsetto calls and “do-we-ooos” floating and cascading around the lead vocal.
By 1954, The Clovers were favourites at The Apollo and had toured on Alan Freed‘s R&B and rock’n’roll package shows.
In 1955, they appeared in the compilation movie Rock’n’Roll Revue, performing another of their Coasterish hits, Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash, written by another key figure at Atlantic, Jesse Stone, under his Charles Calhoun alias.
Billy Mitchell, a new recruit brought in while “Buddy” Bailey was temporarily absent on army draft, sang lead.
By that time, Atlantic had already released The Clovers’ version of Blue Velvet. This number, with Bailey’s lead accompanied by soft harmonising over the gentlest of shuffle beats, is one of the classiest moments in 50s doo-wop.
The following year brought another of doo-wop’s best-loved romantic ballads, Devil or Angel, later successfully revived by Bobby Vee.
By now, however, Ertegun and his cohorts were diverting more of Atlantic’s resources towards a newer group, The Drifters. The productions on The Clovers’ releases began to feel insipid and even frivolous.
Ridiculously, A&R man Jerry Wexler, who never warmed to The Clovers’ poppish leanings, had the bright idea of bringing in a female backing group to sing behind The Clovers, rinsing their sound entirely. Ironically, Love, Love, Love, recorded in this fashion, was their only Atlantic single to crossover onto the pop charts, reaching #30 in 1956.
Success in the white charts, though, largely eluded them until they left Atlantic in 1957 and signed with Liberty, scoring with the classic Love Potion Number Nine in 1959.
Released on the tiny independent label Rainbow, The Clovers’ Yes Sir, That’s My Baby was charming. But it wasn’t the sort of material favoured by Ahmet Ertegun, the head of a more ambitious and rising New York label – Atlantic Records.
In 1955, they appeared in the compilation movie Rock’n’Roll Revue, performing another of their Coasterish hits, Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash, written by another key figure at Atlantic, Jesse Stone, under his Charles Calhoun alias.
