1961 The Diamonds – One Summer Night
Four singers from Canada formed The Diamonds in the mid-fifties. They moved to the US and began recording hits by covering songs that had been hits on the R&B chart, beginning with Why Do Fools Fall In Love in 1956. By 1958, the group had recorded over a dozen top forty singles, including three top ten hits.
The Danleers started singing doo wop songs on street corners in Brooklyn in the late fifties. The five members recorded a song written by their manager, Danny Webb. The single One Summer Night reached #7 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the R&B chart in 1958 and sold over a million copies.
The Danleers continued recording for a few more years, but never again reached the charts.
The Diamonds reached #18 on the Hot 100 in early 1959 with She Say (Oom Dooby Doom), but their next nine singles didn’t even reach the Hot 100 at all. By 1960, all but one of the original members of the group had left and been replaced by new singers.
In the Summer of 1961, the group looked to recapture their success by covering the Danleers’ sole hit record. The Diamond’s version of One Summer Night was nearly a direct copy of the original and took the group back up to #22 on the Hot 100.
The single turned out to be the group’s final visit to the charts. The last original member of the group left as well, and Mercury Records dropped them. Touring groups continued singing the group’s songs; sometimes there were multiple groups touring at the same time until lawsuits gave one ex-member control of the group name.
Some of the original members even reunited for a PBS show 2004.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Summer_Night
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Danleers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamonds
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What Was Left In 