Artist:The Excellents
Song:Coney Island Baby
Album:The Doo Wop Box
This is yet another memorable song from the Rhino 4CD box set The Doo Wop Box. Coney Island Baby was a chart hit in 1962 but The Excellents were sabotaged by their record company and disappeared afterwards. They started out in 1960 in The Bronx as The Premiers led by 17 year old lead singer John Kuse, his brother George Kuse (first tenor), Dennis Kestenbaum (falsetto), Phil Sanchez (second tenor), Joel Feldman (baritone) & Chuck Epstein (bass). While practicing at the Bronx Park Community Center, people would comment about their excellent sound so the group name was changed to The Excellents. John sent out demos in late 1960 and their version of the Al Jolson chestnut When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin Along got the attention of Sinclair Records owner Vinnie Catalano. A cover of The Cleftones You Baby You was released on Catalano's Blast label with a Catalano original Coney Island Baby on the B-side. This is different from the barbershop quartet song. New York DJs liked the B-side better and it started getting national attention and reached #24 on the Billboard Singles Chart in Nov. 1962. They were supposed to appear on American Bandstand. Catalano wouldn't pay for the trip to Philadelphia and when they complained, he sent a different group down there and called them The Excellents. I guess that was his way of saying that he owned them. They released one more single in Mar. 1964 as The Excellons but that went nowhere and they split up. John Kuse had a career as a supervisor at an investment banking firm but he revived The Excellents in the 80s and still leads them today. Here's The Excellents performing Coney Island Baby on the PBS show Doo Wop 50.
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