Song:Darling Dear
Album:The Doo Wop Box II
Here is another doo wop classic from Rhino's 4CD The Doo Wop Box II. Darling Dear was a national top ten hit in 1954. The interesting thing about The Counts is even after they faded, they continued to perform for decades without any personnel changes. That's very unusual. The Counts were high school students from Indianapolis. They were Chester Brown (lead tenor), Robert Penick (first tenor), Robert Wesley (second tenor), Robert Young (baritone) and James Lee (bass). Young wrote all their songs. They were originally called the 5 Diamonds and performed in talent contests in Indianapolis. They were introduced to record distributor Mel Herman. He became their manager and took them to Dot Records head Randy Wood. Upon signing with Dot, the group name was changed to The Counts. Darling Dear was recorded with sax player Jimmy Cole leading the backup band. The song reached #6 on the national R & B charts in Mar. 1954. The reason for this is that Dot had national distribution while a lot of doo wop classics were on small labels that didn't have national distribution. The Counts went on tour but none of the follow up singles did well so Dot dropped them in early 1956. The Counts never recorded again but continued to perform locally in Indianapolis for many years. They have also been known as The Masters and The Original Counts. The group finally ended when Robert Young died in 2001. But it was always the same five guys. It's yet another forgotten doo wop classic. Here's a video for Darling Dear by The Counts. Thanks to Harry Alexander for the video and Marv Goldberg for the info about The Counts.
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