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Numerous soul groups are held in high esteem by U.K. collectors for the tracks that they managed to commit to vinyl. All such groups came into being with great hopes of hitting the big
time, but success managed to totally elude many of them. Media interest in groups who failed to gain any commercial success was almost negligible and the monetary rewards, or lack of them, were such that most
individuals involved had to retain a day job to pay the bills. Lack of success usually guaranteed that one or more of their line up became frustrated by the life style and quit the business, precipitating the break
up of the outfit. Many groups therefore lasted for only a limited period or underwent name changes for various reasons. Thus their origins, line ups, full career / recording details and the timing / cause of their
demise will never be known to their present day admirers.
If a group were based in a large city with a viable recording industry, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.,
then persistant individuals would usually get more than one bite at the cherry. Another outfit featuring changes in personnel / style would rise from the ashes of the earlier group. If this new ensemble managed to
enjoy a measure of commercial success then the earlier incarnation would usually garner some publicity in the process. This interest may even have prompted the reissue of a single by the original group to cash in on
the new found popularity. However in smaller, less well served cities / towns the chances of this happening were much reduced. Ambitious / adroit members of failed outfits would relocate to areas with more
established recording industries in an attempt to prolong / regenerate their music business careers. Their talents would thus be lost to their home town further reducing the chances of local success.
Cleveland, America's 23rd biggest municipality, is such a city who's recording industry
never really broke through in commercial terms and therefore many of it's talents failed to garner the success they fully deserved. Consequently it is really ironic that the city was chosen as the home of the
recently opened -1995 - Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. This $92m museum / concert hall holds 4000 artefacts, among these being John Lennon's Sgt Pepper uniform and a handwritten Jimi Hendrix lyric sheet. The Hall Of
Fame has also managed to win the support of the key player in the soul memorabilia business, the Motown Historical Museum. Thus when a fan goes into the Hall Of Fame he will be able to find an exhibit about
Berry Gordy's Detroit based empire. But will the establishment's 'interactive booths' allow him to find out details about local outfits such as the Rotations, Kim Tolliver, Jessie Fisher or the Imperial Wonders, I
very much doubt it.
My interest in the Cleveland soul scene has resulted in me managing to gather some information on the Imperial Wonders and although this is far from
complete, I feel the details I have will still be of interest.
A top local live attraction in Cleveland in the early sixties were the Crown Imperials and it could well have been this group which inspired
Lester 'Jelly McKenzie, Al Boyd, Avon Wells, Walter Chaney and Leo Greene to choose the name the Imperial Wonders when they formed in the late sixties. Members of the group had experience in the business
already when the 'Wonders' were formed, an example being Al Boyd who had previously been in the Rotations. The break the new group were looking for occured when they came to the notice of Lou Ragland and he tutored
them at his house for a month. They worked on a song that Lester McKenzie had written, "Just A Dream" and a second one "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Da". When it was agreed that they had practised them enough
and honed their performance Lou took the group down to Agency Recording and they cut the songs with Lou acting as producer and arranger on the session. Generally the studio backing band ,which included Calvin Brown
on guitar, were up to the task however the drummer couldn't play what Lou wanted and so he replaced him and managed to get the feel he was seeking. The tracks were picked up for release on the Day-Wood label - DW
6901 - which was owned and run by Bob Davis and Melvin Woods. The record did well locally at the time and is still held in very high esteem by U.K. collectors today.
For their next release the group transferred to the Black Prince label which was part of Shelby Singletons company based out of Nashville.
The link between Nashville and Cleveland was Warren Lanier an industry promotion man who regularily visited the Ohio area and was a friend of Way Out's Lester Johnson, his relatives recorded for Way Out at the time
as the Jacksonians but were later to become more widely known as Lanier & Co. A single "Trying To Get To You" - Black Prince 317 - was released in May 1970 and as well as selling well in Cleveland the
record enjoyed a measure of national success, making the lower reaches of the soul Top 100 chart. The group enjoyed a good local following for their live work, their shows usually including a number of Intruders
hits in addition to their own tracks. At this time the groups talents were recognised by the O'Jay's, who signed them to the Solid Foundation label which at the time operated out of 1715 Euclid in Cleveland. In 1972
the group went into the Agency Recording Studio with Bobby Massey, Walter Williams and Eddie Levert acting as producers. Two songs written by Williams and Levert in conjunction with Bobby Dukes were released from
the session, "You Live Only Once / Turned Around Over You" - LBM 101 - and again these proved popular locally. These tracks have again stood the test of time well and remain popular in the U.K. "You
Live..." was issued here on the Soul Supply L.P. "The Modern Times " - SS105 - in the 1980's due to it's popularity on the dance floor,then again more recently on the "Soulful Kinda
Seventies" CD with "Turned Around..." being included on the CD "The Essential Sweet Soul Selection", both on Goldmine.
The follow up to this single was again on a new label to the group as they were signed to Musicor Records of New York early in 1973,
at long last landing a deal with a company who had an established national distribution system in place. Musicor's practise was to cut most of the tracks they released at Groove Sound Studio's, N.Y., and so with
Bobby Massey and Richard Shann - the producers on the session - they travelled across to New York to cut some tracks. The resulting single, "Love Coming Down / My Baby [Just Told Me She Loves Me]" -
Musicor 1477 - was released in July 73. The A side is an uptempo item written by group member Al Boyd, whilst the B features a song written by the sessions producers. Shortly afterwards the group suffered a major
set back as Lester McKenzie fell ill with a blood disorder and this was to lead to his untimely death. I assume that this is the reason that the group only enjoyed one release on Musicor and underwent a name change
shortly afterwards to the Four Wonders.
By 1974 the group were back on the Solid Foundation label which was now based at 1966 East 55th St.,being a
division of Harmony on Euclid Inc. In December 74 two singles were released on the label,"Just Looking For My Love / Haven't We Been Good" - SF 108 - Four Wonders and "9th Street " - SF 107 - 9th
Street Exit. The 'Wonders' record was written, produced and arranged by Eddie McGhee & John Brinson, whilst 9th Street Exit's was written, produced and arranged by the groups leader Dunn Pearson, both projects
were therefore all Cleveland affairs. As was common for Cleveland label releases in the 70's both singles made reference to albums that the tracks had been culled from - in the 'Wonders' case this was titled "
I Can't Get Over You" - however I dont believe these materialised and usually enough tracks to fill a whole album were never recorded due to financial constraints. The single failed to change the 'Wonders'
fortunes as success again eluded them and they rapidly drifted into obscurity. Once again however the groups efforts have with the passage of time come to be valued in the U.K. as due to the interest in
"Haven't We Been Good" it was recently included on the Goldmine CD "Deepest Soul Volume 2".
By 1977 they had disbanded however in that year ex-group members Leo Greene and Al Boyd teamed up with Larry Hancock to
form Truth. This outfit enjoyed releases on the Sounds Of Cleveland and Devaki labels, one track by the group also finding it's way onto the "Deepest Soul Volume 2" CD. The group also toured extensively at
the time with the likes of the O'Jays and Dennis Edwards. Truth lasted into the 1980's but on their break up I believe the last remnants of the 'Wonders" finally bowed out of the music
business.
To my knowledge then the group enjoyed an existence which spanned 7 years and encompassed 5 singles. None of these enjoyed major national
success in the States or even managed to gain a U.K. release at the time of their recording. However due to the timeless quality that they possess 2 singles - 3 tracks, 1 twice - have since gained British release,
another is much sought after by collectors and fetches a tidy sum when a copy of the original single comes up for sale, whilst the other two are both worthy of inclusion on compilation CD's. All in all then not a
bad track record for an obscure outfit based in a Ohio lakeside city with no musical legacy.
JOHN SMITH
Oxford April 97.
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