One of the greatest instrumental bands to come out of Detroit in the late 50’s were The Royaltones, who broke out onto the scene with an instant hit in “Poor Boy” and held their own in Detroit’s hotbed of talent. The band would see members come and go over the course of the years, and only sax player George Katsakis would remain the one common denominator throughout the various incarnations.

The group began as The Paragons while the boys were still in high school in Dearborn, Michigan. George Katsakis fondly remembers, “I met the Popoff brothers in high school. They were twins. Mike I met in one class, and his brother Greg I met in another. At first I wasn’t aware that I was meeting two different fellows, because they were identical. For probably the first few days or maybe the first week of school, I thought it was the same kid, not paying close attention to their names.

“When I started 10th grade, I played with the school band and only with the school band,” Katsakis told the author. “There was an upcoming talent show and in order to participate, you had to audition. Well, I was a shy kid up until this point. I decided to audition, and I decided to play ‘Slow Walk,’ the Sil Austin song. I auditioned and was accepted into the show. I had learned to play clarinet and my father was a sax player, so I eventually learned to play the sax. In the early days of Rock ‘n Roll, the sax was king and not the guitar. ‘Honky Tonk’ by Bill Doggett was the first record I purchased on my own, and I was hooked. Other idles of mine in those days were Noble Thin Man Watts, Red Prysock, King Curtis, Stan Getz, and Lee Allen.

“In my high school days,” George continued, “I used to walk about two miles home every day from school. One day while walking home I heard someone practicing the accordion, so I paused to listen and managed to gain the courage to knock on the front door. Ed Gandolfo answered the door, who went to my school and whom I actually had in one of my classes. I asked him if he was interested in playing with me in the talent show and he replied yes. The next day in class I asked Greg Popoff if he wanted to join us in the talent show and he also said yes. There was a guy in my high school band named Dave Giancola who played trumpet, and he came on board, and then Mike Popoff said he wanted to join in too. Next thing you know, we had a group coming together!”

Some time prior to the show there was a hit instrumental being played on the radio by Chuck Alimo, called “Leap Frog.” George and the group decided to switch from playing “Slow Walk” to “Leap Frog” for the talent contest. The day of the talent show, the group created a little raucous, George wore some sunglasses, and they broke into “Leap Frog” and the classmates went nuts, just like in the movies. The group was banned from any more talent shows or playing at any more school events, so they decided to form a band. As George recalls, “Dave was the only one that didn’t want to participate. Mike was a trumpet player, Greg played drums, Ed played accordion, and I played sax and clarinet. This was maybe late 1956 or early 1957.”

In the summer of 1957, their first summer as a real band, the members of the group were becoming fast friends with one another and managed to work through the recreation department at Camp Dearborn, where they would come to know many other local school kids from around Dearborn.

On the way to a park they passed an industrial warehouse called Paragon Steel. They looked up the word paragon in the dictionary one day and liked the meaning, so they named their band “The Paragons.” Some of the early clubs The Paragons performed at were the Top Hat Teen Club, Way-Ford Teen Club, The Stork Club, St. Clair Shores Teen Club, Clawson Teen Club, Rouge Roller Rink, Bill’s Barn, and the Clarenceville Teen Club. The Paragons also played private dances and weddings, and things were good for a band of about age six-months. One dance they played was at Jack Scott’s Dance Ranch and that’s where they first met Jack Scott.

Rock ‘n Roll was a rapidly changing phenomenon. Dominated by the saxophone as a lead instrument, the boys quickly started to realize that the guitar was gaining ground in popularity with teenagers, and swiftly becoming a rival to the saxophone.

The Paragons decided it was time to hire a guitar player to diversify their sound. They hired a kid named Danny James who was, as Katsakis recalls, “ a guy who personified the guitar players of the day, was a great showman but had a terrible personality.” He didn’t last long with the band and Jack Rainwater replaced Danny on guitar. Rainwater was a good showman, could sing, and had a more agreeable personality who lent himself well to the group. The Paragons had more work than most of the other bands at the time so it was an easy decision for Jack to come aboard.

In the early days of ‘white’ Detroit, there weren’t a whole lot of great groups circulating save four: Jack Scott, The Paragons, Johnny Powers, and Danny Zella & His Zell Rocks.

Jack Scott had the first success in being discovered in 1957 by ABC-Paramount, who quickly signed him to a two-single deal. After having a couple of mild hits with Jack Scott, ABC-Paramount opted not to renew his contract for a third single after hearing his demo of “Leroy.” Jack recruited George Katsakis to play sax on a session at United Sound Studios in Detroit in early 1958 where they cut “Leroy” and “My True Love.” Carlton Records was a newly formed label and signed Scott, releasing the single that became a national double sided hit: “Leroy” went to #11 (featuring a blistering sax by George Katsakis) and “My True Love” which went to #3. Katsakis played on virtually all of Scott's Carlton recordings.

As the sax and piano became forefront instruments to the rock ‘n roll sound, swiftly joining the ranks was the new Wurlitzer electric piano. The Wurlitzer was becoming a favorite and the accordion was quickly falling out of favor. Ed Gandolfo in the group did not want to switch over from accordion to electric piano, so Mike Popoff (whose mother taught him to play the piano years earlier) bought a Wurlitzer and became the group’s piano player. Ed left the group, leaving Katsakis, Rainwater, and the Popoff brothers.

Mike, Greg, and George lived relatively close to one another and, attending the same high school, made it natural for them to hang out together a little more-so than with Jack. One of their many activities was writing instrumentals. With the Jack Scott recording session still fresh in their mind, George and the Popoffs co-wrote the tune “Poor Boy.”

The band played weekends at at Camp Dearborn again in the summer of 1958 and when it was time to get paid they had to go to the Recreation Department which was located upstairs from the Carmen Theater which was called Carmen Towers. The Carmen Theater was also one of the only theaters in Dearborn where the group went to go watch movies together. One day, as coincidence would have it, when picking up their paycheck, they saw a sign that read “Carmen Towers Recording Studio.” Now the group had been through those doors many times and knew that the sign was not there on any of their previous trips to the Carmen. “Being young we thought it was an omen but beyond that we didn’t know just how right we were,” confessed George in a recent ’08 interview.

“We went to the movies that night at the Carmen Theater to begin our investigation,” George admitted. “We knew the usher there, a kid who was about 14 years old at the time that we called Whitey because of his hair, and he proceeded to tell us that the studio was owned by the son whose father owned the building and also the theater. The usher made arrangements for us to meet and audition with Stuart Gorelick who owned the new studio. When he introduced us to Stuart we just played him the “Poor Boy” acetate and he told us to come back and do a recording in the studio. The only ones that knew about this were Mike, Greg, and myself, and we were all excited to let Jack Rainwater know of our new good fortune.”

George, Mike, and Greg told Ken and Bob about the upcoming recording session at the Carmen, and together as a new group they rehearsed a few times before going into the Carmen to record “Poor Boy.” “Wail” was a B-side written in collaboration by the whole group at one of the rehearsals.

“Let me make this real clear,” George Katsakis said to the author, “Greg, Mike, and myself were the three that wrote ‘Poor Boy’. Not Bob Sanderson. We didn’t even know Bob Sanderson at the time we wrote ‘Poor Boy.’ Bob did have a hand in writing ‘Wail’ though.”

Carmen Studio had become the regular rehearsal space for The Royaltones since there wasn’t much else going on there at the time, and they recorded as they came up with new tunes. There weren’t really any producers there so the Royaltones only recorded to tape whenever an engineer was present. Ron Malo was the house engineer and he used a monaural Fairchild 15 IPS reel-to-reel tape machine. In September of 1958, the Royaltones recorded “See Saw” (originally titled “Hard Times”) which was a song written while still the Paragons, and “Clip Clop,” a song brought in by Ken and Bob. A few other songs were recorded that were never released: “The Strut,” “Our Love,” and “Janet.”

“Poor Boy” peaked at #17 on the charts where it stayed for 17 weeks. The Royaltones were anxiously waiting for bookings through Stuart. The group was also beginning to wonder when they would be receiving royalties and were quickly becoming suspicious that all was not right, especially with the absence of a written contract. October had arrived and the first good news from Stuart was that he had booked The Royaltones on The Dick Clark Beechnut Show. Shortly after performing “Poor Boy” on Dick Clark’s show, Stuart had booked the Royaltones for two weeks in November to appear at the Howard Theater in Washington D.C. and The Royal Theater in Baltimore, Maryland. The shows were hosted by Red Foxx and others on the show included Ed Townsend, Damita Joe, Thurston Harris, and The Shields. The Royaltones were the only white act on the bill and the theaters were predominately famous black theaters at the time on par with the Harlem Apollo.

After concluding the DC and Baltimore engagements, Diane bowed out of the band as she was pregnant and really only a temporary solution until they found a replacement. Arnie Stube, who played piano with Ken & The Bandits, officially became a Royaltone.

With the new configuration, the next big engagement was the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, appearing on the same bill as the Big Bopper, Clyde McPhatter, Connie Francis, Dickie Do & The Don’ts, and Lloyd Price. The Royaltones signed with G.A.C. Agency and, following the Paramount, did a two week bus tour in the south with Jerry Butler, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Roy Hamilton, and Dale Hawkins. Following this bus tour, the Royaltones returned to Detroit and waited for more work but none was in site. “See Saw” backed with “Little Bo” was released as their second single but unfortunately didn’t see the results as “Poor Boy.” However, it was a phenomenal two-sider!

The Royaltones went back to playing local dances and gigs as they waited for more national venues from Stu Gorelick. In the interim, Harry Balk went into partnership with a Detroit furrier named Irving Micahnik. Harry Balk owned some movie theaters in Detroit, and through that connection knew the Gorelick family who also owned theaters around Detroit. Harry Balk booked time at the Carmen studio and brought in two new groups whom he had discovered: Johnny & The Hurricanes, and The Dream Girls. Harry Balk hired The Royaltones to play behind the Dream Girls on their first session “Don’t Break My Heart” coupled with “Oh This Is Why.” Johnny & The Hurricanes recorded their first single as well, “Crossfire” backed with “Lazy.” Bob Sanderson snickered and laughed because he thought “Crossfire” was a lame instrumental that didn’t stand a chance. Freddie & The Parliaments attended the session also, providing the handclaps for “Crossfire.”

A payola scandal broke out and suddenly Stu Gorelick and legendary Detroit deejay Mickey Shorr were in the news. The Royaltones decided to sue Stuart Gorelick and made front page news in Detroit. Still without a contract, the Royaltones headed out to New York to talk with Jubilee Records, who essentially agreed to just wash their hands free of the Royaltones, released them, and wish them well. Clouds of scandal kept other record companies at bay from signing the Royaltones immediately, and the Royaltones returned to Detroit.

Mike and Greg Popoff rejoined the group and, together with George and Ken, hired a guitar player named Vern Parker. In the summer of 1959, The Royaltones hooked up with Ersel Hickey and they went to work at a club called The Palms Rendezvous in Savannah, Georgia. After that, they gigged in Sudbury, Ontario and then to Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and surrounding areas. While they had a great time it was financially unrewarding.

After the engagements ran their course, The Royaltones returned home to Detroit. Ken Anderson left the group because he needed steady work. He had a baby on the way and a wife to support. Vern Parker also left the group and was replaced with “Karl Kay” Kaminski, a guitar player who had attended the same high school as Katsakis and the Popoff boys.

With some new masters in hand, Katsakis and the Popoffs made some airline reservations and flew out to New York to seek out a recording contract and secure a deal. George remembers, “We started at the Brill Building, where a lot of record companies were located, and then we just started knocking on doors. We later ended up at the building where Gone Records was located, the label owned by George Goldner. One of our criteria was to secure an advance large enough to cover our trip and the studio expenses we incurred. Without batting an eyelash, Goldner said ok and to come back later that afternoon and sign a contract and pay us $1,500 for the masters.

“After we left Goldner’s office,” George continued, “we went to lunch and were walking around taking in the sights when out of nowhere we ran into Ersel Hickey. We told Ersel what we were doing in town and that we were signing later that afternoon with Goldner and agreed to a 10% cut. Ersel said he had a better idea and made arrangements for us to meet with Al Nivens and Don Kirshner who owned AlDon Publishing. We went to see Al and Don and they were completely aware of The Royaltones and who we were and what past problems we had faced. They preceded to tell us that they didn’t think the material we brought with us were hits, but they did offer to sign us and they would still give us the money they were looking for. They wanted to put us up in New York and to work with the group, buy us new clothes, photo shoot the group, record some material, the whole works! All they wanted was 20%. Being that there were three of us there we had to talk privately and make a decision. I voted to the deal with Al and Don, but the Popoffs being brothers didn’t like the idea of 20% in spite of all the benefits and I lost in a 2-to-1 vote. So that’s how we ended up with George Goldner on Goldisc. Even though Goldner did in fact treat us right, Al Nivens and Don Kirshner were much more powerful.”

George Goldner wanted to get in to the studios and record some new material with the group. The Royaltones recorded two three-hour sessions with Goldner, each yielding four songs. The first session realized “Flamingo Express” (aka “Wiggle Wiggle”), named after Goldner’s current successful group The Flamingos, “Tacos,” a song geared to catapult off the “Tequila” sound, “Secret Love,” and “Peppermint Twist,” named to capitalize off the Joey Dee & The Starlighters hit record and New York’s Peppermint Lounge. Detroit deejay Lee Alan had an idea that he and Dave Prince shared (who was another local deejay). Lee told the Royaltones about a nice club that he knew that had no business. The place was swanky but was hurting for business. Lee managed to work out a deal with the owner to have The Royaltones become the house band in which he would rename the club called Morey’s Lounge, to Morey’s Royal Twist Lounge. Lee and Dave would collect a cover charge for themselves and the Royaltones in turn would be paid very well. It turned out the The Royaltones would be making more money there than most of their fathers were making at the local car factories and other jobs around Detroit. Both deejays heavily promoted the lounge for a solid month before the grand re-opening. Opening day there was a huge snowfall but, despite the bad weather, there was a line wrapped around the joint. George Katsakis explained, “That night proved to me that there is no such thing as a slow night. If there’s no crowd, it’s because you don’t have what they want. Plain and simple, it’s your own fault.” On opening night they were packed.

“Secret Love” as the bottom side tends to be a rare collectible, good luck trying to find a copy. “Flamingo Express” began to climb the charts, making it to #87, and The Royaltones soon found themselves with another hit record. They were brought back into the studios to record their second session with Goldner for a solid follow up to “Flamingo Express.” Recorded at that second session were “Scotch ‘N Soda” (aka “Butterscotch”), “Dixie Rock” (aka “Dixie Cup”), “Royal Whirl,” and “Do The Early Bird.”

What became the shocking surprise was the fact that Dennis Coffey was not only a very accomplished guitarist, but would also become the new leading songwriter in the group moving forward. Dennis and George collaborated on their next single “Our Faded Love” to which George laid down his saxophone and picked up the clarinet for this offering. “Holy Smokes” was the bottom side, with co-write credits to Coffey and Bob “Babbitt” Kreiner. “Our Faded Love” was a local Detroit area smash, and started to pick up around the country, thanks in part to good distribution by Mala Records, a subsidiary of Bell. At the time of the release of “Our Faded Love,” the Royaltones were playing at the Scenic Inn on Fort Street in Detroit. “Our Faded Love” was released in the spring of 1964 and caught the ear of Wink Martindale of all people who would end up writing lyrics for the song. Bobby Rydell heard it, loved the song, and recorded it with the intention to release it as his next single for Cameo Records. However, the Beatles just began to take a crack at the United States and invaded America. Bobby Rydell recorded the Lennon/McCartney composition, “A World Without Love” which had already been recorded by Peter & Gordon and Rydell wanted to break it in America, much in the same respect as Del Shannon breaking “From Me To You.” Rydell released “Our Faded Love” as the B-side for the single, losing the potential for a hit to “A World Without Love,” the newly assigned plug side. The record, however, did give The Royaltones more exposure as a group and helped to broaden their reach with the music buying public with a vocal rendition of their gorgeous instrumental.

The Royaltones landed a sweet gig at an ocean side resort in the spring of 1964 in Somers Point, New Jersey. Just outside of Atlantic City, the venue was a seven nights a week gig. “I remember we had just finished up recording ‘El Toro’ right about that time,” Bob Babbitt recalled in a June 2009 interview. “We wanted to get outside and away from the Detroit scene for a while,” Katsakis remarked. “Not that there was anything wrong with Detroit mind you, but things start sounding the same after a while, and we wanted to broaden our horizons and get out of Detroit for a short while.”

As George explained, “Dave was a good singer. We poised ourselves to be like the Detroit version of the Beatles. Dennis and I had written ‘Our Faded Love’ and Bobby Rydell covered it. Wink Martindale adding lyrics to that song brought on a new audience. So we started working up new songs that summer in Somers Point.”

While working at Somers Point, Coffey was inspired by the ocean there to write the follow-up single, “Misty Sea” as Katsakis and Babbitt penned “The Yea Yea” song as a coupler. As Dennis remembers, “We had a session coming up to back The Young Sisters on ‘She Took His Love Away,’ and so they did some vocals on our record there.”

Harry Balk had a brilliant idea by having Del Shannon join the Royaltones out in New Jersey. “Go hang out with them, work up some new material. But I want you to do ‘Handy Man’ while you’re out there,” Balk told the author from a borrowed Hollywood office at Bug Music in March of 1997. “Del needed a fresh sound with the ‘Little Town Flirt’ sound having run it’s course, so I teamed him up with the Royaltones.”

George Katsakis added, “You know, we were really working our asses off back then. Irving and Harry paid each of us like $5.00 to rehearse a song, and something like $15.00 to record it in the studios. You know, backing all these singers and groups that they had on Twirl. And we were recording our butts off with Del Shannon at that time, two albums worth, and we had a few singles of our own that were back to back. Well in all of this, our band got really really tight. We played together, we recorded together, we wrote together, and we lived together. During this time, you know? So we had the creative juices flowing. We wanted to move into the vocal realm of music and that’s what we thought we had with ‘Goin’ Swimmin’.’ Then the bomb dropped. Irving and Harry decided to release the record as a ‘Dave Sandy’ single, not as a Royaltones single. Needless to say, this didn’t fly too well with the rest of the group. To top it off, they released ‘Goin’ Swimmin’ in September. Now who the hell wants to go swimming in September? That should have been released at the beginning of the summer, but Harry or Irving toyed around with it until they finally released a summer song at the end of the summer.” (Note: Or what may have possibly happened was that Irving and Harry shopped it to several labels and, when nobody expressed enough interest, decided to release it themselves on their Twirl label).

Besides heavy work with Del Shannon, the Royaltones began working a lot with The Volumes. Harry decided to team songwriters Maron McKenzie and Duke Browner together to co-write songs for Twirl artists, and the Royaltones would back the artists on the sessions. McKenzie and Browner co-wrote “Mr. Blue” and “Top Ten” intended originally for the Volumes but were recorded by Mickey Denton when Harry Balk smelled what might be a hit for Mickey. The Royaltones backed Denton on the record, and would go on to back The Volumes on the local Detroit smash “Gotta Give Her Love,” which broke the Michigan top ten at #8, followed by “I Just Can’t Help Myself.”

-Author: Brian C. Young for Twirl Records, July 2009

The Royaltones Label Discography