Little Joe & The Thrillers - Peanuts 1957 UT

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Little Joe & The Thrillers (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) aka The Royal Demons aka The Madison Brothers aka The Creators (aka The Friends.

Personnel :
Little Joe Cook (Lead)
Farris Hill (Tenor)
Richard Frazier (Tenor)
Donald Burnett (Baritone)
Harry Pachall (Bass)

Biography:
Joe Cook was born in Philadelphia in 1922, and by 1934 at age 12, had organized his own gospel group, the Evening Star Quartet. With his falsetto voice, winning personality, and dazzling musical instincts, he was a popular local figure in Philadelphia when he started recording in 1949. He later had his own radio show in Philadelphia and in the early '50s, he decided to make the jump to rhythm & blues, which was booming at the time.

He organized the Thrillers with Farris Hill (second lead), Richard Frazier (tenor), Donald Burnett (baritone), and Harry Pachall (bass), and by 1956 they had a contract with OKeh, the rhythm & blues imprint of Columbia Records. Their first single "Do the Slop," released that year, became a regional hit in New York and Philadelphia, and got enough action to justify an appearance at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

The Slop was one of two dances that Little Joe Cook introduced (the other was the Bicycle Bounce), and made him one of the top R&B figures in Philadelphia. It sold well enough to justify further efforts on their behalf by OKeh, which was trying to get in on the rock & roll boom.
The group's second single, "Peanuts," released in 1957, featured Cook's piercing falsetto voice as the lead. It was catchy and distinctive enough to get the group an appearance on American Bandstand. Little Joe & the Thrillers became one of the first R&B groups to score a national hit through television exposure; the single was propelled, with help from Bandstand and host Dick Clark, to number 23 nationally, and it sold in huge numbers. This was to be the Thrillers' only national hit.

While "Peanuts" was climbing the charts, Little Joe Cook and the Thrillers parted company, supposedly over money issues. Joe continued as a solo, billing himself on his next record as "Little Joe, the Thriller". Farris Hill, Harry Paschall, Richard Frazier and Donald Burnett regrouped, changing their name to the Royal Demons and the Madison Brothers.
Joe Cook and the group did remain on friendly terms and Cook used the four on occasion when he needed a group. The original Thrillers were called back in 1960 when Joe needed a group to record "Stay".

During the early '60s, Cook organized a girl group with his daughters, eventually called the Sherrys, who charted with one record before a couple of marriages and a change in management forced them out of the business.