Biography
Tenor vocalist Johnny Simmons participated in multiple, at times concurrent, doo wop ensembles throughout the 1950s and 1960s. With Little Caeser & the Romans he appeared on Del-Fi singles that included “Those Oldies and Goodies Remind Me of You” and “10 Commandments of Love.” Earlier he had belonged to the Cufflinx, a project whose tangled history exceeded even the typically loose and occasionally questionable norms of the doo wop world. Marv Goldberg and other devotees of the style have documented three simultaneous versions of the act, each using a different spelling. The first was known as the Cuff Links. A second, the Kuf-Linx, featured John Jennings as lead singer and recorded three sides for the Hollywood label owned by Gene Autry. The producer responsible for the original lineup subsequently created yet another group, the Cufflinx, placing Simmons in the top tenor slot and Henry Houston in the lead. The remaining members were second tenor Ray Durden, baritone Moe Walker, and bass Elroy Coleman; all were East Coast natives who had first met while serving in the military. Once the Cufflinx disbanded, Simmons moved on to the Cubans and cut four songs for the Flash label in 1959, among them “Tell Me.” Vocalist Carl Burnett, billed as “Little Caeser,” recruited the Cubans to back his performance of the Paul Politi song “Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me of You).” The partnership proved successful, yet a name change became necessary because Little Caeser & the Romans sounded more logical than “Little Caeser & the Cubans.” For the next two years the group’s repertoire centered on nostalgic oldies material, resulting in five singles and one album. On stage, including during an American Bandstand appearance, Simmons and his colleagues wore togas—a uniform one member called “a bummer.” Simmons closed his recording career by joining a touring edition of the properly spelled Cuff Links.
Singles
