Biography
On August 24, 1959, "Sea of Love," credited to Phil Phillips with the Twilights, rose to the runner-up slot on the pop Top 100 chart. Even so, the recording endures among the most frequently revived and widely cherished singles of the 1950s. In 1958, John Baptiste, who later performed as Phil Phillips, was a dissatisfied young guitarist employed as a bellboy in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He had written "Sea of Love" to woo a romantic interest that ultimately faded, yet he kept rehearsing the composition on his own. A friend of local record producer George Khoury, who had previously worked with the female group Cookie and the Cupcakes, overheard Baptiste and arranged an introduction. Khoury escorted him to the studio, assembled several acquaintances to supply backing vocals, and completed the track after repeated attempts. Before the single appeared, Khoury advised Baptiste to adopt his middle name, Phillip, thereby establishing the stage identity Phil Phillips. The song first surfaced on an independent label controlled by Khoury, but its brisk sales led to a licensing deal with Mercury Records for nationwide distribution. Four follow-up releases failed to chart, and even with Brook Benton and the Jordanaires providing backing vocals under Clyde Otis's production, the artist never returned to the Top 40. Phillips maintains to this day that his only payment for the sessions totaled 6,800 dollars. Del Shannon's 1982 cover reached number 33, while the Honeydrippers' 1984 version climbed to number three. Later in the decade, Phillips produced a recording of the song for the Fire Ants, a group made up of five of his children. A 1989 film titled Sea of Love starred Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin. Phillips remained active as a DJ at KJEF in Jennings, Louisiana, well into the 1990s.