Formed during their junior high years in 1961, the group that eventually became the Shades of Blue started with Nick Marinelli handling lead vocals, Bob Kerr on baritone, Ernie Dernai as first tenor, and Dan Guise also on baritone. All four members lived in Livonia, a Detroit suburb in Michigan. Drawn to the Motown sound and the heavy R&B rotation on local Detroit stations, they patterned themselves after the leading acts of the era and began performing at talent shows and dances. Five years passed without any recording activity. Marinelli enrolled in college, Guise dropped out of sight, and Kerr along with Dernai attended a distant university, restricting the quartet to weekend rehearsals. They connected with the Reflections, the Livonia outfit behind “Just Like Romeo and Juliet,” who urged them to audition for Ed Wingate at Golden World/Ric Tic Records; the session yielded their first tracks. Linda Steinberg, a fellow student at Marinelli’s college, stepped in for the missing Guise and soon married Bob Kerr.
Wingate had little interest in yet another blue-eyed soul act after already releasing material by Flaming Ember and the Reflections. The latter group had clashed repeatedly with producers Bob Hamilton and Freddie Gorman of the Originals, who demanded prominent falsetto parts the Reflections disliked. Nevertheless, Wingate permitted the newcomers to linger at the studio and cut demos. While refining a song Edwin Starr had begun during military service, they completed “Oh How Happy.” Young and inexperienced, they left songwriting credits solely to Charles Hatcher, Starr’s birth name, creating lasting resentment. Although Wingate showed no further interest, independent producer John Rhys, present during the Starr collaboration, responded favorably to both the track and the singers. Their tight harmonies and doo-wop facility impressed him; Rhys gave them the name Shades of Blue and placed the master with Impact Records, a label where he had also worked with the Newbeats.
Still enrolled in college when “Oh How Happy” climbed the charts, the group watched it reach number 12 on the pop listings in 1966. They quickly secured management and a backing band, then spent a year on the road, including appearances on Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars and at additional venues. Between tour dates they cut their sole Impact album, Happiness Is the Shades of Blue. Follow-up singles fared modestly: Edwin Starr’s “Lonely Summer” peaked at number 72, while John Rhys’s “Happiness” stopped at number 78. The album featured two compositions by Starr and several by Rhys, among them “He Got the Whole World in His Hands,” plus the group’s own “Night.” Road earnings proved steady, yet royalty payments never materialized, leaving the members feeling shortchanged after conversations with fellow artists. By 1969, roughly three years after their first release, they disbanded. Most of the former members remain in the Detroit area, pursuing a variety of careers.
