The Capitols

The Capitols, a Detroit R&B trio responsible for the enduring dance track “Cool Jerk,” came together in 1962 with Sam George handling lead vocals and drums, Donald Norman Storball on guitar, and Richard Mitchell McDougall on keyboards. Initially known as the Three Caps, the musicians were appearing at a local teen dance fronted by Barbara Lewis when they encountered Ollie McLaughlin, the singer’s producer and head of the Karen imprint. McLaughlin oversaw their first release, the 1963 single “Dog and Cat,” yet the record failed to register and the group disbanded.

Three years afterward, McLaughlin received a call from George announcing that the Capitols had reunited and that Storball had composed a new number, “Cool Jerk,” designed to ride the prevailing wave of dance-oriented material. Studio time was promptly arranged; although the hired horn players never arrived, the trio laid the track down regardless. Released on Karen in spring 1966, the song climbed into the pop Top Ten while peaking at number two on the R&B chart. Subsequent efforts such as “Zig Zaggin’” and “We Got a Thing That’s in a Groove” could not replicate that impact, prompting the band to concentrate almost exclusively on dance numbers and yielding middling follow-ups that included 1967’s “Cool Pearl” and 1968’s “Afro Twist,” the latter backed with “Cool Jerk ’68.”

Attempts to recover momentum came too late. Karen issued three more singles—“Ain’t That Terrible” in 1968 and both “When You’re in Trouble” and “I Thought She Loved Me” in 1969—before the trio called it quits at the decade’s end. Storball later joined the Detroit police force. On 17 March 1982, George was fatally stabbed during a domestic altercation at the age of 39.