The Cellos

The Cellos delivered vocals as fluid as the bowed tones of the stringed instrument they took for a name. They came together at Charles Evans Hughes High School on West 18th Street in Manhattan, with Alvin Williams handling bass, Billy Montgomery first tenor, Alton Campbell ballad lead, Bobby Thomas baritone, and Cliff Williams second tenor. Their early models included the Heartbeats, the Cleftones, the Harptones, and the Coasters. Alvin Williams supplied the group’s original songs, one of which, “Rang Tang Ding Dong (I’m the Japanese Sandman),” caught the ear of engineer Lewis Merenstein during the first demo date; Merenstein, who would later helm sessions for Thelonious Monk, Art Farmer, and Van Morrison, passed the track to Apollo Records, the label owned by his uncle. That tape secured a contract, and the group entered the studio for the first time in January 1957.

Paired as “Rang Tang Ding Dong” b/w “You Took My Love,” the single climbed to number 62 on the Billboard national chart and stayed there for ten weeks, an encouraging start that prompted covers by Chuck Miller (“House of Blue Lights”) and Ray Stevens. The Cellos never matched that commercial peak. They proved remarkably flexible, shifting without strain between the floating, ethereal harmonies of “You Took My Love” and the brash, comic energy of “Juicy Crocodile.” Few ensembles matched their breadth or possessed an in-house writer of Alvin Williams’s quality; together they produced striking, often humorous examples of doo wop and R&B. National success nevertheless eluded them, even after tastemaker Alan Freed endorsed the group and placed them on one of his Brooklyn Paramount bills.

Their management continued to route the Cellos onto national package tours, and several releases received respectable radio exposure. Record sales, however, failed to materialize, and by the close of 1958 the members had disbanded, though Alvin Williams stayed active in music for several additional years.