Biography
The R&B harmony quartet known as the Rhythm Aces came together in 1950 while its members—first tenor Billy Steward, second tenor Chuck Rowan, baritone Clyde Rhymes, and bass Vince House—were serving in the U.S. Army’s Special Services division in Germany. Their victory in the All-Army Soldier Singing Contest earned the group a slot on The Ed Sullivan Show. After receiving their discharges in 1954, the four singers returned stateside and launched a Midwest tour. A standout engagement at Chicago’s Crown Propeller Lounge prompted the venue to install them as its permanent headliners and dismiss the previous featured act, the Moonglows. Vee-Jay Records executive Ewart Abner witnessed one of these performances and set up an audition for the quartet with label founders Vivian and Jimmy Carter, who promptly signed them. The resulting debut single, “I Wonder Why,” appeared at the end of 1954 yet made little commercial headway. The luminous follow-up “Whisper to Me,” issued in spring 1955, likewise failed to register, and when “That’s My Sugar” met the same fate the label dropped the group. Adding guitarist Sam Alexander and shifting Rowan to piano, the Rhythm Aces headed north for a Canadian tour in late 1955. During a subsequent hiatus Rhymes married, while Steward and Alexander remained in their hometown of Detroit; when only Rowan and House appeared for a booked New York date the quartet disbanded. House later fronted the Rockets, also known as the Rocketeers, and under the pseudonym Vince Howard he issued the single “If You Believe, If You Believe” on the Era label in 1957.
Albums