Biography
Lowrell Simon, Jessie Dean, Glen Murdock, William McCoy, and James Neely first came together as the LaVondells while still enrolled at Chicago south-side high schools. Simon, Murdock, and McCoy attended Philips High, whereas Neely and Dean went to Dunbar High. Dropping the prefix “La,” they arrived on Marvello Records simply as the Vondells. Their opening 45, “Errand Boy” backed with “Then I’ll Know,” appeared in early 1964 and failed to register nationally, yet it conferred local celebrity on the quintet simply because a record existed. Marvello followed in July 1964 with a second and final single, “Lenore” b/w “Valentino.” Both tracks were credited to Jessie Dean, Alton Curtis, and James P. Johnson and issued through Duncan & Johnson Publishing, the firm belonging to Johnson and Harrison Duncan. “Lenore” achieved modest regional success, moving more than 25,000 copies inside Chicago without ever traveling farther. Bill Coday, the group’s manager, arranged an uncredited pairing with Ruby Stackhouse that produced the 1965 Kellmac release “Please Tell Me Why” b/w “Waiting”; the record received only scattered local airplay before Stackhouse re-emerged as Ruby Andrews and scored a Zodiac Records hit with “Casanova.”
Dean’s draft notice dissolved the Vondells. Murdock subsequently joined Joyce Kennedy in a vocal duo that evolved into Mother’s Finest. Once Dean completed his military service, Simon assembled Lost Generation alongside his brother Fred Simon, Dean, and Larry Brownlee, formerly the lead singer of the C.O.D.’s on “Michael the Lover.” The new ensemble cut “The Sly, Slick & the Wicked,” “Talking the Teenage Language,” and “Wait a Minute,” among other titles, before internal disputes with Brunswick Records ended the run; the label withheld royalties and asserted ownership of the group name. Undeterred, Lowrell Simon later reconstituted the project under his own name, retaining Simon, Dean, and additional musicians to issue a string of late-1970s recordings that included “Mellow, Mellow Right On.”
Dean’s draft notice dissolved the Vondells. Murdock subsequently joined Joyce Kennedy in a vocal duo that evolved into Mother’s Finest. Once Dean completed his military service, Simon assembled Lost Generation alongside his brother Fred Simon, Dean, and Larry Brownlee, formerly the lead singer of the C.O.D.’s on “Michael the Lover.” The new ensemble cut “The Sly, Slick & the Wicked,” “Talking the Teenage Language,” and “Wait a Minute,” among other titles, before internal disputes with Brunswick Records ended the run; the label withheld royalties and asserted ownership of the group name. Undeterred, Lowrell Simon later reconstituted the project under his own name, retaining Simon, Dean, and additional musicians to issue a string of late-1970s recordings that included “Mellow, Mellow Right On.”
Singles
