John Wilson
at Classic Urban Harmony Headquarters, February 2009
John Wilson,
last surviving member of the R&B/R&R vocal group the Silhouettes, died at
his home in Spartanburg, SC, on September 21, 2009. He was 69. While not
on the Silhouettes’ huge chart hit, “Get A Job,” John “Bootsie” Wilson
never-the-less played an important roll in the Philadelphia vocal group’s
history.
Thanks to
Elaine and Shana Lewis, wife and daughter of the late Silhouettes’ tenor
Rick Lewis, we got to meet and spend a little time with John Wilson during
the last year of his life. We wish we had known him sooner, for John Wilson
was a fascinating man.
John Wilson
was born in Philadelphia on July 18, 1940. His uncles were professional
musicians, having played with Max Roach and Maynard Ferguson. John sang
with the Philadelphia Glee Club when he was young. In addition, he sang
with neighborhood street corner groups. By 1957, John was living in the
Germantown section of Philadelphia.
John Wilson
knew the Silhouettes’ Rick Lewis from the neighborhood. Before the
Silhouettes ever recorded, John Wilson sang with them. “The group that
became the Silhouettes had a changing line-up, like most amateur groups,”
John told Elaine Lewis. “We were all friends. I sang with them many times
[in the early days]. I sang Richard’s song ‘Get A Job’ too.”
When the
Silhouettes landed a recording contract with Philly deejay Kae Williams,
Bill Horton became the group’s established lead singer and John Wilson was
out of the group. But they all remained friends. John Wilson dabbled with
becoming a prize fighter but he also kept singing.
Throughout
the late 1950’s the Silhouettes were internationally known recording stars, touring
the United States on the strength of “Get a Job.” Meanwhile, John Wilson
was singing with a Germantown neighborhood street corner group. Also in the
group was a young Germantown singer named Frankie Beverly. [Frankie would
later gain fame as the lead of the Butlers and then Maze.] “Every Friday
and Saturday nights we would go down the speakeasy and we would sing there,”
John told us. “For our drinks. We would sing for our drinks. Frankie
[Beverly] was real young. He was younger than any of us. That’s why we
sang in the speakeasy because he couldn’t sing in any bars or clubs.”
By late
1961, the Silhouettes were a group in transition. Lead Bill Horton had left
the group, as had bass Raymond Edwards. Rick Lewis and Earl Beale wanted to
keep singing so Rick recruited John Wilson as the Silhouettes’ new lead and
Cornelius Brown as the new bass.
“Neil
[Cornelius Brown] came into the group about the same time I did,” recalled
John Wilson. “Neil was from South Philly, the same neighborhood that Earl Beale was from.
Neil was from from 22nd street. He was a performer. He did tap
dancing. He also was an amateur boxer, but I don’t think he ever turned
pro. Neil could tap dance. He could sing too! He was a lead bass. A
singing bass.”
The New Silhouettes: (l->r) Earl Beal,
John Wilson, Cornelius Brown, Rick Lewis
“Richard
asked me to come sing with him,” John said. “So I went to a rehearsal at
Earl Beale’s house where he was rooming down in South Philly. And I started
singing with them. Guys offered us contracts that wanted to manage us but I
was very particular as to who I wanted to manage us. Kae Williams wanted to
manage us again. And we talked about that but we said no. We were singing
at a club on Columbia Avenue and the guy who owned the club was a taproom
broker named was Bill Fox. That’s how we got with Jerry Ragavoy. Jerry
Ragavoy worked for Bill Fox. Bill Fox came and talked with me. He wanted
me to go single but I wouldn’t do it. I told him to take the group and he
took the group. And we recorded 'Move On Over'.”
(From the Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
“Move On
Over (To Another Land)” b/w “Wish I Could Be There” came out in 1962 on the
legendary Philadelphia R&B label Grand (# 142) which Herb Slotkin and
Jerry Ragavoy had formed nine years earlier to record the Castelles. Now
Jerry Ragavoy was working with Bill Fox to establish a successful record
production company that would manage the Majors, Garnett Mimms & the
Enchanters and others. While “Move On Over” did well for the regionally, it
failed to chart nationally.
Jerry
Ragavoy and Bill Fox tried again, having the Silhouettes record “The Push”
b/w “Which Way Did She Go” for Imperial Records. “The Push” was a
dance record that got a lot of airplay on Philly radio station WIBG. “We
did shows all over,” said John. “Rick was very concerned about the music.
And he was always concerned about the group. Wherever Rick would ask us to
go, we’d go – Baltimore, North Carolina, down South. Rick was getting a lot
of the engagements. So we didn’t have a booking agent. And some of the
places they had performed before, he’d get in touch with them and we’d go
back and perform again. We did the Steel Pier (TV) Show (in Atlantic City)
one time. And over here in Trenton. We used to appear in Trenton a lot.
We had one disc jockey [promoting us a lot], a real hip guy – Jerry Blavat.”
(From the
Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
“There was
one place where we were appearing six nights in one week and had people waiting around the
block in line, for a bar!” said John. [The bar was most likely Sid
Booker's "Stinger" at Broad & Belfield Avenue, according to
Elaine Lewis] “When ever we appeared in Philly
there’d be people lined up around the block. We’d start out on one night
and by the third night we got a $300-400 raise.”
The New
Silhouettes
(Photo Courtesy of Elaine Lewis)
Reluctant to
sign a long term contract with any one promoter, John insisted that the
group’s contract with Bill Fox was only for one year. In 1963, the
Silhouettes moved on. “I led ‘Rent Man’,” John said proudly. “See what
happened was, after we left Bill Fox, we went back to Kae Williams.”
Kae
Williams, who’d managed the Silhouettes during their glory years tried again
with an answer record to “Get A Job” called “Rent Man.” “Rent Man” sold
well in Philadelphia, where it is still regarded as a classic doo wop
piece. However, it did not sell up to the expectations of either Kae or the
Silhouettes and the rekindled association ended with that record.
(From the
Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
“Kae
Williams tried but it wasn’t going anywhere,” recalled John. “So we met
some people in Frankford (a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia). They
owned Maitre d’ Meat Company. I went there and got a job. I was working in
the place where they ground hamburgers and I was singing. And the boss came
out who owned the company heard me. He said, ‘Do you sing by yourself?’ and
I said no I have a group. And he said let me hear the group. I called Rick
and they came down and the next thing we knew he was recording us. We did
some songs we made up, like ‘Your Love’ and we rearranged ‘Climb Every
Mountain.’ That’s our arrangement. ‘Gaucho Serenade’ was one of our
arrangements. ‘Climb Every Mountain’ was a much requested song when we
sang.
The songs
the Silhouettes recorded came out on an album on the Goodway label.
The album packaged songs by the original 1950’s Silhouettes on one side and
the “New Silhouettes” on the other side. Included on the new side was an
updated version of “Get A Job” with John Wilson doing lead. Packaged in the
album was a 45 RPM single of “Not Me Baby” backed with “Gaucho Serenade.”
(From the
Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
“Not Me
Baby” would eventually become a Northern Soul classic in the UK. It was a
tune the Silhouettes had been singing for awhile, since their time with
Jerry Ragavoy. “Jerry Ragavoy wrote ‘Not Me Baby’,” said John Wilson.
“With ‘Not Me Baby’ he wrote the melody and a lot of time we’d get with him
and write the lyrics.”
(From the
Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
“Climb Every
Mountain” was leased to Jamie-Guyden Records but really didn’t do much.
Discouraged, John Wilson left the group. “I don’t know what happened to the
songs we recorded because I left and came down south.” John said.
(From the
Classic Urban Harmony Archives)
In the early
1970’s John Wilson moved to South Carolina where he became a minister and
served as a pastor for eight churches over three decades.
(Photo
courtesy of Elaine Lewis)
(Photo
courtesy of Elaine Lewis)
(Photo
courtesy of Elaine Lewis)
We first met
John Wilson when Elaine and Shana Lewis brought him to our home offices in
February 2009. We enjoyed his company and had a chance to interview him
about his musical career. We’ll always remember John singing “Move On Over”
while Elaine Lewis played guitar.
(John Wilson
& Elaine Lewis)
(John Wilson,
Charlie & Pam Horner)
(Elaine
Lewis, John Wilson, Shana Lewis)
Later in
April 2009, John, Elaine and Shana attended one of our Classic Urban Harmony
presentations at the Bridgewater (NJ) Library. We played part of “Rent Man”
and John Wilson greeted Silhouettes fans in the audience. We had lunch with
John but that was the last time we saw him. We’d been working to get him to
the UK to perform “Not Me Baby” but it was not to be. John Wilson passed
away on September 21, 2009 of cancer.
John Wilson
at the Classic Urban Harmony presentation,
Bridgewater, NJ, April 2009
(Left
to right: John Wilson, Bobby Thomas, Shana Lewis)
(Photo by Elaine Lewis)
Charlie, John Wilson, Pam
(Photo by Elaine Lewis)
For more
information on the history of the Silhouettes visit our
Silhouettes Profile Page.
To read about John Wilson's visit to Classic Urban Harmony Headquarters
click John
Wilson. To see photos of John Wilson at our Bridgewater
presentation click
Bridgewater.
Our special
thanks to Elaine and Shana Lewis for bringing John Wilson to us and for
sharing their photos and information. Please visit their
Silhouettes
website for much more information on the Silhouettes and an interview with
John Wilson. Then use the Back Button to return to our website.
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