At the start of it all was a vocal trio formed about 1946 in Washington, D.C., by Harold Lucas jr, christened The Clovers. Then is partners were Thomas “Tommy” Woods and William “Bill” Shelton. In 1948, when John “Buddy” Bailey came along they traded that name for The Four Leaf Clovers. They got them very first release in November 1950 with “Yes Sir, That’s my Baby”/”When You Come Back to Me” on Rainbow records (122), a tiny New-York label. “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby”, a reworking of an old song written in 1925 carries the shades of the Ink Spots. The record failed but Waxie Maxie Silverman, a local DJ and records store owner, spotted the potential and recommended the group to Atlantic.
The group – lead vocalist John “Buddy” Bailey, tenor Matthew McQuater, baritone Harold “Hal” Lucas, bass singer Harold Winley and guitarist Bill Harris who joined late 1950 – had hit the ground running with two number one R’n’B hits in 1951. Ahmet Ertegun, well aware of the Orioles success, was spotting groups from Washington-Baltimore area and was not impresses at first by them Ink Spots or Billy Eckstine renditions. They made them first apparition on the legendary Apollo Theater even before they got them first recording session for Atlantic doing them two Raimbow sides and two old classics “Mona Lisa” and “That Old Black Magic”. Atlantic changed the way the Clovers sang and assigned to rehearse them, veteran bandleader-pianist Jesse Stone. Between 22 February 1951 and 1955, the Clovers waxed mostly original songs like “Don’ You Know I Love You” (from Ahmet’s pen) who entered in the national charts where it stayed for 5 months or “Fool, Fool, Fool” (still from Ahmet’s pen) who will reached # 1 position in the R’n’B charts selling over 500,000 copies.
Recorded on December 19, 1951, “One Mint Julep” was recorded and, coupled with “IN The Middle Of The Night” on Atlantic 963, charted only at number two, probably because its B-side was also a hit reaching number three and matching with Ruth Brown’s “5-10-15 Hours”. Both songs were written by Rudy Toombs who will also write “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer” for Amos Milburn and “Fat Back and Corn Likker” for Louis Jordan. “One Mint Julep” was a classic story of a young man caught in a tender trap and was based loosely on fact. Part of the humour came from the incongruous idea of a young black man getting drunk on mint juleps, a drink of choice of aristocratic Southerners Belles. It was not only a woman’s drink but a white’s woman drink. According to John Bailey, who preferred romantic ballad, “One Mint Julep” was a silly song that didn’t mean much but they wanted it danceable. That song was quickly covered by Louis Prima for “Columbia” and later by Ray Charles.
In June 1952, Atlantic will issued “Ting-A-Ling” who will be them third (and last) national hit. That song was covered by Buddy Holly, in July 1956, in a true Rockabilly style. On January 6, 1955, in KDVA radio in Lubbock, Buddy’s hometown, Elvis had recorded “Fool Fool Fool” and on April 2, 1955, at The Louisiana Hayride, he sang “Little Mama”. “Little Mama” was the flip side of “Lovey Dovey” released in February 1954.
In August 1952, they recorded “Hey Miss Fanny”, a up-tempo song from Ahmet’s pen who was realised on October 1952 and goes # 2 in the charts. Later, in 1955, that song finds its way in young Dick Penner’s repertoire on The Big D Jamboree show. Better know for his own composition with Wade Moore titled “Ooby Dooby”, a hit for Roy Orbison in 1956, those Texas cat were more moved by that R’n’B sound than by Hillbilly music. They also used to do “Dance with Me Henry” (aka The Wallflower) while, still at The Big D, Lafawn Paul was singing “As Long As I Moving”, “Ain’t That A Shame” and The Belew Twins “Maybelline”, “I Got A Woman” or “Shake, Rattle and Roll”. The R’n’B music played by DJ’s like Bill “Hoss” Allen or Gene Nobles at WLAC in Nashville, Jocko Henderson at WDAS in Philadelphia or WLIB in New-York, Alan Freed on WJW in Cleveland started to raise interest from young white Teenagers. Some journalists wrote then: it poisoned them soul. Southerners like Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Sid King, Johnny Carroll or Janis Martin will catch with that R’n’B sound and bring it to country audience. Later Clovers songs like “Lovey Dovey”, “Devil or Angel” or “Love Love Love” will be covered by Clyde McPhatter, Buddy Knox, Webb Pierce, Gene Vincent, The Hollywood Flames or Bobby Vee.
With the raise of the LP’s format, Atlantic issued them first LP titled “The Clovers” (828 and 8009) in 1956 including them recent recording “Love Love Love” who will be them last best seller song. Another LP titled “Dance Party” (8034) will follow in 1958. That LP will showcase songs from 1951 to 1957 and the liner notes state “The Clovers have been making records that have a special teenage appeal since the very beginning of the rock and roll movement”. Damn right!
By May 1958, after various members’ changes and 44 sides recorded, The Clovers left Atlantic to join Poplar records owned by them manager Lou Krefetz where they got two singles and an LP tilted “The Clovers – In Clover”. Lou Krefetz was also manager for The Chords after they charted with “Sh-Boom” (Cat 104) in 1954. On November 1958, they went to Europe setting out on a 15 week tour of Italy. I wonder if anybody had memories or picture of that tour.
In May 1959 United Artist will re-released a Poplar single and next the LP. A session for that label on June 1959 will bring them last chart hit “Love Potion # 9”. In January1960, they will record again “One Mint Julep” (United Artist 209) but it sounded, unfortunately, more like “The end of it all”. In 1961, the group drifted apart …
That paper is dedicated to our friends Dick Penner and Wade Moore.
Dominique “Imperial” ANGLARES.
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Sujet: ONE MINT JULEP – THE CLOVERS LEGACY 
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