Harvey Records recording artists: The Five Quails aka The Quails

[woodward]

I was wondering about the members of the Subject group which appeared on the Harvey Label before many of the artists under contract there went onto the Motown roster.

I believe that the group which only had 3 releases [I have all three] were Woody Woodall, Art Kirkpatrick, Billy Strawbridge, James Williams, and Billy Fulgrum. The group as a group did not go to Motown as other artists, Jr. Walker and the All Stars and Harvey and Ann [Ann having ended up with the Marvelettes].

Their first release on Harvey was Been a Long Time which does not match up to the Elgins release, but it's not a bad selection.

Does anyone recognize any of the names of the members that may have ended up on Motown? I am surprised this group gets little, if any, attention on the forum.

[SatansBlues]

I think this questions is made for Robb_k. I know he has mentioned them before, he has a strong background and knowledge of Detroit/mid-western r&b/soul groups.

[Peter G]

The Five Quails/Quails were from Cleveland, Ohio and had one previous release on Mercury in 1957 'Jungle Baby/Hop Scotch Rock' in 1957 prior to signing for the Harvey label in 1961. After the 3 singles for Harvey they recorded two unissued titles in August 1963 for Motown, one of which 'This Ole Heart' was put out on the Kent CD 'Satisfaction Guaranteed - Motown Guys 1961-69. In the CD notes Keith Hughes gives quite a few details about the group advising that the A side of their initial release on Harvey was 'Get to school on time' [['Been a long time' was the flip side) and the A side was a regional hit. He also states that at the time of the Motown session the line up was Harold Sudberry, Billy Strawbridge, Curtis Robinson, Art Kirkpatrick & James Williams. Apparently the group were not prepared to locate to Detroit so Gordy released them from any contract carried over from the Harvey label takeover.

The group had a rather old fashioned doo wop sound so it is conjecture as to whether they would have adapted to the new sounds. They appear to have had no further releases after the Motown session.

[robb_k]

18421
Peter has answered the question thoroughly, with everything I would have stated. We had "This Ol' Heart slated for one of the later "From The Vaults" LPs. We didn't find any other recordings by them other than the 2 he mentioned. I'm sure that they would have been able to adapt their style to the new "Motown Sound", as did The Flamingos, Moonglows, Jive Five, Platters, and all other vocal harmony groups who wanted to work in The Soul Era. Whether or not they would enjoy that change is another story. I also don't know of any recordings they made after the 2 Motown unreleased cuts.