Lillian Leach

Lillian Leach sounds like the name of a fictitious character, maybe a femme fatale from a comic book or a relative of the Munsters. She is a real person, however, the lead singer of a vocal group that scored several hits despite only being active "for a minute" -- in the parlance of the beatniks whose mellow scene included digging the Mellows. While nobody seems to have thought of using "Smoke from Your Cigarette" as a theme for passive smoke bans in nightclubs, the loyal doo wop audience remains fond of the combo and its lead singer. The Mellows are yet another in an influx of similarly motivated harmonizers hailing from Morrisania, which sounds like a South Pacific island but is really a neighborhood in the Bronx, the same one from which originated the Chords, the Crickets, the Wrens, the Limelighters, and the Five Chimes. In an environment such as that, it is no surprise that Leach recalled feeling like she was being pushed into a singing career by both her mother and grandmother, in contrast to the normal state of affairs concerning children with aspirations to entertain. She sang in church and at talent shows, and in 1954 met three guys at a party with whom she wound up forming a group. Harold Johnson was the one with the most to offer. A singer and guitarist, he was not only one of the original members of the Crickets but had written many of the songs the group chirped. Leach and company followed the trail of the latter group to Jay-Dee Records, signing with the label in the summer of the same year they had met and recording a batch of sides, including the flirtatious "Pretty Baby What's Your Name" and the shiftless "Nothin' to Do." Having recordings out meant Leach was now singing in a club in Harlem, although gigs in community centers and schools were still...