The Flairs

The Flairs were an important West Coast doo wop group, best remembered for being the launching pad for both Richard Berry and Cornell Gunter, who would both go on to success in their subsequent solo careers. The original group -- Arthur Lee Maye (tenor), Thomas "Pete" Fox (2nd tenor), Obediah "Obie" Jessie (baritone), and A.V. Odum (bass) -- formed on the campus of Los Angeles' Jefferson High in 1953 and recorded one single for John Dolphin's Recorded in Hollywood label under the name the Hollywood Blue Jays. (Another group would use the name after them). Maye and Odum then quit the group and, by 1954, were replaced by tenor Cornell Gunter, who had already been singing with the Platters for a couple of months, and bass Richard Berry, still in his teens, but already recording with the Cadets, the Chimes, the Crowns, the Five Hearts, the Hunters, the Rams, the Whips, and the Dreamers, an otherwise all-female quartet from Fremont High. At first, the group (who were now calling themselves the Flamingoes) possibly consisted of Gunter, his cousin Kenneth Byle (first tenor), Thomas Miller (baritone), and George Hollis (bass), while others give Gaynel Hodge, Cornelius Gunter, Curtiss Williams, Joe Jefferson, and Alex Hodge as members. A fifth Flairs member, Beverly Thompson (tenor), also joined the group's roster. One day, while playing hooky from school, they auditioned for Modern Records. By 1954, Gunter was splitting from the Platters to help organize a full-time Flairs, taking their new name from labels they saw printed up for Modern's not-yet-released Flair subsidiary. They recorded several singles for Modern before Berry and Beverly Thompson left the group's lineup. Berry would have tremendous success over the years, including his uncredited lead vocals on Leiber &...