The Genies

Biography

This short-term group from Long Beach, Long Island recording career lasted three years, and five singles; they broke up a year after they started recording in 1958, but Warwick Records issued canned material til 1961. The original members: Roy Hammond, Bill Gains, Alexander Faison, and Fred Jones formed in 1956. They didn't record until Brooklynite Claude Johnson came aboard. Johnson, the only member not from the Long Beach area, named them the Genies; he had sung with a Brooklyn group that included Eugene Pitt, who never sang with the Genies. Bob Shad, the owner of Shad Records saw them singing on a beach and invited them to audition for his label. The result was "Who's That Knockin'," recorded, June 1958; but Shad didn't release it until March 1959, nearly a year later. It did well R&B but wallowed on the lower rungs of the pop chart at #71.

Then without warning, second tenor Bill Gains ran off to Canada with a woman and has never been seen or heard from since. This occurred while the Genies were playing their first big engagement at New York's Apollo Theater; three days into the gig, and poof - Gains vanished. The Genies answered their debut with "No More Knockin'" on Hollywood Records, then the Warwick label released three singles after the group became history: "There Goes That Train" b/w "Crazy Love," "Just Like The Bluebird" b/w "Twistin' Pneumonia," and the best "Crazy Feeling," in 1961. By the end of 1959 the Genies was a memory. Hammond cut a string of solo records as Roy C, his biggest was "Shotgun Wedding," a #14 R&B hit. Claude hooked with Roland Trone and enjoyed a monster #7 Pop hit with "What's Your Name," as Don & Juan. Johnson also became a songwriter of note, composing the Genies' debut, the Don & Juan hit, and 57 other titles registered with B.M.I. ~ Andrew Hamilton, All Music Guide