- Chords Trivia: The first of the "one hit wonders", their only hit was "Sh-Boom".
- Chords Trivia: They hailed from around Boston Road & Jennings Street in the Morrisania section of New York's South Bronx, and in 1951 various individuals, who would ultimately form the group, began singing on street corners.
- Chords Trivia: The original group members were: Carl Feaster (lead, 1930-1981), Claude Feaster (baritone, 1933-1975), Jimmy Keyes (first tenor; 1930-1995), ...
- ... Floyd "Buddy" McRae (second tenor; 1927-March 19, 2013), and William "Ricky" Edwards (bass, died 1964).
- Chords Trivia: They began writing "Sh-Boom" sometime in 1953, while sitting in a Buick convertible. Buddy McRae said, "When they [the kids on the block] talked to each other, they'd say 'boom.'...
- ... They'd say 'Hey, man, boom, how ya doin'." According to Jimmy Keyes, "'Boom' was the slang word that you'd hear fifteen times or more just by standing on any neighborhood street corner for five minutes...
- ... We would take the 'boom' and make it sound like a bomb: 'shhhhhh-BOOM'." (In the setting of the Cold War's 1950s arms race, somehow it isn't surprising that "boom" would become a slang word.)
- Chords Trivia: The Chords initially took "Sh-Boom" to Bobby Robinson, owner of Red Robin Records (actually singing it for him when he was sick in bed). Alas, he was so feverish that he told them it "wasn't commercial enough."
- Chords Trivia: Then in 1954, they came to the attention of of Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records. At the time, Atlantic was searching for a group to cover Patti Page's Pop smash of "Cross Over The Bridge."...
- ... This was right up the Chords' alley, since they practiced mostly Pop material. And Atlantic was very receptive to the Chords' version of "Cross Over The Bridge", but didn't particularly like their original material (such as "Sh-Boom").
- Chords Trivia: On March 15, 1954, Cat Records (an Atlantic subsidiary) recorded "Cross Over The Bridge" with "Sh-Boom" as the "B side". ...
- ... This coincided with an announcement the very next day that at the beginning of March, the U.S. had tested an enormous 15 megaton Hydrogen Bomb, this time vaporizing Bikini Atoll.
- Chords Trivia: The beginning of a trend, "Sh-Boom," hit the R&B charts on July 3, 1954 (just in time to go BOOM on the Fourth of July) and remained for fifteen weeks, peaking at #3...
- ... (kept out of the top spot by the Drifters' "Honey Love"). More important, it also reached #5 on the Pop charts.
- Chords Trivia: The Chords were, in fact, the first R&B artists of the 1950s to place a song ("Sh-Boom") in the Pop Top Ten.
- Chords Trivia: "Sh-Boom" is held in such high esteem that some music historians call it "the first Rock & Roll record"
- Chords Trivia:The most successful cover version of "Sh-Boom", was the Crew Cuts' version, on Mercury Records. (Ironically, this was the company for which Patti Page had recorded "Cross Over The Bridge.")...
- ... The Crew Cuts' version spent 20 weeks on the Pop charts, giving them their only #1 song
- Chords Trivia: Over the years, Jimmy Keyes kept a Chords group going, with varying membership. In 1979, Carl Feaster, Buddy McRae, Jimmy Keyes and Gary Morrison appeared at a UGHA show. ...
- ... In 1980, Carl and Jimmy were joined by Arthur Dicks and Wes Neal. In 1996, the Chords were inducted into the UGHA Hall Of Fame.
- Chords Trivia: All of the Chords are gone now. Carl Feaster died in 1980 and Jimmy Keyes passed away in 1995. Rupert Branker was murdered in Los Angeles, during a 1961 mugging; he was still with the Platters at the time. ...
- ... A local newspaper article said that "The body of Branker was found... beaten to death on a deserted road..".William Edwards passed on in 1964, Claude Feaster died in the early 70s, and Arthur Dicks in 2001. ...
- ... Buddy McRae, the last survivor, passed away on March 19, 2013.
- Chords Trivia: Were the Chords a "one-hit wonder"? Absolutely. But what a hit! This tune went further than any song before it to popularize R&B. It opened the floodgates wide, but the Chords were unable to profit much from it. ...
- ... Buddy said that it took them three or four years to get any royalties from having written "Sh-Boom". Mediocre management and changing names conspired to leave the Chords at the starting gate...
- ... when masses of R&B acts were about to burst through into stardom.
