- Marcels Trivia: Known for turning popular music songs into rock and roll, the group formed in 1959 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and signed to Colpix Records.
- Marcels Trivia: The group`s original members consisted of Ronald Mundy,
Fred Johnson, Richard Knauss, Gene Bricker, and Cornelius Harp. - Marcels Trivia: The group got their band name from a popular hairstyle called the "Marcel."
- Marcels Trivia: At first the Marcels were a racially integrated group.
- Marcels Trivia: But in August 1961, due to racial problems encountered in the Deep South while touring because of the group being multi-racial,...
- ... Knauss and Bricker--the group's white members--left and were replaced by Allen Johnson (brother of Fred) and Walt Maddox.
- Marcels Trivia: Before "Blue Moon", their record company, Copix Records, dumped the group, but one night producer Stu Phippips secretely recorded them anyway...
- ... One of the songs was just an afterthought,
but "Blue Moon" was a big hit, charting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. - Marcels Trivia: Blue Moon sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc, and is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
- Marcels Trivia: The Marcels learned "Blue Moon" in just one hour and recorded it in just two takes.
- Marcels Trivia: Their 1961 hit "Blue Moon" was written 27 years previously by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama...
- ... Rodgers hated the Marcel`s version of the song and took out ads in British newspapers urging the public not to buy it.
- Marcels Trivia: So, what was not to like? After all the Marcels's version of "Blue Moon", began with a cool intro: "bomp-baba-bomp" and "dip-da-dip."...
- ... This introduction to "Blue Moon" was an excerpt of an original song that the group had in its act, a cover of "Zoom" by the Cadillacs...
- ... Colpix A&R director Stu Phillips transferred the introduction to "Blue Moon" in order to give the song additional flair...
- ... So, in spite of Rogers, the song reached #1 on both British and US charts anyway.
- Marcels Trivia: The Marcels were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.
- Marcels Trivia: Original lead singer Cornelius "Nini" Harp died on June 4, 2013. He was 73. Ronald "Bingo" Mundy died on January 20, 2017, aged 76.
