The Gallahads - Lonely Guy 1960

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The Gallahads (Seattle, WA)

Personnel:
Bobby Dixon (First Tenor/Lead)
Jimmy Pipkin (First Tenor/Lead)
"Tiny" Tony Smith (Second Tenor)
Clifton James (Baritone/Tenor)
Ernie Rouse (Bass)

Biography:
The Gallahads -- led by Jimmy Pipkin -- are best remembered for "Lonely Guy," an enormous smash hit in 1960. Jimmy Pipkin, Bobby Dixon, "Tiny" Tony Smith and bass man Ernie Rouse formed this vocal group in Seattle, WA, in 1952, while they were still in junior high. At first they called themselves the Echoes, but by the time they traveled to L.A. to record for Del-Fi Records and the Donna subsidiary, they were calling themselves the Gallahads. Their first single, "Lonely Guy," was released on both the Del-Fi and Donna labels, almost simultaneously.

It proved to become an enormous smash, charting between June and September of 1960 and peaking at number nine in the Top Ten. In Los Angeles, it spent ten weeks at number one on the KFWB Fabulous Forty, the number one station in town. It also charted at number 111 on the national pop charts. By the time of their next release, the Gallahads' lineup had changed a little bit: joining lead singer Pipkin and Ernie Rouse were fellow Seattlite Ray Robinson and L.A.-based doo wop/R&B musician/arranger/producer Charles Wright, who also worked with label-head Bob Keane as an A&R man and produced and arranged recordings by Little Caesar & the Romans and other acts.

Pipkin's final Gallahads single failed to earn them airplay as well and the original group soon split up. Meanwhile, the Gallahads name resurfaced again in 1964 with "My Offering," this time with Billy Burns on lead vocal and a white teen band called the Counts backing them up. The Seattle-based Pipkin continued to perform with an oldies version of the Gallahads.

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