Baltimores Legendary Orioles Aboard 2012 Doo Wop Cruise The Orioles regarded as one of the earliest and

finest groups to ever record Doo Wop. They are best known for their Jubilee recordings of "Crying in the Chapel, " " Its Too Soon to Know," Baby Please Dont Go ~ The Orioles cut astounding 121 sides for the Jubilee labels this is very impressive by today s standards. New York, NY, June 22, 2011 -- Grant Williams CEO of Memory Lane Concert Cruises today announced. The prestigious Orioles will be among the many groups appearin g on its historic 2012 Oldies But Goodies Doo Wop Cruise. Orioles were one of the first group s to sing in five-part harmony, making them a seminal pre rock and roll vocal group, and one of the most influential acts of the 50s. said Williams The Orioles are one of the most influential vocal groups of all time. They first were formed in 1946 as the Vibranairs in Baltimore after World War II by Earlin gton Tilghman better known as Sonny Til, a charismatic tenor who loved rich arra ngements and had a knack for picking and writing great material. Other members i ncluded Alexander Sharp, George Nelson, Johnny Reed, and Tommy Gaither. These fi ve street-corner harmony pioneers imparted a skilled, soulful edge to the standa rd pop-crooning style of the day, and their appearance marked a shift in popular taste from big bands to small vocal groups. The Orioles established the basic p attern for the doo-wop sound: wordless, melismatic harmonies surrounding the ten or vocals of Sonny Til.

The Orioles differed from groups like the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots in th at they made purely vocal music without orchestration and accompanied only by th e solo guitar of Tommy Gaither. They began to make a name for themselves with pe rformances at Harlems Apollo Theater and on Arthur Godfreys talent show. From 1948 to 1954, the Orioles cut 121 sides for the Natural and Jubilee labels, includin g such vocal-group classics as I Need You So and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me. Music historian Greil Marcus has likened the Orioles debut single, Its Too Soon to Know, t o Elvis Presleys Thats All Right (Mama), Aretha Franklins I Never Loved a Man (the W I Love You) and Nirvanas Smells Like Teen Spirit, in that it came out of nowhere: a s hock...a sound that was stylistically confusing and emotionally undeniable. The s ong was written by their manager, Deborah Chessler, who also penned Forgive and F orget, a Top Five R&B hit. While the Orioles singles fared well on the R&B charts, orchestrated covers by wh ite pop singers tended to be the versions that made the pop charts - with the no table exception of Its Too Soon to Know and Crying in the Chapel, which reached #11 a nd #13, respectively. (A decade later, Elvis Presley covered Crying in the Chapel in a version faithful to the Orioles for his gospel album How Great Thou Art.) Its Too Soon to Know, which went to #1 on Billboards R&B and Jukebox charts and #2 on the Best Seller chart, was a watershed recording in the history of American voc al-group music. The Orioles breakthrough triggered the formation of more vocal groups who sang in a similar style and also adapted bird names. Among them were the Penguins, the Flamingos, the Falcons and the Robins (later the Coasters. At the height of the Orioles popularity, an automobile accident in 1950 claimed the life of one member (Tommy Gaither) and seriously injured two others (George Nelson and Johnny Reed ). Nelson left the group shortly thereafter, and he and Gaither were replaced by Gregory Carroll and Ralph Williams, respectively. The reconstituted lineup had some of their biggest hits over the next few years, including Baby Please Dont Go ( 1952) and Crying in the Chapel (1953). Albert "Diz" Russell had landed in New York in 1951 with his vocal group The Fou r Jays. They would sleep on the docks at night, while during the day making the rounds to club talent buyers and booking agents. They met jazz singer Eddie Jeff erson, who introduced them to Duke Ellington in one memorable Brill Building mee

ting. The Duke hired the Four Jays to perform at a club called Snooky s, where t heir one-night stand turned into a year s engagement. Boxer great Joe Louis hear d them at Snooky s and got them into the Apollo, and it was there in 1954 that t hey ran into Sonny Til, who really liked what he heard. Til was having disagreements with the other Orioles, and was looking for a new s ound and new talent. He fired The Orioles and asked the Four Jays who had since changed their name to the Regals if they would consider becoming The Orioles. "I thought, with us being established already, this makes sense, " Russell says. "But I want to tell you, it was Sonny who joined the Regals; we didn t really jo in the Orioles, even though that was the name we used after that." With the popu lar name, the band hit the road, constantly touring over the next decade, with R ussell sharing the lead on a few of their recordings. The Orioles broke up in the mid- 60s, when sophisticated doo-wop groups weren t finding an audience. Russell left music and went into the eye care business in W ashington D.C., where he had family. He returned to the stage only after Til cal led him in 1978 saying he was getting the group together for one show. The recep tion they received at that concert convinced The Orioles to give it another shot . Then when Til died in 1981, Russell decided to keep the Orioles going and they inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame , the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Today s Orioles are Russell, with Clark Walker, Raymond Allen Jr. and David Warr en. The Legendary Orioles were one of the first rhythm and blues groups ever. In fluenced by celebrities such as the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots, they fused traditional pop songs with gospel style and arranged blues and gospel material with smooth harmonies, resulting in a style that appealed to a wide audience. In the late 1980s they added "Legendary" to their name. Be a part of this history-making event, sailing from New York City, New York abo ard the New Norwegian Gem on a seven-day Bahamas cruise from May 12-19, 2012. The re has never been an event this spectacular in the last fifty years. said William s Memory Lane Concert Cruises is musical theme cruise operator providing world-cla ss concerts of performing artists in an array of music styles aboard cruise ship s. http://www.mlccruises.com Contact : Grant Williams Memory Lane Concert Cruises, LLC Los Angeles, CA 541 879 6298 mlccruises@gmail.com http://www.mlccruises.com/