1964 - Bread and Butter / The Newbeats
Substack post #597 - 33 Subscribers - not that there’s anything wrong with that - BaDaBoom
Here’s another hit from 1964, which is the one hit wonder by The Newbeats.
I heard this tune many times on my local Central Florida radio station, WLOF Channel 95, in Orlando.
In 1964, there were vocalists that sang falsetto, but this is much different. Until a few minutes ago, I’d never seen the actual singer. The dude looks a little like blue eyed soul singer Wayne Cochran or Bill Clinton.
The Newbeats were from Shreveport, Louisiana. I’ve played with several musicians from Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. They have a swampy vibe to their style.
The vocalist on this track is lead singer Larry Henley (1937-2014)
Though this group had the single hit with Bread and Butter, they toured with Roy Orbison, and The Rolling Stones in 1965.
Later in his career Henley wrote songs to be recorded by Tammy Wynette, Barbara Streisand, Kenny Rodgers and Randy Travis. Henley wrote the song Wind Beneath My Wings, which became a number one hit for Bette Midler. He won a Grammy award for Song of the year.
I do not see any video of Mr. Henley singing live. His falsetto is sort of satire that someone would attempt to do. The comedian Flip Wilson had a character that sounded like this voice.
This is a very interesting addition to my little 1964 song post.
Diving deeper, I believe they are actually singing the tune Everything’s Allright from a 1964 Shindig show. The NewBeats had a unique style, but The 4 Seasons dominated the charts with music featuring a falsetto vocalist.
I don’t remember any band covering this tune live on a gig. Go figure. At least this vocal track is unique. I won’t comment on the future of ai vocal replacement.
Everything’s Alright - live performance