One Hit Wonders: The Mojo Men & The Uniques

Welcome to Rock & Roll Flashback!
Throughout the 1950's and 60's, there were numerous Rock and Roll bands, groups and solo artists. Many of which went on to successful music careers. Unfortunately for some, lasting popularity did not always materialize. Many achieved brief success, sometimes with just one hit, only to vanish from the music scene. Those artists have come to be known as One Hit Wonders. During the 1950s and 1960s several bands acquired that label. A few managed to achieve some success, but only regionally, never quite gaining significant national attention.
I’m Bill Price, and in this edition of One Hit Wonders, I will focus on two bands of the 1960s: The Mojo Men and The Uniques.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Transcript

One Hit Wonders: The Mojo Men & The Uniques

Welcome to Rock & Roll Flashback!  I’m Bill Price, and we’ll be looking back at some of Rock and Roll’s greatest artists, songs and stories. Through out the 50s and 60s, there were numerous Rock and Roll bands, groups and solo artists. Many of which went on to successful music careers. Unfortunately for some, lasting popularity did not always materialize. Many achieved brief success, sometimes with just one hit, only to vanish from the music scene. Those artists have come to be known as One Hit Wonders. During the 1950s and 1960s several bands acquired that label. A few managed to achieve some success, but only regionally, never quite gaining significant national attention. In this edition of One Hit Wonders, I will focus on two bands of the 1960s, The Mojo Men and The Uniques.

In 1967, a band by the name of The Mojo Men appeared on the music scene in
California. However, their early work began on the east coast. Jim Alaimo was born in Coral Gables, Florida. Jim was in a band called the Redcoats with his cousin Steve, who would go on to have a solo career and had a Top 30 hit in 1963 titled “Everyday I Have To Cry”. In 1958 they released a single titled “Home By Eleven” on the Dade Records label. Then in 1959 they released a doo-wop single titled “I Want You To Love Me”, followed by a couple of subsequent singles “She’s My Baby”, “You Can fall In Love”, and “Love Letters”.

In 1963 Jim released a single titled “Esmeralda” which charted in Miami. Guitarist Paul
Curcio, drummer Dennis DeCarr, and keyboardist Don Metchick were in a band in
Florida known as the Valiants. They provided back up for Steve on quite a few of his
single releases from 1960 to 1964. Then in 1964, The Valiants moved to San Francisco, with the intent to restructure the band and create a new sound. While in San Francisco, they met producer and former DJ Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone. At that time, Sylvester was a record producer for The Beau Brummels at Autumn Records, who had hits with “Laugh Laugh” and “Just A Little” and also The Vejtables who had a single “I Still Love You”.

The Vejatables had an unusual spelling, substituting a J instead of a G. The Vejatables
were from Millgrae, California, and also recorded for the Autumn label. In addition to
“I still Love You”, they had some success with ‘The Last Thing on My Mind”. The lead
singer in the group was Jan Errico, who also played drums. At the time she was one of
the few female drummers around.

Under the name Sly and the Mojo Men, they recorded a few songs, but Stewart was not happy with the results, and decided not to release the recordings. Never the less Stewart continued to work with the band as producer and songwriter on the Mojo Men’s first release “Dance with Me”, which made it into Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1965, and “She’s My Baby in 1966.

Drummer Dennis DeCarr decided to leave the group in 1966, and was replaced by Jan
Errico, the former drummer of The Vejtables. She was also the cousin of Greg Errico
who later became the drummer for Sly and the Family Stone. The Mojo Men then
changed record labels from Autumn to Reprise Records.

In 1967, the band released a cover version of Buffalo Springfield's "Sit Down, I Think I
Love You", a song written by Stephen Stills, before the Buffalo Springfield was formed.
The song was on the Buffalo Springfield’s debut album, which was released in December 1966. "Sit Down, I Think I Love You", became the Mojo Men's first and only top 40 single. Both The Jefferson Airplane and The Mamas And The Papas influenced The Mojo Men, as reflected in their sound style. “Sit Down I Think I Love You” peaked at various chart positions depending on the geographical location. For the top five positions, It was #1 in Bakersfield, California; Providence, Rhode Island; Troy, New York; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Salt Lake City, and Erie, Pennsylvania. It peaked at #2 in, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Greenville, South Carolina; San Francisco and San Jose, California; #3 in Des Moines, Iowa; Jamestown, North Dakota; Miami, Eugene, Oregon; Boston, and Hartford, Connecticut; #4 in Honolulu; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Battle Creek, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Phoenix, Arizona; San Bernardino, California; Davenport, Iowa; Albany, New York; and Merced, California; And #5 in Monterey, California, and Bellingham, Washington. 

Keyboard player Don Metchick left the band in 1968, and the remaining trio shortened their name to The Mojo, because Jan Errico got tired of being known as a Mojo Man. They released their only album titled Mojo Magic on GRT records.
By 1969, the group disbanded. Later that year, Steve produced a number 2 Hit “Love
Can Make You Happy”, for Mercy, a Florida based band. Later in 1971, guitarist Paul Curcio, drummer Dennis Metchick, and keyboardist Don DeCarrr played on Sly and the Family Stone’s number one hit “Family Affair”.

Between 1968 and 1970, The Mojo Men issued 3 singles, which included a cover of
Elvis’ “Don’t Be Cruel”, “I Can’t Let Go”, and “Everyday Love” which was to be their
last release. In 1992 Jim Alaimo died of a heart attack at the age of 62.

The Uniques was a Louisiana rock band lead by vocalist Joe Stampley. Joe was born in Springhill, Louisiana in 1943. By the age of ten, he was playing piano, and listening to country legend Hank Williams. After his family moved to Baytown, Texas, he got the opportunity to sing for Hank on a local radio program. By age fifteen, he was writing songs and cutting demo records with local deejay Merle Kilgore. Williams offered Joe to continue with his music interests. After finishing high school, the family moved back to Springhill Louisiana.

While attending Southern State College in Magnolia, Arkansas, he formed The Uniques. Band members included his brother Bobby, Ray Mills, Jim Woodfield, Ronnie Weiss, and Mike Love. The band’s name came about due to their inability to establish a
distinctive style. So they settled on The Uniques. They played colleges and dances all
around southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and east Texas.

In Shreveport Louisiana, Stan Lewis started two recording labels, Paula and Jewel. Joe
constantly lobbied Lewis for an opportunity to hear him play. Finally Stan told Joe to see Dale Hawkins, who had begun selling records and doing production work for Stan.
Hawkins had also recorded the hit “Susie Q”, which was later covered by Creedence
Clearwater Revival in 1968. After hearing Joe sing “Not Too Long Ago”, Dale signed
Joe to Paula records. The song was recorded at Robin Hood Studios located in Tyler,
Texas, with Hawkins as producer. It was issued as Paula number 219, the first release of the new label. In April 1965, the song reached number 66 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and stayed on the charts for six weeks.

Locally the Uniques were quite popular in the south. But never achieved any significant national recognition. The band was active between 1965 and 1970. Most of their recordings also took place at the Robin Hood Studios. They had some regional success with the release of “Not Too Long Ago”. But it was “All These Things”, that proved to be their biggest hit, reaching number one in Dallas. However, nationally it could only manage to reach number 97 on the Billboard hot 100 in July 1966. It only managed to stay on the charts for two weeks. However, it was enough to earn an appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Even with the TV exposure, The Uniques were destined for One Hit Wonder status. When “All These Things” was recorded, Joe did not know all of the song’s words, essentially adlibbing the second verse. In Art Neville’s original version, one line of the lyrics was “ When you were ten minutes late I started to cry”. In the Uniques’ version Joe sang, “When you started to go I started to cry”. In a later performance, when he sang it correctly, it did not go over well with the audience. “All These Things”, was written by Naomi Neville, which was a pseudonym for Allen Toussaint. The Uniques’ version was a cover of Arthur Neville’s 1962 recording. Arthur also was the founder of the New Orleans funk band The Meters, who had an instrumental hit in 1969 called “The Cissy Strut”.

After the Uniques, Joe Stampley would later go on to pursue a solo country career, and re-record “All These Things”, which made it to the top of the country charts. In 1976, he released eight singles that made it into the Billboard charts, and also
received Billboard’s Single Artist of the Year award. In 1980, Joe and country music star Mo Bandy received the Country Music Association’s award for Vocal Duo of the Year.

On October 1st, 2005, The Uniques reunited for a performance in Stampley’s hometown of Springhill, Louisiana. In 2010, The Uniques were inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame during their 45th anniversary reunion concert at the Piney woods Palace in Springhill. All original members except Ronnie Weiss were present for the induction. 

This has been Rock and Roll Flashback… a look back at The Mojo Men and the Uniques, one hit wonders of the 1960’s. I’m Bill Price and until next time…. Rock On!