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The Lytations
| THE
LYTATIONS
A Brief Remembrance 1962-64 |
 |
JACK
STRONG ------------- Lead
FRANK TORPEY ------------- First Tenor BOB BINTLIFF -------------- Second Tenor KENNY HARPER -------------- Baritone / Bass BILLY GIANGIULIO ---------- Baritone / Bass (deceased) |
The LYTATIONS formed in 1962 in Ardmore, Pa. The group took it's name from a combination of The Ly-Dells & The Quotations.
Jack, Frank, and a friend, J.T., went to High School together and formed a group called The Violators. They sang at various frat parties and coffee house, or wherever they were told that they couldn't (fortunately, no recordings exist). Frank knew a guy named Bob Bintliff from his neighborhood who, at the time, was singing with Billy Giangulio, Ken Harper, and Don Nickleson.
Jack had been exposed to the recording studio playing guitar on a dub by The Crystals recorded at RE-CO ART in Philadelphia. The songs were "While Walking" and what they titled "You're Mine (We Belong Together)". Some of The Crystals would soon become The Ly-Dells if they weren't already.
Bob Bintliff attended business school with a guy named Val Shively and the two collected group sounds, although Val was already amassing a great collection. The records Jack heard at Bob's house definately talked to him ("Life Is But A Dream" - The Earls, "Ala Men Sy" - The Quotations, etc.
He had never heard anything like those records, although he thought he knew a lot about records. One day, Bob took Jack to Val's house to check out his sounds. It was there that Jack heard the Nutmegs "Let Me Tell You" on a green wax Times Square label. The idea that you could sing without music and sound like that knocked him out --- and it still does.
The Lytations
first Sessions produced the following:
1. "Dreaming
Of You" - basic song taught to the group by Frank Milet of the Ly-Dells.
Jack says he wrote it. They say they wrote it. No one ever
got a dime.
2. "I
Know Somewhere" - an attempt at a talking lead
3. "Hetta"
- the title came from the background scale off at the beginning
4. "The
Girl That I Love" - NY influence, for certain.
Other
than Bill Whitney, the drummer, the rest of the band members names are
unknown. Billy had gotten them together for the session.
Without money or means to keep the band together, the Lytations resorted once again to accappella rehearsals. With nowhere to take the recordings and the influx of love affairs, jobs, and growing up, ther rehearsals began to grow more and more infrequent. The Lytations decided to go into the studio one more time for the final session.
The Second
session produced:
1."Over
The Rainbow" - the groups' attempt to update a classic
2. "Look
Into The Sky" - outdo the Earls? (maybe)
3. "Stormy
Weather" - they say that they had fun singing this one
4. "Let
Me Tell You" - forgive me Leroy !
5. "Little
Star" - never did do it right
6. "Sunday
Kind Of Love" -everybody did this one - only God knows why
"Dreaming Of You" backed with "I Know Somewhere" was re-recorded by the Lytations as the Kaptions on Ham-Mil Records at Virtue Recording Studio in Philadelphia, Pa. Billy played sax os well on that one.
written
by Jack Strong Jan
2003
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