1963
HARLEM SHUFFLE * BOB AND EARL * SUE 374 * UK
Bobby Day a. k. a. Bobby Byrd, and Earl Lee Nelson a. k. a. Jackie Lee first started performing as a duo around the late 1950s It was after Day had departed and Nelson was singing with Bobby Relf, still as Bob & Earl, that Harlem Shuffle, produced by Barry White, was cut for the small independent Marc label in Hollywood, # 104 - incidentally the Marc label also had a group called The Specials! recording for them at the time. Harlem Shuffle was a bigger hit in the UK than in the US being a favourite in the small discothèques, like the Scene and Flamingo in London, and spent thirteen weeks on the British charts after its second release on Island in 1969.