1951 / 1952

SIXTY MINUTE MAN / HAVE MERCY, BABY * THE DOMINOES * VOGUE * UK

The Dominoes were formed by composer and pianist Billy Ward in 1950, their first record that same year was also the first release on the King subsidiary Federal # 12001; it was also, significantly, Clyde McPhatter's debut on wax as lead vocalist on the flip. In March 1951 Federal put out the unambiguous Sixty Minute Man, with Bill Brown taking lead. first; the groups third release # 12022, which had been recorded the previous year. And from that moment history was changed, the record stayed an unbelievable thirty weeks on the R&B charts fourteen of them at number one! Sixty Minuet Man was possibly the first R&B record by a black group to crossover into the pop charts (although it was never played on the radio, not banned* as such, just never played) and is unquestionably an important recording in the history of Black American music about which much has written. 

Have Mercy, Baby another risqué song with plenty of sexual metaphors, was recorded in January 1952 and has Clyde McPhatter on lead. Released in April the song was almost as popular as Sixty Minute Man with 20 weeks on the R&B charts and ten of them in the number one slot.

See also: Lernin’ The Blues

* Many records sung and played on by black artists were actually banned by radio stations, often by the advertisers [one of the real enemies of the people] from air play during the 1940s and 1950s on the flimsiest of pretexts, any excuse was good enough not to play something they didn't want to play anyway.

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