The Cheers were an American vocal group, that had a string of novelty hits for

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

in the mid-1950s starting with "(Bazoom) I Need Your Lovin'" which hit number fifteen on the U.S.

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

in 1954. This was the first hit written by Jerry Leiber and

Mike Stoller Leiber and Stoller were an American songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerome Leiber (; April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933). As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wr ...

to chart on the pop chart in the United States, and was one of the first

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

hits by a white group (after The Crew Cuts and Bill Haley and the Comets). The following year, they followed it with "

Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots" is a song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Recorded by The Cheers, it went to #6 on the ''Billboard'' Best Selling singles chart in the fall of 1955, becoming Leiber and Stoller's first top ten pop ...

" (also written by Leiber and Stoller), a song about a wild-living leather-jacketed motorcyclist, which went to number six on the charts, and became a million-selling record. The Cheers' members included Bert Convy, who would later serve as host of several daytime television game shows such as ''

Tattletales ''Tattletales'' is an American game show produced by Mark Goodson, Goodson-Bill Todman, Todman Productions in association with Fremantle (company), Fremantle. The program had two runs on the CBS daytime schedule between February 1974 and June ...

'', '' Super Password'', '' Win, Lose or Draw'' and '' 3rd Degree'', Perry Botkin, Jr., who would later become a successful composer/arranger winning a Grammy Award for '' Nadia's Theme'', Susan (Sue) Allen and Gil Garfield. All three were living in Los Angeles at the time they began making records: Garfield was attending the University of Southern California and Convy had just graduated from UCLA when they teamed up with vocalist Allen. Leiber and Stoller wrote and produced "Chicken" (1955) for The Cheers, parodying the central sequence from James Dean's film '' Rebel Without a Cause''. Garfield remained with the Cheers for about three years before leaving the music industry and going into the real estate business. He died of cancer in 2011 at age 77. Convy died of a brain tumor in 1991 at age 57. Sue Allen continued to record into the 1960s, providing vocals for performers such as

Ray Conniff Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. Biography Conniff was born November 6, 1916, in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United S ...

and

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "the Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arrangement, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roa ...

References

External links

Les Baxter at Space Age Pop Music
American rock music groups American rock and roll music groups National Recording Corporation artists Capitol Records artists Okeh Records artists {{US-rock-band-stub