THe Squires Sindy/Do-Be-Do-Be-Wop-Wop 45 rpm Mambo Records VG++

$

50

Mambo 105 45 rpm black label with silver lettering. Released April 1955. While most Los Angeles groups were from... well, from Los Angeles, the Squires were from the suburb of Pasadena, forming in 1954 at John Muir High School. Their idols were the Crows, the 5 Blind Boys, the Dixie Hummingbirds, and, later on, the Jacks/Cadets.
Originally a quintet, the original members were: Lee Goudeau (lead tenor), Chester Pipkin (tenor and guitar), Dewey Terry (falsetto), Henry Johnson (bass), and Freeman Stevens (tenor). They began "just singing around school," according to Chester. When things got to the appearance stage, Lee's father, Thomas, acted as their manager. Sometime in the fall of 1954, both Dewey and Chester had gotten after-school jobs working at Perfection Plastic Products. Owned by Larry Mead, this was a low-budget record pressing plant at 1486 North Fair Oaks Avenue, right down the block from where Dewey lived. (As far as I can determine, the plant was literally in Mead's back yard.) They spent their time packaging records and delivering them to local retail record stores. Mead not only owned the pressing plant, but a couple of labels too: Mambo and Dig This Record. His A&R man was Mike Gradny, who would start Spry Records in 1957.
With two members of the Squires working for Larry Mead, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Squires ended up recording for him.
The Squires' first effort under their own name was "Sindy," led by Lee. "I wrote 'Sindy' for a girl down the street that I liked," says Chester. The flip was "Do-Be-Do-Be-Wop-Wop," fronted by Dewey. Released on Mambo in April 1955 (some copies said "Cindy"), "Sindy" was #10 on the Cash Box Los Angeles charts on May 21 and #2 on July 9. This inspired some cover versions: the Tenderfoots on Federal (pretty much the Lamplighters without Thurston Harris) in July, and the Cobras (another group from Pasadena) on Modern in August.
"Sindy" did so well, in fact, that it became Al Jarvis' Command Performance recording for two weeks (Jarvis is the DJ who's actually credited with pushing it into hit status; he once played it six times in a row). Because of the success of "Sindy," the Squires got to play Billy Berg's prestigious 5-4 Ballroom in L.A. ("We thought we'd hit the big time," says Chester.) They also appeared at the Shrine Auditorium, the Orpheum Theater, and lots and lots of dances -- Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks.