Don Julian

Don Julian & the Meadowlarks’ biggest hits were the L.A.-region strike “Please (Say YOU LIKE Me)” and “The Jerk” for John Dolphin’s Cash label, which came not merely with dance actions of its, but Julian’s encouraging lyrical guidelines. Unlike many teens, Julian was raised in a nonmusical family members, and didn’t sing in the chapel choir or possess any formal vocal teaching to talk about. He was a high-school monitor star, and it had been during college that he fulfilled up with the 1st band of Meadowlark performers: Randolph Jones (later on an associate of both Penguins as well as the Coasters), Earl Jones, Ronald Barrett, and Billy Pruett. The group’s lineup transformed numerous times over time, nevertheless, with Julian becoming the only continuous member. Around 1952, the foursome created a vocal group, originally phoning themselves the Soulinaires, however they later on decided that this name was as well “church-sounding” and transformed it towards the Meadowlarks, this at the same time when lots of the well-known vocal sets of the day experienced “parrot” titles. Cornel Gunter from the Flairs (and later on among the Coasters) launched the group to Contemporary Information’ Bihari brothers in 1957, who eventually released two singles on the RPM subsidiary. Even though Maxwell Davis, Modern’s renowned producer, was dealing with the group and composing all their vocal preparations, Julian sensed the label wasn’t marketing them and he started buying fresh label. After auditioning for Dootone label owner “Dootsie” Williams, the Meadowlarks gained a recording agreement; Julian also finished up doing work for Dootone like a delivery clerk and discovered a lot more about the record business. In early 1954, the achievement of Don Julian & the Meadowlarks’ first solitary “Heaven and Heaven” — as the group was still in senior high school — transformed their lives permanently. The track became popular with R&B followers as well as the burgeoning Mexican-American target audience. In every, the Meadowlarks released five even more Dootone singles before Julian as well as the group remaining the label in 1957. They relocated to DJ Artwork Laboe’s Original Audio label briefly; their 1st single, “Make sure you (Say YOU LIKE Me)” do well locally. Julian also documented “Slauson Shuffle” for DJ Rudy Harvey’s Dynamite label before ultimately ending up having a Central Avenue story called John Dolphin, an area mini-mogul who experienced nearly every element of the record business protected. Dolphin operated several record shops — each was called Dolphin’s of Hollywood (even though the main shop, and the first ever to utilize the name, was in fact situated on East Vernon Ave., close to the part of Central Avenue). Dolphin also possessed his very own radio place, KRKD, which broadcast late-night applications through the store’s shop home window, and he went several little “dark” record brands, several with appropriately motivated names uncovering Dolphin’s penchant to make money most of all: Cash, Cash, Lucky, and Documented in Hollywood Information (that they weren’t!). 90 days after departing Dynamite, Julian’s one “The Jerk” premiered on Money. It had been the first ever to end up being credited towards the Larks (never to end up being confused with various other groupings who also utilized the name, including Eugene Mumford’s Larks). Right now, the Larks’ brand-new lineup highlighted Ted Walters (who was simply close friends with Julian because the two graduated from senior high school), Charlie Morris and Julian. They continuing touring and documenting; Cash also released an recording from the group. Julian continuing to stay using the label through the ’60s and in to the early ’70s. Don Julian continued to slice albums for a number of additional brands, including Amazon and Magnum, as well as for his personal label, known as (appropriately plenty of) Jerk Information. He as well as the Larks also documented the soundtrack towards the 1973 blaxploitation film Shorty the Pimp, however the film was by no means released as well as the soundtrack foundered aswell (it had been finally released in the ’90s). He passed on in 1998.