There’s been a long and constant relationship — it’s been called a secret handshake — between the blues, its many cousins, and gospel music.
Many blues and soul artists began their careers singing in church. The passion and power of gospel music often found new voice in artists who chose the Devil’s Music, as the blues was sometimes called, over their more sacred roots. Gospel music has often been the secret sauce that spices the sounds of jump blues, R&B, soul, and even rock and roll.
Nowhere has that handshake, and the resulting fervor, been stronger than in the music of the criminally under-appreciated “5” Royales, a 1950s group whose sound evolved from their early 1940s gospel roots as the Royal Sons Quintet.
The Royal Sons were brothers Lowman and Clarence Pauling, plus two cousins and a friend, Bill Samuels. Johnny Tanner joined in 1943 when one of the members was drafted and a year later Otto Jefferies and Jimmy Moore joined, when the now 18-year-old Tanner went into the military.
Clarence Pauling dropped out in 1948, and joined Motown in the 1960’s as the producer for Stevie Wonder under the name Clarence Paul. The Son’s early lineup included Tanner on lead, Moore and Samuels as tenors, Pauling as baritone, songwriter and guitarist and Jefferies singing bass. when they signed with Apollo Records in 1951 on the strength of a gospel demo. By 1950 Obediah Carter and Johnny Tanner had replaced William Samuels and Pauling.
However, Apollo was looking for a secular group that could compete with the Dominoes, the Orioles, and the Cardinals. The Sons were reluctant to change, fearing they would alienate the religious community. So, the Sons became the “5” Royales, with 5 in quotes, since there were often six members.
The Royales brought the jubilee quartet harmonies of their gospel roots, added the raw energy of rhythm and blues, and created what would become soul music before the genre had a name. According to the Acoustic Music organization, the “first clear evidence of soul music shows up with the “5” Royales.”
The first Apollo session in 1952 produced “Too Much Of a Little Bit” and “Courage Of Love.” 1953 saw their biggest hits “Baby Don’t Do It” and “Help Me Somebody,” both which topped the national rhythm and blues charts. Following this initial success, Jefferies decided to stop touring about 1954 when the Royales accepted a bigger offer to move from Apollo to King Records, and focus on being the group’s manager. Jefferies’ place was taken by Johnny Tanner’s brother Eugene, though he continued to record with the group when needed.
After recording five Top Ten hits in two years, the Royales were popular enough to force another act calling themselves The Royals to change their name. The Royals thus became The Midnighters, who, with Hank Ballard as their driving wheel, would take the Royales’ place as the biggest vocal group in rock over the next few years.
When the Royales followed Aollo label head Carl LeBow to King Records, the group entering its most productive years. At King they recorded “Think” (1957, No. 4 R&B) — later covered by James Brown as his breakthrough pop hit — and “Dedicated to the One I Love” (1957), co-written by Pauling, who wrote most of the Royales’ songs, with producer Ralph Bass, which became a Top 5 hit for The Shirelles in 1961 and a No. 2 hit for The Mamas & the Papas in 1967. “Tell the Truth” (1958) was covered by Ray Charles and Ike and Tina Turner.
In 1960, the Royales were involved in a lawsuit with fellow King artist Brown concerning the song “Think.” The lawsuit forced them to leave King, and for a time they recorded for Home of the Blues, which leased the masters to Vee-Jay and ABC Records. The Royales disbanded around 1965, having released 59 singles across their career.
The Royales were unique among the ’50s R&B groups. Their gospel-drenched sound, underscored by the primal pleading of Johnny Tanner’s fervent lead vocals and Eugene Tanner’s smoother sound, gave the group its electric vocal range. But Lowman Pauling’s guitar may have been their major legacy. He pioneered a call-and-response approach between guitar and vocals, weaving fills into the spaces left by the singers — a technique that Steve Cropper later identified as the foundation of the Stax guitar style. The Royales had limited commercial success, but their influences on this classical American music were immeasurable as early architects of soul music and rock and roll.
In his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame essay on the Royales’ 2015 induction, Joe McEwen wrote that Cropper said: “I know when I saw Lowman Pauling onstage it changed my style and my life. He was a one-man show who played rhythm and stinging riffs when necessary … I owe a lot to Lowman.”
Rock critic Dave Marsh credited Pauling with recording the first intentional use of guitar feedback on “The Slummer the Slum” (1958), predating The Beatles, The Yardbirds, and Jimi Hendrix by years. The Royales blending of styles and innovative techniques also influenced artists such as Clyde McPhatter of the Drifters, Hank Ballard of the Royals/Midnighters, and James Brown.
Lowman Pauling ended up working as a night watchman at a Manhattan church and died of an apparent seizure on Dec. 26, 1973; Otto Jefferies died on Aug. 8, 1975; Eugene Tanner was on disability benefits in the years before his death on Dec. 29, 1994; Johnny Tanner died of cancer on Nov. 8, 2005; Jimmy Moore died on Aug. 16, 2008, at the Cedar Manor Nursing Home in Ossining, New York, after a long illness.
Their music survives, an extraordinary testament to the men who created it, and their influence on what came next.
From their song, “Think”: “Think about the sacrifices that I made for you. Think of all the times that I spent with you. Think of all the good things that I done for you.”
In 2011, Steve Cropper released “Dedicated: A Salute to the “5” Royales,” featuring Cropper on guitar and vocalists that include B.B. King, Shemia Copeland, Bettye LaVette, Sharon King, Dan Penn and Delbert McClinton.
It’s a great listen, and you can hear the echoes of the Royales on every track.
A special thanks to the Rev. Billy C. Wirtz and Marvelous Marvin Boone, who host the Rhythm Revival radio show weekly on WMNF Tampa. Their airplay of the “5” Royales made me do this!
Here are a few of “5” Royales greatest hits: