Five Satins, The

In New Haven, Connecticut, in 1956, Fred Parris formed a vocal group along with Wes Forbes, Lewis Peeples, Rich Freeman and Sy Hopkins. They called themselves the Five Satins and recorded “In The Still Of The Night”, in the basement of their local church, St Bernadette’s. The song entered the top forty later that year, peaking at number 24. Like most doo-wop bands, they were constantly changing their line-up, splitting up and reforming. Indeed, while “In The Still Of The Night” was in the charts, Fred Parris was stationed in Japan with the Army. The group re-formed with a different line-up, this time featuring Bill Baker as lead singer along with Eddie Martin, Jim Freeman, Al Denby, and Jessie Murphy on piano. Parris replaced Baker on his return from the Army in January 1958. The group then split up in the early sixties, but in 1969 Fred Parris re-convened the group with a new cast and hit the oldies circuit. This group appeared in the 1973 film that revived fifties rock ‘n’ roll, “Let The Good Times Roll”. They continued to make occasional appearances and have remained one of the favourite bands of the doo-wop genre.