THE FOUR KNIGHTS 8 INCH BLUE VINYL TRANSCRIPTION 4 SONG ALBUM RARE C. 1948 VG

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THIS ULTRA RARE 8 INCH BLUE VINYL OF THE FOUR KNIGHTS "NEGRO QUARTET" AS IT IS LISTED ON LABEL.  IS PUBLISHED BY LANG WORTH.  4 SONG TRANSCRIPTION IS WHAT IT IS CALLED AND WAS ONLY AVAILABLE TO RADIO STATIONS.  SONGS INCLUDE CHI BABA CHI BABA SPEAKING OF ANGELS WHEN TONIGHT IS JUST A MEMORY WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S EVE

Most black gospel groups that sang in the ‘40s or ‘50s and then changed their musical direction, changed it to rhythm and blues.  The Four Knights, however, were a refined gospel group that became a refined pop blues group. Actually they started out in 1943 as the Southland Jubilee Singers in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The membership included Gene Alford (lead), John Wallace (second tenor and guitar), and Oscar Broadway (bass). By 1944 Oscar had brought in a baritone he knew, Clarence Dixon, and the lineup was set.  Their soft and breezy harmonies drew immediate attention and the group made its debut on NBC’s affiliate WSOC-Charlotte radio. In six months they moved up to CBS’s mega power station, the 50,000-watt WBT-Charlotte.  The quartet replaced the Southern Sons on the station’s “Carolina Hay Ride” show, a popular program that attracted one listener in particular, Cy Langois of Long-Worth Transcriptions.  He signed the group to management.

His first move was for a name change to the Four Knights.  He took them to New York and they started appearing on Arthur Godfrey’s radio show in 1945.  Lang-Worth was a company that made what were called transcriptions, actually early albums containing four to six songs on each side of an eight inch disc that played at 33-1/3 rpm.  These discs were not sold to the public; most all were sent to radio stations, allowing a local disc jockey to give the impression the group was right in the studio.  The Knights did a number of these recordings.  Between this type of exposure and the Godfrey show the group became fairly well-known. In 1946 they signed with Decca Records and in April of that year they released their first single, “Just in Case You Change Your Mind.”  After four singles featuring Gene’s mellow lead, Oscar’s broad bass, and usually incorporating Gene’s whistling over the instrumental section, the group was moved to Decca’s Coral affiliate for three more 78s through 1949. They toured with dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and got a shot s regulars on the Red Skelton radio show in 1948.  They spent two years doing Skelton in Los Angeles and performing in clubs across the country.  The Knights lost the Skelton job in 1950 when their manager wanted more than the show could pay, and so he pulled the group.  They then discharged him for losing what they considered to be a prime exposure medium.

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