Bobby Lester, (January 13, 1930 – October 15, 1980) was an American tenor rhythm & blues and soul vocalist best known as an original member of the group The Moonglows and was the lead singer on most of the group's recordings from 1952-1960.
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| Bobby Lester & Harvey FuQua |
Bobby Lester was born Robert Lester Dallas in Louisville, Kentucky. Fresh from a stint in the U.S. Army, two friends, Harvey Fuqua and Bobby Lester, formed a duo in 1949. They made the rounds of Louisville's amateur shows, with Bobby singing and Harvey accompanying him on piano. In 1950, they teamed up with bandleader Ed Wiley for a tour of the South. After the tour, tragedy struck: both of Harvey's children were killed in a fire. In grief, he and his wife moved to Cleveland, in order to make a new start.
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| Alan Freed |
In 1953, Freed renamed the group the Moonglows, after his own nickname, Moondog. They signed with Freed's Champagne label, but their recordings for the label failed to make the charts. Coggins left the group and was replaced by Alexander Walton, who was sometimes known as Pete Graves or Pete Walton. They recorded for another small label, Chance, but like their Champagne recordings, their records had little success; their cover of Doris Day's "Secret Love" was their most successful for Chance. In September 1953, Freed obtained a contract with the New York radio station WINS. His success as a broadcaster and host of the station led to a contract for the Moonglows with Chess Records.
The Moonglows first Chess single, "Sincerely", led by Lester, reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart and the top 20 of the pop chart. The song was later a crossover success in a cover version by the McGuire Sisters. In 1955, the band picked the guitarist Billy Johnson to be their fifth member after Wayne Bennett left the group following their engagement at the Apollo Theater. That same year, the group had another R&B hit with "Most of All", followed by a more modest success with "We Go Together" in 1956. Chess issued some of their recordings with the group credited as the Moonlighters.
For most of the Moonglows' tenure, the lead vocals were split between Lester and Fuqua. Lester preferred doo-wop ballads, whereas Fuqua preferred rock-and-roll songs. The two also recorded vocal duets. Their next hits, in 1956, included "See Saw", which peaked at number five R&B and number 25 on the Billboard Top 100, and "When I'm with You". which reached number 15 on the R&B chart In August 1956, the band appeared in one of the first rock-and-roll movies, Rock, Rock, Rock, lip-syncing "Over and Over Again" and "I Knew From The Start".
By December 1956, Fuqua had begun to sing most of the vocal leads. In June 1957, the Moonglows had an R&B hit with their cover of Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love". In late 1958, the Fuqua-led "Ten Commandments of Love" reached number nine R&B and number 22 pop; the group was billed as Harvey and the Moonglows. Chess released two EPs and an album, Look, It's the Moonglows, during that period. Following that release, the original group broke up at the end of the year, performing together only for contractual reasons. On January 9, 1959, the original Moonglows made their last appearance at the Apollo.
Lester returned to Louisville and Harvey continued performing solo as well as with a new group called Harvey and the New Moonglows which included Marvin Gaye for a short time By 1961 Harvey went into the production end with Motown, starting the Tri-Phi and Harvey labels. Meanwhile Bobby Lester was fronting his own Moonglows group which the Chess label figured might return to the fold, but Lester left the group in 1963.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Marv Goldberg’s R&B Notebooks)