Little Caesar & the Romans

Those Oldies But Goodies

Little Caesar & the Romans where first called the Cubans, featuring David Caesar Johnson, Leroy Sanders, Johnny O' Simmons and Early Harris. The group first recorded in 1959 but when Cuba underwent a political revolution that same year the group changed their name to the Upfronts. 

Carl Burnett than a close friend of Johnson’s recalls his days at Virgil Junior High and later Los Angeles Fremont High "At that I also had a group of my own, singing with the brothers Donald and Dwayne Haddegs and a friend of ours whose last name was Stokes we called him Stokeabean " (said Burnett). The group performed mostly past R&B hits like "Over the Mountain" "A Thousand Miles Away" and "In the Still of the Night." Although they never recorded, the group was encouraged by another Fremont High student, Cad Coates, and his group. The MARATHONS, who performed at the school’s track meets. While still in high school, Burnett and his friend David Johnson attended a party at the home of songwriter Paul Politi who wrote "Those Oldies But Goodies" and he was trying everybody out to record it but just could not come up with anyone he wanted yet. I knew David also loved singing Doo Wop and I said to Politi let my friend try it me also. Although David really didn’t want to sing right than he was pretty involved talking to a girl he met at the party however we managed to drug him over to the microphone with me anyway to sing the song and when we started everyone started  clapping".(said Burnett).  Politi went to the studio the next day, and a week later, they invited Carl and David and some of the girls from the party to do that song and called our background group The Romans.’ (The "Little Caesar’ part would be a later addition).

 

Those Oldies But Goodies"was originally intended as a vehicle for vocalist SONNY KNIGHT, whom Politi greatly admired. A friend toll Politi his song would be great for Art Laboe,’ a deejay who was then airing many tunes which were originally popular on the West Coast between 1953 and 1957 and would refer to them as his "oldies but goodies" implying that this was a barrier to his recording them. A year or two went by before the party at Polite 5 house, which again brought Poiiti together with Carl Burnett again and eventually resulted in the first auditions of the tune for Laboe. A couple of key changes in the song had also been made, according to Poiiti. "I recorded the first demo with the feel of In the "Still of the Night", but it didn’t have the bridge or talking part. Laboe said, "I like it, but I don’t like the group." (Said Laboe) and than requested Politi to try to get Sonny Knight.  While Laboe procrastinating, Politi instead took the song to Lew Bedell of Dare Records. He, too, liked the song but thought it sounded too much like "Dedicated to the One I Love," 

 

They finally brought the song to Del-Fl label owner Bob Keane, who "went crazy over it," recalled Carl Burnett, Who by this time had been with ex-Cubans David Johnson, Simmons and Saunders. They were rushed into the studio that evening to record the number. The back up musicians were assembled to lay down their track separately. With Bruce Johnston arranging, the band included Charles Wright on piano and overdubbed bass guitar and Paul Politi on drums. Barry White was supposed to be on piano, but he did not show up for the session. Upon its release in the early spring of 1961, the record took off like a rocket. One of the first deejays to plug it was Dick "Huggy Boy" whose radio show then emanated from the Flash Record Shop on L.A’s East Vernon Avenue. Fittingly, it had had been Flash’s owner, Charlie Reynolds, who had first recorded The Cubans in 1959. In the east, Pittsburgh deejay Porky Chedwick was instrumental in breaking the record nationally. It reached number 9 on Billboard’s national chart.

Little Caesar & the Romans shortly after charted again at number 54  with "Hully Gully Again" but it was to be their last fling at fame before the group disbanding in 1962. Except for an LP by the group entitled "Memories of Those Oldies But Goodies", produced by Fred Smith. The album featured the group’s two hits and a series of remakes of songs made famous by other artists including "Work With Me Annie," "I Need You So, "CC. Rider"   and "Little Star". By this time, however, frequent quarrels between Johnson and Burnett over who deserved to be called ‘Little Caesar" portended the group’s demise. (Johnson thought he merited the name because of his spoken bridges in various songs, though Burnett was still regarded as the group’s main lead singer.)  In 1975, Johnson put together a new Little Caesar And The Romans and recorded a single called "Disco Hully Gully". For a while, they toured as Marvin Gaye's opening act and in the late 70s, one of the backing singers for the group was Rickie Lee Jones. Little Caesar and the Romans are still active today making only periodic appearances.

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