The Native Boys

Aka the "Mellowtears"

They originally they didn't call themselves the "Native Boys", and in spite of being from Los Angeles, their records sold better in the East. The story of the Native Boys began in 1954 when four students who attended Cathedral, a Catholic High School in Downtown Los Angeles formed a group called the Mellowtears. They were: Fred Romain, William Vincent "Vince" Weaver, Edward "Sack" Saunders, and Harry Rosemont (Actually, Fred, Harry, and Vince had gone to St. Patrick's Grammar School together too.)

The Mellowtears specialized in writing their own songs, and started by practicing on two of them that Vince had written; "Native Girl" and "It Won't Take Very Long" The second song they started while they were out joyriding and talking about girls. Harry started singing the words "it won't take long" and they all threw in lyrics. Later on, Vince went home, put the finishing touches to it, and now they had two songs to work on. They would often sing while walking around the Sunset Strip and Hollywood Boulevard especially near the Brown Derby and Grauman's Chinese Theater where most of the record companies were headquartered. The Mellowtears eventually hooked up with Maxwell Davis, a well known sax player who helped them get an audition with Aladdin Records, which turned them down. Later Davis took them to Modern Records where they were finally given a contract to do a single session. At first the Mellowtears only dealt with Davis, and not any of the Bihari brothers who owned Modern.  There are two very interesting things about their first record they recorded for Modern, first was Vince Weaver's name doesn't appear as writer on either side. The Biharis brothers appropriated writer credit for themselves as they would often due on many occasions. But this time, both sides were credited to Josea, the pen name for Joe Bihari. The second thing is that the Mellowtears name was nowhere to be found. Someone had the bright idea to re-name them after their song, and the "Native Boys" were born. They had no say in this; they didn't know about the name change until the record was released "It was a mind-blower; we loved the name the Mellowtears. Says Vince.

"Native Girl" was a real bouncing rocker, while "It Won't Take Long" is a more mainstream up-tempo side. The record was first reviewed the week of September 18, 1954. The Mellowtears (they still didn't think of themselves as the Native Boys) waited around for royalties to come pouring in. When nothing much happened with "Native Girl", Harry Rosemont dropped out (subsequently attending Notre Dame University); he was replaced by tenor George LeBrune. Although they have other jobs here and there, they mostly worked on their singing. Vince had a Webcor tape recorder which he used to record the guys so they could critique themselves.

About a year later, with no royalties forthcoming, the guys next turned to Vernon "Jake" Porter, a trumpet player who owned the tiny Combo Record label he listened to their tale of woe about Modern and decided to groom them and help them work on their choreography. He had a studio in the basement of his house on North Virgil Avenue (near Los Angeles City College); where he listened to their tunes and helped polish them. At least, when Porter stuck his name on a song, he also included that of the original songwriter!

Their first outing for Combo was "Strange Love" (led by Fred), backed with "Cherrlyn" (fronted by Vince). The former song (another bouncing rocker) was written by Fred; the latter by Vince, in honor of Fred's girlfriend. "Cherrlyn" showed that the Native boys could do an up-tempo as well. The Native Boys managed to sneak in some appearances, mostly at record hops, high schools, and parties in East L.A. There were no big shows, but they did once appear at a record hop with Hunter Hancock (whose "Hunting with Hunter" was one of the most popular radio shows in L.A.)."Strange Love" released in November 1955, did well in the east before making much noise in Los Angeles. While Jake told them it was doing well on the East Coast, he avoided any talk of "royalties". It started showing up on local charts in March of 1956. Not one to miss out on an opportunity, Porter decided to release all of the remaining Native Boys sides that very same month. This was probably overkill on Jake's part. None of these records ever sold well. With fewer and fewer jobs coming in, the Native Boys drifted apart.

In early 1957, Vince Weaver joined the Flairs meanwhile; Fred Romain teamed up with a friend of his, Danny Kristian and re-recorded "I've Got A Feeling" for Lee Rupe's brand new Ebb label.  Lee was the wife of Specialty owner Art Rupe now calling them the Ebbtones While that was the end of the Native Boys, Weaver and Romaine kept at it in the music business with varying degrees of success into the nineteen sixties. Despite their short and mostly unremarkable history, "Strange Love" remains, as a perfect exhibit of why the music of the time was unique and timeless. It is there to be enjoyed forever.

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