Harvey Hall and the Phenomenals were hot in the early ‘70s, notching local hits with the 45, “What Can I Do/Soul & Sunshine” on Da-Wood, a waxing from Boddie Recording Company on Union Avenue near East 122nd Street. With better promotion, the latter could have gone global. Before this great guitarist led the Phenomenals, Hall was in the Fabulous Five Flames, a late-'50s/early-'60s doo-wop group featuring the sweet tenor of Ernest Smith. That Phenomenals 45 is to be included in a three-CD box of Boddie Recording Company material rumored to be coming from Chicago label Numero Group by the end of the year.
The Flames recorded singles for the Time, Rex and Capitol labels, but like the Phenomenals, no album. They played Cleveland only. Competition included the legendary (and unrecorded) Sahibs, featuring current Hesitations Art Blakey and George Hendricks, and the Futuretones, featuring Charles Hatcher and Russell Evans. Hatcher became Edwin Starr. Evans became guitarist for the O’Jays.
The Phenomenals ranged farther afield; while they played such long-gone Cleveland dance meccas as the Colosseum Ballroom at East 72nd Street and Euclid Avenue, and Liz’s Lounge at 105th and Euclid (a competitor to Brougham’s, which was at 106th and Euclid), they also worked Detroit rooms, including the Rooster Tail and the storied Twenty Grand, and performed in clubs in Youngstown, Warren and Akron; it was a circuit, Hall explains. Among contemporary groups: The Entertains and the Imperial Wonders, the first featuring Larry Hancock, the cousin of O'Jay Eddie Levert; the second featuring Al Boyd. Singer/arranger Hancock wrote for the Temptations, the Jackson Five and Earth, Wind and Fire. He died on January 3, 2011 at age 62.
Hall (pictured), 71, recalls a black-and-tan (mainly black) scene vibrant in Cleveland from the late '50s to the '70s. Its name was 105. Say it out loud.
He has fond memories of the Circle Ballroom, at 105th and Euclid; Gleason’s Musical Bar, at 53rd and Woodland; and the Chatterbox Lounge a few blocks west of Gleason’s. Harvey and the Phenomenals played behind the Stylistics and opened for Isaac Hayes, but airplay of its music was confined to black stations WMJO (powered by Ken Hawkins) and WABQ.
Hall grew up around East 30th Street and Scoville Avenue and attended East Technical High School – as did the future Edwin Starr. He recalls encountering Temptations-to-be Paul Williams in the early '60s, when the distinctive baritone was migrating north to Detroit from his native Alabama and did scullery work with another future Temptation, high tenor Eddie Kendricks, in the Majestic Hotel. Williams wanted to be in Hall’s group, the Fabulous Five Flames, but “we didn’t like his type of singing.” Hall cracks up. “We didn’t see it like that. He was a dishwasher.”
To hear Hall now, look into booking The Magic Touch Band featuring him, his wife Etta, keyboardist Guy Smith and bassist Julius Roberts. All of them sing and can be reached via email at magictouchband@yahoo.com. Listen to exclusive Harvey & The Phenomenals and The Fabulous Five Flames tracks on page two...
