The Ad Libs
- Soundtrack
The Ad-Libs formed in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1964 with members from another
New Jersey group called The Creators. The group consisted of Hugh
Harris, Danny Austin, Norman Donegan, Dave Watt and Mary Ann Thomas as
lead singer (an unusual circumstance for the time, as most females in
male groups were background singers) and chose the name The Ad-Libs.
The group's manager, John Taylor -- who had also managed their
predecessor, The Creators -- was a former sax player for several big
bands and wrote a "boogie woogie"-flavored tune called "The Boy from
New York City". He took a demo of the song to New York's Red Bird
Records, owned by the legendary songwriting / producing team of
Jerry Leiber and
Mike Stoller, who liked the sound and
signed the group to their Blue Cat Records subsidiary. The song was
recorded and released in December 1965, and within a few months had
shot to #8 on the Pop charts and #6 on the R&B charts. However, their
follow-up records went pretty much nowhere, and they were shortly
dropped by Blue Cat. The group continued in record, in various
configurations, up into the late 1980s.