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| THE CHANTONES |
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| VOCAL GROUP |
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| GROUP MEMBERS |
| This Canadian born group from Windsor, Ontario was formed in 1956 and consisted of Roy Lesperance, bass singer; Jack Grenier, lead singer; Larry Desjarlais, tenor singer and Jim Nantais, baritone singer. They begin their career performing in nightclubs in the Windsor-Detroit area and moved into national prominence with their first recordings in 1957. |
| RECORDINGS |
| The Chantones first major release was "ANNE MARIE" on Sparton Records, which reached #1 in Canada. This was followed by several recordings on the Carlton label including "IT WAS JUST A SUMMER LOVE" and "FIVE LITTLE NUMBERS". Their next releases were on Top Rank Records and included "TANGEROCK" and "DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR". In 1959, they moved to Capitol Records and released "STORMY WEATHER" and "SWEET GEORGIA BROWN". Other releases were "ONCE AND ONLY ONCE" and "FROM THE VERY FIRST ROSE". |
| JACK SCOTT RECORDINGS |
| The Chantones had several hit records backing JACK SCOTT, which included "MY TRUE LOVE" which hit #1 nationally. Other hits in the top ten included "WHAT IN THE WORLDS COME OVER YOU", "GOODBYE BABY GOODBYE", "THE WAY I WALK", "IT ONLY HAPPENED YESTERDAY", "LEROY", "GERALDINE", "MIDGIE", plus many more in the charts. |
| HISTORY |
In 1962, Roy Lesperance left the group and THE CHANTONES TRIO was formed by the remaining members, Jack, Jim and Larry. The folk music era had begun and it was decided that the trio would follow that trend. They each learned to play instruments over a several month period with Jack on banjo, Jim on bass and Larry on guitar. This change led them off on a new career performing in nightclus nationally and in 1962 and 1963 were invited to entertain at US bases across Europe for 2 monthes each year. This was a show sponsored by American Motors and was a tremendous success. The Chantones released their first recording as a trio on Sidra Records, "I REMEMBER YOU" and "TALKIN". This was followed by an album on Jayell records called "MORE" and included such hits as "THE TATTOOED LADY", "MORE", "THE WRECK OF THE JOHN B", "SHENANDOAH", "THE BALLAD OF LIZZIE BORDEN", "MAX GOULIS", etc.
The Chantones Trio performed in clubs and for private functions until 1976. |
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