The Harptones - Live at the Academy of Music - 1970

The first of the legendary rock’n’roll revival shows at the Academy of Music, located on East 14th Street in New York City, took place over two nights, Friday and Saturday April 17-18, 1970. In front of enthusiastic sellout audiences, the Harptones, Danny and the Juniors, Don & Juan, the Del Vikings, Monotones, Bobbettes, Mystics, Cadillacs, Passions, Dubs, Cleftones, Orioles and Skyliners all sang their classic hits. The event was conceived and produced by MCA Records producer Fred Bailin. Veteran disc jockey Alan Fredericks, host of the popular “Night Train” radio show, served as emcee. For the house band, Bailin brought in many of the musicians who worked with the acts in the 1950s and appeared with the Alan Freed Orchestra. For these performances, the reunited Alan Freed Orchestra was conducted by Count Basie band alumni Earle Warren. Guitarist Leroy Kirkland was the arranger. Both nights were professionally recorded and mixed for a double album, later released on CD in 2000 by Goldisc Records. A one camera black and white film of the first night’s concert was shot and tucked away for safe keeping but never professionally produced or released. Several collectors were believed to have copies of the print including producer Bailin. Talent agency executive David Zaan had reached out to the Harptones in 1969 about reforming for shows. “David asked me if I would get the group back together because there was a market for it,” songwriter-pianist-arranger Raoul Cita recalled. Initially, lead singer Willie Winfield was resistant. “I thought, come back and sing? Man, he’s pulling my coat! I really didn’t have any feeling towards that. I had lost so many jobs trying to make a gig.” Nevertheless, five 1950s recording members reorganized for the Academy of Music event. Joining Willie Winfield and Raoul J. Cita was William Dempsey James, another founding member who sang second tenor on nearly all of the group’s recordings. Bernard James “Jimmy” Beckum sang lead with the Majors (Derby Records, 1951) and joined the Harptones in early 1955. Beckum was married to Willie’s wife's first cousin and stayed about a year before running afoul of the law. He did return in 1964. Baritone-bass Curtis Cherebin, who began singing in junior high with Dempsey in the Skylarks, a precursor group to the Harptones, didn’t join the original lineup at the insistence of his mother, who wanted him to complete his education. He did sing with the Royale Cita Chorus behind the Joytones and Mabel King. Cherebin finally became a regular member of the Harptones from 1958 until they disbanded in 1964. For their set, the Harptones selected “Fine Little Girl”, a Cita original that the Skylarks had first started rehearsing in 1951 and the Harptones had used in their 1950s stage act. With its flashy dance steps and a full-throated lead from Beckum, it was often their closer. “It was years since we had done that. We tried to do that same crap that we did when we were younger,” Willie remembered. “I was so breathless on ‘Sunday Kind of Love’ and ‘Life Is But A Dream” I said forget it! Dempsey was pretty good at being a choreographer and Cita could do part of it." Despite Willie’s complaint of being out of breath after “Fine Little Girl”, “Sunday Kind of Love” and the encore, “Life Is But A Dream” were performed flawlessly and the audience reaction overwhelmed the Harptones. “The audience went crazy,” Willie recalled. “They really went for everything. It was like something they had missed. And even those who were younger, they were crazy about us, too. It was great.” In 1971, another 1950s alumnus, Freddy Taylor, was added to the lineup but by the latter part of 1972, the group was having trouble coordinating their days jobs with their singing schedules. Dempsey and Cherebin were employed by the New York City Transit Authority and constantly changing their shifts to make gigs. They left the group, along with Beckum and Taylor. Winfield and Cita reorganized the lineup with Linda Champion and Marlowe Murray. After retiring from the Transit Authority, Cherebin moved to Rocky Mount, North Carolina where he died of multiple myeloma at age 61 in 1998. Jimmy Beckum settled in his hometown of Sumter, South Carolina and for the last 30 years of his life served as an announcer for several local radio stations and hosted his own program, “The Gospel View Caravan” on WQMC. He sang in the adult choir at Sumter’s Mulberry Baptist Church. He died from cancer in 2001 and is sadly buried in the church cemetery without a permanent grave marker. Dempsey returned to the Harptones after his retirement in 1994 and, with Cita and Willie, they continued performing well into their 80s. Cita passed in 2014. Willie retired from singing in his 90th year and passed away in 2021. In 2025, William Dempsey James, a longtime resident of West 147th Street in Harlem, is the original group’s lone survivor.