Tulare
- Back in the 1960s, The Charades recorded a song called “Please
Be My Love Tonight,” which the Tulare group later learned was a
raging success on the East Coast.
Ray Baradat, a founding member, said he was unaware of the song's success until he went into the Army and another soldier, who was talking about doo-wop music, started singing the tune.
“It turns out it sold back East, but not out here,” said Baradat, who recently retired after a 33-year career with the Tulare Joint Union High School District. “We were number seven in Pittsburg at the end of 1964. In those days you could have regional hits.”
The Charades did not fully understand just how much that song meant to fans until early October.
That's when Baradat and fellow vocalist Sylvester Grigsby traveled to New Jersey to perform at the 2008 Burlington Concert, which was a tribute to doo-wop, considered the first generation of rock n'roll and vocal harmony.
Mark del Costello, concert producer for The Black Swan Society, had invited Baradat and Grigsby and even paid for their flights and hotel.
Baradat, with his baritone tenor voice, and Sylvester, who sings falsetto, were accompanied on stage by the Bravados, an East Coast band.
They performed “Close to Me,” which The Charades recorded in 1962, and then slipped into “Please Be My Love Tonight.”
'It Was Strange'
The audience's reaction astonished them, Baradat said. “They literally cheered when we started that [song]. It was strange. People usually enjoy us, but these people — you would have thought we were the second coming.”
The die-hard Doo Wop fans, who paid $200 a ticket, gave
them
the first standing ovation of the concert, a still-amazed Baradat said
in an interview a few days later.
“Some people said they'd been waiting to hear that song for a long time,” Grigsby said. “Also, we learned there are DJs back there who still play that song. They play it a lot. They get requests for it, plus it's their own personal favorite too. It's still a good song back there.”
Del Costello wrote to Baradat early the following week:
“Your performance was outstanding, OUTSTANDING. No one can believe they heard 'Please Be My Love Tonight' — no one. Syl's tenor is right up there with that of Jesse Belvin and Tony Allen and that's high praise. Everyone commented about your warmth and humility and we / I truly hope to bring you back for an extended set sometime.”
After their performance, Baradat said he filmed The Flamingos
(“I Only Have Eyes for You”) and other acts. “Some of
these guys are my heroes,” he said.
This wasn't the first Doo Wop concert The Charades have done. They performed
with Rosie of Rosie and the Originals in a California concert in 2004.
Latin Knights
While still in high school, Ray Baradat and his brother, Leon, formed a vocal group in 1956 called The Latin Knights. Three members of the original group members — Joe Moreno, Manuel Cisneros and Alfie Quintiro, left after a year because of graduation and relocations.
That's when Grigsby, Will Johnson and Alex Pilkington joined
the group.
The Latin Knights wore white shirts, grey pants, red cummerbunds and a
blue coat the Baradats' mother made.
“She was behind us 100 percent,” Grigsby recalled. “His mother could sing too. She'd help with the harmony.”
The group played at record hops, community dances, battle of the bands and other events in the Valley and later in the early 1960s in the Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo areas.
Leon Baradat left the group in 1958 and was not replaced.
When Pilkington was drafted the following year, he was replaced by Charles
Tyra and later Levern Butler.
In 1959 the group recorded four sides for Los Angeles disc jockey Hunter
Hancock's Swingin' label, “but for whatever reason they never got
released,” Ray Baradat said.
The following year, the group recorded for Webber Records, but the outcome was the same — no release.
When Johnson left to become a minister that year, his brother, Johnny “Buddy” Johnson, took his place. Pilkington rejoined the group when he returned from the Army in 1961.
The group was playing at a Santa Maria concert in 1962 when they were scouted by music producer Tony Hilder.
“He came to Tulare at one time when we were playing at the old Elks Club on P Street,” Baradat said. “He came in wearing a leather suit with a red shirt and with his wife.”
Hilder included one tune by the group on an albulm called “Delano Soul Beat” and then released “For You” — written by Al Garcia and produced by Garcia and Baradat — as a single on the Northridge label.
He also unilaterally changed the group's name to The Charades.
'Little Upset'
“We were a little upset, but he was right,” Baradat said. “It became a good name for us.”
In 1964 “Please Be My Love Tonight,” was released and a couple others singles followed.
When Baradat was drafted into the Army in 1964, Grigsby and two other members of the group continued to sing together. Baradat returned two years later and The Charades started doing dances again.
They also did two- to five-night gigs at nightclubs until 1976.
“There were too many problems in nightclubs,” Baradat said, explaining why the group decided to concentrate on dances, reunions, weddings and other types of events.
In 1974, Hilder got the group to sing two songs for “Black Lolita,” a Black action film that Baradat said “has got to be the worse” of the genre.
Baradat has met Art Stewart, a Motown engineer, while doing the film and the two formed Charade Records in 1975. The Charades recorded a single and album in 1976 that Baradat said “never got released in the real world.” They did, however, get to work with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and other Motown artists.
The group continued to play together regularly until 1992.
“I finally got tired and stopped the full-time schedule,” said Baradat, who also was the full-time attendance director for the high school district. Grigsby works full time for Central Valley Meat Packing in Hanford, doing security work.
The group takes three of four jobs a year, “just to keep the name alive,” said Baradat, who has become more involved in recording other artists.
In addition to Baradat and Grigsby, the group's core today also includes vocalist Sally Hamilton, Bob Dennison, guitar, Gary DeFoe, keyboard, John Keith, base, Joe Luis, drummer and Hunt Graves, guitar.
Among the musicians who have performed as part of The Charades is Visalia native Tommy Johnson, who left after two years to form a group that eventually became known as The Doobie Brothers.
The above story is the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher.