HotFreeLayoutsIn 1966, British accents, surfing hot-rodders, Motown acts, and the wall of sound, dominated the airways. Before he became a Motown legend, Edwin Starr was a recording artist on Ed Wingate's Golden World Records. Three college freshmen and a young lady from Livonia , Michigan used to hang out at the studio doing demos and hoping to get signed as a vocal group. They collaborated with Starr on a tune he was composing and in January, recorded it as The Shades of Blue.The master was placed with Harry Balk Impact Label. Two months later, it elbowed it's way to number one and became a Gold Record. Since that monumental debut, "Oh How Happy" has been licensed over twenty times.In 1970, having no intrest in following the hard-rock trend that overtook the popular music culture, the group broke up. In 1977, they reunited briefly before retiring the group again. Lead vocalist Nick Marinelli continued in the business while his partners (Linda Allen, Bob, Kerr, and Ernie Dernai) moved on to other pursuits.Fast forward to 2004...The Shades of Blue are back!!Nick Marinalli has joined forces with vocal group veterans Andy Alonzo of The Martiniques and Stuart Avig (lead singer of Motown's First White Group - The Valadiers...."Greetings This Is Uncle Sam"). Detroit area vocal harmony fans may recognize Nick's companions for their twenty plus years as The Latin Counts, one of Midwest 's most significant performing groups in the music business.Anyway the resume reads, these are seasoned polished professionals.. The performers other entertainers choose to see on their nights off. The ability of each member to sing both lead and background vocals lends versatility, variety, range and texture few groups offer. Their vocal harmony is fantastic, add to that their sharp presentation, choreography and Las Vegas-style comedy and you get "The Shades of Blue" as you never seen them before.
