As we performed “Shout” at concerts to support the record, I came up with a dance, treating the audience like a congregation. When the single came out in August 1959, it was spread over two sides-Parts 1 and 2. Herman understood “Shout” from the start. Hugo and Luigi chose all the musicians except organist Herman Stephens, who I knew from church in Cincinnati. I sang it as close to the way we had been performing it as possible, with all of our friends in the booth and along the studio walls. On the night of July 29, we recorded “Shout” at RCA’s Studio B in New York. They said, “Why don’t you guys record ‘Shout’-without ‘Lonely Teardrops?’ Invite all your friends to the studio so we have a live audience there, like at the theater.” They already knew, having read about us in the papers. When the revue’s run ended, my brothers and I returned to New York and told Hugo and Luigi about what had happened in Philadelphia. He’d sing, “And don’t you know she’s all right, yeah.” We went along with that on “Shout,” with me singing, “Don’t forget to say you will” and my brothers answering me with, “Say you will” and “Say it.” Then I sang, “Come on, now” over and over. He had opened his song with a big drawn-out “We-eee-ll,” and at the end he’d go into these gospel chord changes and a call-and-response thing with the band. Ray Charles’ 1954 recording, “I Got a Woman,” was a big inspiration. As our run continued, I began developing the song. We had 10 more days to go on our revue, and audiences were coming to the theater and waiting for the song at the end. Which was great, since audiences left the theater thinking of us on their way to record stores, not the other groups.īut “Shout” didn’t end there. It became such a strong number for us that the promoters put us on last to close the shows. “Lonely Teardrops” was a big hit for Jackie in 1958, so I sang it with my brothers during our performances. He had this easy, natural way of being on stage-taking off his jacket in one move, dancing smoothly, rolling his eyes and using his entire body to illustrate song lyrics. Jackie had a powerful church voice, but it was more than that. There were about 15 other acts on the bill like the Flamingos and the Dells. In July 1959, we were booked into the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia as part of a soul revue hosted by local disc jockey Georgie Woods.
But our first record, “I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door,” didn’t do much. We liked producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore best, and they signed us to RCA.
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