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The band became popular in mid-to-late 1950s and are best known for their 1959 cover version of "I Only Have Eyes for You". They have since been hailed as being one of the finest and most influential vocal groups in pop and doo wop music history.
- Who Were The Flamingos?
- The Flamingos History
- More About The Flamingos
Unlike the Platters, their closest competition in the Fifties, the Flamingos (sometimes spelled Flamingoes) never achieved a string of pop hits in the rock n' roll era. But they weren't a vocal group per se, they were pure doo-wop, yet they managed to make the streetcorner style respectable anyway, largely thanks to a deathless, era-defining smash....
Early years The Flamingos began life as the Swallows, a group of fellow churchgoers who began streetcorner singing in the Windy City with lead Earl Lewis, later of the Channels. Based around the Carey "cousins" (who grew up together but were not actually related), they soon replaced Lewis with Sollie McElroy, a coworker of Zeke's at the local Montg...
Other Flamingos facts and trivia: 1. Other members included Johnny Carter (born June 2, 1934, Chicago, IL): vocals (first tenor); Sollie McElroy (born July 16, 1933, Gulfport, MS; died January 15, 1995): vocals (lead tenor) 2. Wilson, Carter, and the Careys were all Black Messianic Jews 3. They were named for a gym in their Chicago neighborhood, or...
In the early 1960s, with the Careys the only remaining original members, the group achieved a few soul-style hits, but by the early 1970s they had become a revival act. The Flamingos were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
(Decca, at the time, had become most famous for releasing the first-ever #1 rock & roll hit, Bill Haley & The Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock,” but had not yet become famous for rejecting The Beatles after the fab four’s earnest audition for the label.)
Earl Lewis (not the Channels lead) soon joined, and the group eventually became known as the Flamingos after going by various names (including “El Flamingos,” “The Five Flamingos,” and “The Swallows”). Lewis was shortly replaced by Sollie McElroy (who joined the Five Echoes).
The Flamingos. Elegant vocals, musical pioneers, living legends, all terms used by legions of music lovers to describe the Flamingos. The simplest and most direct accolade would be that they were the best vocal group in history.
“I Only Have Eyes for You” became that one song that would put the Flamingos on the map as musical icons. In 2003, it was inducted into the Grammy Award Hall of Fame. It’s also ranked as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine.
