The Spiders - The Imperial Sessions

Our friend Guitar Gus has come through with a big followup to my Chuck Carbo post; the rare Bear Family set of The Spiders' Imperial Recordings. I am excited to finally hear these historic recordings.

"New Orleans R&B was best known for its solo artists, but the Spiders rank among the Crescent City's pre-eminent vocal groups, and were certainly the best the city produced during the '50s. The Spiders actually began life circa 1947 as a gospel group called the Zion City Harmonizers; they later changed their name to the Delta Southernaires, and made a few recordings and radio appearances from 1952-1953.

With encouragement from legendary New Orleans studio head Cosimo Matassa, the group switched to secular R&B and signed with Imperial in late 1953. The newly christened Spiders were centered around brothers Hayward "Chuck" Carbo and Leonard "Chick" Carbo, the latter a bass singer who sometimes split lead vocals with his brother; the other members of the quintet were Joe Maxon, Matthew West, and Oliver Howard. Their first single, "I Didn't Want to Do It," went to number three on the R&B charts in early 1954, and other sides like "You're the One," "Tears Begin to Flow," and "I'm Slippin' In" were top sellers as well, making the Spiders a hot concert draw. Maxon and West both left the group in 1955 and were replaced by Bill Moore and Issacher Gordon. the Spiders' string of R&B Top Tens continued that year with "21" and the Dave Bartholomew-penned "Witchcraft," their second Top Five hit and biggest overall seller (it was later covered by Elvis Presley).

Imperial began grooming Chuck Carbo for a solo career in 1956, which caused dissent within the group; by the end of the year, Chick Carbo had signed to Atlantic as a solo artist himself, and the Spiders effectively dissolved. A final single in 1957, "That's My Desire," failed to catch on, as did a posthumous from-the-vaults release in 1960, "Tennessee Slim." ... Chick passed away in 1998, Chuck in 2008."