The 1950’s Fabulous Foursome!
This
is
a
fan
site
of
the
original
Diamonds
of
the
1950s.
All
hailing
from
Canada,
they
made
their
way
to
the
U.
S.,
and
with
their
songs
and
energy,
endeared
themselves
to
their fans forever.
ROCK AND ROLL DIAMONDS: CANADA'S VERY OWN -PAGE 3
By Andy Merey - 2004
(The following article is from Discoveries Magazine by Andy Merey and is presented here by permission)
Buddy
Holly:
"How
long
will
rock
and
roll
last
Dave?"
Dave
Somerville:
"Six
months?"
Buddy
Holly:
"I
hope
you're wrong Dave. I think rock and roll is good for a year."
Exit
Somerville:
Mr.
Somerville
left
in
August
of
1961
after
deciding
to
go
solo
as
a
folk
singer
under
the
name
David
Troy.
With
his
departure,
The
Diamonds
were
no
longer
able
to
sustain
the
success
they
were
riding
on
for
the
past
five
years. One final Mercury single came out, "The Horizontal Lieutenant" but without David Somerville.
As
David
Troy,
Somerville
had
a
single
out
called,
"Silk
&
Silver"
b/w
"The
Wedding"
(Antler
4019)
in
1962.
By
1966,
he
joined
The
Four
Preps,
with
whom
The
Diamonds
chummed
around
with
since
1957.
Somerville
sang
the
lead
on
one
of
The Four Preps final singles on Capitol, "Love of the Common People".
When
The
Four
Preps
disbanded,
Somerville
teamed
up
with
Bruce
Belland,
one
of
the
founders
of
The
Four
Preps,
and
as
Belland
&
Somerville
recorded
"When
She's
Lovin'"
(Barnaby
2009)
in
1969.
They
also
co-wrote
a
song
recorded
by
Lee
Haziewood
and
entitled
"Trouble
Maker”
(LHI
—
20),
also
released
in
1969.
Furthermore,
"Trouble
Maker”
became
the
title
of
Willie
Nelson's
first
spiritual
LP
issued
in
late
1976.
Also,
Mr.
Somerville
co-wrote
the
song
for
the
hit
TV
series,
"The
Fall
Guy".
During
the
early
'70s,
he
was
under
contract
with
Paramount
Records
and
as
David
&
Gail
recorded The Turtles' song, "Happy Together" on the GRT label.
Epilogue:
Perhaps,
because
of
their
place
in
line
of
succession,
and
the
fact
that
they
began
recording
just
when
the
occurrence
of
a
unique
and
fantastic
fusion
of
every
genre
of
popular
music
took
place
and
resulted
in
the
general
term
of
"rock
and
roll",
The
Diamonds
stand
apart
from
their
Canadian
contemporaries.
They
practically
fell
into,
but
more
importantly,
were
also
able
to
embrace
rock
and
roll
idiom,
despite
their
assigned
persona
of
being
clean-cut,
white
rhythm
and
blues
"cover"
artists,
which
sometimes
carried
a
connotation
of
watered-down
rock
and
roll.
This
portion
of
their
output
still
doesn't
detract
from
the
group's
overall
recorded
talent
and
style
of
music,
which
sometimes
lent
a
fresh
and even superior result from the originals, as was the case with "Little Darlin' ", their benchmark rock and roll anthem.
Read Andrew Merey’s interview with Dave Somerville.
This article written by: Andrew Merey
Use by permission.
Andrew Merey - Researcher - Author - Columnist
Toronto, Canada Area - Writing and Editing.
