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| In 1968, from left to right are, Walter Chaney, Avaughn Wells, Lester(Jello) Mckenzie, Al Boyd and Leo Green |
| Imperial Wonders Story |
The year was 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio. Al Boyd was invited to audition for
a group called the Matadors which was lead by a guitarist named Robert
Brooks. Robert was a friend of Al's who used to live on the same street
(86 Street) but on the south side of Chester Avenue. Al lived on the north
side at 1839 and his mom and dad still there today. Al used to help Robert
deliver newspapers and collect money when Al was 8 years or 9 years old.
Robert moved and Al did not see Robert again until Jr. High School when
he saw Robert with an Elvis Pressley Do, sideburns (at 13) and an electric
guitar. Robert was doing a talent show at Addison Jr. High School and he
remembered hearing Al sing on the way to the grocery store. Al ended up
going to an audition after school on 79th street where he met The Matadors
which consisted of Robert Brooks, Fred Butler, James McGennis, Dennis Collins,
Kenny Stover or John Owens and Clarence Covington. This was not the same
group as Bull and The Matadors which were from Chicago. Everyone in the
group dropped out for one reason or another before Al ever performed live
with them except "little Al" and Robert.
They became known locally for carrying acoustic guitars and singing on
the streets passing a hat collecting money. One day at 8112 Hough Avenue
a young man named Kennedy Holman from a Cleveland group called the Donations
( these are probably not the same ones on the Internet with a couple of
albums out) came running out of the house saying "hey man I wanna
sing with you guys!" He auditioned and was hired on the spot. He began
playing bass guitar and his brother Montana played drums. This was the
Birth of the Brown Beatles (because they sang mostly British songs). Robert's
mother became the manager because they were all too young to go to clubs
to perform. The group change the name to Beatle Brooks and Company and
opened for Dave "C" and The Sharptones at The Heidleberg on Cleveland's
west side.
One day Al and Kennedy saw The Temptations on Shindig or Hullabaloo (two
nationally televised music shows) and decided they wanted to change to
this style of group which attracted the ladies in their neighborhood. There
were already lots of groups in Cleveland that had notoriety such as The
O'Jays, The Springers, The Shahibs, The Ohio Untouchables, The Elzotics,
Dave "C" and The Sharptones, Terry Knight and The Packers ( who
became Grand Funk Railroad), The Ambassadors, The Hesitations and later
The Occassions, The Soul Notes, The Sensations, The Premiers, The Contemporaries,
The Intertains, Harvey and The Phenomenals, Don Gregory and The Montclairs,
AC Jones and The Soulettes( Al's sister Carolyn Boyd's group), The Precisions
(not the one from Detroit), Two groups of Rotations (One from East High
School and one from Glenville High School), The Primes (Not the Temptations),
The Tamalas (who later became Cleveland's Sly, Slick and Wicked), The In
Betweens, The Pharaohs (Avaughn Wells' former group), The Soulful Sounds,
The Ohio Bell Telefunk (who became Kinsman Dazz and The Dazz Band), The
Ebonettes, The Rolletes (sister group to the Rotations), The Baroz (Cynthia
Woodard's group), The Elements, The Ponderosa Twins + One, The Deltones
(not the famous Deltones from the fifties), True Movement, Sonny Lovall,
Bobby Dukes, Jimmy St. Clair, Leon and The Burners, Kim Tolliver, Rex Robinson,
Eddie Smoots, The Force Band, 9th Street Exit, The Outta Sites, Love for
$ and cents (Walter Chaney's nephew Ruben Chaney's group), The Epics (which
were 3 remnants from Glenville's Rotations), Jim Mudcat Grant (The famous
baseball player), Marvelous Ray, The Soul Merchants, Bobby Wade, S.O.U.L.
(which featured Larry Hancock, and had their biggest song "This Time
Around" written by Al Boyd and Fred Butler in 1972), Ronnie Love,
The Heatwave Band (not the famous Heatwave from Dayton/England), The Four
Wonders (don't know who they were), The Jimmy Landers Trio.
One day while walking on Euclid Avenue Kennedy and Al were going over possible
new names for the group. Al came up with Imperial Wonders because their
best show songs were "Outside Looking In" by Little Anthony and
the Imperials and "Sunset" by Little Stevie Wonder. They brought
the idea to Robert who immediately rejected it because it took his name
out of the spotlight. Robert quit because he was out voted, but came back
after a couple of days not wanting to abandon his creation. Al went to
Oberlin College for the summer in 1963 and dropped out of singing because
he had scored high on aptitude tests. He has a high I.Q. (which later helped
his writing) from going to the library reading books and collecting comic
books (his and Eddie Levert's youthful passions) . He first met Eddie Levert
of The O'Jays at a comic book stand on 83rd and Cedar before he knew Eddie
was one of his idols. Montana Holman dropped out of the group (he's now
deceased from a gun shot in Detroit) and was replaced by a local high school
prodigy named Walter Chaney. Robert, Kennedy, and Walter found Al lifting
weights on 86 Street with his friend Arthur (Butch) Mitchell. They showed
him choreography on a song called "I Need You" by a group called
the Vontastics and Al got The Temptation fever again. They began winning
talent shows all over Cleveland. They got to open for The Dells and Johnny
Nash at the Music Box on different dates. Later Johnny Nash got a record
label deal and came to Cleveland to put on a talent show at the Cleveland
Arena. Upon Robert's departure Leo Green, a local street corner singer
who's claim to fame was his vocal rendition of "A Change Is Gonna
Come" was brought to the group by Kennedy. Kennedy, Al, Leo and Walter
were taken to Lira Records by Vernon Jones, Al's music teacher at East
High School. They recorded one song which was a part 1 and part 2 called
"I've Got A Style" written by Kennedy. They called themselves
The Mints because Ms. Brooks threatened to copyright the name Imperial
Wonders. The record got them on the Ken Hawkins TV show but did not sell.
Then Kennedy who had taken charge of the group recruited Avaughn Wells
to sing bass. Al was sad but glad for Leo's and Avaughn's addition because
they took over certain song duties (Leo took "Ain't No Sun",
"Ain't Too Proud", "Losing You", "If This Is Love"
and Avaughn took "Old Man River") that in Al's own words kicked
his butt to sing hard, then low and then turn around and sing the 1st tenor
in the background too. One day when Al, Avaughn, Walter and Leo went to
pick up Kennedy for a gig at Robert's Steak House (A well known night club
on Cleveland's east side) Kennedy's father broke the news to them that
Kennedy enlisted in the Army without telling them. At this point the group
had been gigging for Bob Davis at several night spots and Bob wanted the
Imperial Wonders to back up Lester "Jelly" McKenzie in the studio.
Lester met them at Avaughn's mother's house and this resulted in him liking
the vibes and harmony of these guys who were eight years younger than him.
He suggested that the project still be called The Imperial Wonders and
that union resulted in two singles. In 1968 "Just A Dream" (which
Lester wrote) and "Zip-A-Doe-Doo-Dah". In 1969 "Trying To
Get To You"(which Al and Walter wrote but was credited as written
by the whole group) and "When I Fall In Love" were released.
These songs got them opening act billings at Leo's Casino where they opened
for acts like The O'Jays, Little Anthony and The Imperials, David Ruffin,
Marvin Gaye, etc… The group knew that Gamble and Huff was interested in
them and a producer by the name of Bobby Sanders wanted a group to replace
his supposedly disbanded group The Young Hearts. The group had one of two
choices to make. One, wait for a year for Gamble and Huff or go right then
to L.A. and change identities to "The New Young Hearts" aka "The
Kings of Hearts". They made the wrong choice whereas Gamble and Huff
began penning hot tunes that catapulted the O'Jays to superstardom whereas
the group found out The Young Hearts were still around. They found this
out while gigging at the Tempo West as The New Young Hearts and the audience
came from next door after just seeing The Young Hearts who were at Maverick's
Flats in 1971. They changed their name back to The Imperial Wonders, but
not before blowing an opportunity to sign with Electra/Asylum through Lester
G. Sills. They picked the wrong producer (Robert Stanton a song writer
from The Temptations " Say You" fame) who took the demo budget
money,produced some poor sounding tracks, brought a car and moved into
a new home.
Lester's wife back in Cleveland became ill and the group after 8 months
in L.A. went back to Cleveland. Lester stopped coming to rehearsals and
began writing for SARU Records . He wrote "Bound" by the Ponderosa
Twins + 1 and "Son-In-Law" by the Elements. His so called blood
disorder manifested then , but that was not the reason for his demise.
He actually died of exposure and other complications following surgery
in 1988. Leo Green left Cleveland to go back to L.A. after he got a call
from Bobby Sanders and joined a group called the Cool Sounds for which
Bobby had landed a record deal with Warner Brothers. According to Leo Green
the same thing that happened with Robert Stanton happened with Bobby Sanders
and the group's recording effort "Wonder Boy" was not promoted
by Warner Brothers. The O'Jays lost a member Bobby Massey who wanted to
be known as a producer as evidenced in his SARU/Astroscope track record.
He took the Imperial Wonders (who had replaced Leo Green with Will Hargrove
aka Will Thomas who later was on the Kinsman Dazz's later known as the
Dazz Band, first LP produced by Phillip Bailey of EWF) to Eddie Levert
and Walter Williams of the O'Jays. They along with Bobby Dukes penned a
song called "Turned Around Over You"and "You Live Only Once".
Will Hargrove quit and was replaced by James Stewart. Two other songs were
recorded during that session. One was "She possesses Love" (written
by Walter Chaney and Al Boyd ) and "Who" (which was written by
E. Levert and W. Williams). Later "Who" was re-written and called
"The Gun" (writers are Al Boyd , Edgar Mitchell, E. Levert and
W. Williams). "Turned Around Over You" was released on Solid
Foundation Records ( which was really on Shaky Ground) and became a hit
in Cleveland, Columbus, Canton Dayton etc. However, a power struggle over
control of the Imperial Wonders resulted in the group leaving Solid Foundation
and going with Bobby Massey to the O'Jays newly formed label The Sounds
of Cleveland (S.O.C. Records). Solid Foundation Records in retaliation
came up with a replacement for the Imperial Wonders called The Four Wonders
and True Movement. Bobby Massey had produced a song by Al Boyd and Fred
Butler on a group called S.O.U.L. for Musicor records in 1972 so he took
the Imperial Wonders to Musicor. Bobby Massey and Richard Shann produced
two songs "Love Coming Down" (A. Boyd) and "My Baby"
(B. Massey, R. Shann). These songs did not get the success of prior Imperial
Wonder releases even though Musicor had worldwide distribution . Al Boyd
flew to L.A. to work on a Temptations' project with Jeffrey Bowen who was
producing the Temptations at that time.. That resulted in the song "Shakey
Ground" that sold over a million copies on the" Song For You"
LP and was a hit single . James and Avaughn departed from the group and
Leo Green returned from LA to rejoin the group. Al Boyd became involved
in a project with Bobby Massey for a Cleveland singer named David Peoples.
Peoples did not care for the songs written by Al Boyd called "The
Flesh Trap"( Al Boyd), "The Price Is Right"( Al Boyd), and
"Don't Fight The Feeling"( Al Boyd,Bobby Dukes). So he backed
out of the project. Then Bobby Massey asked Al what was the Imperial Wonders
doing? Al replied "nothing". they were down to 3 members at that
time (Al, Russell, and Leo because Walter Chaney quit the group). So Bobby
suggested that they change the name to Truth and add Larry Hancock (from
the Intertains and S.O.U.L.). Larry Hancock was a great addition because
he brought excellent arrangements but, also he and Al made a great song
writing team. Adding to the "Peoples" rejects was "Street
Corner Hustler" (written by Al Boyd, Walter Johnson and Bobby Massey),
which was rewritten to become "Break Bread Together" (written
by Al Boyd, Walter Johnson and Bobby Massey), "Come Back Home"
(A. Boyd, W. Johnson and B. Massey), "The Moment Of Truth" (A.
Boyd, W. Johnson, B. Massey), "All The Signs" (A. Boyd, W. Johnson,
B. Massey), "I'm Coming Home" (A. Boyd, Dennis Edwards, and B.
Massey), "The Mystic Mountain" (Al Boyd), "I'll See You
Later" (A. Boyd, L. Hancock), "Easy Street" (E. Levert,
W. Williams, W. Ross, M. Jackson), "Just Another Dream" (A. Boyd,
E. Levert, G. Mims), "There's Still Time" (A. Boyd, E. Levert)
and "Excedrin Headache" (A. Boyd).
Most of these masters are still with Agency Recording. After the TRUTH
recording session was over the O'Jays released "Come Back Home"
on their sounds of Cleveland (S.O.C.) Records and took TRUTH on a 5 month
20th Anniversary Tour. At the end of the tour TRUTH's money which was to
go into individual bank accounts for the group, wound up in the bank accounts
of their management . Larry and Al went to New York to solicit songs and
ran into the O'Jays who were performing at Radio City. The O'Jays took
them to Philly and introduced them to Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Tom Bell.
As a result of this introduction, "Take Me To The Stars" which
was written by Al Boyd and Larry Hancock, made it on the "So Full
Of Love" LP which went Platinum. In 1979 Al, Larry,Leo and Russell
went to Philadelphia and met Stan Watson who used to produced The Delfonics
and First Choice on his Nickel Shoe Record Label. He took TRUTH into the
studio and produced "I Want To Thank You Girl" (A. Boyd, L. Hancock),
"Time Machine" (first version A. Boyd, L. Hancock), "Keep
On Grooving" (Eugene Curry), "How Good Love Can Be"(A. Boyd,
L. Hancock), "Prayer For Humanity"(A. Boyd, L. Hancock). A 12
inch single was released on Nickel Shoe Records which included "I
Want To Thank You Girl" and "Prayer For Humanity". The record
was never promoted because at the time of its release Disco, had faded
as a popular music style.
Dennis Edwards who had left The Temptations had a cousin who lived in Cleveland.
Bobby Massey talked Al into helping to come up with songs for a Dennis
Edwards LP. TRUTH was enlisted to background Dennis on a short tour. Dennis
went back to The Temptations and took some of the songs with him and left
Al Boyd and Bobby Massey off as writers on "I'm Coming Home".
It was released with all The Temptations as writers but due to litigation
from Massey and Boyd has lost itself in The Temptations foremost archives.
Bobby then decided to get TRUTH to sign with Murius Records/Devaki Records
but Russell and Al disgusted with the TRUTH tour results passed. Leo and
Larry's resulting LP although featuring some songs written by Al Boyd did
not feature Russell and Al on the cover.
Russell and Al however were enticed to do live performances with TRUTH after attempts to use female back ups failed to produce the desired stage mystique that management wanted. It appears that Al and Russell made a wise decision to break the chain with the management and group because neither Larry nor Leo as artists got any money and none of the writers even from the Musicor days have seen a royalty statement let alone a check.
Al and Russell were joined in L.A. by a fellow Clevelander named Leroy
Simmons. Al's brother, Tommy Boyd, who was living in L.A. at the time,
put up money to go to the Total Experience Recording Studio to record "Hostage
of Love"(A. Boyd, Roland Boyd), "Never Go Looking For Love"
(A. Boyd ,R.Watts), "Everybody Can Dance" (A. Boyd), "Lord
What's Happening To The World" ( A. Boyd), "Love Me To The Music"
(A. Boyd, Tom Boyd). The owner of the studio wanted Al to sign a contract
to become a member of the GAP Band, but when Al did not sign, he used the
groove from "Hostage" which resulted in three hits for the GAP
Band. "Burn Rubber On Me" "Early In The Morning", and
"Party Train". Al did release one single "Never Go Looking
For Love" and "Everybody Can Dance" on his own label Coldfire
Records. The group was called Ice Cold Energy and the single was number1
in Phoenix, Arizona in 1981. Leroy decided to go solo when they were offered
a recording deal at A&M Records and rejected the suggestion to use
George Duke as a producer. He went with a new manager named Eddie Kritzer
, who took him into the George Tobin Studio. The tracks he cut there went
no where and he auditioned for LTD but did not get a permanent spot. Near
the end of 1981 Al decided that going to Motown may be the way to go since
their old friends, The Dazz Band had success there. However Larry Hancock
would not join Leo in coming out to L.A. after Al had gotten his foot back
in the door at Motown.This was probably because of some ill feelings between
Al and Larry after Eddie Levert told Al that Larry requested Al's name
be left off as a co-writer on a song that Al, Larry, and Eddie wrote called
"You Are The One For Me"(Love Committee on Electra Records).The
LP did not sell but Al and Larry never wrote together again. Therefore
an incomplete TRUTH was doing demos at Jobete that would have been the
bomb outlet for TRUTH had Larry (the melody man and other half of the Boyd/Hancock
team) came on. Leo left to try to audition for L.T.D. which left Russell
and Al to try to recruit new members. Russel introduced Al to Charles Hughes,
a Clevelander who went to school with Russell's brother Thurston and who
was now in LA. They along with Ronnie Merriman went into the studio at
Jobete and recorded about 10 songs. Al wrote "I Want To Love You",
"My Mission Is Love", "No Harmony", "I'm A Millionaire",
"Jet Set", "Once In a Lifetime Love", "Sensitivity
Session", "Nightmare", "Jail Bait", and "Possession".
These songs are still on the shelf at Jobete along with "Sugar Free
Love" (A. Boyd, G. Gooden), "Near To Me"(A. Boyd, K. Parker)
this was a re-write of memories by Al Boyd and G. Gooden, "Put Her
First" (A. Boyd, P. Michaels), "Let Me Love Him Out Of Your Life"
(A. Boyd, P. Michaels), " Touch And Go" (A. Boyd, P. Michaels),
"Move With Me" (A. Boyd, J. Levine, Penny Ford), "Forever
Came Tonight" (A. Boyd, J.Levine), "Love For Everyone" (A.
Boyd, J. Levine), "Bottom Line" (Al Boyd ,Jimmy Levine, Penny
Ford), "As Long As We Share Love" (A. Boyd, JP Maxwell), "Heaven
Must Be Smiling Down On Me", "Are You Ready" (A. Boyd),
"A Man Of Many Words" (A. Boyd), "I Can Give You Love"
(A. Boyd, J. Levine), "Fantasy Island" (A. Boyd), "It's
Time" (A. Boyd, K. Broege), "Cloud Pusher" (A. Boyd, K.
Broege), "Love Is What I'm Looking For" (A. Boyd, K. Broege),
"Double My Pleasure"(A.Boyd, K.Broege), "Late Night Activities"
(A. Boyd, Michael Dunlap), "Right Love Wrong Love" (A. Boyd),
"Falling In Love All Over" (A.Boyd), "Breaking" (A.
Boyd), "Everybody Wants You When You're Hot" (A. Boyd), "Body
Rock"(A.Boyd), "Work Of Art"(A. Boyd), "Hour of Darkness"
(A. Boyd, Sheldon Reynolds), "Blow The House Down" (A. Boyd,
Kerry Gordy), "Love Encounters"(Al Boyd)and many more songs.
Al wrote six words in the song "Somebody's Watching Me" that
was recorded by Rockwell but didn't even receive acknowledgements on the
album cover.
When Al's contract with Jobete ended in 1984 he did one other song with
Kerry Gordy called "I'll never Let you Know". Al went to work
for Joseph Jackson (Michaels' father) for several months under Charles
Butler. Charles never let Joe sign Al on permanently so Al went back to
Cleveland. In 1987 Al and Russell got a call from former member Ronnie
Merriman who urged them to come to Wisconsin to meet an engineer named
Jeff Harmon. This resulted in the recording of "Running" (A.
Boyd) , "Sweet Delight" (this slower version was the first incarnation
written by A. Boyd and R. Watts), "Electric Love" (A. Boyd),
"Don't Bite"(A. Boyd), "Temptation" (A. Boyd) and "Gentle
Force" (A. Boyd) which was never completed vocally. This project went
nowhere because Jeff thought he owned all the songs which Al already owned
copyrights to. From 1987 to 1989 Al moved back to Cleveland leaving Russell
still in L.A. In between that time in 1988 Al and Russell went to Wisconsin
again with Jeff Harmon to do tracks for a group called The Booze Brothers
(who were a popular act in Milwaukee). This resulted in the recording of
several tracks including "Hot Property" (A. Boyd), "Rampage"
(A. Boyd), "It's Getting Bigger" (A. Boyd), "Heaven Is On
Hold"(A.Boyd), "How Do You Want To Be Loved"(Al Boyd),.These
songs were never released on the Booze Brothers. While back in Cleveland,
Al did a gig backgrounding Larry Hancock who had a new CD out called "Borderline".
The CD did not sell and Al did more writing and fishing in Ohio than he
ever did in that period of time (1987 to 1989). Finally on July 29,1989
on Larry's birthday Al went back to join Russell on a project called Popular
Demand. This project went into the studio and Al reproduced "Time
Machine" (A. Boyd, L. Hancock) , which was previously recorded by
TRUTH in 1978(this latest version is on The Imperial Wonders new CD "
Time Machine"), "Just Leave" (A. Boyd) and "Sweet Delight"(the
uptempo version A. Boyd, R. Watts). The managers at this time tried to
release these songs on E.J. Welch as a solo artist but ASCAP put a stop
on this song because the songs were never legally obtained by the management
who tried to publish them under a BMI publishing company Helene Music.
The publishing now belongs to Al's publishing company ILAHS Publishing.
Al, Russell and Mike Martin added Ronnie Merriman (from the Jobete/Motown
session days) to the line up which only lasted for two live performances.
Then Mike left and went back to his old group, a local act called Seville
(not to be confused with the well known group). Ronnie bowed out (something
he's done 2 times before) and E.J. returned with another Chitlin' Circuit
veteran named Tony Powers. In 1990 they changed the name to 4-U and began
singing in clubs around L.A. Tony was replaced by Darol King and the group
became the top group in L.A. They began recording again but after 2 yrs
they broke up. Al and Darol kept gigging as D-N-A and did some studio work
which laid ground for the newly released Imperial Wonders' "Time Machine"
CD. In 2000 Al, Russell, Darol, Avaughn and E.J. joined together to return
to the name Imperial Wonders. Darol, due to his gospel and church dedication,
will be replaced by former lead singer James Stewart. The Imperial Wonders
are ready to reclaim their rightful throne in the music business.
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