| Genres: |
R&B / Soul
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| Descriptive "tags": |
under 2000 listeners • r&b • chess records • teppaz
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| Decades Active: |
1980s
•
1990s
|
Biography
The brief history of the Marathons is shrouded in mystery and confusion. Long thought to be a pseudonym for the Olympics, the US R&B group that had recorded ‘Western Movies’ in 1958, the Marathons was actually a pseudonym for the Vibrations, a Los Angeles vocal group who had a 1961 dance hit with ‘The Watusi’, and in a previous incarnation, as the Jayhawks who hit the US singles charts in 1956 with ‘Stranded In The Jungle’. The convoluted story of the Marathons’ only hit, 1961’s ‘Peanut Butter’, is that the Olympics’ record company, Arvee, needed a new release from the group while they were on the road. In the Olympics’ place, Arvee hired the Vibrations to record ‘Peanut Butter’, a virtual soundalike of the Olympics’ own ‘(Baby) Hully Gully’. ‘Peanut Butter’ reached number 20 on Arvee, but when the Vibrations’ own label discovered that its group had been...
Read the Full Biography of The Marathons
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