Don & Juan Biography

Don And Juan were a US R&B vocal duo who recorded one Top 10 ballad that has since become a doo-wop classic: ‘What’s Your Name’ (1962). Don (Roland Trone) and Juan (b. Claude Johnson) were members of a vocal quartet called the Genies in Brooklyn, New York, USA. In 1959 the Genies released the up-tempo single ‘Who’s That Knockin’’, which reached number 71 in the US charts on Shad Records. Unable to follow it with another hit, the group was dropped from the label, and subsequent recordings for Hollywood Records and Warwick Records also failed to chart. Trone and Johnson left the group and became house painters in the Long Island, New York area, until they were rediscovered, this time by an agent named Peter Paul, who arranged for the pair to sign with Big Top Records. Under their new name, they recorded ‘What’s Your Name’, which reached number 7 in the Billboard charts in February 1962. Only one other single, ‘Magic Wand’, charted, although Don And Juan continued to record until 1967. Trone died in 1983 and Johnson rekindled the act with Alexander ‘Buddy’ Faison, another former member of the Genies, as the new Don.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.