The Diplomats came from Wilmington, Delaware, where they recorded their only single at Ken-Del Studios. The A-side is the aptly-named “I’m Sad”, a maudlin original written by Chris Myers and Ed Welch with good guitar picking and harmonies. The flip is a good cover of “Route 66”.
Other than this I know nothing about the band.
Copyright registrations from September, 1966 have their names as Richard C. Myers and Edward P. Welch II.
The Spectrums cut this one excellent single. “I’ll Never Fear” is a beautiful, soulful original song, written by Douglas Stewart. The flip is a good cover of “Wine, Wine, Wine”.
Douglas Stewart registered copyright for “I’ll Never Fear” in May, 1966. The band recorded at Ken-Del Studios in Wilmington, which is still in existence. The Spectrums released the single on Knight 4969. Knight was a label from Wilmington, Delaware, not the Knights Records label from Texas that I’ve featured before.
This is a group I’d like to know more about.
The Friedles were the four Fried brothers from Penns Grove in southwestern New Jersey: Mike and Herman Fried on guitars, Simon Fried on bass and Milton Fried (just 14 years old at the time of their first record!) on drums.They went across the river to Ken-Del Studio in Wilmington, Delaware to make their first record “I Lost Her” / “I’m So Glad” with Milt singing lead vocals. Released as the Fried Brothers on Scope, it was mastered louder and issued again on the Hanna label. The sound may come off as somewhat crude, but there’s no denying the energy and spirit in the brothers’ delivery. “I Lost Her” was written by Mike and Milt, “I’m So Glad” by Herm and Milt.
Two other songs from their early sessions at Ken Del went unissued, “I Do Love Her”, with lead vocals by Si Fried, and “The Joke’s on You”, which I haven’t heard. Both of these were written by the Fried brothers, as were the two songs on their next record.
Issued in a cool bat-themed sleeve for some reason, “She Can Go” is kind of a cross between the Searchers’ “Needles and Pins” and the Zombies’ “Tell Her No”. “Don’t Tell Me What to Do” on the flip sounds more natural, with fine punk attitude and great harmonies. The song opens with a great bass line, and Mike and Herm Fried’s guitar playing is excellent throughout. This record credits Norris Austin on organ, and the drumming by Milt is excellent.
By 1968 their sound had become psychedelic, even as their image stayed fairly conservative. The band went to Jim Hanna’s South Jersey Recording Service in Woodstown, NJ to cut a couple songs that weren’t issued at the time. Bassist Si Fried sings “When Love”. One of the great unissued songs of the ’60s, it didn’t see the light of day until 1984, when it was released on the classic and long out-of-print Attack of the Jersey Teens compilation, which I also have to thank for the photo of the band.
The other song from this session is also excellent, “Love the Way You Love Me”, sung by Milt.
The band seems to have dissolved soon after. Milton Fried started referring to himself as Charlie, or Charlie Bumm. He and Mike Fried went back to South Jersey in 1971 to cut Mike’s song “Early in the Morning”. With the band credited as ‘Charlie Bum’, Mike plays guitar and takes the first lead vocal, Charlie played drums and sings the second lead (with the high-pitched wails), and Tom Fanty played bass. Two other songs recorded at South Jersey in ’71 feature Charlie playing all instruments and vocals: a slower version of their ’65 song “I Do Love Her” and a cover of the Marmalade’s “Reflections of My Life”. For some reason, these songs are in mono on the acetates.
Simon Fried passed away in 1999. Thank you to Charlie Fried for sending me additional songs, information about the sessions and photocopies of the acetate label scans.
Thanks also to Joe Mullin for the scan of his Scope 45.
Update: Mike Fried passed away on March 15, 2013.
