Led by
Joyce Smith and accompanied by Darlene Arnold,
Mary Shelley and Mary Lead, Krystal Generation had eight single releases on four different labels before tossing in the white towel. The Chicago-based group was part of
Simtec Wylie's road show. Two initial releases: Good Man b/w I've Got to Leave Him and I'm Gonna Build b/w Hard Knot to Swallow came out on Simtec Wylie's T-Box Records, named after the Tea Boxes Band that backed the revue on the road.
Fred White, Maurice's brother, was part of the
Simtec Wylie revue before leaving to join his brothers in
Earth, Wind Fire. Pamela Moffett, who later collaborated with
Smokey Robinson and
Eugene Record, co-wrote Good Man. Neither hit, so they tried Twinight Records for a one-off: Is It Meant to Be b/w Satisfied (1970) which bombed.
They cut three singles on Gene Chandler's Mr. Chand label. The first, Wanted Dead or Alive (1971), was a small local hit. The others, Please Stop Don't Walk Out and Where Does Love Go, never emerged. A final release on CMC Records, a lovely remake of Sam Cooke's Wonderful World, deserved to chart, but failed too. Despite their dismal recording career, they kept going for quite awhile, appearing in clubs and other venues before quitting to pursue easier goals. A shame -- recording companies loved artists like Krystal Generation. They were entertainers, on the road doing gigs at clubs, not hanging around the company bugging the owner for money. Yet, it never happened for the talented quartet. Such is the music business. ~ Andrew Hamilton, Rovi