The Wanderers were a popular East Coast doo wop group who went through numerous name changes during their decade-long career, and despite various label-related shuffling and stylistic changes, national success eluded them at each turn. They are best known for their cover material, and had minor East Coast hits with For Your Love and Thinking of You. They began their career in 1952 as the Barons. The original group members -- Ray Pollard (lead), Frank Joyner (tenor), Robert Yarbrough (baritone), and Sheppard Shep Grant (bass) -- came to the attention of the Newark, NJ-based Savoy Records and were signed to a recording contract in mid-October, 1953. Their first release was Hey Mae Ethel, which earned enough airplay in the New York area to attract booking agents who began to get them regular appearances in clubs, including an opening slot for Big Maybelle (who was already waxing huge R&B hits for Columbia's Okeh subsidiary) at Harlem's Club Baby Grand. The group then went on tour and Savoy issued a single by Dolly Cooper, Love Can Be Blind, which featured their backing vocals. No further Barons singles were issued, however.

By the middle of 1954, the group had left Savoy and were signed to Decca Records. For a time, they were calling themselves the Larks (not to be confused with either the Eugene Mumford-led gospel act nor the L.A.-based Don Julian-led group from the early '60s). They ultimately decided there were too many bird-named groups, and changed their name to the Singing Wanderers for the release of a new single in July, Say Hey Willie Mays. The single was an obvious attempt to gain a new audience by singing about the great baseball player then making news, but it didn't help much. Their follow-up, Three Roses, fared little better. Meanwhile, the group was still performing strong, appearing with non-R&B acts and even making the rounds of TV shows like #Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town in 1955.

By 1957, the group -- now simply called the Wanderers -- began releasing singles on the Onyx label. They tried broadening their material, even recording a pop single called Thinking of You, which was already familiar to New Yorkers as the Honeydreamers had recorded it as the theme song to Brad Phillips' radio show #Battle Royal. The audience response to the Wanderers' version provided them with some hope and began to clearly define the outlines of a smooth pop vocal career. Unfortunately, Onyx was then absorbed by the larger major MGM, and so they moved over to Orbit Records, a label run by Onyx's Jerry Winston. That label changed names a month later (in April of 1958) because of the proliferation of small labels using the name Orbit, becoming Cub Records.

The first release on Cub was Teenaged Quarrel (it had been issued on Orbit, then withdrawn, making it a rare 45 today). Unfortunately, the single failed to connect, as did further efforts from the group throughout the rest of the '50s. By 1961, the group had been performing for nearly a decade without much success outside the East Coast. They went through another stylistic change to keep with the times, focusing on a more commercial R&B sound for their cover of Ed Townsend's 1957 classic ballad For Your Love. The single rose up the national pop charts in the summer of 1961 and was a favorite of East Coast vocal group fans.

The follow-up -- a ballad version of Frank Sinatra's early '40s hit I'll Never Smile Again -- failed to connect, however. Their last effort, an original called Somebody Else's Sweetheart performed well and moved up the charts. Unfortunately, once again, the group had been switched by the successful Cub over to their parent label, which was also MGM, who failed to promote the group. The were eventually dropped by MGM in 1962.

Not to be undone just yet, the Wanderers then signed to the United Artists label, who issued two singles by the group, 1962's After He Breaks Your Heart and 1963's You Can't Run Away From Me, but neither did well and they were soon dropped from UA. The Wanderers continued to perform in the Northeastern U.S. until lead vocalist Ray Pollard landed a role in the Broadway musical +Purlie. He dropped out of the group, who disbanded soon thereafter. After the musical ran its course, Pollard continued to make club appearances as a solo artist, performing in a wide variety of styles. ~ Bryan Thomas, Rovi