Dave Somerville, founder and lead singer of the popular 1950s rock-n-roll band The Diamonds, died Wednesday in California at age 81.
Tagged with the moniker "Diamond Dave," Somerville discovered The Diamonds during a talent show audition in 1953; he signed on as their coach and then became their
lead singer, Billboard reported.
Somerville told Tom Meros in an interview that he was a radio engineer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in Toronto, Canada, when he saw four guys lined up to audition in a hallway. He asked them to sing a song and started working with the quartet.
Stan Fisher, lead singer of the group, was studying to become an electrical engineer and he had a test and couldn’t make a gig, so Somerville stepped in to sing with the group. Fisher never returned, Somerville told Meros.
The band was recording an album, and had something of a reputation as a “cover group,” Somerville said. But they recorded four original songs for the album, and at the last-minute, the group added in "Little Darlin'," which had initially been recorded by Maurice Williams.
"It was a throw-away at 3:45 in the morning," Somerville told Meros in 2010. "We did one take. We had to be out of there by 4 o’clock. The drummer had already been released. There are no drums on 'Little Darlin'.'"
The band shot to the top of the charts with its hit, "Little Darlin'," in 1957,
and The Diamonds’ website said the song has been called "the National Anthem of Rock and Roll." It has sold about 20 million copies.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, The Diamonds had 16 hit singles, Billboard said, including "Silhouettes" and "The Stroll."
Somerville left the singing group to go out on his own, performing under the name David Troybut, Billboard said. He joined The Four Preps in 1969, and also performed as part of a duet with Bruce Belland.