Records For Sale

Music of Phil Cay and the Chantells

List of Songs

On this page I'll describe each member of my band. Here's an example of a format I might use. Band members change over the years, but all past members will be mentioned here.

First brass sounds in Rock & Roll in Jacksonville

Not Only Rock & Roll but great dance music

Phil Cay, band leader, played piano, trumpet, and sang all those great 1950's songs along with writing some of his own music, and music that was recorded by other artists.

Phil also performed floor shows, packed with comedy, impersonations of many of the artists in the 1950's.

One of his best impersonations was his tribute to Elvis Show.

Ray Charles is is favorite singer. He would include many of the songs performeed by Ray Charles all the way back to " I Gotta Women" one of Rays first hits.

He has worked with many recoding artisit over the years. All will be mentioned here.

More information will be added daily so please come back often.

When Phil returned from the Army he met a nice lady named Christine Bennett, she heard him play the piano at his home one night and told him he should be singing for a living. Well he asked her how could he do that? She said" I want to take you to a club at Jacksonville Beach, I know the band leader and I will ask him to let you sing with his band." I was a little nervous but I went. The name of the band was Jimmy Tanner and the Flames.

The name of the club was Greig's Chicken Haven. The band only played country music and Phil sang 50's music. This was in 1957 and Rock & Roll was just getting started good, so Phil sang a song that Jerry Lee Lewis had recorded and brought the house down. People were ready for a change from the old country style to the new sounds of Rock & Roll.

The band leader hired him that night and he sang with that band for about a year.

This is where he started singing for a living! Like Christine said.

From this beginning he started his own band naming it Phil Cay and the Blue Notes.

His first gig after starting his band was at the Lake Shore American Legion.

Drawing hundreds of people nightly mostly because his talents brought people the kind of music they wanted to BEACH BOP to. Beach Bop was really starting to get popular. In South Carolina they called it the Shag.

Musicians from all over came to sit in with his band and all of them loving that type of music.

One night a man by the name of Henry Hartzog came up to Phil and asked him if he would be interested in making a record. Phil said yes so from there Henry set up studio time and his first record was made, "Meet Me In The Barnyard" by Phil Cay and the Blue Notes, on the HART Label. Now a highly collectible record.

Once the record started being played on the radio and juke boxes, it didn't take long for the calls from everywhere wanting to book he and his band for dances and shows all over the country.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Harpsicord, Spinning

Phil Cay and the Chantell's Band Members.

Jimmy Davidson, base, Doug Bracey, drums, Dell Sumner, Phil Cay, Beveryl Cay Palmer, Gary Mann

Phil's Recordings bring a high price on Ebay.

Because the masters were destroyed in a fire at the recording studio, there are only a few of his records left. Some have sold for as much as $200.oo each on Ebay.

"Meet Me In The Barnyard" being the most collectible. This was the first recording and Phil wrote the song while in the army in 1956.

He got the title from a friend he was in the army with. Later he put the words and music together with the chickens, cows and all the sounds of the barnyard in the background.

To date Phil does not have a copy of his song!

More Musicians Were Added

From Guitars to Brass, Sax, and Trumpets

Other Relatives

Here I might talk about other people in my family, or include a picture of all of us together at some special event.

A mother playing with children; Size=180 pixels wide

My Children

Here I might write about my children. I will write when they were born and what grade they are currently in. I will also mention some the teams and organizations they are involved with.