INTERVIEW: Sammy Strain, R&B star, remembers those ‘Streetlight Harmonies’

Image: Courtesy of Ley Line Entertainment / Provided by Prism Media Group with permission.

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It’s quite an honor to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, an accolade that is set aside for the best bands and musicians, those people who influenced the art form and changed it with their rhythms, beats and lyrics. It’s extremely rare to be inducted into the Hall of Fame twice, but that’s the story of Sammy Strain.

Strain had an illustrious R&B career, starting off with the Chips and then moving on to the Fantastics and the Impacts. His career hit one of its peaks when he joined Little Anthony and the Imperials (his first induction into the Hall of Fame), and then he helped conquer the globe as a member of the O’Jays (his second induction).

Today, Strain is retired, but he loves telling stories about those early days. That’s exactly what he does in the new documentary Streetlight Harmonies, a film that looks at the doo-wop era and early R&B. The movie, directed by Brent Wilson, former bassist for Panic! At the Disco, is now available to stream from Ley Line Entertainment. It features many of these early groups and singers, including LaLa Brooks of the Crystals, Anthony Gourdine of Little Anthony and the Imperials, Vito Picone of the Elegants and Barbara Jean English of the Clickettes. More contemporary voices, such as Lance Bass and Brian McKnight, round out the interviews.

“What happened, I was the first person that they actually interviewed, and the reason why, I had done some interviews with Charlie Horner, who is responsible for me doing the documentary,” Strain said in a recent phone interview. “And, as a matter of fact, when they approached Charlie Horner, he told them, ‘Oh man, you’ve got to really interview Sammy Strain because he’s done so much and whatnot.’ So he was responsible for my participation because I had sang with so many different groups, so I had to put my two cents in, I guess.”

Ever since his time growing up in Brooklyn, Strain has loved music. He has a fond memory of his mother hopping with him on the A train up to Harlem. He was heading to the legendary Apollo Theater to see a concert by Bill Kenny and the Inkspots, the band behind the hit song “If I Didn’t Care.” The evening proved to be seminal for a young Strain.

“That was my introduction to music, and then when I turned 16, I was a ninth-grade dropout,” he said. “And that’s when I started singing with this group called the Chips. … It was an evolution. I sang with the Chips, and we broke up after probably 18 months. And then I joined a group called the Fantastics that had a hit record called ‘There Goes My Love.’ I sang with the Fantastics for probably about 18 months to two-and-a-half years, and then I joined a group called the Impacts.”

All along the way, Strain was learning how the music industry worked, and he was making a lot of new friends. His groups were also finding success. The Chips, for example, had a hit with “Rubber Biscuit,” which later on became part of the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. In a pivotal scene starring Harvey Keitel, the early R&B tune is playing in the background.

After these three early groups, Strain joined the Imperials, who didn’t have Little Anthony because the lead singer had parted ways with the band. At the time, Ernest Wright and Clarence Collins called up Richard Barrett, an acquaintance of Strain’s. They wanted him to join the group, and Strain jumped at the chance.

“That group was the Imperials without Anthony,” he said. “Then maybe two years later, gigs got scarce, and we decided to regroup with Little Anthony. And that’s how that came about in 1964 with ‘Goin’ Out of My Head’ and the Teddy Randazzo era with ‘Hurt So Bad’ and those songs.”

During all of these successes, Strain had no idea that he was living history. He was young — either a teenager or in his early 20s — and the world was moving fast around him. He barely had time to take a breath, let alone realize how special his life had become.

This is how Strain remembers those days, an early memory that perfectly showcases what goes through the mind of a young singer with no chance to hit the pause button …

“I didn’t realize what we were doing because at 16 years old you don’t know very much,” he said of his time in the Chips. “My first show at the Apollo Theater, the Cadillacs were headlining over Bo Diddley, and that was unheard of because I used to stand on line to see Bo Diddley. But the Cadillacs, Bo Diddley, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, the Heartbeats, the Dells, the Schoolboys, the Chips, Ann Cole, Robert & Johnny — I remember it just like that, and it was breathtaking to stand in the wings and see these acts that I admired from afar. And now I’m on the show with them, so it was a fantastic feeling.”

Strain said the camaraderie of the band members kept him laughing and loving his job. For example, with the Chips, he has fond memories of being together with his fellow group members and getting so excited when their manager got a car, which meant they had a ride.

“It was thrilling,” Strain said. “I can’t explain it. It was just a feeling that I’ll never forget, the camaraderie. We all came from different neighborhoods, by the way. … Shedrick Lincoln, the one that approached me to join the Chips, he turned the corner with a horse and buggy. He was selling vegetables and whatnot, and he saw me and said, ‘Hey.’ I hadn’t seen him in about two years, and he asked me did I know Paul Fulton. … I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, we’re starting a group.’ I don’t know why he asked me, but anyway that’s how the Chips started. That evening I went to the first rehearsal, and nine months later we were on the Apollo stage performing. So each group started with the camaraderie. It was a brotherhood, and it was a beautiful thing.”

He added: “I didn’t know that it was going to be my livelihood at that time because I was a teenager, and we didn’t really make much money to speak of at that time. But it evolved into something else — by the time we got back with Little Anthony and the Imperials, and doing The Ed Sullivan Show and Les Crane and The Tonight Show. Prior to that TV wasn’t available to the R&B groups. You know what I’m saying. By that time, 1964, the world was our oyster. We did Shindig, Hullabaloo. … It was amazing, and it was crazy. I just wished I could have smelled the roses because it happened so fast, and before I knew it 50 years had passed.”

At the time, the Chips, the Fantastics and the Impacts didn’t use the term doo-wop. In fact, Strain doesn’t gravitate toward that term too much because in the early days they were considered R&B. Sometimes, especially later in his career, he was classified as rock ‘n’ roll.

“Alan Freed coined the phrase rock ‘n’ roll, but no doo-wop didn’t come into the picture at all,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I don’t even know where doo-wop creeped in, but, no, we didn’t call it doo-wop. We called it rhythm and blues.”

Not everything from this time period — the 1950s and 1960s — was positive and upbeat for many of these bands. Although he was young and enjoying himself, there were harsh and horrible realities facing African-Americans in the United States, especially in the South. When Strain and his bands would play in the southern states, they had to face the perils of Jim Crow, with separate water fountains, hotels and other facilities. The racism and discrimination were eye-openers.

“By me growing up in New York City, where I went to school with every race, color and creed under the sun, I wasn’t aware of that, so it was quite a culture shock,” Strain said. “Our music had a great deal to do with the integration, you know what I’m saying, because it was inevitable, man, because the kids, the teenagers didn’t really care even though they were separated. But white teenagers and black teenagers they all felt the same because they all came to see us even though we were separated, so at one point the rope was dropped. And they were all dancing together, you know what I’m saying, so I know our music had a lot to do with that.”

After his time with Little Anthony and the Imperials, there was a chance that an early retirement might come about, but the musical gods had something different in store for Strain. He landed a spot in the O’Jays, one of the most successful soul and R&B groups of all time. His 17 years with the band proved highly successful; it was a time when they would sell out arenas left and right, bringing their hits “Love Train” and “Back Stabbers” all over the world.

“After Little Anthony and the Imperials, I had no idea that I would get a chance to actually do it again, but on a grander scale,” he remembers. “We were selling out Madison Square Garden with the O’Jays. … We would play every 20,000-seater there was in the country from Boston Garden to Madison Square Garden, and we played them several days. Sometimes we would do a date at Madison Square Garden on that Friday and then have to play it that Monday, again. So I never believed that the success would happen to me twice, and as a matter of fact, I’m in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice — with Little Anthony and the Imperials and the O’Jays.”

Those two nights when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame stand out as highlights in his career. He remembers them like they were yesterday …

“First, I was speechless because I was in a room with other artists,” he said. “Some artists I knew, and some artists I didn’t know, like the rock stars and stuff like that. But it was an honor and a pleasure to be inducted, and then to be inducted twice, oh man, it was just breathtaking. Listen, I was speechless. I was there, but I wasn’t there because I was in shock. It was unbelievable.”

Strain added: “I ran away at 16 years old to join the circus, and 50 years went by so soon, so quick, I didn’t have a chance to smell the roses. This is the 15th year of my retirement, and I’m enjoying it all. I hung up my rock ‘n’ roll shoes, but after 50 years, and I had a marvelous career. And I have no regrets. I would have done everything the way it happened, and it happened to me by accident.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Streetlight Harmonies, featuring Sammy Strain, is now available to stream from Ley Line Entertainment. Click here for more information.