The Swingin' Medallions

The Swingin' Medallions are an American beach music group from Greenwood, South Carolina, best known for their 1966 hit single "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", which reached #17 on the Billboard charts.The band was formed as The Medallions in 1962 by John McElrath and Joe Morris while students at Lander College (today Lander University). The original lineup consisted of McElrath, Morris, Larry and Jimmy Roark (both cousins of McElrath), Bobby Crowder, Dwight Styron, and John Hancock. According to Morris, this group of friends "used to sit out in John’s front yard and listen to rhythm and blues music, coming from the back door of a local, little club there in Ninety Six. That formed the type music we did." Soon, the band regularly rehearsed at Smokey Joe's Cafe in Ninety Six and added Carroll Bledsoe and Gary "Cubby" Culbertson on trumpet and guitar, respectively. Culbertson introduced "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" to the band, but being in the Army Reserve as Vietnam was escalating, he soon departed and was replaced by Perrin Gleaton. By mid-1964, the Medallions' eight-piece lineup had solidified around McElrath on keyboards, Morris on drums, Gleaton on guitar, Bledsoe and Rick Godwin on trumpet, and Steve Caldwell, Brent Fortson (then still in high school), and Freddie Pugh on saxophone.Originally formed as a way to earn extra money by playing at clubs and fraternity parties, the band's energetic, brass-heavy live act soon developed a strong following in the Southeast. In the summer of 1964, Earl Caldwell, the father of saxophonist Steve Caldwell, offered the group a residency at The Old Hickory, his nightclub in Panama City, Florida, where they would play six nights per week. To advertise themselves, the band created posters and gave away free tickets to beachgoers. Reflecting on the band's blossoming popularity, Bledsoe stated: "The crowds in Panama City got so large that we had to start having a matinee show on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. People would pack the place, standing on tables to get a better view of the band. Many days they completely blocked out the sun." During this residency, the band met Dave "Rockin'" Roddy, a popular radio DJ on WSGN, who secured the group a weekly residency nicknamed "Medallion Mondays"; after finishing their Sunday night set at 2 a.m., the group would drive six hours to Birmingham to play at the Oporto Armory.In 1965, the Medallions added "Swingin'" to their moniker to differentiate themselves from a Chicago band of the same name. That summer, the band continued their residencies in Panama City and Birmingham, however Jimbo Doares and Charlie Webber had replaced Gleaton and Pugh, respectively. By 1966, Jimmy Perkins had replaced Godwin on trumpet. Soon, Bill Lowery, a producer based in Atlanta, became interested in recording the young group, ultimately signing the group to a recording and management contract.Their first single, "I Wanna Be Your Guy", was inadvertently released under the name, "Swinging Medallions" instead of "Swingin' Medallions". Released on Dot Records, it did not chart. "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", written by Don Smith and Cyril Vetter and originally recorded by Dick Holler and the Holidays, was a popular staple in the band's live setlist, yet they initially had difficulty transferring the "party atmosphere" of the live setting to a studio recording. As bandleader McElrath described the situation, "They kept trying to have us record it with different arrangements and in different ways with horns and so forth that didn’t fit the song." McElrath wrote the track's distinctive Farfisa organ riff. Eventually, the band grew discontent with Lowery's production and went to Arthur Smith Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina to continue recording. To imitate the raucous energy of their live shows, the band brought in a "big crowd" of random people from off the street to "make background noise." The single's B-Side, an instrumental entitled "Here It Comes Again," was written by band members John McElrath and Joe Morris. According to drummer Joe Morris, the two tracks took an hour and a half to satisfactorily record.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.