The Ad Libs

The Ad-Libs formed in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1964 with members from another New Jersey group called The Creators. The group consisted of Hugh Harris, Danny Austin, Norman Donegan, Dave Watt and Mary Ann Thomas as lead singer (an unusual circumstance for the time, as most females in male groups were background singers) and chose the name The Ad-Libs. The group's manager, John Taylor -- who had also managed their predecessor, The Creators -- was a former sax player for several big bands and wrote a "boogie woogie"-flavored tune called "The Boy from New York City". He took a demo of the song to New York's Red Bird Records, owned by the legendary songwriting / producing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who liked the sound and signed the group to their Blue Cat Records subsidiary. The song was recorded and released in December 1965, and within a few months had shot to #8 on the Pop charts and #6 on the R&B charts. However, their follow-up records went pretty much nowhere, and they were shortly dropped by Blue Cat. The group continued in record, in various configurations, up into the late 1980s.