Michigan One-Hit Wonder: The Royaltones from Dearborn, 1958

This former Michigan rock group has been all but forgotten...or neglected, depending on how you want to see it. They were The Royaltones from Dearborn, who had only one Top 40 hit, “Poor Boy” in 1958, reaching #17.

They were an instrumental group, like The Surfaris, Chantays, and many others that permeated throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.

They began calling themselves The Paragons in 1957, a four-man band with sax, guitar, drums, and piano. “Poor Boy” became a hit just one year later, and in 1961 another single, “Flamingo Express” only peaked at #82. Unfortunately for them, their particular ‘saxophone' sound was going out of fashion, making way for slicker, heavier instrumental sounds like the above-mentioned Surfaris, Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, and other electrified guitar groups.

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They attempted to survive by adding a second saxophonist and second guitar. But realizing their sound couldn’t compete, the band broke up in the mid-1960s.

A former member who joined later, Dennis Coffey, actually went solo and had a few hits of his own in the 1970s, the biggest being “Scorpio” in 1971, reaching #6.

Other perks for The Royaltones: they backed Del Shannon on some recordings, they appeared on Dick Clark’s “Saturday Night Show” and released a good handful of singles.

“Poor Boy” is being lauded as one of the early Rock ‘n Roll gems: it may not be heavy guitars, but it has a good sound that helped pave the way for future rock musicians.