THE CAPITOLS

This vocal trio had the distinction of creating one of the few mid '60s Detroit soul hits that owed nothing to Motown.

The Capitols were formed in 1962 and comprised lead singer Sam George, "Donald Norman" Storball on guitar, and "Richard Mitchell" McDougall on keyboards. While performing at a Barbara Lewis record hop, the group met record producer Ollie McLaughlin, who also worked with such artists as Lewis, the Fabulous Counts, and Deon Jackson. McLaughlin produced the Capitols on a tune called "Dog and Cat," which did nothing. The group broke up shortly thereafter.

A few years went by when out of the blue, McLaughlin received a phone call from the Capitols, who had gotten back together. They told him that Donald Storball had written something called "Cool Jerk." The song knocked McLaughlin out, and he took the group into the studio. When the horn players didn't show up for the session, they cut the song anyway. McLaughlin released "Cool Jerk" on his Karen label in the spring of 1966. It reached #7 pop and #2 R&B.

Like Archie Bell & The Drells, the Capitols not only sang, but they danced just as good as they walked. When they hit the stage and went into their wild-assed dance routine, they had the crowd hooked from the get-go. But "Cool Jerk" proved the beginning and end of their chart career.

After their initial success, the Capitols got into a pattern of writing nothing but dance songs, which proved their downfall. Recordings like "Ain't That Terrible" (whose lyrics listed every dance around at the time) and "We Got A Thing That's In The Groove" kept the group working, but they became typecast as capable of nothing but dance music. That despite some fine ballads like their killer rendition of James Brown's "Please, Please, Please," and several excellent examples of "beach music."

After one final recording session in Chicago, the Capitols broke up in 1969. Storball and McDougal both still live in Detroit. Samuel George, 39,was murdered on March 17, 1982.