I
Back To Old School
with
Friends of Distinction's
Harry Elston
Fuzionz Magazine and TV had the "honorable" pleasure of interviewing with an artist from the group Friends of Distinction, a well known R&B group from the 70's know for popular hits such as, You Got Me Going In Circles, Elston is among the many pioneers who paved the way for R&B music. If we could only reach back into time and get a little of that back, it would account for much...
And now our interview with Harry Elston:
Fuzionz Magazine: Tell us a little about who you are?
Harry Elston: Who am I? I was born in Dallas, Texas, raised in San Diego, California. I went to the Air Force and was stationed in Seattle, Washington. When I got out, I spent time in Northern California. When I went back to Los Angeles, we had a group called the Hi Fi's with Lamont McClemore and Marilynn McCoo of the 5th Dimension. We all sang together and opened up a show for Ray Charles. We did some recording for Mr. Charles on his label Tangerine Records. We recorded a song called Lonesome Mood. Some time had lapsed and the group split up, due to what I call internal differences. Marilyn and Lamont went on to participate in the 5th Dimension. My partner, Floyd Butler and I went on to form The Friends of Distinction and we recorded for RCA Records, 9 or 10 albums. I wrote Grazing In The Grass for The Friends of Distinction. That was our first song, coming out of the box. Then Floyd sang Going In Circles and he also wrote the song Check It Out, which catapulted Tavares and got them on the map. We had our original female singers, Jessica Cleaves and Barbara Love. Jessica recently passed away and Barbara, I understand, lives somewhere around Los Angeles. While Barbara was pregnant, Ch arlene Gibson came in and replaced her for recordings and tourings.
Charlene sang Love or Let Me Be Lonely, which was another hit. Things had hit the music business and it was up and down, so we decided to hang it up. It was a few years of hibernation., Then in 1990, Floyd and I decided to possibly get back together. We were in the talking stages and Floyd had a heart attack and passed away. After that, a few years went by and I put the group back together. We’ve had different members. Now, I play more baseball than I sing, but I’ve done a lot of things; worked in movies, did commercials. I’ve been blessed; my health is pretty good and I have a birthday coming up soon.
I moved to Vegas for about five or six years, hung out up there with Lamont, Little Anthony and all of those guys. We had a group called The Flashbacks. We started off with Gladys Knight. She was performing at the Flamingo and she asked us to do a happy birthday thing for her husband, William. We did that and things came out pretty cool, so that’s when The Flashbacks started, but everyone’s schedules were so different and diversified and we really couldn’t get it together. I moved back to California and I now live in Southern, California with my wife,
Fuzionz Magazine: What was your biggest challenge during your music career and what advice would you give those trying to get
Fuzionz Magazine and TV 9