The Spaniels Forever performing the music of the Christmas season LIVE at the Box Factory for the Arts.

Friday, December 20 at 7:00 pm // doors open at 6:30
Tickets $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

The Spaniels were the first artist signed to Vee-Jay Records, the ground-breaking independent African-American owned record label that eventually paved the way for Motown Records. The Spaniels recorded their initial release, “Baby It’s You” on May 5, 1953 and it reached #10 on Billboard’s R&B chart on September 5, 1953.

The Spaniels’ roots go back to 1948 at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana when classmates Billy Shelton and Pookie Hudson began singing together and formed the group, The Three B’s. Upon graduation, after some local success and plenty of regional sock-hop performances, Hudson went on his own to formed the first official incarnation of The Spaniels.

The Spaniels line-up has survived personnel changes over the years, including the happy return of Billy Shelton as The Spaniels bass singer, where he has remained ever since. Shelton later became the group leader following Hudson’s 2007 death.

Shelton – now 85 – is the last of the original group of friends who began singing together in Roosevelt High School’s hallways during the formative days of the early 1950s, and his voice remains untouched by time.

The group has been aptly re-christened as the “Spaniels Forever” as Shelton continues singing those classic Spaniels’ hits and other songs with Patrick Pitre, Dan Porter, Phil Ratliff and Fred DeBose.

The group debuted in late 1952 at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana as Pookie Hudson & The Hudsonaires. They changed their name to The Spaniels that spring and, upon graduation, became one of the first two artists to sign with Vee-Jay Records, the first large, independent Afro-American owned record label.[citation needed] The group recorded their initial release, “Baby It’s You” on May 5, 1953. Released in July, the song reached #10 on Billboard’s R&B chart on September 5, 1953.

In Spring 1954, “Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite” hit number twenty-four on Variety’s pop chart, and rose to number five on Billboard’s R&B chart. The Spaniels played regularly at the Apollo, The Regal and other large theaters on the Chitlin circuit.

An entire new generation was exposed to the group’s music when “Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight” was featured prominently in the movies, American Graffiti and Three Men and a Baby.