The Five Satins are an American doo wop group, best known for their song, "… Read Full Bio ↴The Five Satins are an American doo wop group, best known for their song, "In the Still of the Night".

The group, formed in New Haven, Connecticut, consisted of leader Fred Parris, Lou Peebles, Stanley Dortch, Ed Martin and Jim Freeman in 1954. With little success, the group reorganized, with Dortch and Peebles leaving, and new member Al Denby entering. The group then recorded "In the Still of the Night", which was originally released as the b-side to the single, "The Jones Girl". The single was released the following year, and "In the Still of the Night" ended up charting at number three on the R&B chart and number 25 on the pop charts. Parris entered the Army soon after, and the group reorganized again, with Martin, Freeman, Tommy Killebrew, Jessie Murphy and new lead Bill Baker. This lineup hit with another highly successful song, Billy Dawn Smith's "To The Aisle".

Upon Parris' return from the Army, a new lineup was assembled, consisting of Parris, Lou Peebles (who was in a previous incarnation of the Five Satins), Sylvester Hopkins, Richie Freeman and Wes Forbes. The group would be briefly known as "Fred Parris and the Scarlets", until the Baker-led group split up. At this point, they reverted to the Five Satins name, but had little success on the charts.

By the early 1970s the group was Parris, Peebles, Richie Freeman, Jimmy Curtis and Corky Rogers, and they continued recording into the 1980s, with Parris, Richie Freeman, Curtis and Nate Marshall. Meanwhile, Bill Baker started his own Five Satins group in 1981, with former Satin Sylvester Hopkins and Hopkins' brothers Carl and Frank. By the late 1980s, this group consisted of Baker, Harvey Potts, Jr., Anthony Hofler and Octavio DeLeon.

Fred Parris continues to perform. Bill Baker died in 1994.

Awards and recognition:
In 2003, the Five Satins were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Present day:
One of the original members of the Five Satins now works in the cafeteria at the University of New Haven. Jim Freeman lives in Norwalk, Iowa and owns a pest control company. Wes Forbes is a psychologist in the State of California, currently employed with Alliant International University as a Training Director

Fred Parris passed away in January of 2022.

Bluebirds Over the Mountain
The Five Satins Lyrics

We have lyrics for 'Bluebirds Over the Mountain' by these artists:

Blitzkid Bluebirds over the mountain Seagulls over the sea Bluebirds …
Ersel Hickey Bluebirds over the mountain Seagulls over the sea Bluebirds …
Ritchie Valens Bluebirds Over The Mountain Trk 8 1:44 Disc 1 Ritchie Valens…
Robert Plant Bluebirds over the mountain, seagulls over the sea Bluebirds…
Robert Plant Robert Plant Bluebirds over the mountain, seagulls over the sea Bluebirds…
The Beach Boys Bluebirds over the mountain Seagulls over the sea-ea-ea Blue…
Valens Richie Bluebirds over the mountain Sea gulls over the sea Bluebirds…

We have lyrics for these tracks by The Five Satins:

A Million to One A million to one That's what our folks think about this love…
A Night Like This ′Twas a night just like this We kissed and kissed and…
A Night To Remember In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Cause…
Again This couldn't happen again This is that once in a lifetime T…
Candlelight kiss me by the candlelight darling hold me oh so tight tell…
Come On When the swallows come back to Capistrano That's the day you…
Dirty Dancing In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Caus…
I'll Be Seeing You I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places That…
I'll Remember (Shoo-doo, shooby-do) (Shoo-doo, shooby-do) (Shoo-doo, shoob…
In the Still of the Night In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Cause…
In The Still In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Caus…
In The Still Of Night In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Cause…
Love With No Love in Return Despite the fact it's a wonderful world With many treasures …
Million to One A million to one That's what our folks think about this love…
Night to Remember In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Cause…
Oh Happy Day The sun is shinin', oh, happy day-ay No more troubles and…
On The Still Of the Night In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Cause…
Our Anniversary oo-wah, oo, oo-wah, oo-wah, oo, oo-wah Our anniversary is he…
Shadows Someone stepped way into my dreams And tore them, tore them…
Still of The Night In the still of the night I held you Held you tight 'Cause…
The Time Until the time is through Now and forever Until the time is…
To The Aisle First a boy and a girl meet each other Then they…
WHEN THE SWALLOWS COME BACK When the swallows come back to Capistrano That's the day you…
Wonderful Girl Kiss my lips Hold my hand Tell me you love me Im your…

You Must Be An Angel You must be an angel, darling For I see heaven in…

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

TRACKS

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Comments from YouTube:

@tjhemlinger3917

8y↑30

One of the greatest rock n roll pictures ever taken. Keep on rockin'.

@drewbizdev

6y↑4

Taken in Buffalo, NY 1958

@nancybilly7614

Yes sir!

@user-sm2ql7nq4l

The first legendary Rock N' Roll's photo.

@harvejoel1911

5y↑2

Not the biggest fan of Rockabilly, but this song is hauntingly great, stayed with me since 1st heard it, so very long ago, "Seagulls Over The Sea" a metaphor for the ages!

@kkmatt

10y↑3

Never heard of this man til tonight, but this song is pretty cool. Can't wait to learn it!

@sauquoit13456

11y↑8

On this day in 1958 {February 14th} Ersel Hickey performed "Bluebirds Over The Mountain" on the late Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand'... Two months later on April 22nd it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; eventually it peaked at #75 and spent 6 weeks on the Top 100... Ten years later in 1968 it was covered by The Beach Boys; their version reached #61 on the Top 100 R.I.P. Mr. Hickey {1934 - 2004}, Dennis Wilson {1944 - 1983}, and Carl Wilson {1946 - 1998}, and Mr. Clark {1929 - 2012}

@michaelelsy2209

6y↑6

Never heard of him but I'm loving this.

@drewbizdev

6y↑50

Ersel Hickey was my Great Uncle. I remember when I was a little kid he would come home for the holidays. I miss him.

@Jordannadroj20

6y↑4

You got any rock 'n' roll stories you can tell us?

@ultimatekyle3067

6y↑1

Wait really!!

@drewbizdev

6y↑15

Yeah. He was a good guy. Our family never gave him the credit he deserved, but that's family. Ersel knew Johnny Cash, Bobby Vee and some others. He was cool.

@ultimatekyle3067

6y↑2

@@drewbizdev thats awesome

@Trentonpage

5y↑2

Cool.how famous was he? Did he make enough money to the point he didn't have to work anymore?
What types of guitars did he use?

15 More Replies...

@NYDeutsch

2y↑1

Gorgeous sounds!

@richardreese5412

3y↑3

Nice touch! Forty seconds of dead air! I LOVE it!

@charlesperry6093

1y↑1

Relish

@josephroache3176

6y↑3

Yes indeed! A great picture, what a good pose. It just screams Rock ‘n’ Roll.

@nancybilly7614

6y↑3

One of my favourite songs!!!

@Taz882

13y↑1

When this first came out in the 1950s it was regarded as one of the shortest songs ever recorded that became a national hit.

@rickhigginson8546

If you read a bit more of the story, it's said that this was `just' the demo, but the people at Epic Records liked this & wanted to release this demo, as is! Obviously, they were correct! While radio stations like short records, and if you like this, hey! `Just play it again, Sam!' Arrangers, arrange for what they think is a good idea to present on a single. I feel that, if everyone had gone into the Studio to tape an `official release' version, the finished product would have been longer! Many longer album tracks, are edited down, sometimes a lot, for the single release. This song has a `bridge,' but as is with it rest of this song, it's brief, too! A similar situation: Since at times, there are, `Dance Crazes,' every so often. (Disco was one of these.) In the early 60's, Carole King was a staff music writer. She came up with an idea that was intended to be pitched to Dee Dee Sharp, then riding high with, "The Mashed Potato Time," "Ride," "Slow Twistin,'" with Chubby Checker, others. Carol's concept was for a dance called, "The Loco Motion." A demo was recorded, with Carol & another lady in the chorus. (At least, this chorus was talented!) The singer was the lady who was Carol's daughter's caretaker. As was typical, this demo was recorded very simply, with just drums, an organ, perhaps a barely audible horn, trombone, something like this, bare bones. They called this singer: Little Eva. Well, when this recording was finished, it was played for the label head, Don Kirchner, I think, and everyone just liked it, as is! Instead of giving this to Dee Dee Sharp, this, now former, demo was released as a single, by Little Eva, and quickly became a # 1 big hit! To her credit, Little Eva was talented, and had several more hits.

@biancabagnolet5948

5y↑1

c'est toujours aussi fantastique comme toujours c'est trop génial j'adore 👍

@phm14

5y↑8

He's holding a Gibson ES-295..."Gibson built 1,770 examples of this model between 1952 and 1958, and they are one of Gibson's most recognizable 1950's classics. This is one of 637 sold in 1953, the model's biggest year. The ES 295 was the guitar played by Scotty Moore on the earliest Elvis Sun records, and is often considered the ultimate Rockabilly guitar. The classic 1950's Ersel Hickey photo that epitomizes the Rockabilly aesthetic features him with his ES-295. The all-gold showboat ranks along with the Gretsch 6120 as the quintessential "Cool Cat's" guitar..."

@glannapolisteam8681

8y↑4

Ersel! You rock my man!

@spacemanspiff6421

5y↑4

I lived in north jersey when this came out - just blew me away - still does.

@biancabagnolet5948

toujours aussi fantastique trop géniale 👍

@amstoz

1y↑2

He is singing like a Buddy Holly adding a drop of Eddie Cochran's vocal rowdiness

@jimlowell5251

7y↑3

One of rock n' roll's most iconic pictures... to accompany one of rock n' roll's briefest records..1:23!

@bonniemyers35

8y↑2

so well done I sent it to my great Uncle ... ... just a dude who served up time in Germany in the same company ... with that Elvis kid ....Thanks for the video !

@connorjackson5718

8y↑1

I can imagine Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes covering this song so beautifully

@petekalabisko2484

5y↑1

c'mon people, this is real 50's rock 'n roll. it ain't by famous people, but nonetheless this is what we listened to.

@shirleyjennings5787

8y↑2

I miss all the rock singers.

@TJamesBell

3y↑4

The Beach Boys do a superb cover of this on their '68 album '20/20'. As a matter of fact, I thought it was a BB's song, until I looked at the song credit, which brought me here. I read in here that they actually purchased the song and own it outright. Not sure of the veracity of that, but it's interesting trivia.
Here's the BB version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKw7f1GyQrQ

@FRLN500

22w

The Beach Boys cover absolutely sucks!

@johnaccurso3849

9y↑2

I found the single Blue Skies b/w Trying to get to You in a "free" box at a local thrift. Somebody had written "lousy" on one side and "terrible!" on the other. I took it just because of that. I was pleasantly surprised with Trying... . Had never heard of EH before.

@bobbyafc1

9y↑2

SOUNDS GREAT SUBBED AND THUMBS UP

@thevoiceoftheBBs

13y↑1

Ironically, the Beach Boys not only recorded this song for their 20/20 album in the late 60's, but they bought the copyright. Yes, they own this song--or, at least did the last time I knew anything about it.

@TJamesBell

@thevoiceoftheBBs
That's a GREAT cover by them! One of many standouts on '20/20'. I didn't know they bought it. Interesting since they owed a lot of people, a lot of money at that point.

@jimlowell5251

11y↑1

Has there ever been a shorter top 100 record? (It only hit no, 75 nationally, but it certainly got a lot of airplay in the NY metropolitan area..)

@azcalor

The Letter by The Box Tops comes in at 1:52. Sorry about late response!

@PJG1710

12y↑3

This was also done by Ritchie Valens go figure ... I like both versions

@soulman4692

Have heard it today on Rockabilly-Radio...!!!

@lauramarzz2220

3y↑1

F.Y.I. THIS WAS AND STILL IS THE SHORTEST HIT SONG (ONLY ONE MINUTE AND 28 SECONDS) IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF 'ROCK & ROLL' ! = LAURA MARZZ-'see ya later alligator'

@sauquoit13456

11y↑1

On this day in 1958 {May 3rd} Ersel Hickey performed "Bluebirds Over The Mountain" on the ABC-TV program 'The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show'... Ritchie Valens covered it on his debut LP album for Del-Fi Records in 1958... {See the next post below}...

@NunesFam

7y↑3

Robert Plant does a great cover on new Carry Fire album (2017)

@CommanderRZ

13y↑2

This cat was born to rock.....

@zalmanschreiber5772

Mickey Lee and Ersel forever!

@dwightbleiler7693

awesome.

@MichaeldeFilippi

10y↑1

first time I've heard this! Beach Boys version so much better!!! But pretty cool for the time :)

@suecooke7863

He wrote the song!

@ELVISISKING1000

8y↑2

MUSICAL MEMORIAL: ROCKABILLY VOCALIST/GUITARIST/SONGWRITER ERSEL HICKEY DIED ON THIS DAY, JULY 12, 2004, AT THE AGE OF 70. THE CAUSE OF DEATH WAS OF COMPLICATIONS OF GALL BLADDER SURGERY. HE WAS BORN ON JUNE 27, 1934. MAY ERSEL HICKEY REST IN HARMONY. FOR MORE INFO AND MEMORIALS, PLEASE JOIN MY GROUP AND VIEW MY YOUTUBE PAGE: TONY JAMS MUSICAL MEMORIALS 1950'S AND BEYOND. FACE BOOK PAGE: TONY JAMS MUSICAL MEMORIALS. THANK YOU.

@simontaylor2319

7y↑2

You learn something everyday....I thought this was by the Beach Boys

@TinaAndersonRebelchick

12y

That's a real toe-tapper!

@gumbowski

8y↑29

I'm here because this song was mentioned on "The Red Green Show"

@jimmie200

Me, too. I like it.

@backupaccountforcooldaddyj7895

Same

@tuckercole1531

Same

@7yph0onXno0hpy7

Me too! I'm going through all of the Red Green show at night. The only person I called my Dad was Darrel Parker and he earned it. We loved watching Red Green together whenever possible. I've been watching Red Green at night once in a while missing Dad and the old days... Mentioned on Red Green Show episode 258 and HERE I AM I just know Dad would have liked this song. Take care everyone and don't let ONE DAY slip past you without hugging and telling your loved ones they matter! I miss you, Dad. Red Green is how I connect again.........

@briant6669

3y↑1

Same here!

2 More Replies...

@fernandomaron87

7y↑4

Looks like early reggae to me.

@colindale3027

42w↑1

TOP GUY ERSIL on Radio Sutch 1964

@melthebelgian.5837

24w

Thanks Red Green for sending here.

@pinchold

10y

Great song but the trouble is that you can hear in it at least three different Buddy Holly songs together plus the hicupping thrown for good measure

@michaelmapes4224

+pinchold pinch I agree - the only thing missing is the falsetto !

@steveatkinson9636

7y↑9

Robert Plant Brought me here!

@thedestroyer7896

7y↑9

This is a good version, But I like the cover version By Ritchie Valens. (Sorry just what I think)

@Uncle_Dolphin

5y↑2

I love you for that

@nikzar9889

4y↑1

Dude, this is the original version

@rickhigginson8546

@@nikzar9889 Oh!

@paperboxcutter

45w

The voice was better recorded here than on the Richie Valens version.

@trfesok

11y

This guy was obviously listening to Buddy Holly!

@cooldaddyjames2814

Who’s here from Red Green.

@Dickneeds

8y↑2

The Beacboys version is pale compared to Ersel. Even Ritchie Valens version is better than the Beachboys. I have always thought the Beachboys were overated anyways.

@thedestroyer7896

7y↑1

I love Ritchie Valens Version way better.

@tomjeffrey2891

6y↑3

I think that The Beach Boys use some interesting harmony in the B section, “A boy and a girl...”, that section. Not overrated in my book! :)

@RJW14863

6y↑2

The Wilson boys could never be overrated

@terryheiss7030

6y↑1

The Beach Boys put their stamp on this song and made it their own. The intro they came up w/ plus the screaming guitar solo. What's not to like ?

@patrickgibson9855

11y

yes and others

@MickTheQuickk

Hickey looks ridiculous in this picture. .... This is the original version. It was a mild hit, mostly in NYC. The song is only 1:24 long.

@johnaccurso3849

MickTheQuickk I think he was trying to look aerodynamic!

@guitarvikings

Valens did it better

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