(Allen Rathel Bunn)
(9CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Bunn was born in Bailey, North Carolina. He seems to have used both
"Alden" and "Allen" as his forename at different times; researchers Bob
Eagle and Eric LeBlanc state that his birth records read "Allen".
Initially he worked in local tobacco fields, but by the early 1940s he
had started singing with various gospel groups, including the Gospel
Four and the Selah Jubilee Singers, where he joined the latter group's
founder, Thermon Ruth. Bunn was the group's baritone and second lead
singer, and provided guitar accompaniment.
In 1949, Ruth and Bunn decided to form a secular singing group as a
spin-off from the Selah Jubilee Singers. Initially called the
Jubilators, the group recorded for four different record labels in New
York under four different names on one day in 1950. Eventually settling
on the name The Larks, the group's recording of "Eyesight to the Blind"
on the Apollo label, with lead vocals and guitar by Bunn, reached number
5 on the Billboard R&B chart in July 1951; and the follow-up,
"Little Side Car", also sung by Bunn, reached number 10 on the R&B
chart later the same year. The Larks then toured with Percy Mayfield and
Mahalia Jackson. Bunn lived in New York from 1950 for the rest of his
life.
Early in 1952, Allen Bunn (so credited) left for a solo career, first
recording blues for Apollo, accompanied by Sonny Terry and Brownie
McGhee, and then moving to Bobby Robinson's Red Robin label in 1953,
when he was credited as "Alden Bunn" or "Allen Baum". Around 1955, he
married Anna Lee Sandford (1935–2004), and they began singing together,
recording as The Lovers for the Lamp label, a subsidiary of Aladdin
Records.
Their first record together, "Darling It's Wonderful", written by Bunn
and arranged by Ray Ellis, reached number 15 on the R&B chart and
number 48 on the Billboard pop chart, in 1957. Bunn also managed, and
recorded with, a group known variously as the Wheels (on the Premium
label) and the Federals (on the De Luxe label)....
(Wikipédia)