The Five Satins

The Five Satins were a vocal group that formed in New Haven, CT, in 1954. They didn't meet with much success at first, and went through some personnel changes. The reconstituted group recorded what turned out to be a "doo-wop" classic, "In the Still of the Night" for the small local label Standard Records. It got some local airplay, was picked up by a larger label from New York, Ember Records, for national distribution and it hit big, shooting to #3 on the R&B charts and #25 on the pop charts. It eventually sold over one million copies and earned the group a gold record. Lead singer Fred Parris left the group to join the army, and the group reorganized itself yet one more time. They hit it big again with "To the Aisle". When Parris finished his army hitch he returned to the group, and after some personnel changes--and a name change, to "Fred Parris and the Scarlets"--the group made some recordings, but these met with little success. In 1981 several former members formed their own Five Satins group.