Aired on Treasure Island Oldies – Aug 16, 2026

In late 1960, a young, up-and-coming singer/songwriter from Yuma, Arizona travelled to New York City and partnered with another up-and-comer, songwriter Tommy Boyce.

After being rejected numerous times, Boyce took his father’s suggestion to write a song called “Be My Guest” for Fats Domino. Released in 1959, the song hit #8 in the U.S. and #11 in the UK, becoming Domino’s biggest hit there in several years. Not often heard today, it sold over a million copies.

Our featured artist’s teaming up with Boyce resulted in the co-writing of two songs that were picked up by Dunes Records.

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The producer, hired by Dunes, recorded the tunes at a two different sessions in Manhattan’s Mira Sound Studio.

Feeling that the artist’s solo voice needed extra power and punch, the producer brought in the uncredited black doo-wop group, the Halos to handle the heavy backing harmonies on the first recording.

The producer then layered the vocals and instrumentation, combining a 50s R&B/doo-wop rhythm with a frantic backbeat. This thick, driving sonic layering was a precursor to the grander “Wall of Sound” that he would soon perfect at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. Yes, the producer was none other than Phil Spector.

Spector’s arrangement climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1961. The artist’s follow up record for the Dunes label, also produced by Spector, made it to #46 position on the charts the same year.

Sadly, without Spector’s influence, a promising career failed to materialize and the artist joined his father in the construction industry in 1969.

But in the summer of 1961 and for a few years thereafter, teenage boys and young men, like Curtis Lee, remained on the prowl for “Pretty Little Angel Eyes,” and it’s this week’s Tom Locke moment in time.

YouTube video of this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-XP4cCKPk

This “Moments In Time” story is yet another example of a “golden oldie” or forgotten favorite that earned its place in the evolution of Rock & Roll.