The Wrens (R&B band)
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The Wrens is the name of a doo-wop band from the Bronx section of New York City. They are best-known for their song "Come Back My Love", but they recorded nearly a dozen other hit songs.
[edit] Beginnings
The Wrens began in the Morrisania section of the Bronx in 1950. Neighborhood friends Waldo Champen (tenor, usually referred to as "Champ Rollow"), Francis "Frenchie" Concepcion (tenor/baritone lead), Archangel "Archie" Oropeza (baritone), and Raoul McLeod (bass) sang together under this name for around two years. They slowly drifted apart.
Francis was determined to make the band last. In 1952, Francis recruited two new members; tenor George Magnezid and bass James "Archie" Archer. They sang as a trio in the community center of P.S. 99 for a couple of months before deciding to expand to a quartet by adding tenor Bobby Mansfield. "George recommended me and they brought me in to do the uptempo leads," says Bobby (Frenchie usually led the ballads). At the time, Bobby was about 15 and attending Morris High School. Archie was around the same age and Frenchie and George were already out of school.
They admired the usual groups- the Clovers, the Ravens, the Orioles, and the Mills Brothers. “I liked the pop sound,” says Bobby, whose personal idols were Nat “King” Cole (“where I tried to acquire my diction”) and Louis Jordan (“for the jump tunes”). They practiced such tunes as “Red Sails In The Sunset” and “White Cliffs Of Dover,” before turning more and more to songs that they wrote themselves.
Their appearances, while a big thing to the Wrens at the time, were really nothing to write home about: mostly community centers and amateur shows in the Bronx, Manhattan, and parts of New Jersey.
One day, in 1954, they heard about a contest that was being held by an arranger/pianist named Freddy Johnson at the old CBS building. The Wrens entered and won, and Johnson became their manager. “He knew a lot of people and he fine-tuned our arrangements.”
Probably through the urging of Johnson, Rama Records owner George Goldner stopped by one of their rehearsals. Bobby remembers that “We had a tentative agreement to go to Columbia [which was in the CBS building, so a&r men sometimes stopped by their rehearsals also]. But George told us he’d record us immediately and we went with him.”
True to his word, Goldner arranged a session for the Wrens that took place on November 21, 1954. They recorded four songs that day: “Love’s Something That’s Made For Two” (led by Bobby), “Beggin’ For Love” (fronted by Frenchie), “Come Back My Love” (Bobby), and “Eleven Roses” (Bobby). The piano player was none other than Freddy Johnson, who provided the other backup musicians. (An ad for “Come Back My Love” has the notation “Orchestrated and arranged by Freddy Johnson.”) However, he and the Wrens parted company soon after the session, and from then on Goldner used the Jimmy Wright Orchestra to back them.
