Gary James' Interview With Barbara Harris Of
The Toys



Their recording of "A Lover's Concerto" took them to number one on the Cashbox Best Sellers chart in 1965. A follow-up, "Attack" made the Top 20. They appeared on all the top TV variety shows of the day, including American Bandstand, Shindig! and Hullabaloo. Their first tour had them on the road with Gene Pitney in the U.S. They even appeared in the movie It's A Bikini World. The group we are speaking of is The Toys. These days original member Barbara Harris tours as The Toys featuring Barbara Harris. We talked with Barbara Harris about her life, her career, and The Toys.

Q - Barbara, as I read the story of your life, it almost seems like everything fell into place for you. Not to say you didn't work hard, but one person introduced you to another person who introduced you to another person and the next thing you know you have a hit record.

A - Right.

Q - Before I ask about all these people who played such an important role in your career, I'd like to get into what you're doing today. Where are you and The Toys performing these days?

A - Well, we're working all over the country. There's not much work for us on the East Coast. We've got a few agents we work for. For instance, we were just down in Virginia, Wheeling, West Virginia. It was an oldies show down there. We were out in Long Island. There's a theatre, they have a lot of acts out there. We're gonna do this place in Buffalo. We're like scattered, wherever we can get a show, we go. We got an offer to go out to California to do a cruise and I'm not sure if we're going to do that. We had another offer to go to Spain, so that's happened. Not a lot, but a little bit. We're keeping busy. I do Senior facilities during the weeks, so I keep really busy here in New Jersey and now we're branching out into The Bronx, New York. I didn't realize there were so many senior facilities. (laughs) Assisted living. Independent living. Nursing homes. I've been doing 'em now for five years. Once I started doing 'em they just keep callin' me back and I'm lovin' it.

Q - You go in and sing and talk to people, do you?

A - Oh, yeah. We run a little show for an hour. It's like a little TV show. My husband is my band leader and my bass player. He sits behind me at this mixing board and he controls the music on his phone. So, he kicks in the songs and we stop and I talk a little bit. He kicks the song right in. So it just runs so smoothly. We get a nice little show we put on for them for one hour.

Q - It's just you and your husband? None of the other members participate?

A - It's just me and him, yeah for that.

Q - I want to go back to what you said earlier: there's not a lot of work for you and The Toys on the East Coast. That is surprising.

A - Yeah, it's getting real slow.

Q - Not even Atlantic City?

A - I haven't been called to do Atlantic City for few years now.

Q - Your friend Bobby Uri became your manager. He named the group The Charlettes. That's a nice name by the way.

A - Yeah, it is. It's a cute name.

Q - He had you doing studio work, doing background vocals for recording artists. Who were these recording artists he had you doing background vocals for?

A - Not Bobby Uri. When we got with our manager, Vince Marc, he had us doing studio work. He took us to Bob Crewe and Bob Crewe had his own company, Dyno Voice when we joined. He had Diane Renay. He had Barbara Chandler. He had The Four Seasons, but we didn't get to back them up. He had a few groups there so we got to back up Taj Mahal. He wasn't part of that company, but we backed him up. Lloyd Price. We backed him up.

Q - How long were you doing studio work?

A - Just a couple of years. It wasn't long before we recorded and the record came out.

Q - Was it Bob Crewe who re-named the group The Toys?

A - No, it wasn't Bob Crewe. It was our manager, Vince Marc.

Q - Where did he get that name from? Did he ever say?

A - Yeah. He said he just looked at us and we were so full of life and bubbly and joy and fun that he thought of toys. (laughs) We fought him on it at first. (laughs) Get out of here. We didn't like the name at first. He said, "C'mon." But after we thought about it and said okay. It's not so bad.

Q - The Toys. It's a different kind of a name for a group.

A - Yeah. Just like the record when they said which one they were going to put out. It was a surprise. It was different. Nothing like that ("A Lover's Concerto") was out.

Q - When you first heard "A Lover's Concerto" did you think it was going to be a hit record?

A - No, I sure didn't. You know what happened? We were almost finished with the recording session and they came in that morning and said, "Girls, gather 'round the piano," played the song down a few times. It was so easy we just went in there and recorded it. It took just one take. (laughs) One time and they said, "Okay, that's it." We said, "You're kidding!" "No, no. That's it." We had no idea that that one would (be a hit) and I don't think they did either. I think they thought it was a good song, but when they mixed it and went through all the things they go through I think they were surprised themselves the way it came out, you know? It was different.

Q - That song made it possible for you to do all these TV appearances, American Bandstand, Shindig!.

A - Yeah.

Q - What was it like to do those shows? They were some of the top-rated shows of the day.

A - It was so exciting. I thought this idea of being in New York in the morning, where I lived, and flying over to Cleveland, which we did a lot, to the show Upbeat whenever they got a cancellation from someone it seemed like they would call us. They'd fly us over in the morning and I'd be back home in the afternoon. (laughs) That used to amaze me. I used to laugh sometimes when I got back home. But it was so exciting going out to California to do Where The Action Is. We got to meet The Righteous Brothers and Paul Revere And The Raiders.

Q - American Bandstand was in California. Originally they were in Philadelphia.

A - Yeah. We did it in Philly. It was the first show we did. He (Dick Clark) was such a gracious host. A very, very nice man. He put us all at ease 'cause we were scared and nervous. (laughs) That was out first television show. He just made us feel at home.

Q - Your first tour was with Gene Pitney.

A - Yes.

Q - What was that like? You probably toured the country in a bus.

A - Yeah.

Q - With several other acts.

A - Yeah. I think that tour was going up through New England or was it going down South? I can't remember now. It was going through the South because we had trouble with trying to get food sometimes. They didn't want to serve us. We had to send Bobby Goldsboro in there and Gene Pitney to get the food. So, I think it was going through the South.

Q - I've heard other singers tell me similar stories. I don't think people today can fully grasp what it is you went through in the early 1960s, traveling through the South.

A - Right. And actually for us when we came along it had gotten better. It had gotten a little better 'cause this was like the middle '60s, '66. I've heard stories of earlier years that weren't s good. But hey! We survived it!

Q - You did. Do you recall who else was on that tour with you besides Gene Pitney?

A - Yes. It was Bobby Goldsboro, Edwin Starr, The Dixie Cups, The Chiffons, Gary U.S. Bonds and The Toys.

Q - It probably cost $2 a ticket to see that show.

A - (laughs) Yeah, those days we weren't making a lot of money for sure.

Q - Nobody was.

A - Yeah, but it was a lot of fun. A lot of glitter and glamour. (laughs)

Q - You were in on the ground floor of something that was breaking world-wide.

A - Yeah. It was pretty fantastic. The music was very good back in those days.

Q - Considering they didn't have the technology they have today, the fact that the records still hold up says a lot about the quality of the songs, the production and the singers.

A - Yeah, that's true.

Q - You had to be good back then.

A - That's true. Most of the singers back then had good voices.

Q - In 1967 you're in the film It's A Bikini World. With that you're now a star of stage, screen, television and radio. What was going through your mind?

A - (laughs) You know, I don't think we actually fully grasped what was going on. We were out in California and then the record was climbing, trying to get to number one with The Rolling Stones and Elvis. It reached number one. I remember when our manager came in and we were on the set and he said, "Girls," he had his head down. We thought he was going to say we didn't make it. He said, "You're record went to number one!" And we're jumping up and down. What a nice feeling. He said, "I don't think you really understand what you have here." I don't think so either. We were just having fun and traveling around the world. I don't think we actually knew what we had. If we had, I think we would've had more money today. (laughs)

Q - Was there a follow-up to "A Lover's Concerto"?

A - You know what? They waited too long to put it out. Our manager sent us over to Europe to work. The writers were screaming and yelling that they didn't have enough material to make the album. "Bring the girls back home." He didn't. We waited. So, the album came out later. Actually, it was too late. But they put it out and it didn't do that well. So that's what happened with that. I think it would have done well if we had gotten it out sooner.

Q - And today it's probably a collector's album.

A - Yeah. I finally got one! Someone gave me one 'cause I gave all the ones I had away. I ended up with none for myself. So, a friend of mine just gave me one for a present. I said, "Oh, now I got one of my albums back." (laughs) I look at it every now and then when I was twenty years old.

Official Website: www.BarbarasToys.net

© Gary James. All rights reserved.