LARRY BANKS

Brooklynite Larry Banks was born in 1931, was a US Marine at the time of the Korean War and was awarded a Bronze Star and then found fame as a member of The Four Fellows  when the group’s “Soldier Boy” made number four on Billboard’s R & B chart in 1955. Leaving The Four Fellows, Banks worked on songs for his (first) wife Bessie White who recorded as Toni Banks and then Bessie Banks when she recorded the original version of “Go Now” (a pop hit for The Moody Blues) written by her husband and family friend Milton Bennett, with whom he also co-wrote his one single release on the Select label in March 1963, “Will You Wait”. Banks had many writing partners, the resulting songs being recorded by Kenny Carter and The Exciters (“Blowing Up My Mind”) among others and, later, with his second wife Joan Pulliam who recorded as Joan Bates ad as Jaibi. Banks’ songs and recordings were much admired by British writer and archivist Dave Godin and in 2007 Ace Records issued a compilation of Banks’ work. Banks died in 1992, aged 60.