The Beau-Marks

Formed in 1958, this Montreal based quartet financed their own recordings and used local studios - a very rare occurrence in the early '60's. They were fairly restricted at the time to playing American standards under the name Del Tones, but they would make forays into recording studios to try out their original material as often as possible. A copyright hassle from a US act forced the band to change their named to Beau-marks which came from, of all things, the BOMARC missile. One of their first efforts was the 1959 hit "Moonlight Party" which started getting airplay in Ontario and Quebec from on-air requests. The band headed back into the studio and cut their next side - "Clap Your Hands" which got national airplay and sold well. The band began taking performance offers across the country and Shad Records in the US released the single to rave response. The single made the Billboard Top-100 and stayed there for 14 weeks with a peak position of No. 45 leading to appearances at The Peppermint Lounge, Carnegie Hall and on Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand'. "Clap Your Hands" eventually made No.1 in the Commonwealth and had top charting success in Europe. Follow-up records like "Classmate" (1961) and "Little Miss Lady" (1962) were released but none seemed to live up to the immediate hit potential of "Clap Your Hands" which was re-released in 1968 by Quality Records and became a hit all over again. The Beau-marks split up in 1963 at which time Ray Hutchinson joined Dave Nicholl And The Coins before settling in as a North American lounge act (including nightly appearances at his own Montreal restaurant Le Sentiment) but had to retire from music after sustaining serious injuries in a 1988 car accident; Mike Robitaille became successful in video production; Gilles Tailleur died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 35; and Joey Frechette was the head of Capitol Records' April Blackwood publishing, a program director at CHOO radio in Ajax, Ontario, before re-recording his own version of "Clap Your Hands" in 1987 under the name Joey Conrad.