[Fiji Hill]

The Penguins had a number of releases after "Earth Angel," but except for Pledge of Love (1957), none of them sold well. They underwent numerous personnel changes before breaking up in 1962.

Soon afterwards, Cleveland Duncan, the lead singer, put together a group and continued performing under the name the Penguins. In 1963, they waxed Memories of El Monte, a paean to the American Legion Stadium in El Monte, Calif., the site of dozens of rock and R&B concerts. The song wasn't a chart hit, but it got a lot of airplay on stations like the border blaster XERB, broadcasting out of Rosarito, Lower California, where disc jockey Art Laboe played it on his late-night Oldies show in the late sixties-early seventies.

On New Years Eve, 1983, I saw Duncan with his Penguins group perform at the Olympic Auditorium in LA (now a church). They ushered in 1984 with "Memories of El Monte," which segued into "Earth Angel."

[Impala64ssa]

XERB, broadcasting out of Rosarito, Lower California,

An aircheck with the late great Wolfman Jack when he was a DJ on XERB

[firebrand]

Thanks for the history on the Penguins. I never knew what happened.

I was at a fifties show in Jersey one time and they seemed to have everybody but the Penguins, so I told one of the guys running the show I missed them. Voila. Right near me in NYC they appear! But then I read the program notes, and that was all it said, that there were no original members.