Cameos

Cameos photo from Doo Wop
OK, Old Mon has to admit he can't find squat about these guys, except that they had one dynamite song that McKeesport's WMCK jock Terry Lee played the heck out of, "I Remember When," on his "Music For Young Lovers" segments, and it made Travis Klein's "Pittsburgh Greatest Hits" series, too.

What we do know is that the Cameos were from Coraopolis, and were put together by songwriter/arranger Bob Vogelsberger. He assembled the Cameos after auditioning groups to sing his material and penned both "I Remember When" and the follow-up, "Never Before," which was also a pretty sweet tune.

The band was made up of Donald Carter (Lead), Dorland Nelson (First Tenor), Fred Wynn (Second Tenor), Bernard Spencer (Baritone), and Alex Spencer (Bass).

The discography is kinda sparse, too:
1960 - "I Remember When" b/w "We'll Still Be Together" (Matador 1808)
1960 - "Never Before" b/w "Canadian Sunset" (Matador 1813)

"Wondering," "We Were Young," and "Broken Hearted Limbo Guy" were also completed demo's for their label, New York's Matador, but never released.

Oh, one other thing - watch what Cameos you're listening to. These guys were black, and in 1963, a local white Cameos popped up and released "Can You Remember?" b/w "He" on the Gigi label; the two groups are often lumped together.

And that's it. In 1960, the Cameos had their fifteen minutes of fame, but are still remembered today, if somewhat mistily, because of it.


"I Remember When" - Cameos 1960