He eventually landed a steady gig at a Brooklyn club called the Casablanca.
Like many scuffling vocalists, he often worked without a band, performing to pre-recorded backing tracks, although he also remembered fronting an aggregation called the Soul Keys. He formed a Temptations-style vocal group with his brothers Charlie and Harold (according to some accounts, three of his brothers may have been involved), but he soon broke free and embarked on a solo career. All the while he kept an eye out for other opportunities. He sang and played guitar with the Mighty Gospel Crowns and a Brooklyn-based group called the Gospel Knights, with whom he recorded a few sides in the mid-’60s. Once in the big city, he again found himself singing gospel.
