The Dandevilles were a Californai group that had one release on Guyden Records in 1959, "There's A Reason" b/w "Nasty Breaks" (Guyden 2014). The personnel of the group is not known, but they came out of the same music environment as another Guyden group, The Guides, previously known as the Swallows (but not the same Swallows as the group on Syd Nathan's various labels, including Federal and King). The California music environment revolved around George Matola and Rickie Page, a husband-and-wife writing and producing team (with Rickie Page also being an artist on Jamie-affiliated Landa Records--"Why Did You Lie" b/w "Je Vous Aime" -- Landa 683, released in November 1961). They were a prolific pair in the 1950s and early 1960s.
California groups were not unusual for Jamie and Guyden, which were uniquely cosmopolitan for a little label in thge 1950s. It was the majors most people thought of as the ones capable of finding records around the country to release nationally. Jamie and Guyden were able to do the same out of their small Philadelphia operation at 1330 West Girard Avenue because they were affiliated with Universal Record Distributing Corp., which distributed regionally the records of many labels from around the country. Few other distributors spawned labels with a national reach, but Universal gave Jamie and Guyden national contacts among fellow-distrbutors who were promoting the same records for various labels and met annually at their organization meetings for ARMADA (American Record Manufacturers and Distributors Association, which morphed into NARM). The larger independent record labels later had meetings for distributors, which also fostered the relationship between Jamie and Guyden and their network of distributors.
The Dandevilles followed the practice then of a fast track on one side and a slow one on the other. The fast one has the feel of a Coasters outing while the slow "There's A Reason" has all the characteristics of a solid doo-wop effort.
