The Royal Five consisted of two sets of brothers—Billy and Ronnie Stokes and Reggie and Jerome Marshall--and Ben Durr.
The Royal Five came together at Simon Gratz High School in North Philadelphia in 1963. They arrived at Arctic Records after having revived “Over The Rainbow” in ‘66 for Phil Graber’s P and L logo with saxist Sam Reed leading the band at Virtue (the flip, “The Boston Boo-Ga-Loo,” was an instrumental).
Two subsequent items they cut for P and L, a Reggie Marshall-led “Don’t Stop” and the Durr-fronted “Nobody Else,” were shelved for decades before British collectors very belatedly pressed them up. The Royal Five encored in 1968 on the Tyler label with the attractive up-tempo “Say It To My Face,” penned by WHAT deejay Ernie Fields, flipped with the group-conceived “Gonna Keep Lovin’ You.”
The Royal Five cut three titles for Arctic in October of 1969 with Jimmy Bishop producing and Bobby Martin handling arranging duties, but the third of their three cuts, “Five Miles,” didn’t see the light of day until it appeared on the Jamie CD The Northern Side of Philly Soul (Jamie 4019) in 2002. Both that one and “Ain’t No Big Thing (But It’s Growing),” the plug side of their Arctic release (Arctic 160), were the work of their manager, Garnet Mimms, the Philly singer with the huge voice whose string of ’60s hits for United Artists included the majestic “Cry Baby” and “I’ll Take Good Care Of You.” Jerry Akines was his collaborator on “Ain’t No Big Thing.” The B side was “Peace of Mind,” a recording whose session tape showed that it provided the backing for several vocalists, including Barbara Mason and Pookie Hudson.
