- Red Top Young
Infobox musical artist
Name = Red Top
Img_capt =
Img_size = 200
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Robert Young
Alias = Red Top
Born = birth date|1936|2|15|mf=y
Died =
Origin =Martinsville, Virginia
Instrument =Keyboards ,Piano
Genre =Blues Rhythm and Blues Rock n Roll
CountryJazz
Years_active = 1950s — Present
Label = Mercury, Lanso
Associated_acts =Robert Lockwood, Jr.
URL = [http://www.RedTopYoung.com/ www.RedTopYoung.com]Red Top Young (born Robert Young) is an American
blues ,rhythm and blues , country,rock and roll andjazz musician .Robert Young was born
February 15 1936 , Martinsville,Virginia , to Willie and Mattie Young. One of seven children, he started his education in Martinsville and completed high school inElyria, Ohio . Subsequently, he attended Cleveland Music School inCleveland, Ohio . All of his brothers had a love for music and the talent to go with it. He started making music at the age of eight and has never stopped.After learning to play on an upright piano that one of his brothers purchased, he knew that music was what he wanted to do. His first professional job was in Martinsville when one night
Fats Domino was too sick to perform for an annual event, the June German Ball and Robert was asked to play piano, along with his brother Mouncie. At the age of 15 he and brother Mouncie joined his brother Nick inElyria, Ohio . His parents later relocated to Elyria and the family was all together again. Music was the brothers' mistress and soon they had formed a group called The Four Lovers, consisting of Robert, his brother Mouncie, friends Paul Kimble and John Cristman. The groups management and bookings were handled by Sonny Rucker and Libby Hodge. After that group broke up another was started called 4 Young Lovers, consisting of himself, his brothers Mouncie, Jessie and John Alver. By this time Robert had started to be known as Red Top. The group played in and around Lorain and Cuyahoga County, at venues like The Majestic Hotel in downtown Cleveland for two years in the early 1950’s.Prior to enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1954, he met and married Carol Edwards and played with the great
Lloyd Price . After basic training atFort Knox Kentucky, he was sent toKorea for 16 months and 4 days, where he encounteredLloyd Price and his group and had the opportunity to perform with them in 1955. His brother Mouncie also enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. After their discharge from the armed services in 1956, with a contract to play withLloyd Price , his first job was The Armory in Lorain in 1957. He still maintained his strong connection to Virginia and traveled throughout the south performing with some of the greats in the business likeLittle Richard , and Bobby Eckstein (cousin of famedBilly Eckstein ), but always coming back to Lorain County to play at a club called Minerva’s again and again.Being away from his bride for so long, he decided not to go on the road and joined a group called Lee Abble & The Red Riders. Red Top, Lee Abble, Sam Doman, and Vonlee Adams, performed for 22 years, traveling throughout Ohio.
He recorded an album for
Quincy Jones on the Mercury Label in the 60's, prior to that he recorded the song Tequila for Charlie and Opal Lanze (Lanso Records).Robert went out on his own in the late 1960s. His group was called Red Top and the Young family, they did blues, rhythm and blues, country, rock and roll and jazz. The girl singers in the group were called the Toppetts: Sugar Young (niece), Beverly Wright and her sister Norma. They traveled throughout the U.S. in a 1950 Black
Buick Ambulance and a 1958Cadillac Hearse . After the loss of most of the groups members he recruited new members: Laddy Fair, Lorenzo Casey, Vernon Wallace and Diego Tony Johnson, who continued to perform throughout the U.S. for the next four years. During that time he met and married his second wife Janice in 1978, continued to record with Lanzo Records and moved toSan Destine ,Florida with his wife and young son, continuing to perform with his group and withJo Jo Benson and Johnny Taylor,B.B. King , Pinetop andRay Charles inFrance along with many other blues groups throughoutEurope .Over the next 10 years while playing with
Robert Lockwood, Jr. 's band he traveled all over the world, playing with Lockwood until the latter's death in November 2006, and in that same year, he also worked withBuddy Miles .Young has worked with
Quincy Jones ,Jerry Lee Lewis ,Frankie Avalon ,Bill Haley and the Comets ,The Coasters , Fabian,Paul Anka ,The Platters andDionne Warwick .External links
* [http://www.RedTopYoung.com/ Red Top Official Website]
* [http://www.robertlockwood.com/page1.html#redtop Red Top Profile] from theRobert Lockwood, Jr. website .
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