The Spiders (American band)

For the Japanese band of the same name, see The Spiders (Japanese band).

The Spiders were an American R&B vocal group from New Orleans who recorded in the 1950s. Within a span of two years, the group had all five of their entries on the US Billboard R&B chart.^[1]

The Spiders
Also known as	Zion City Harmonizers Delta Southernaires
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres	R&B Gospel
Years active	1947 (1947)–1957 (1957)
Labels	Imperial
Past members	Chuck Carbo Leonard Carbo Joe Maxon Matthew West Bill Moore Issacher Gordon Oliver Howard

The group was founded as a gospel group in 1947 under the name Zion City Harmonizers, and later sang as the Delta Southernaires, recording and performing on radio under the latter name in 1952–1953.^[1] Cosimo Matassa convinced them to begin singing secular music, and in 1953 the five-piece, based around brothers Hayward "Chuck" Carbo (1926–2008) and Leonard "Chick" Carbo (1927–1998), signed with Imperial Records,^[1] under the name The Spiders.^[2] They had several U.S. hits on the R&B chart in the middle of the decade, including their first single "I Didn't Want to Do It" (R&B #3, 1954), "I'm Slippin' In" (R&B #6, 1954), "21" (R&B #9, 1955), and "Witchcraft" (R&B #5, 1956).^[3] The latter was co-written by Dave Bartholomew and was later covered by Elvis Presley.^[4]

Members Joe Maxon and Matthew West left the group in 1955 and were replaced by Issachar (Izzycoo) Gordon and Bill Moore.^[1] Chick Carbo signed with Atlantic Records as a solo artist late in 1956, and by the next year the group had splintered; their last single as a group was 1957's "That's My Desire", though the song "Tennessee Slim", recorded in the middle of the decade, was issued as a single in 1960.^[2]

Chuck Carbo later recorded for Rounder Records, releasing an album in 1993.^[2] Chick Carbo died in 1998, Chuck in 2008.

The group's name inspired the group led by Buddy Holly to name themselves The Crickets.^[5]

Members

• Hayward "Chuck" Carbo
• Leonard "Chick" Carbo
• Joe Maxon
• Matthew West
• Bill Moore
• Issacher Gordon
• Oliver Howard

References

1. Colin Larkin, ed. (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music (Third ed.). Virgin Books. p. 413/4. ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
2. Steve Huey, "The Spiders", AllMusic. Retrieved 24 June 2019
3. Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 414.
4. "Witchcraft", SecondhandSongs.com. Retrieved 24 June 2019
5. Kerns, William (April 8, 2012). "The Crickets affected by opening for Elvis". Lubbock Online. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved September 27, 2021. Buddy and I were practicing one day, and decided we needed a group name. We liked a record by the Spiders called "Witchcraft," so we decided to be insects. We looked in the dictionary under insects and stopped at Cricket. We had a lot of Crickets in Texas that year, too.