#42: Moonlight Party by the Del Tones

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJAD
Peak Month: May 1959
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Moonlight Party”
Lyrics: N/A

The Del Tones were comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Raymond “Ray” Hutchinson, bass and guitar player Michel “Mike” Robitaille, pianist Joseph “Joey” Frechette and drummer Gilles Tailleur. Born in Montreal, in 1940, as a child, Ray Hutchinson had tuberculosis for twelve years. He got better and at the age of seventeen was writing and performing “Moonlight Party,” that became the Del Tones first hit. Two of the bandmates, guitarist and vocalist Ray Hutchinson, and bass player Mike Robitaille, were polio victims. They met at a school for handicapped children in Montreal.

Ray Hutchinson is the uncredited writer of “Moonlight Party”. The singer warns the people dancing at a moonlight party, “everybody stop, or I’m gonna call the cops.” He also warns if you don’t stop, as the doctor said, you’re gonna be dead.” But the uptempo rhythm of the song only invites the partiers to keep on dancing. They don’t take the warning seriously.

“Moonlight Party” peaked at #1 in Montreal, and #11 in Ottawa.

There were other bands with the name Del Tones (Deltones or Delltones). The Deltones had a single on Vee-Jay Records that was a minor hit in Chicago. That group had a minor hit in Philadelphia on another label in 1960 called “Strollin’ the Blues”. There was also a band from Australia called the Delltones. To avoid confusion, the Del Tones from Montreal changed their name to the Beau-Marks in 1959 in response to a political controversy.

The Beau Marks new name was a pun on the Bomarc, the worlds first supersonic long-range, anti-aircraft missile, developed by Boeing. The development of the Bomarc missile was accompanied by problems with its propulsion system. In 1958 the Conservative Government, led by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, was faced with two strategies for Canadian air defense. One was to produce the Avro Arrow, a very fast missile at a cost of over 12 Million per aircraft. It was created by the Canadian company, Avro Canada. The other option was to purchase Bomarc missles made by Boeing in Seattle, Washington, for 2 Million. The later missiles would be tipped with nuclear warheads. However, the Conservatives opted eventually not to have nuclear tipped missiles in Canada. With the cancellation of the Avro Arrow, the company lost over 14,000 jobs.

As the missile controversy swirled in the halls of the Canadian Parliament, the Beau-Marks had fun with their version of the missile’s name. Their debut album, The High Flying Beau-Marks, had the Beau-Marks wearing red and blue plaid suit jackets, white collared shirts, black ties and navy blue pants. Smiling in the sun, they stood and squatted on a tarmac in front of a jet plane.

The Beau Marks debut album contained a dozen tracks, five of which would be released on 45 RPM singles. The first four of these were “Clap Your Hands,” “‘Cause We’re In Love”, “Billy, Billy Went A Walking” and “Oh Joan” released through 1960. “Moonlight Party”, which was released as a single in 1959 by the Del Tones, also was a track on The High Flying Beau-Marks.

The group recorded and paid for all their recordings. They also wrote all their songs. Initially, they released “Clap Your Hands” without any hand clappers on the recording. Gary Copeland, who knew the group when they recorded in the studio recalls the  went on to market “they were finished, but they had some studio time left. Ray suggested to Joey that they record the Clap your Hands Song, but Joey said that nobody would like it. Well, Ray won and the rest is history.” They recorded the record twice, the second time they added hand clapping. It was the response to “Clap Your Hands” that got the quartet bookings in both Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall and Peppermint Lounge’s as well as on American Bandstand. They also were among the first  Canadian groups to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. (The Four Lads had performed a number of times on the Ed Sullivan Show,  including on July 11, 1954. And The Crew Cuts had been on Ed Sullivan’s Toast Of The Town on December 12, 1954).

“Clap Your Hands” climbed to #1 in Australia for four weeks in August 1960. In the USA “Clap Your Hands” peaked at #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #40 on the Cashbox Top 100 Singles chart. The second single from The High Flying Beau-Marks was “Billy, Billy Went A Walking”. Their third single release was “Oh Joan”. Their third album, The Beau Marks, included five single releases. (The spelling in the album created some ongoing confusion regarding whether or not to include a hyphen in the group’s name). The first single release in June 1961 from this album was “Classmate”.

Subsequent single releases included “Yours”, “Little Miss Twist”, “Clap Your Hands Once Again”, and “The Tender Years”. At the peak of their popularity in 1960, the Beau Marks appeared on American Bandstand and the CFTO (Toronto) show Hi-Time. They also did some touring in the USA which included a gig at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After releasing their three albums in the early sixties the group split coinciding with the British Invasion.

In 1963 Ray Hutchinson joined Dave Nichol and The Coins. Eventually Hutchinson became a lounge act, as well as owning a restaurant in Montreal called Le Sentiment where he also performed. Gilles Tailleur lost his life at the age of 35 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Mike Robitaille went on build a career in video production. Lastly, Joey Frechette became the CEO of Capitol Records’ April Blackwood publishing. From there he moved on to work as a program director at CHOO radio in Ajax, Ontario. He released his own version of “Clap Your Hands” in 1987 billing himself as Joey Conrad.

Ray Hutchinson died on October 31, 2021.

June 20, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Gary Copeland, The Beau-Marks/Ray Hutchinson, Russ & Gary’s “The Best Years of Music,”August 1, 2010.
The Beau-Marks bio, Rockabilly.nl
The Beau-Marks, The Canadian Encyclopedia.ca
Ray Hutchinson bio, Ray Hutchinson.tripod.com.
Don McBrearty, The Arrow, Tapestry Pictures/CBC, 1996.
Cashbox Top 100 Singles, July 2, 1960, Cashbox Magazine, USA.
Number One Singles of 1960 (Canada), CHUM charts, Wikipedia.org.
Rick Jackson. Encyclopedia of Canadian Rock, Pop and Folk Music. Quarry Press, 1994.
Kate, “One Big Reason Your Girlfriend May Leave Without A Word,” Luvze.com, August 16, 2016.
Greg Davis, “Ray Hutchinson of The Beau-Marks, one of Canada’s first rock ‘n’ roll bands, dead at 81,” Global News, November 2, 2021.

CJAD 800-AM Montreal Top Ten | May 23, 1959