For the last several years we've been working hard to document every music recording with connections to Bloomington-Normal and McLean County, Illinois. This includes musicians and artists that were born in the county as well as those that came to call it home. The result is a discography of hundreds of records.
From privately pressed singles to major label hits, the area has produced a surprising number of releases in a variety of genres. Rock, pop, R&B, jazz, country and folk are all represented here.
The discography currently covers 1939 to 1990 and is limited to vinyl (and shellac) record releases. We hope to continue to expand this list to include other formats in the coming months. If you or someone you know from McLean County released a record, particularly before 1991, please get in touch and we can add it to the list.
In 1958, Freddie Tieken and the Rockers from Quincy, Illinois recorded two singles backing Byron "Wild Child" Gipson for Hit Records.
Despite Chicago, Illinois being listed on the label, Hit Records was based out of Peoria, Illinois.
By 1963, the Rockers had gone through several personnel changes. Tieken remained but Wild Child had been replaced by Vernie Robbins on vocals and keyboards with Forrest Moore on bass and Jim Vandament on drums. The newest member of the group was a high school student name Jack Inghram who joined Tieken on sax.
Despite his young age, Inghram also happened to own some recording equipment which the group used to record its first album By Popular Demand in the Fellowship Hall of the First Union Congregational Church in Quincy.
"The Jinx" from By Popular Demand
The album was enough of success that Inghram and Tieken decided to move the recording equipment into Tieken's basement and start IT Studios as well as a companion record label:
Between 1963 and 1968, IT Studios produced approximately 20 singles and LPs released mostly on IT Records (*exceptions noted below) from artists and performers originating from Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
IT 2301Freddie Tieken and the Rockers By Popular Demand LP (1963)
IT 2302Freddie Tieken and the Rockers - Humpty Jump / Bit By A Bug (1965)
IT 2303?
IT 2304Freddie Tieken and the Rockers Live! LP (1965)
IT 2305Wild Child Gipson & the Katz & Jammers - Sweet Roll'n Stone / My Kinduva Blues (Sep 1965)
IT 2306The Lancers - The Girl I Never Met / Gore (Sep 1965)
IT 2307The Gallows - Come To The Party / Slow Death (Oct 1965)
IT 2308Bunny Brown Reads Christmas Children Stories
IT 2309Russ Ramsey - Deep In The Heart Of Texas / That's All (Jan 1966)
IT 2310Johnny McCollum - See How A Poor Boy Has To Pay / Life Ain't Worth A Penny Without You (1966)
IT 2311?
IT 2312The Intruders - Now That You Know / She's Mine (Sep 1966)
IT 2313Plato and the Philosophers - I Don't Mind / C.M. I Love You (1966)
IT 2314Johnny McCollum - Rockin' In The Rockies / Beauty's Skin Deep (1966)
IT 2315The Gallows - Too Many Fish In The Sea / Remember Mary? (1966 * Maintain Records)
IT 2316Gonn - Come With Me (To The Stars) / You're Lookin' Fine (Sep 1967 * Merry Jaine Records)
IT 2317?
IT 2318The Aquinos The Aquinos St. Thomas Seminary Hannibal, Missouri LP (1967)
IT 2319?
IT 2320The State Of Confusion - My Fellow Americans / Buckwalter's Blues This discography is a work in progress. Last updated on 7/16/19.
Tonica Sound Studio was owned and operated by Tony Angello and family in the garage of their home in Tonica, Illinois from 1971 to 1985. Prior to being studio owners both Tony and his wife Sharon Angello were musicians that performed and recorded as Angelo's Angels. In the early 1960's they released five singles on four different labels:
Angelo's Angels - "Which One Is To Blame" / "Heartaches" Fredlo 6102, 1961
Angelo's Angels - "New Dog" / "Dirty Shirt" New Breed 0001, 1963
At some point in the late 1960's or early 1970's, the Angello's reissued two of the group's earlier sides on their own label, Bonny (named after their daughter). Sharon Angello then released a solo single on Bonny that was recorded at Golden Voice Recording Co. in South Pekin, Illinois. Soon afterward Tony built a modest recording studio in his garage and from that point on Bonny became the house label for Tonica Sound.
The early recordings at T.S.S. were engineered by Tony. Later on, recording duties were primarily done by his son, Bob Angello, a talented musician in his own right. Over the course of fifteen years the studio grew in size and sophistication, producing dozens of records with nearly all of them performed by local musicians from the Illinois Valley area. While most of the music to come out of T.S.S. was in the country music genre, there were examples of rock, gospel, folk, funk and even polka.
The Tonica Sound Studio and Bonny Records discography has moved to its own page:
Danville's Midnite Sound: An Arlie & Arlie Production
The story of the Midnite Sound studio is the story of two musicians named Arlie:
Arlie Neaville
Arlie Miller
Neaville and Miller began performing and recording in the late 1950s and were some of the earliest purveyors of rock'n'roll in all of downstate Illinois. Neaville from Champaign-Urbana was performing with his Rock-N-Roll Devils and later with the Rocking Stars and released a couple singles on various labels in the early 1960s:
Arlie Neaville - "Angel Love"/"River Of Life" Ping #8001, 1961
Arlie Nevil - "Alone On A Star"/"The Skip" Fraternity F-900, 1962
In Danville, Arlie Miller and fellow musicians Jim Foley, Ronny Roach and Johnny Coons released a trio of singles in 1960 on Lucky Records:
Arlie Miller and the Bullets - "Lou Ann"/"You're The Sweetest Girl"
Jim Foley and the Big Beats - "Goodbye Train"/"Blues In The Morning"
Ronny and Johnny - "Massacre"/"Jungle Boogie"
By 1963, Neaville had adopted the stage name Dean Carter. Around that same time he and Miller (along with bass player Dave Marten) joined forces to form the Lucky Ones:
By 1964, tired of driving to Nashville or Chicago to record, the two Arlies purchased a townhouse on the south side of Danville and converted it into a makeshift recording studio, Midnite Sound, where they began recording themselves, their band mates and other local musicians. Soon after the two men started their own record label, Milky Way Records, which released eleven singles between 1964 and 1967:
MW-001 June Kinney - "The Hands You're Holding"/"I'll Be A Long-Time Gone" 1964
MW-002 Dorothy Barnes - "Baby, We're Really In Love"/"This Little World" 1964
MW-003 Dean Carter - "Number One Girl"/"Fever" 1965
MW-004 Dean Carter - "The Rockin Bandit"/"Care" 1965
(MW-005) Kookie - "Ooby Dooby"/"You Took Her Love" 1965
MW-006 The Cobras - "Try"/"Good Bye" 1965
MW-007 Willie and the Travelaires - "The Fiery Stomp"/"I Had A Girl" 1966
MW-008 June Kinney - "Look Out Heart"/"Good Luck and Goodbye" 1966
MW-009 Ed Mason - "You Don't Know Me"/"Oh Lonesome Me" 1966
MW-010 Dean Carter - "Run Rabbit Run"/"Soul Feelin" 1967
MW-011 Dean Carter - "Jailhouse Rock"/"Rebel Woman" 1967
In 1967, Miller's divorce as well as a cease and desist from the makers of Milky Way candy bars put an end to the label. The Midnite Sound however carried on and despite just a handful of official releases, the studio had made dozens if not hundreds of recordings during the period of 1964-1968. Most of them went unreleased and would have been lost and completely forgotten if not for two great compilation CDs released in the early 2000s by Big Beat Records in the UK: By 1969, Miller had started a new record label, Redd Hedd Records, producing a handful of singles into the 1970s of mostly local Danville musicians:
#001 Danny Macklin - "Take A Stool"/"Home Of The Blues", 1969
#002 The Fronge - "Love Is Fine"/ "It's Gone", 1970
#003 Gene Cooper - "One Of A Kind"/"Forever", 1970
#004 The Corps - "New York City"/"Window Room", 1970
#005 Freddie and the Freeloaders - "Last Night"/"Freddie's Blues", 1971
#007 Spice - "Broken Down In Tiny Pieces"/"Save It For A Rainy Day"
Around that same time, Arlie Neaville dropped the Dean Carter moniker and turned away from rock'n'roll to focus strictly on gospel music.
