Little Phil & The Night Shadows

US psychedelic rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. The group was originally formed in December 1956 as The Cavaliers, with the spelling was changed to The Kavaliers in 1957 to avoid legal problems with another group using that name. After some personnel changes in the summer of 1959 the group became The Barons. In the fall of 1959 the lead guitarist wrote an instrumental he called Night Shadows that the bass player thought was the perfect name for the group. Assuming leadership of the band and against everyone’s wishes, he changed their name to The Night Shadows on their business cards and quickly booked several months of gigs to make everyone relent. From the fall of 1959 through 1961 The Night Shadows were primarily a Chicago-style blues band. In 1962 the group changed to a rhythm & blues show band featuring Little Erv (Barocas) & Judy Argo, an Elizabeth Taylor look-alike, as headliners. For the next two years, the group became one of the most popular R&B bands for racially segregated Southern college dances and formals. In 1964 the British Invasion changed the group’s primary direction to rock, with Erv and Judy departing the group. Fourteen year old Little Phil Rosenberg was picked as their replacement to front the group in 1965. Johnny Brooks (3), a studio engineer and producer Aleck Janoulis had worked with on sessions since 1959, had opened his own recording facility and was seeking artists with original material. This gave the group an opportunity to record both the tunes Little Phil had collaborated on and some others that Janoulis had written. The end result was a label deal with Dot Records and a single “So Much” featured Little Phil as lead singer. The other band members were Jimmy Callaway (guitar), Bobby Newell (organ), Charles Spinks (drums) and Aleck Janoulis (bass). The Vietnam draft complicated the group's plans, though another single “60 Second Swinger” was released on Gaye Records. Due to contractual obligations the group then recorded for Baja Records under the pseudonym The Square Root Of Two. This name later became the title of their 1968 psychedelic album on Spectrum Stereo. Due to internal conflicts the band split up after their last concert on Memorial Day in 1969.