Neville Taylor & The Cutters

Neville Taylor and his band, the Cutters, were among the handful of black rock & roll acts working in England during the late '50s. The West Indian-born Taylor had an excellent ballad style, but on the hard-rocking numbers he was heavily influenced by Little Richard's vocal style. The group was signed to EMI's Parlophone label, where their first release included the excellent "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" as a B-side -- as an A-side it could have charted, but it was too rich for Parlophone's blood in 1958, and "House of Bamboo" ended up as the play side. Their three follow-up singles were "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" b/w "Tears on My Pillow," "The Miracle of Christmas" b/w "A Baby Lay Sleeping," and "Crazy Little Daisy" b/w "The First Words of Love," the latter released in 1959.