Diablos – The Wind

I’m reading Peter Wolf’s autobiography, and he mentioned this song being his and his first love’s song. I listened to it and instantly liked the guitar’s haunting mood and slight tremolo. It’s a doo-wop song from 1954, and it sounds heavenly. Many of the slow 50s doo-wop songs do sound haunting now. I think it was the production that helped as well. 

The record also mentioned “featuring Nolan Strong” on the record, and it’s posted as Nolan Strong and the Diablos. He was an outstanding singer.  The Diablos were a Detroit-based doo-wop group formed in the early 1950s. They had tight harmonies and Strong’s falsetto at the time set them apart. They recorded for Fortune Records, a label known for its gritty, cheap, and raw production style.

This was their biggest song and a cult classic. While it didn’t chart nationally, it became a staple on jukeboxes and a huge influence in Detroit. Nolan Strong became well-known among other musicians. Smokey Robinson said, “There was a guy who lived in Detroit and had a group called the Diablos. His name was Nolan Strong. They were my favorite vocalists at that time.” When Smokey Robinson says that…I automatically listen. Lou Reed added: “If I could really sing, I’d be Nolan Strong.” 

Berry Gordy had wanted to bring the Diablos into his growing Motown complex and is said to have offered Jack & Devora Brown $5,000 for the Diablos contract, but the deal never transpired, much to the disappointment of the group, who felt that Motown could have done a better job in promoting and recording them.

The song has been covered a few times, most notably by Laura Nyro in 1971 and a live version by her was released in 2002. The Chenille Sisters also covered it in 1991. 

Bobby Rogers (A Miracle Member): Smokey and I used to go see Nolan all the time at the Warfield Theater over on Hastings, He was a great singer. I don’t know, some people are just ahead of their time.’

The Wind

Wind, wind blow
Wind, wind blow
Wind, wind blow
Wind, wind blow
Wind, wind blow

When the cool summer breeze
Sends a chill down my spine
When I long for my love’s sweet caress
I know she has gone, but my love lingers on
In a dream that the winds bring to me
I remember as we kissed in the cool summer breeze
As she lay warm and tender in my arms

Darling, when a star falls, I wish for you
And, darling, when I see lover’s making love
Then I long for you
And when the sun and her stars are shimmering across the mountains and the valleys
Then, darling, I look for you
And even until the Heavens above can no longer exist
Even until then, shall I still love you

I know she has gone, but my love lingers on
In a dream that the winds bring to me

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

36 thoughts on “Diablos – The Wind”

  2. He has such an amazing voice it’s truly a shame things did not work our for Nolan and I don’t think we know what happened to him. I referenced Strong in a post last year and I ran across that statement by Reed recently as was researching the TVU and Reed. I am not sure but it may have come out during the doc on the Underground as well. But I never made the connection between this song and Laura Nyro’s cover.

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    1. I didn’t know it before yesterday but it has that haunting sound that I like.
      Nolan passed away at 43 years old in 1977. No one knows much about him. He was buried under an unmarked grave…but a fan recently (I’m not sure when) is trying to get the money for a marker with a memorial concert.

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  4. That is haunting, but cool. I love hearing music from that pre-rock age, and realising that rock n roll didn’t just happen, it crept up gradually. (Sorry for not commenting much recently, I was Down Under for a couple of weeks.)

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    1. Exactly! Such a beautiful sound those groups had back then…and teh harmonies were great.
      I’m the last person you have to say that to Stewart! You know how long I vanish for! I’ll be back this weekend to yours. I feel stupid asking…but Down Under as in Australia? Or under the weather? Either way I hope you are doing alright.

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      2. LOL…
        Funny thing is that I’ve heard that saying all my life but for some reason…when Stewart said that…it just read funny to me and I thought hmm….is this another saying over there? Bruce and you have me gun shy lol.

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  9. I dug the doo-whoop days. My late late cousin, Cookie, formed a girl singing group, around 1956. I don’t recall their name, but for four girls, they sang good. I was a kid, so what did I know. If the music wasn’t from Roy Rogers or Gene Autry, I wasn’t interested. They made an acetate record at a local Fort Worth studio, but I don’t recall it being played on the radio, only on her portable record player. She later, became a Beatnik for a while, and then moved to Los Angeles and fell in with the Hippie crowd on Sunset Blvd. She gave the music biz one more try, and failed, and then hung it up and moved to a commune in Northern California, raising an assortment of feral children, Llamas, and Wavey Gravy pot plants. At one time, years ago, I ran across the acetate 45 in a box of my aunts pictures. I played it and was surprised how awful it was. Girls should not sing doo-whoop tunes. In the late 1970s I interviewed Cookie about her time in California and had planned an extended short story of her colorful but tragic life. If I can muster the brain power to remember, I might give it a go. I’m having Rotator Cuff surgery April 30th and will be out of typing commission for at least a month or two, so no blogging, writing or guitar playing. Sorry for the ramble.

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    1. Phil that would be a very interesting story about her. Someone who grew up completely different and then went into that. I hope you do it.
      Ouch…well hopefully it will make it better. I’ve been lucky thus far in surgeries on the whole…A friend of mine is coming over next weekend and we are going to play some rockabilly…I’m looking forward to that.

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    1. Randy’s site…I bet that iss where you heard his name. He said he did mention him. BTW…Dave that Peter Wolf bio is absolutely great. I’ll tell you about it in email.
      I love these kind of haunting songs.

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