The US Marines had their own hit band until a tragic armed robbery in 1966
Believe it or not, but serving members of the United States Marine Corps wound up scoring a chart-topping single back in 1963.
It wasn’t the first time pop had flirted with the American military machine. Elvis Presley released 1959’s ‘A Big Hunk o’ Love’ while stationed in West Germany during his Army years, even wearing his uniform on the single cover. Years later, Staff Sgt Barry Sadler would win a Billboard Hot 100 number one with ‘Ballad of the Green Berets’ as the Vietnam War was escalating in 1966, and reggae pop star Shaggy would travel to New York on his weekends to cut early material while an active US Marine in North Carolina in the late 1980s.
Yet, The Essex likely can count the most curious footnote in Army pop. An R&B vocal group formed in 1962, the founding members, Walter Vickers and Rodney Taylor, were stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where they were fortuitously sent over to Shaggy’s future Camp Lejeune base in North Carolina.
It was here that the musical venture would truly take off, recruiting fellow Lejeune Marines Billy Hill, Rudolph Johnson and Anita Humes as lead singer.
It wouldn’t take long for The Essex to strike a hit. Shopping around their demo before Roulette Records took them on, a number co-written by Marine William Linton strangely soaked up the Lejeune base in its rhythmic drive, allegedly shaped by the Teletype machines used in the facility’s communication office. ‘Easier Said Than Done’s hit potential was lost on The Essex, however, who decided to tuck away the number as the B-side to their ‘Are You Going My Way’ debut.
Issued in May 1963, ‘Easier Said Than Done’ was released as the single’s flip as scheduled, but its popularity soon prompted radio DJs to spin the B-side over its main single, eventually thrusting ‘Easier Said Than Done’ to number one on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts, as well as titling their debut album.
The Essex’s chart smash marked the first time US military personnel had struck number one with a musical mission, even winning them a prized performance on CBS’s The Ed Sullivan Show.
Johnson would leave the group and reduce The Essex to a quartet, and the hits would begin to dry up. Follow-up single ‘A Walkin’ Miracle’ peaked at a respectable number 12, while ‘She’s Got Everything’ sat at a cooler 56, now billed as ‘The Essex Featuring Anita Humes’. Marrying a pop career with the needs of the Marines was proving tough, as Johnson’s transfer back to Okinawa largely scuppered any further involvement with the group.
Disaster would sadly strike in 1966. Taylor, the drummer, would be fatally caught in an attempted robbery in New York City, where the remaining members allegedly vowed never to reform The Essex again. Hill trooped on with musical ventures, playing with his The Courtship group as late as 2013, and Humes attempted a solo career with Roulette and spent the rest of her life playing the clubs before passing away in 2010.
