Bell, Leigh & The Chimes

Websites:  No
Origin: Toronto, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

Leigh Bell & The Chimes were a short-lived Toronto vocal group whose lone 1959 single, “Terry” b/w “Eternity,” became one of the most unexpected chart successes in late-1950s Canadian pop. The group began with two recent Scottish immigrants, Jim Clark and Myles Devine, who reconnected after both settling in Toronto. Along with Don Murray, they formed a harmony trio called the Chimes, performing locally just as rock ’n’ roll, doo-wop, and R&B were reshaping the pop landscape. Their fortunes shifted when Toronto songwriter Dick Taverner approached them with two new compositions written with Sydney Wright. Though the songs were pitched to the trio, Clark, Devine, and Murray quickly felt they needed a female lead to bring out the material’s melodic strength.

Helen Baird entered the picture almost by chance, meeting the trio at a party, and soon joined as their featured vocalist. She adopted the stage name Leigh Bell, giving the revamped quartet a fresh identity as Leigh Bell & The Chimes. The group’s polished doo-wop arrangements and Bell’s youthful delivery caught the attention of Conway Twitty, who happened to hear them performing “Terry” at a local record hop. Impressed, he recommended them to Quality Records, whose Canadian distribution handled his own releases. Quality moved quickly, recording the group in November 1959 and issuing “Terry” and “Eternity” nationally just as the holiday season approached.

What followed was a small but impressive Canadian chart story. “Terry” debuted on the CHUM Hit Parade at #50 the week of November 30, 1959, and climbed throughout December, reaching #9 by year’s end before peaking at #3 in early January 1960. The single also gained traction on the West Coast, spending eight weeks on CFUN in Vancouver and rising to #5. Despite strong sales and airplay, the group never recorded a follow-up. According to a later account shared by a family member of Myles Devine, a sudden internal dispute ended the project just as Quality was preparing an American push.

Quality nevertheless licensed the master internationally. In early 1960 the record appeared in New Zealand on Viking Records, where the DJ promo sheet—unusually well preserved—helped document the group’s origins decades later. A U.S. release finally materialized in April 1961 on Rust Records, two years after the group had already disbanded and moved on. Leigh Bell & The Chimes never performed together again, leaving behind a single striking artifact of Canadian doo-wop’s brief golden moment. Though their career lasted only a few months, “Terry” endures as a charming late-’50s Toronto hit and one of the earliest examples of a Canadian vocal group breaking through the country’s emerging pop radio scene.
-Robert Williston, Aug 10, 2011