[2] Around 1947, Sonny Til sang regularly in amateur shows at the Avenue Cafe in Baltimore, where he met Nelson, Sharp and Gaither.
They decided to form a group, calling themselves The Vibra-Naires, and aspiring songwriter Deborah Chessler became their manager.
In April 1948 the group appeared on the Arthur Godfrey radio talent show in New York City, with Richard Williams as bass singer, but he was then replaced by Johnny Reed.
[5] The record reportedly sold 30,000 copies in its first week, rising to #1 on the national R&B charts in November 1948, and leading to cover versions by artists such as the Ravens, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington.
[5] In performance, The Orioles were a phenomenon, with girls in the audiences screaming, fainting, and attempting to reach their idol Sonny Til in particular.
They differed from groups like the Mills Brothers and the Delta Rhythm Boys in that they made vocal music with limited orchestration and accompanied only with the guitar of Tommy Gaither and the bass Johnny Reed.
He took a corner too fast and lost control of the car, which rolled down an embankment and crashed into a drive-in restaurant.
For a short time, only Til and Sharp performed as the Orioles, but soon added two new members, guitarist/second tenor Ralph Williams and pianist Charlie Harris.
Early in 1953, George Nelson, who had a drinking problem, left the Orioles, and was replaced by John "Gregory" Carroll, formerly of another Baltimore group, the Four Buddies.
[7] Left without the Orioles, Til picked up another group, the Regals, whose members were Tex Cornelius, Diz Russell, Jerry Holeman, Billy Adams, and pianist Paul Griffin.
Holeman left the group, and Russel the next day, after finding Sonny's car (their means of transportation) repossessed.
Til recorded briefly as a solo artist before putting together the third Orioles group, with members Delton McCall, Billy Taylor, and Gerald Gregory, former bass of The Spaniels.
The group continued, and by the late 1990s featured Russell, Reese Palmer, Skip Mahoney, Larry Jordan and musical director Eddie Jones, who also works with The Cadillacs.
Lead singer Albert "Diz" Russell died November 16, 2016, from congestive heart failure at the age of 83.
In 2015 the musical theater production, Soul Harmony, telling the story of Deborah Chessler, Sonny Til, and the Orioles, premiered in Portland, Oregon.