The Tony Burrows Conspiracy

I don't know why Tony is smiling in this picture. Back in the late `60's and early `70's he was done out of pop music superstardom by manipulative record producers. If you are a fan of the post-Beatles/Beach Boys pop that was coming out at that time, you are a fan of Tony Burrows and may not know it. Remember "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by White Plains? That's Tony. Remember "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" by The Edison Lighthouse? Tony. "United We Stand" by the Brotherhood of Man? Tony was the Brotherhood and the Man. "Gimme Dat Ding" by the Pipkins? More Tony. How about "Beach Baby" by The First Class? Tony was the valedictorian of the class. It's unclear why Tony wasn't allowed to have stardom under his name, or why all of those songs weren't credited to just one of the band names, but it's a little disturbing. These were big hits, and the man most responsible for them never got the credit. Here are a selection of videos of the various "bands" that had the hits. Notice how Tony would change his hair to look different in each group. Hilariously, there exists a video of The Edison Lighthouse that features Tony's voice coming out of some other guy's mouth, in a sort of pre-Vanilli bit of bs that was sent to TV stations. Anyway, had he been identified with and toured with all of his songs, he would be famous, rather than obscure, and really, really rich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-LdEx-eaw0

here's the phony version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7v0--jTpsI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-bPmcqgb3o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn97hvjWZA8

UPDATE: I just read an old interview with Tony where he said he would sing lead in the studio, do a TV appearance or two around England, and then not tour, so I guess it was very much his decision not to have 1 big identity in pop. Interestingly, when after 3 of the groups he fronted all appeared on the same broadcast of TopofthePops in England, the BBC banned him for a few years, cause they didn't like the bands all having the same lead singer. How goofy is that?