The Newbeats

The Newbeats were a 1960s vocal trio from Nashville, Tennessee. Larry Henley provided the striking and highly distinctive falsetto lead vocals while brothers Dean Mathis and Mark Mathis supplied the smooth backing harmonies. Dean and Mark started out as a vocal duo in the late 1950s; they had a minor hit with the 1959 song "Tell Him No." Henley briefly collaborated with them in 1962 and had a largely unsuccessful solo career before reuniting with them two years later. The trio called themselves The Newbeats and recorded a string of singles on the Hickory Records label. They scored their biggest and best known hit in 1964 with "Bread and Butter"; the extremely catchy and upbeat ditty peaked at #2 on the Billboard pop charts and sold over one million copies in the US. Their follow-up single, "Everything's Alright", was a Top-20 hit. The Newbeats had a Top-40 chart success with "Break Away (From That Boy)" in the spring of 1965 and their final hit song, "Run Baby Run (Back Into My Arms)", went all the way to #12 on the Billboard pop charts in the fall of 1965. Moreover, the trio appeared as themselves on the TV music variety shows Shindig! (1964), American Bandstand (1952) and Where the Action Is (1965) at the height of their mid-'60s heyday and toured both Australia and New Zealand with The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison in 1965. The group continued to record singles for Hickory Records up to 1972. Following stints with Buddah Records and Playboy Records, The Newbeats disbanded in 1974. Henley went on to become a very successful songwriter who's probably most famous for co-writing the enormously popular Grammy Award-winning Bette Midler smash "Wind Beneath My Wings."