Toby Beau is a Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 band

Band (music)

In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...

 formed in the early 1970s, best known for the hit single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 "My Angel Baby" in 1978. Though little is known around the world about this band past this top fifteen single, the band is still in existence today, and continues to perform in the club

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 circuit. "Toby Beau" was the name of one of the last original wooden shrimp boats docked in Port Isabel.

Formation

Formed in the Rio Grande Valley

Rio Grande Valley

The Rio Grande Valley or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas...

, the original members included guitarists Danny McKenna, Balde Silva, Art Mendoza, bassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

 Steve Zipper and drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Rob Young. After numerous club performances around South Texas, the band moved to San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

 and received a major record deal from RCA

RCA

RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 (now BMG

BMG

Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...

). This deal would recruit the production

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 talents of Sean Delaney, who at the time was also producing a young band named KISS

KISS (band)

Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...

. In addition, guitarist Mendoza was replaced with guitarist and banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 extraordinaire Ron Rose, who added a country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 flavor to the band.

Other members included, Rennetta Dennett (vocals), Michael Flores (lead guitar and vocals), Michael Aguilar (drums), Don Pope (saxophone), Randy Lalane (trumpet), Gil Gonzales (bass) and Floyed Simpson (vocals).

My Angel Baby

Upon completion of the self-titled first album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, the band moved to New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and would embark on major tours with artists

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and bands such as the Doobie Brothers, Bob Seger

Bob Seger

Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

, and the Steve Miller Band

Steve Miller Band

The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in 1967 in San Francisco, California. The band is managed by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals, and is known for a string of mid-1970s hit singles that are staples of the classic rock radio format.-History:In 1965, Steve Miller and...

. Popularity of the band would gradually arise through these tours, but this would suddenly skyrocket when the pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 "My Angel Baby" (co-written by Danny McKenna and Balde Silva) scored number 1 on the Easy Listening Chart for two weeks, and number 13 on the Pop chart. Suddenly the album would score major sales, and "My Angel Baby" would eventually achieve gold

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

 status by being awarded the coveted "Million-Aire Award" by BMI

Broadcast Music Incorporated

Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...

 for over a million radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 airplays. There was even a re-release of the album, this time with "My Angel Baby" as the album title which was added to the cover art.

More Than A Love Song

Following the success of the first album, the band temporarily moved to Miami

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

. There, recording

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 sessions for the second album would not be impressive to the producers, and almost all recorded song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

s would be eliminated from the album. It was suggested that the band move to Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 and record with the likes of major session

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

 players. It was this move that started to break the band apart.

Although the addition of the production talents of Daniel Moore (songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 for B. W. Stevenson and Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night

Three Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...

) and Norbert Putnam (who had worked with Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett

James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...

), as well as musicians like Victor Feldman

Victor Feldman

Victor Stanley Feldman was a British jazz musician, best known as a pianist.-Early history:...

 (from Steely Dan

Steely Dan

Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...

 fame) and Larrie Londin

Larrie Londin

Ralph Gallant, better known by his stage name Larrie Londin , was an American drummer and session musician. Londin played with a wide range of artists including Journey and Steve Perry....

 (who later worked with Journey

Journey (band)

Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...

) provided a smooth fusion style to the music, members of the band felt the tradition of the music was severely altered. This initially resulted in McKenna's choice to leave the band before completion of the second album, entitled More Than a Love Song, released in 1979. According to those who knew him, McKenna felt morally compelled to walk away rather than sell out those band mates risking replacement by studio musicians.

The second album would score a top 40 single in the cover of John D. Loudermilk

John D. Loudermilk

John D. Loudermilk is an American singer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Durham, North Carolina, Loudermilk grew up in a family who were members of the Salvation Army faith and was influenced by the church singing. His cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk were known professionally as the Louvin...

's "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye," but otherwise the album remained a financial disappointment to the band, and less than a year after the release, Zipper, Rose, and Young departed, leaving Silva at the helm with one album left on the contract.

If You Believe

Although it was a large burden on Silva to complete the third album single-handedly, this provided numerous successes, such as all legal rights to retain the band's name. He then moved to Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 to record the third album with producer Jerry Fuller. With the help of numerous studio artists, the third album, If You Believe was released in 1980. Although not viewed as a commercial success, the album did score a third hit in the ballad "If I Were You," which might demonstrate a preview of how the band would sound in years to come.

Keeping the band alive

After the third album, the band was dropped from RCA, but Silva has refused to let the band fall, having adopted the name of "Toby Beau," himself as his stage name. In the 1980s, wife Rennetta (under the stage name Dennett) joined the band and the two would recruit numerous other musicians in the band for years to come. Sessions for a fourth album have been recorded numerous times in the 1980s and again in the late 1990s, but as of now, no plans have been made for any studio release, but self-made recordings have been produced, and can usually be bought from members of the band or at certain venues they work for.

Currently, Silva continues to perform the club circuit using the Toby Beau name, with guest musicians who sit in frequently. Most recent guest musicians have included trumpeter and piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 player Michael Schuler and Silva's son, saxophonist Michael Silva. The band can usually be found around South Padre Island

South Padre Island

South Padre Island is a barrier island in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located in Cameron County and is a popular vacation destination because the resort city South Padre Island is located on the island. The island itself is considered to have been settled by Padre Jose Nicolas Balli, who had a...

, Texas and performing for the cruise ship industry or by checking the web site http://www.TobyBeau.com.

Studio albums

• 1978 Toby Beau (Later re-released as My Angel Baby) (available on CD)
• 1979 More Than A Love Song
• 1980 If You Believe (available as Japanese Import CD)