Bio

The Exciters

Members: Brenda Reid · Herb Rooney (R.I.P.) · Carol Johnson (R.I.P.) · Lillian Walker

The Exciters came together in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York, at the start of the 1960s — three women and one man whose blend of gospel fire and street-corner harmony gave them a sound bigger than most groups twice their size. The lineup paired Brenda Reid, Carol Johnson and Lillian Walker with the group’s sole male voice, Herb Rooney, and that mix of a driving lead over tight, punchy backing became their signature.

“Tell Him” and the breakthrough

Their name proved to be a promise. In 1962 the group cut “Tell Him”, a record that seemed to leap out of the radio: a wall of hand-claps, horns and a lead vocal that dared the listener not to move. It climbed into the US Top 5 and became a template — the same urgent, uptown-soul energy would shape everything that followed. A year later the song crossed the Atlantic when Billie Davis took her own version into the UK charts in 1963.

“Tell Him” was produced by the legendary team of Leiber and Stoller and written by Bert Berns under his pen name Bert Russell — names that place The Exciters right at the center of the early-’60s New York hit machine.

The records that followed

The group kept mining that rich seam where uptown soul met the girl-group sound. “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” came next — a song that would later become a transatlantic number one for Manfred Mann, but which The Exciters recorded first. “He’s Got the Power” carried the same swagger, and in 1965 they returned with “I Want You to Be My Boy.” Not every single matched the chart peak of “Tell Him,” yet the run stands as one of the era’s most distinctive bodies of work.

A lasting influence

Decades on, The Exciters remain a touchstone for the sound of early-’60s New York — a group whose handful of singles influenced far more records than their chart statistics alone would suggest. Their music has lived on through reunions, oldies revues and a loyal following that keeps that 1962 spark alive.

Explore the music and see where the group has been performing on the appearances page.