The Cliques - The Girl In My Dreams (BSN Stereo Mix)

The Cliques were Jesse Belvin and Eugene Church. Jesse Lorenzo Belvin was a native of San Antonio, Texas, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 5. By the age of 18 in 1950, he was already singing professionally, joining Big Jay McNeely’s backing vocalists, Three Dots And A Dash. He signed with Specialty Records in 1952, and in 1953 had an #2 R&B chart record (“Dream Girl”) with Marvin Phillips as Jesse And Marvin. That same year, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Meanwhile, he continued writing songs, including “Earth Angel,” which was a crossover hit for The Penguins in early 1955. In 1956, he signed with Modern Records in Los Angeles. He teamed with Eugene Church in The Cliques, and their first single was “The Girl In My Dreams.” (Oddly, the lyric is always “Girl OF My Dreams.”) It reached #45 on the Billboard pop chart and #74 on Music Vendor. It was a big Pennsylvania hit, reaching top-10 in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and nearby Camden, New Jersey. Eugene Church later had a couple of solo chart records, “Pretty Girls Everywhere” and “Miami,” with his backing vocalists The Fellows. Sadly, Belvin was killed in a car crash in 1960.