The Playmates

Best known for their 1958 song “Beep Beep,” which reached the upper end of the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 12 weeks, The Playmates were a popular vocal trio from Waterbury, Connecticut. The group consisted of Donny Conn (born Donald Claps) and Morey Carr (aka Morey Cohen), who graduated from Waterbury’s Crosby High School and played in the school band when they were students there, and Carl Cicchetti (aka Chic Hetti), who went to Wilby High in Waterbury.

FORMATION, “BEEP, BEEP,” AMC MOTORS AD CAMPAIGN

They formed the group while still in high school, appearing at school dances and YMCA socials in the Waterbury area. After graduation, all three enrolled at the University of Connecticut, where they also performed musical comedy as The Nitwits and toured around the Northeast in 1952. After leaving UConn in 1953, they performed at numerous venues in Connecticut as The Playmates, including the Actors Colony on October 1961.

In 1958, their novelty song “Beep Beep,” written by Cicchetti and Conn, hit #4 in the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million copies. The tune also reached the top 10 hit in parts of Canada and AMC Motors used it in their ad campaign for the Rambler, which became one of the company’s best-selling models. The trio had four other Hot 100 hits –  “Jo-Ann,” “Don’t Go Home,” “What Is Love” and “Wait for Me” – before disbanding in 1964.

(by Tony Renzoni)

Tony Renzoni is the author of Connecticut Rock ‘n’ Roll: A History (The History Press, 2017) and portions of this piece are taken from that book.