Effective period / Period of releases: 1956

Members: Dee Clark, Cicero Blake, Johnny McCall, Teddy Long, Doug Brown (24)

The Kool Gents was a Doo wop group formed in 1951 at Marshall High School in Chicago, Illinois. Original members were Cicero Blake (lead), James Harper (first tenor - baritone), Howard McClain (second tenor), Teddy Long (second tenor - baritone) and Johnny Carter (bass). By 1953, however, Blake, Harper, and McClain were out and had been replaced by Dee Clark (lead tenor), John McCall (lead tenor) and Doug Brown (second tenor). When Vee Jay Records' Ewart G. Abner Jr. decided that Dee Clark would make a fine soloist, John McCall was the new lead voice of the group The other members were Danny "Blinky" Edwards (first tenor) and Eugene Huff (tenor - baritone). They stayed together until 1965 without recordings and then broke up.

John McCall, Doug Brown, Teddy Long, and Johnny Carter joined forces with Pirkle Moses (the ex lead singer of The El Dorados) and formed the new edition of The El Dorados.