Ken Pepper
J. Duncan, Dundee Music, BMI
Roulette 4375
July 1961
Recorded in Clovis, N.M.
Ken Pepper real name is Homer Tankersley, Jr.
Homer Tankersley was the long-serving lead singer of The Imperial Quartet, a Texas gospel group organised in the forties by Marion Snider, former pianist for the Original Stamps Quartet and Rangers Quartet. By 1955 the Imperial Quartet began transitioning away from gospel music and into popular music as the Commodores (records on Dot and Challenge,1955-1957)
Homer Tankersley, Clovis News Journal :
While teaching voice in California, my dad called and said the Imperial Quartet wanted me to audition as lead singer.
I did and the job lasted for some 16 years.
As recording artists, The Imperials traveled coast-to-coast performing with many gospel groups. We were on the “Texas Quality Network” weekly in Dallas and a Friday night television show with Pat Boone in Fort Worth, Texas.
Eventually we became known as The Commodores, singing popular music with a hit record “Riding On a Train.” We were guests several times on the CBS “Arthur Godfrey Show” in New York.
While in New York, I resigned from The Commodores and moved my family to Clovis, where I became program director for KCLV and later KICA radio stations. I started working with Norman Petty, recording under the name “Ken Pepper” (my radio name). Ken James and I sang with the Norman Petty trio and worked many recording sessions as backup singers.