The label specialized in 'down home' blues musicians such as Lazy Lester, Earl Gaines, and especially Slim Harpo. In early 1957 someone at Mercury Records heard a strange R & B sound from a unique label based in Nashville, Tennessee, called Excello Records. They felt the cover record concept might be wearing a bit thin as many of the country's teenagers were becoming much more astute and going with the originals rather than lukewarm covers by pop music oriented recording artists. By now the Mercury execs were in a bit of a quandary. The group did an original 'My Judge And Jury' which bombed, and ended the year with another cover of The Heartbeats 'A Thousand Miles Away' which went nowhere. The rest of 1956 saw The Diamonds hit with three more covers - The Willows 'Church Bells May Ring', The Clovers 'Love Love Love', and The G-Clefs 'Ka-Ding Dong' on. Unbelievable as it may seem in the context of the times, 'Fools' became a top fifteen pop chart hit for The Diamonds and Mercury hit pay dirt again with a Canadian cover. In January of 1956 they covered The Teenagers 'Why Do Fools Fall In Love' and The Cleftones 'You Baby You'. The powers that be at the label saw a similar possibility as the other Canadian group and soon The Diamonds were in the studio and their first release for their new label hit the streets. Through his influence, they were sent for an audition with Mercury Records in Chicago which was the label that had The Crew Cuts under contract. The group was now adrift after the two failures and without direction and they might have vanished but for a big move by their manager Nat Goodman who got in touch with the country's number one breakout disc jockey, Bill Randle of WERE in Cleveland, Ohio. The second try for Coral 'Smooch Me' / 'Be My Lovin' Baby' also went nowhere. Neither of these Coral releases went anywhere.

Following the lead of the Crew Cuts they did two covers - 'Black Denim Trousers' a tepid original by a one hit group called The Cheers (with TV's Bert Convy) on Capitol, and The Clovers' 'Nip Sip'. By early 1955 The Diamonds had been signed to Decca's subsidiary label Coral Records.

Play little darling by the diamonds