Layton And Foster
Bob Foster - Guitar,vocals
Let Me Know That You're In Love
Layton & Foster by Bill Layton
I met Robert (Bob) Foster at a party in our early teens . It seemed like half the people there were want to be musicians. We became instant friends the first time we met and stayed close friends for many years after.
A few years later the British invasion in music was going strong in the U.S.. Robert and I started joining different local bands. Although Robert and I were only in one band together (ELF), we would love to get together from time to time to jam. Robert was very good on the bass guitar and good on a six string. I played the guitar also and one thing we had in common was the love of harmony. That is one reason why we both loved the Beatles like so many other people at that time. We both had a common friend named Steve Meeks. All three of us would get together and sing and play mostly Beatle songs in three part harmony.
Approximately ten years later I tried my hand at writing songs. I met Earle Smith a little later. He was the owner of Central Cal Music ( I think that was the name). He had experience getting music published and getting feedback from radio stations. I gave him one of my songs I wrote called ‘ Two of a Kind” and he loved it. He told me to polish it up and give it back to him.
The first person I thought of who could help me and eventually become my partner was Robert. It was like magic. He added a few chords and we added our harmonies. I gave the song back to Earle and he loved it. At that moment we became known as Layton & Foster and started meeting regularly to write songs. I discovered Robert could write as well, and our song list started climbing. We actually became pretty good at making music together. It’s like we could read each others thoughts . Our harmonies became better and better and new songs were coming faster and faster.
Within a year we started going to recording studios and made several records which had a lot of airplay across the nation. A Few of the songs we made were ‘All Alone, You Have Me, I’m just a fool, Two Of A Kind‘.
Before we made our last record I discovered a beautiful, talented female singer and conga player in a local nightclub. Her name was Johnice and we asked her to sing lead on our last record we ever recorded. I was so impressed with her, I married her and we are still together.
We had good reviews in different magazines and good feedback from radio stations around the country. Radio stations were playing our records, however, we never had a distributor for our records. Still, it was a great time in our lives which I will always treasure.
We always had friends who would help back us up in the recording studio. Special thanks to Gary Richards, Bobby Stevens, Joe McCarley, Frank Tinglley, John Endlsley and I apologize if I left anyone else out.
Bill Layton
