Nolan Strong & The Diablos

Nolan Strong & The Diablos

Nolan Strong & The Diablos were a Detroit-based R&B and doo-wop vocal group best known for its hit songs "The Wind" and "Mind Over Matter." The group was one of the most popular, pre-Motown, R&B acts in Detroit during the mid-1950s, through the early 1960s.

Nolan Strong (1934–1977), the lead vocalist, had an ethereally high tenor. Strong's smooth voice, influenced mainly by Clyde McPhatter was, in turn, a primary influence on a young Smokey Robinson.

The group, along with label-mates Andre Williams and Nathaniel Mayer, recorded for Fortune Records, a small label in Detroit starting in 1954, and ending somewhere around 1973.

Strong has also been an influence on rock and roll bands. In December 2009 Lou Reed, of the influential '60s band The Velvet Underground, told Rolling Stone Magazine editor David Fricke, "If I could really sing, I’d be Nolan Strong" - during an interview at the New York Public Library.

The Diablos were inducted into the United In Group Harmony Hall of Fame in 2003. In March 2008 the group was inducted into the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame of America.

In 2007, The Metro Times listed "The Wind" at #11 in The 100 Greatest Detroit Songs list - which was the November 11 cover story.

In September 2010 Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos LP was released by The Wind Records, with distribution by Norton Records. The album features 13 new Diablos covers by a cast of rock and roll, punk and garage rock bands. It features The Dirtbombs, Reigning Sound, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby and Mark Sultan, among others.