To understand the legacy of New Haven's most popular doo-wop group, one must know about The Scarlets. The Scarlets were formed in 1954 by 17-year-old baseball player turned lead singer Fred Parris and five of his classmates from Hillhouse High School. The Scarlets released a decent record, "Dear One" on the Red Robin label. A year later, the group disbanded as some of the members having to do military service.

A year later, Harris returned to Connecticut and formed a new group, The Five Satins. According to the book The Billboard Book of American Singing Groups: A History, 1940-1990, Parris was inspired by the doo-wop group The Velvets and "liked the idea of something soft and red."

The group's second single, "In The Still of The Nite", released in 1956, became the group's most-known single. The inspiration behind the classic song is a girl that Parris fancied and wrote it during his time in the Army (he ended up never marrying the girl). When he returned, Parris along with Al Denby (low tenor), Eddie Martin (baritone), and Jim Freeman (bass) recorded the single in the basement of a New Haven church, St. Bernadette. Despite the name being The Five Satins, only four members were singing on it. Others who contributed to the record were Vinny Mazzetta (sax), Curlee Glover (piano), Doug Murray (bass), and Bobby Mapp (drums) with producer Marty Kugell using a two-track machine to record the song. The song's title, with "night" spelled as "nite", was to help avoid confusion with the song "In The Still of The Night" by Cole Porter.

The song was released on Kugell's local record label Standord Records. Still, with the popularity, it became in New Haven and surrounding areas, it was released on Ember Records, a popular New York record label. This led the song to enter multiple charts, reaching #24 on the Billboard Top 100 and number three on the R&B Charts. It was re-released in 1960 and 1961, re-entering the Billboard charts at #81 and #99.

When the song was screaming across the charts, Parris was stationed in Japan, resulting in Bill Baker now being the lead singer. During this time with Baker on leads, the group recorded "To The Aisle". Upon returning in late 1958, Parris reclaimed the group and in the following year, released "Shadows", followed by "I'll Be Seeing You" in 1960.

These songs did not do the group justice like "In The Still of The Nite" and by 1960, the group disbanded. Parris took up jobs such as Olin and High Standard gun-making in plants across Connecticut but beginning in the 1970s, Parris began to perform again, performing a venues such as oldie shows. Then due to Parris' hit song being released in the American Graffiti soundtrack, Parris released two singles with producer Don Kirshner (which flopped).

The Five Satins' legacy still is important today. In 1998, the group was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Hall and Fame. In 2010, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked "In The Still of The Nite" #90 in the greatest songs of all time. In 2022, Parris died at age 85 but his legacy still continues to live on through famous media such as Dirty Dancing and The Irishmen and throughout countless oldies radio shows.

"In The Still of The Nite"

"A Wonderful Girl"