The Duettes -- Barbara Livsey (a.k.a. Barbara Bates) and Mary Francis Hayes -- were two Chicago teens that recorded for the George Leaner family of labels. Duettes recordings appeared on M-Pac, One-derful, and Mar-V-Lus Records, with Otha "Otis" Hayes, Andre Williams, Verlie Rice, Monk Higgins, and others supplying the material. Despite magnetism and solid sounds they never enjoyed a chart record, or even a regional breakout. Their recording career began with "Mister Steel" in 1963, followed by "Move on Down the Line" and "I'm Gonna Love You" in 1964 -- all on M-Pac. Leaner switched them to the One-derful label for "Lonely Days," with "Please Forgive Me," riding shotgun; a final single, "Sugar Daddy," dropped on Mar-V-Lus Records in 1965. "Lonely Days" appeared a second time on Lost Nite Records in 1965 but didn't do any better than the previous attempt. No more Duettes recordings were released, though Barbara Livsey-Bates surfaced in 1970 as Barbara & the Uniques. ~ Andrew Hamilton