Here's some more courtesy Here (https://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/4041/Autographs.htm)
Another group who underwent a number of name changes was Los Angeles based The Autographs. They started life in the early 60's as a 5 strong (2 male / 3 female) "street corner" group by the name of The Impersonators. Through one of the girls they managed to gain an audition with Hal Davis.Hal was working at the time for Motown in their west coast set up --he was to have a much higher profile at the company in the 70's after it relocated to L.A., when he worked with Marvin Gaye,Diana Ross,etc. He used the group to sing backing vocals on tracks he was cutting for Motown. It was with Hal that the group enjoyed their first release, he changed their name to the Autographs and signed them to a deal with Joker Records.The first single the label released on the group was "Love's Gonna Do You In" / "On A Hot Summer Day" inst. -- Joker 714 and this was produced by Chester Pipkin. Another of their releases on the label was "Do the Duck" and this was later to find favour on the U.K. northern soul scene. The group then hooked up with Larry Williams who at the time was producing acts in L.A. for Okeh. They again started off doing backing vocals, this time on Okeh sessions early in 1967 & these included Little Richard's "I Don't Want To Discuss It" and "A Little Bit Of Something" plus Larry Williams & Johnny Watson's "A Quitter Never Wins". It was only natural that as a reward for their efforts Larry should cut some tracks on the group for Okeh. The only record to result from their efforts was released in September 67, "I Can Do It / I'm Gonna Show You How To Love Me" -- Okeh 7293 --the B being the better dance side !
The group then disappeared off the recording scene for a couple of years, this coinciding with the decline and death of the Okeh label. It was closed down early in 1970 after having enjoyed little if no chart success after mid 68 and only managing to release a handful of records in it's final year - Azie Mortimer's "You Can't Take It Away" Okeh 7336 being one of it's last issue's in March 70. I presume the group was locked into a contract with the failing label during this period as when they did reappear it was with a new name. In December 69 / January 70 under the name The Visitors the group had the first of two releases on Ray Charles' Tangerine Record Label. This was "My Love Is Ready And Waiting / What About Me" (TRC 1003), both sides being written by the group in conjunction with Len Jewel Smith with Len Jewel also handling production duties and James Carmichael arranging. The A side is a great deep soul track featuring strong lead vocals whilst the B is a "100 m.p.h." dancer. By this time the groups line up had changed to an all male outfit and they were supported by their own backing band. The record received no promotion and as a result didn't sell well. A second single followed in August 1970, "Anytime Is The Right Time / Never The Less" (TRC 1010) and again the songs featured were self written with Len Jewel. L.J. again also acted as producer on the session, incidently the A & B side matrix numbers aren't consecutive, being 473 & 476 so that almost certainly means there are at least 2 unissued tracks by the group from this session. Both sides of this single are also highly recommended however again it received no promotion so once more it made no impression on the Soul Charts. The group managed to make a living by playing live shows in and around L.A., they built up their own dedicated audience and as a result managed to survive. By the way there is no connection between this group and the Chicago based group The Visitors who recorded for Dakar / Bashie around this same time.
