The Cap-Tans were formed in 1948 when DC Records owner, Lillian Claiborne, encouraged Harmon Bethea to break away from The Progressive Four and join an existing group called The Buddies (Alfred Slaughter, Lester Fountain, Floyd Bennett, and Sherman Buckner). This move gave The Progressive Four the latitude to concentrate on spirituals, while The Cap-Tans, with Bethea's seasoned stage presence and comic timing, moved directly in pop material which today is regarded as R&B vocal group material of the Pioneer era.
Two 78rpm singles on DC Records were heard around town, but in the fall of 1950, they almost scored a national hit with Lester Fountain's composition "I'm So Crazy for Love" which Claiborne wisely placed on Randy Wood's Dot Records out of Tennessee. In a marketing world which then valued the song as a composition over the recording as a performance, the Cap-Tans received a half-dozen backhanded compliments as they witnessed the likes of Billy Eckstine, Lonnie, Johnson, and The Ravens and several other acts cover their song.