With promotion on radio and such television programmes as the popular '6-5 Special', 'Freight Train' zoomed into the hit parade on both sides of the Atlantic.  Gerry Myers a disc jockey in Canada had plugged the record regularly; this was picked up by the nearby New York jocks and in no time it was a hit throughout the U.S.A.  It peaked at number 4 in the Variety disc jockey charts but was overtaken by Rusty Draper's version in the Billboard chart. Nevertheless by the end of July it had become a million seller. No doubt this was achieved with the impetus provided by the trip the group made to New York at the end of June 1957. They were booked to appear on Ed Sullivan's Show, on the same day that the Everley Bros. first sang 'Bye, Bye Love'. On this occasion Marc Sharratt's washboard was classified as a musical instrument and at first it was thought that the group would suffer the same fate as Lonnie Donegan and not be allowed to play their instruments.  The American Federation of Musicians relented a little and gave them the nod, providing they use three American musicians. Consequently the group was augmented by such noted session musicians as; Hank Garland and Billy Mure on guitars and Sandy Block on bass. One more performance took place at the famous Palisades Park (as featured in Freddie Cannon's hit song).It was held alfresco and the show included the blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon singing his hit 'Who, Baby, Who' and the doo-wop group the Heartbeats singing, 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool'.Chas recalls having to follow an act that jumped off an eighty foot tower on horseback, into a tank of flaming water.

It had been very difficult to get working visas for the group, so Chic records, their American label employed Lauri Ames as sponsor to facilitate their entry into the U.S.A. Lauri had family connections with trhe Teamsters' Union, a useful ally in her quest for working permits.Unfortunately they were only cleared for one day's work.Chas still has the entry in his passport and when he showed this recently to immigration officials at the customs in the U.S.A. they were absolutely amazed that such an arrangement could have been made. Another arrangement that was made at the time was that their proposed appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show should be brought forward by two weeks to counterbalance the recent appearance by Rusty Draper.When Chas naively enquired how this had been managed he was informed,

"By bed-room diplomacy!"

The group was scheduled to appear on Alan Freed's 'Big Beat' T.V. show on their last day in New York. However this had to be cancelled as any later flight would have caused them to miss their opening night at London's Finsbury Park Empire, and this was the beginning of what proved to be a record breaking tour of the Moss Empire circuit.