LET'S DO-WOP

I'M BAAAACK!!!!

2010-09-08T21:42:00.002-04:00

Dear fellow Doo-Woppers, sorry I've been gone so long, but I've had some health issues and was working on a project that left me no time for fun.
I am back an in need of some suggections for new material, so if there is a group that you would like to read about, please let me know and I'll do the leg work for you. I would like to write a blog once a week so make as many request as possible.
Thank you in advance and I will talk to you next week!!

HOW AND WHY SONGS GOT COVERED

2010-04-03T20:24:00.007-04:00

In this installment we'll look at how and why songs got covered.
Sometimes it was just a great song that would work in all genres, Country, R&B, Pop, Rock,ect, but most of the time it was plain and simple greed. You must remember that Race played a big part in how things were done in the music buisness.
Morris Levy, George Goldner and company controlled and had influence on as many as twenty different record labels, and their only goal was to make as much money as possible on the artist, and the song. It has been said that there were between 500 and 1,000 labels oprating in New York in those days, and each one trying to get their part of the action. At Brill Building, a song writers mecca, songs were being written and passed around on a daily basis. Some songs were stolen and writers credits changed before the song left the building. Every writer had a favorite group that they liked to write for, but if your song was better than mine and I needed a hit, I'd wait to hear the arrangement of your song and while you were recording with your group, I'd be down the hall recording the same song with my group.

There were some artist that made a good living by covering songs, so let's look at how it all works.
When it became clear that Blacks had created a genre of music that would last, the label owners, song writers, and producers started scheming as to how get as much out of a song as possible.

At some labels there were groups on standby just to cover whatever song that had potential. In many cases some songs would be covered while the original was being recorded. In other cases the cover was strictly about race. In the 50's no matter how good a song was some people would not buy it because the singer the was Black. Pat Boone even covered Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti", (It was terrible), because at the time the song was moving up the R&B chart, the rights to the song were being shopped around. LaVerne Baker was one of the most popular singers of her time, but a White singer named Georga Gibbs covered almost every song Baker recorded. It got so bad that when Baker went on the road, she took out a life insurance policy and sent it to Gibbs, with a note saying the policy was so that Gibbs wouldn't starve to death, if something were to happen to Baker.

Johnny Rivers, made a lot of money covering Chuck Berry. The buyers in the south liked Berry's music, but wouldn't buy it because of Berry's color, so Chess Records leased, loan and somtimes sold rights to Berry's songs to be covered by others. In many cases the record labels would have multiple artist on the same label record the same song, to get as much exposure as possible. This was a MOTOWN tactic, that Gordy used over and over again. Sometimes MOTOWN would have hits with two different versions of the same song. Case in piont: Marvin Gaye had recorded "I Heard It Through The Grape Vine" a year before Gladys Knight and The Pips, but MOTOWN wouldn't release it. Gladys and The Pips version was a hit and a little over a year later MOTOWN released Marvin's version and the song was a hit again. Even The Temptations had a version of the song. MOTOWN felt that everyone had their favorite MOTOWN group, so why not have your favorite group sing your favorite song, in many cases it worked. Brenda Holloway made a good living at MOTOWN covering the songs of the female artist at MOTOWN.

Many labels didn't have the financial resources to distribute songs to ensure wide exposure of a song, so once a song was released the label felt they had completed their obligation to the artist, so to get their money back they would shop the songs around to the highest bidder and songs got covered that way.
Sometimes the label would change one word in a song and claim writers credit for the song and have other artist record the song on subsidiary labels,

Some songs got covered many times becaus they were just good songs. Once of the most covered songs of all times is "Gloria". I'm not even going to try and name all the groups that recorded the song. Gloria was one of those songs that had everything a Doo-Wop group wanted in a song. The song was perfect for five part harmony. The song had space for the lead singer to stretch out and and show off. The background had room for everyone to do their thing. The first tenor could make vocal runs up and down the scale and still be inside the harmony. The baritone and second tenor could weave in and out of each other to make the background seem fuller, and last but not least is the bass. The bass could either rumble, and boom, boom, or do some nice blows, ooh's and ahh's with the rest of the background. The song has something for everybobdy! I've heard some great versions of the song but, I haven't heard a really bad version.

It seems that everyone who thought they could sing, covered songs from MOTOWN. Some covers were for race reasons, until young White America started buying MOTOWN and demanding the real thing. In my mind the one artist that made the most out covering MOTOWN songs is James Taylor. Taylor has covered more MOTOWN songs than anybody, he has won grammys covering MOTOWN. In many cases Taylor has been treated as if he created the songs himself. Even Oprah got caught up in the hype, she credited Taylor with creating and writing great songs, only to have to back track and state the fact that most of his music was covers of MOTOWN songs.

One of the greatest covers of all time is the Christmas classic "White Christmas" by The Drifters. The song is a note for note cover of the song as recorded by The Five Royales. It seems that at the time The Five Royales recorded the song, it seemed a little disrespectfull to Irving Berlin, who wrote the song for Bing Crosby, so the song wasn't distributed after release. One year later the climate had changed and there were many version of the song being recorded. The Drifters decided to try their luck. The song had a great intro with Bill Pinkney on bass, and Clyde McPhatter on lead and the usaual tight harmony of The Drifters. The Drifters version became one of the top selling Christmas songs of all times. The song is still a top seller today! Berlin said The Drifters version was not what he had in mind when he wrote the song, but he liked the arrangement.

The cover of one song almost wiped one group off the map. Noland Strong (Smokey's mentor) and his group The Diablos recorded a song called "The Wind", the song didn't get the exposure it should have. A year or so later a group called The Jesters covered the song and it became a hit. The Diablos version was re-released and was some what discredited because Noland Strong sounded so much like Smokey, that some people thought that Strong was a Smokey wanna be, not knowing that Strong came first with his style of singing and the song "The Wind".

Etta James took a country song and covered it almost note for note with an R&B feel, because the song told a great story.

One of readers, Victoria asked about the song "Hearts Of Stone". The song "Hearts Of Stone" was written by Rudy Jackson a member of a Doo-Wop group out of San Bernardino, California. The group was called The Jewels, (No relations to The Jewela of D.C.), this was a male group. The Jewels recorded "Hearts Of Stone" in 1954, for The R&B label. The group later changed their name to The Marbles. The Jewels verison of the song didn't move on the charts.
In 1955 an East Coast group called Otis Williams and The Charms, (not the Otis of The Temptations), covered the song, and moved it up the charts to #1 on the R&B charts and #15 on the pop charts. As the Charms version moved up the charts the Jewels version was foregotten, or ignored by most writers and DJ's.
I couldn't find any written record as to why the song was covered, except it was a great song.

Dr. Nick, the doo-wop doctor suggested that I write about the kiddie groups of doo-wop. These are the groups that came before The Jackson Five.

Please send in your comments and suggestions.
Victoria posted three comments, but ony one came through, if you're out there Victoria, please send them again.
Thanks everybody and I'll talk to you next time.

THE JIVE FIVE, THE PASTELS, EARL LEWIS AND THE CHANNELS, AND THE HARPTONES

2010-03-26T21:06:00.010-04:00

This installment will look at four groups who's harmony was tight and their songs were great for blue lights in the basement parties. The Jive Five, The Pastels, Earl Lewis and The Channels, and The Harptones.

THE JIVE FIVE
The Jive Five were formed in the late 50's in Brooklyn, New York. The group included Eugene Pitt, Jerome Hanna, Richard Harris, Thurmon Prophet, and Norman Johnson.
The group's first success came in 1961 with "My True Story", on Beltone Records. The song reached #3 on the US Pop Singles Chart.
In 1962 Hanna passed, so the group reorganized. The new group included Hanna's replacement, Andre Coles, Casey Spencer, Beatrice Best, Norman Johnson, and of course Eugene Pitt. The group recorded "What Time Is It", and "Three Golden Rings" for Beltone Records before moving to United Artist Records, where they had a hit with "I'm A Happy Man". In 1970 the group moved again, this time to Decca Records, where they recorded as The JYVE FYVE, with Pitt, Spencer, Richard Fisher, and Webster Harris. THe group had a minor hit with "I Want You To Be My Baby" under this name. The group also recorded briefly for Avco Records. The group changed their name afew times along the way, they were Shadow, and Ebony, Ivory and The Jades.
The group went back to The Jive Five in 1978, this group included Pitt, Spenser, Best, and Harris. The group reorganized again in 1982 with Pitt, Best, Charles Mitchell, and Pitt's brothers Herbert and Frank. The group changed it's members afew more times over the years.
In 1985 the renmaed group, Eugene and The Jive Five were introduced to Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman and their company Fred/Alan, Inc. Together with Fred/Alan producer Tom Pomposello they formed what would be a ten year relationship. The began creating and singing the acapella signature sound for American kids' television network Nickelodeon, one of the first specialized cable television channels. The group wrote and recorded some memorable advertising jingles, performed in doo-wop style. They were also part of The Kid's Choic Awards.
The group was part of the PBS Doo-Wop 50 special, The lineup for the show was Pitt, Spenser, Harris, Best, and a not named fifth member.
Norman Johnson passed in 1970, Harris passed in 2003.
I always wanted to be a lead singer, and I thought Eugene Pitt was a great lead, so I studied his style, but to tell the truth I never got it.

THE PASTELS
The Pastels were formed in 1954, the group included DiFosco "Dee" Erwin, Richard Travis, Tony Thomas, and Jimmy Willingham. All four were stationed at U.S. Air Force base in Narsarssuak, Greenland, where their first live appearances were in conjunction with military talent showcases.
According to Marv Goldberg, all four members of the group were transfered to Washington, D.C. The group performed at the "Tops In Blue' talent shows and did very well. The group decided to try for a recording contract. They signed with the small Hull Label. Their first single "Been So Long", was released in 1957, and when it looked liked it would be a hit, Chess Records licensed the disc for national distrution, reissuing the single on it's Argo subsidiary a month later. In early 1958 "Been So Long" went to #5 on the R&B charts and crossed over to #24 on the Billboard Charts. The group toured with Alan Freed's Big Beat Show for awhile and then reurned to the studio to record some new songs. The next song "You Don't Love Me Anymore". The record failed to chart, and after their next try, "So Far Away" also failed, the group disbanded in early 1959. Dee Erwin returned to New York and started a solo career, having a hit with a cover of a World War II song "Swinging On A Star".
I was unable to find much on this group after this point, but if anyone out there has any information on this group please send it to me.

EARL LEWIS AND THE CHANNELS
In the late 50's there were two groups out of New York that were very popular in their shows, but were unable to secure a national hit. The two groups were The Harptones, and The Channels.
Late in 1955 Larry Hamden, Billy Morris, Edward Doulphin, and two un-named singers for The Channels. The un-names didn't last long, but at a talent show in early 1956 the group made a sound defining change. At the show was a group called The Lotharios. The Channels were so impressed with two members of The Lotharios, Earl Lewis, and Clifton Wright, that by the next talent show in the area, the two singers had joined The Channels. With Lewis on lead The Channels won the next show singing The Flamingos', "I'll Be Home". Within afew weeks the group was at The Apollo, where they won second place at amateur night, singing The Platters' "Magic Touch".
In early 1956 the group somehow got together with Bobby Robinson owner of Red Robin Records. The group signed a two year contract with Robinson's Whirling Disc label.
In their first recording session they were able to record "The Closer You Are" written by Earl Lewis who was only 15 at the time. The Channels broke the mold on how doo-wop groups sounded. Most doo-wop groups let the lead solo at the beginning of a verse and the rest of the group would come in with some oohs and aaahs to fill in the background. The Channels decided to open a verse with full five part harmony with the first tenor, second tenor and baritone, singing just a little louder than the bass and falsetto lead. This arrangement made The Channels instantly recognized as soon as the recorded started. "The Closer You Are" was an instant hit on the national airways, but because of poor distribution it never made the national charts. The song did become very popular on the East Coast and a New York street corner doo-wop favorite.
The group's next release came in late 1956, the song was "The Gleam In Your Eye", also written bt Lewis. The song showcased Lewis' full range of talent. The song boosted the group's popularity, and pushed them into a coreer of live shows that would take the group all over the country, for the next 35 years.
In 1957 the group re-released "Flames In MY Heart", a song that would have been a lot better if there had more than twenty minutes to record it. The song didn't get much play and not long after Robinson closed down the label.
Four months later the group auditioned for George Goldner's Gone Records. Goldner liked the group, but didn't like the songs the group with them. They auditioned again for Goldner with some new songs, including "The Girl Next Door" and "All Alone". Goldner was still not ready to sign them. He had them try an old Sammy Kaye's hit "That's My Desire". Eighteen months later Dion and The Belmonts would cover the song as a B side to their "Where Or When". "That's My Desire" was the first song since "Gloria", that Lewis didn't write.
The Group's first release for Gone Records was arranged by Richard Barrett and was released in 1957 and put the group back in the spotlight. The next song "Altar Of Love", didn't chart, and the group soon left Gone Records.
By early 1959 there were only two original Channels left, and the group was back working with Robinson on his new label Fury Records. Members of the group had an argument over the crooked way Robinson ran his label. Lewis and Wright found three replacments for the ones that didn't like Robinson. This new group then recorded two great songs, "My Love Will Never Die" and "Bye Bye Baby", written by Lewis. Lewis didn't have to worry about credit for writing the songs because Robinson didn't give anybody credit. "My LOve Will Never Die" turned out to be one of their more successful songs. The group's release of "The Girl Next Door" was the group's first release that listed Earl Lewis and The Channels on the label.
The group disbanded in late 1959, but in 1961 Jubilee Records started releasing Whirling Disc early releases as if they were new and The Channels became hot again. In 1963 released a new Channels record, but there was only one original member on the record, Lead Larry Hampden, and the group's name was misspelled on the label. (Channells). Larry Hampden changed the name of the group back to original spelling. The group faded away after that.

THE HARPTONES
The Harptones was the other group that didn't have many national hits, but are considered one of the best doo-wop groups ever.
Before there were The Harptones, there were two other groups, The Harps, which included Willie Winfield, his brothers, Jimmy and Dicey Galloway, and Johnny Bronson.
Winfield was from Norfolk, VA, and somtimes sang with his cousin Dickie Smith and The Five Keys. The Harps practiced under the Monroe Street undrepass of the Manhattan Bridge, Considered by a lot of New York doo-wop groups as the worlds biggest and best echo chamber. The Skylarks included Bill Dempsey, Curtis Cherebin, Fred Taylor, Eugene Cooke, Raoul Cita and someone only known as Skillum, practiced on 115th street.
In early 1953 Dicey Galloway was looking for a piano player to work with The Harps. During the process he met The Skylarks, who had a piano player/writer/arranger, named Raoul Cita. This was the man The Harps needed. As time passed the two group melted together. They kept the name The Harps and the group included Winfield and Galloway from the Harps and Cherebin, Dempsey, and Cita from the Skylarks. Not long after, Billy Brown replaced Cherebin, and Nicky Clark, from The Five Crowns joined the group. The group was influenced by the Five Keys, The Swallows, and The Larks. The Harps was thought to be the first doo-wop group to have a full time arranger in the group.
The group's first paying job was in New Jersey at the Piccadilly Club they made $100.00 for two nights work. After that the group started working all over New York and New Jersey, and even performed on a local TV show called Spotlight On Harlem.
The groups big test came in 1953, they felt ready for the Apollo's amateur night. As the Skylarks the group had tried the Apollo in 1951 and were booed off the stage. This time would be different, The Harps sang a rendition of a 1947 hit by Jo Stafford, "Sunday Kind Of Love", the audience loved them.
Now here's the twist of fate that made The Harps one of the most popular groups without a national hit. The group met a representative from MGM Records and were set to meet with him after the show. They also met Leo Rogers of Bruce Records, who introduced the group to his partners, who loved the group's sound and talked the group into signing with Bruce Records. They signed with the wrong label!
The group found out that there was another group called The Harps, so Cita changed the group's name to The Harptones.
"Sunday Kind Of Love" was the group's first single, and the group's rendition of the song with Winfield's velvety voice became a classic. The song became a hit in the tri-state area and got a lot of airplay. The group soon found that a group out of Baltimore had covered their song. The cover did ok, but the superior quality of The Hartones' version won out and the record sold well, but didn't make the national charts. Their B side "I'll Never Tell" even got airplay.
In early 1954 the first of Cita's many songs came out, "My Memories Of You" had tight five part harmony, and Winfield was so smooth on this cut. As great as the groups songs were it soon became clear that Bruce Records did not have any national clout.
"I Depend On You" was the group's next release, Nicky Clark lead on this song, Winfield miss the session that night. The next single was "Why Sould I Love" and it took 22 takes to get it right, and unknown to the group The Four Lads were right down the hall covered the song and made it a B side on one of their records. The group's version still went to #25 on the pop charts.
The group found themselves being loaned to other labels to do backup work for other groups, because the label owners owed favors.
Buddy and Ella Johnson suggested that the group record "Since I Fell For You", the song started out in unison and then the group started weaving their voices in and out behind Winfield's beautiful lead. Bruce Records was unable to take advantage of the song and couldn't move the song past the tri-state area.
The Hartones appeared at Alan Fredd's historic Rock & Roll Ball, with an all-star line up. The show included The Drifters, The Clovers, The Moonglows, Joe Turner, and Fats Domino.
The group's last release with Bruce Records in 1955 was a cover of Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind".
In June of 1955 the group signed with the Old Town label and released a song that Cita had written two years earlier, "Life Is But A Dream". The song has become a street corner classic and everyone tries to do the opening line "Will you take part in" to show off their voices.
In September of 1955, the group played another big show a week long Alan Freed show, featuring, The Moonglows, Chuck Berry, The Nutmegs, The Cardinals, and Tony Bennett.
The group recorded one record for Leo Rogers' Andrea label.in 1956. The group changed again and included Winfield, Jimmy, Dempsey, and Bobby Spenser. This version of The Harptones re-record "My Memories Of You".
Feeling that their songs weren't being promoted properly, the group went back to George Goldner's labels in the summer of 1956. The first single from this effort was "That's The Way It Goes", the tight harmonies of the song made the song the group's favorite song.
In 1956 The Harptones appeared in the first R&B motion picture, Rockin' the Blues, along with The Wanderers, The Hurricanes, Linda Hopkins, The Miller Sisters, and DJ Hal Jackson. The group toured and appeared in all the big shows with the popular groups of the time.
The Harptones were very innovative with their on stage dancing, they moved so much that the audience was amazed that they could sing at all.
The group's last single for Goldner's Rama Records was a cover of The Royals' "The Shrine Of St. Cecilla", this was Bill Brown last recording with the group.
The group didn't release another record until late 1957, the song was "Cry Like I Cried", and was recorded on Goldner's Gee label. The was the group's first use of horns.
1959 found the group on the Warwick label, where they released "Laughing On The Outside", a remake of a 1953 song by Jimmy Beckum.
The Harptones moved around from label to label and had different members over the next few yew years. The last new recording with Winfield was "Sunset", written by his lawyer's son. The group was always popular on the road so their records kept getting re-released by their old labels. The Harptones continued without Winfield. in 1965 a group called The Soothers, the group was The Harptones without Winfield and Dempsey.
In 1970 Winfield, Dempsey, Curtis Fred and Raoul regrouped for a rock and roll revival at the Academy of Music and stayed together until 1972, when Winfield and Raoul added Linda Champion and Lowe Murray to form the current Harptones.
In 1981 the group recorded an LP called "Love Needs The Harptones".
After 39 years Winfield, Raoul, and company are still playing clubs and singing their trademark songs, "Life Is But A Dream", and "Sunday Kind Of Love".
The Harptones have thousands of fans and are considered one of the great groups of all times. I AGREE!!

SIDE BAR
In the Washington Post obituaries dated March 30, 2010, there was a notice of the passing of Johnny Maestro. Maestro was a doo-wop pioneer, as a member of the Crest, Maestro was part of one of the first interracial siging groups of the 50's. The group's best song was "16 Candles". After The Crest Maestro joined a New York group called Brooklyn Bridge, in 1968,and was lead on their big hit, "The Worst That Could Happen". Maestro's last show was January 17, 2010, when The Brooklyn Bridge, appeared at The Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut, in a show billed as The Ultimate Doo-Wop Party.
Johnny Maestro will be missed by all of his fans and everyone that loves DOO-Wop!
Please say a prayer for Johnny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need some suggestons for my next blog, come on guys, who do you want to read about. Please send comments and suggestions, I love doing this, but I need help.

THEY SHOULD'DA BEEN DOO-WOP

2010-03-04T20:16:00.014-05:00

This installment is about the solo artist and groups that weren't considered Doo-Wop, but either their style or their early careers make them seem like Doo-Wop to me.
We're going to look at Patti LaBelle and The Bluebells, Etta James, Jackie Wilson, Carla Thomas, Gene Chandler, and The O'Jays.

Patti LaBelle and The Bluebells
Patti LaBelle was born Patricia Louise Holt in Philadelphia, PA. Known as Patsy to her friends and family, Holt formed her first group, called The Ordettes, with three friends in 1959. In 1960 two of the original members left and were replaced by Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash. Not long after the third original member of the group was replaced by Cindy Birdsong. The group left school and toured local clubs, honky tonks, and truck stops.
The Ordettes almost never got to record, because at an audition with Newton Records, Holt was considered too plain, too dark, and not very attractive. That was until she started to sing! To spice Patti up a bit, a name change was suggested, she went from Holt to LaBelle, and the group changed their name to The Bluebells.
The Bluebells first release "I Sold My Heart To The Junkman" was really recorded by The Starlets, but was released as a Bluebell song due to a contract dispute with The Starlets and their label. The song went to #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. The group became a hit on the Chitlin' Circuit, earning national fame at the Apollo. We all know that Patti LaBelle and The Bluebells went on to great fame over the years. And if you listen to their version of "Down The Isle", "Danny Boy", and the Doo-wop song that almost every group recorded, "You'll Never Walk Alone", with the old time church feel, that's neither R&B or Pop, you'll understand why I say that in Patti LaBelle and The Bluebells early career "They Should'da Been Doo-wop"!!

ETTA JAMES
Born Jamesette Hawkins in Los Angeles, in 1938, Etta James went on to fame in the R&B world, but before then she started out in what was considerd race music. James moved with her family to San Francisco in 1950. She soon teamed up with two friends and formed a doo-wop group called The Peaches. Johnny Otis heard them and had them audition for him. The group sang an answer to Hank Ballard's song "Work With Me Annie" called "Roll With Me Henry". Without her mother permission, The Peaches went to Los Angeles to record the song. The group recorded the song for Modern Records. The group changed the name of the song to "The Wallflower" (Dance With Me Henry). The song was released in 1955. The song went to #2 on the R&B charts, but was quickly covered by Georga Gibbs. The success of the song got the group a chance to go on tour with Little Richard. As the success of the song faded Etta and the group split, but this didn't stop Etta from finding her own way to success.
In 1960 Etta signed with Chess Records, singing on their Argo label and later on their Cadet label. Etta started making hits, starting with "If I can't Have You", "Spoonful", but her big hit was "All I could Do was Cry", the song went to #2 on the Billboard R&B chart. Etta followed those songs with "My Dearest Darling", and then came "AT LAST". Every doo-wop group that was worth anything sang "At Last". And then came another doo-wop favorite "Sunday Kind Of Love". After the success of these songs Etta started moving away from those kind of songs and went more to R&B, but when you listen to early Etta James you understand why I say she "Should'da been doo-wop".

JACKIE WILSON
Jackie Wilson's first venture into music came when he formed a group called The Falcons, which included his cousin Levi Stubbs, who would later lead The Four Tops of MOTOWN fame. Wilson was another Johnny Otis discovery. Otis moved Wilson to a group called The Thrillers. That group would later become the Royals, who would later become the Midnighters, but Wilson had left the group by this time. Wilson recorded two versions of "Danny Boy" with Dizzyy Gillespie's label Gee Dee Records using the name Sonny Wilson, his nick name.
In 1953 Wilson joined Billy Wards Dominoes, after an audition to replace Clyde McPhatter, who had left to form his own group, The Drifters. Billy Ward is credited with changing Wilson's name from Jack to Jackie for the stage. Wilson was coached by McPhatter to ensure that the sound of The Dominoes stayed true to what Ward wanted. Wilson was lead for the group for three years, but it seems that the group was never the same after McPhatter's departure. Wilson went solo in 1957 and he and Levi Stubbs found work at Detroit's Flame Show Bar, owned by music publisher Al Green. Green worked a deal for Wilson with Decca Records, and Wilson was signed to the Brunswick label.
Soon after Wilson signed his contract Green died, but his partner took over as Wilson's manager. Wilson's first release was "Reet Petite", written by Barry Gordy, Roquel Davis, and Gordy's sister Gwen. This trio of song writers would write nine hits for Wilson, including "To Be Loved", "That's Why I Love You So", "I'll Be Satisfied", and "Lonely Teardrops"
In later years Wilson would sing some operatic ballads and some easy listening material, but he would return to his roots with songs like "Doggin Around", "Night", "Alone At Last", and "My Empty Arms". All of these songs made the charts. Wilson had a lull in his career between 1964 and 1966, but had a hit in 1966 with "(Your Love Keeps Liftng Me)" "Higher and Higher".
If you love Jackie Wilson like I do and you know his story, than you understand why I say Wilson "Should'da been doo-wop".

CARLA THOMAS
Carla Thomas was born December 21, 1942 in Memphis Tennesee. Her father was the legendary Rufus Thomas. Carla grew up in a house full of music, Carla and her siblings were musically gifted, and performed amateur shows around town with their father as MC. These shows gave Carla a view of the music world and gave her footing for her rise to The Queen of the Memphis sound. Carla performed with a local group that was sponsered by the Black radio station in Memphis. The group was called The Teen Town Singers. Even though the rules stated the members had to be teenagers, Carla got in at ten years old, because Rufus was a radio personality. One of the members of the group at the time was Issac Hayes.
While Carla released albums into the 2000's, she is best known for her work Atlantic and Stax Records in the 60's. Carla's first record was a duet with her father called "Cause I Love You". The record got the attention of Jerry Wexler. Wexler stole Carla from Satelite Records and distibuted the song which paved the way for Carla's biggest hit, "GEE Whiz". "Gee Whiz" would chart at #5 on the R&B chart and #10 on the pop chart. The song was first recorded at the Thomas family home. Rufus shopped the song to Vee-Jay Records in Chicago, but dispite their interest, Vee-Jay never moved on the song. Rufus took the song back to Memphis and the record was distributed through Atlantic Records and became an overwhelming success. Carla was propelled into the visual spotlight and was soon on American Bandstand. Carla said she thought the song was young sounding and was surprised at the song's success. The song also did wonders for Stax Records a subsidary of Atlantic Records. Carla didn't have the same success with future recordings. She did however record some memorable songs, "I'll Bring It On Home To You", an answer to Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me", in 1962, "Stop Look What You're Doing", in 1965, "Let Me Good To You", and "B-A-B-Y" in 1966. In 1967 Carla recorded her second best song "Tramp" with Otis Redding.
Carla, like a lot of doo-wop artist, had one giant hit and some songs that charted, but nothing as big as the first one. With that in mind and the kind of music Stax was making at the time, you see why I say Carla "Should'da been doo-wop".

GENE CHANDLER
Gene Chandler was born Eugene Dixon, July 6, 1937, in Chicago. Chandler's music career started in the early 50's with a group called The Gaytones. In 1957 Chandler joined a doo-wop group called The Dukays. The group included Chandler, James Love, Shirley Jones, Earl Edwards and Ben Broyles, and Chandler soon became lead singer.
Chandler was drafted into the Army, but returned to the group in 1960. The group's first record, "The Girl Is A Devil" was with Nat Records in 1961. The group also recorded "Nite Owl". Chandler recorded as Gene Dixon with The Dukays and as Gene Chandler for his solo work. Vee-Jay Records, recorded and released The Dukay's "Duke Of Earl", but gave all of the credit for the song to Chandler. "Duke Of Earl" sold over a millin copies in one month. The song spent three weeks on the Billboard charts at #1. After the success of the song Chandler started wearing a cape and top hat and became "The Duke Of Earl. Chandler appeared in his Duke outfit in the movie Don't Knock The Twist in 1962. Chandler's concerts became popular and his encore song became "Rainbow '65 one his collaborations with Curtis Mayfield. Chandler recorded "Rainbow three times in his career, and each time it became a hit.
Chandler had another hit with "Just Be True" in 1964, the song was produced by Curtis Mayfield, and landed in the top 20. Chandler had more hits with "Nothing Can Stop Me", "What Now", "A Man's Temptation", "Bless Our Love" over the next five years. Chandler also scored with "You Threw A Lucky Punch" which was ment to compete with Mary Well's "You Beat To The Punch".
Chandler got into the production side of the business in the 70's, and continued to preformed as the Duke in doo-wop shows around the country.
I think because of his background and his popularity on the oldies circuit Gene Chandler "Should'da been doo-wop".

THE O'JAYS
The O'Jays were formed in 1958 at Canton McKinley High School in Canton, Ohio. The group was first called The Triumphs, then The Mascots. The group's first recording was "The Miracles", in 1961. The song was moderate hit in Cleveland. In 1963 the group change their name again to The O'Jays in honor of a local DJ, Eddie O'Jay. As The O'Jays their first recording was "Lonely Drifter", which went national. The group charted throughout the 60's with songs like "Lipstick Traces", "Stand In For Love", "Let It All Out", "I'll Be Sweeter Tomorrow", "Deeper In Love With You", and "One Night Affair".
To me "Deeper In Love With You" sounds like a doo-wop jump song, so in my mind if these early songs had been arranged in five part harmony The O'Jays "Should'da been doo-wop".
The O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2004, and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2005.

Now I know some of you won't agree with me on some of these groups, so let's hear some comments, I need feed back so that I can continue to provide you with these blogs.

Next up The Jive Five, The Pastels, Earl Lewis and The Channels, and The Hartones. If there are any groups that you want to read about please let me know.

See you next time!!!!

THE LADIES OF DOO-WOP

2010-02-20T20:36:00.007-05:00

In this installment we're going look at some of the girls groups of the 50's and early 60's. For the most part the girl groups weren't considered doo-wopers, but as we look back there are afew groups that would fit the bill. With the exception of the Shirells, and the Chantels most of the early girl groups came and went without much notice.
We'll look at The Bobbettes, The Crystals, Shirley Gunter and The Queens, The Teen Queens, The Deltairs, The Primettes, and The Poni-Tails.

The Bobbettes
The Bobbettes were formed in Harlem, New York in 1955. At first they called themselves The Harlem Queens. They met as young ladies while singing at the Glee Club at P.S. 109 in Harlem. The group was discovered by James Dailey, a record producer who became their manager, while playing a concert at the famed Apollo. They were signed to Atlantic Records.
In 1957 the girls released their first hit "Mr. Lee", an uptempo tune where the group proclaims their devotion for their school teacher. The girls actually disliked the real life Mr. Lee. The original lyrics were a put down to the real Mr. Lee, but the label insisted that the lyrics be changed. The song became the group's biggest hit, it peaked #6 on Billboard Pop chart and spent 4 weeks at #1 on the R&B chart. This made The Bobbettes the first girl group to have a #1 R&B hit that also made the Pop top 10.
After the release of some novelty songs for Atlantic, that didn't score, the group recorded the original "I Shot Mr. Lee". Atlantic refused the song and the group left the label and signed with Teddy Vann, and a new version of the song was recorded on the Triple-X label, the song went to #52 on the Billboard Hot 100, which forced Atlantic to release the first version of the song.
Over the years they recorded a series of songs that didn't move, the group disbanded in 1974.
The Bobbettes were nominated for induction into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

The Crystals
The Crystals were a girl group out of New York, and are considered one of the defining girl acts of the early 60's. Between 1961 and 1964 the group charted hits with songs like, "Uptown", "He's A Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me". All of the songs were producd by Phil Spector and featured three different leads.
The original group included Barbara Alston, Mary Thomas, Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew, Myrna Girard and Patricia "Patsy" Wright. The group signed with Phil Spector's Phillies Records. Phil Spector choose Alston to lead the group even though she was afraid of singing in front of audiences.
The groups first hit was "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", in 1961, the B-side was "Oh Yeah , Maybe Baby", with Wright on lead. The song was written by Spector and Leroy Bates, and reached #20 on the Billboard chart, giving Spector a good start for his new label. The group's second hit was "UpTown" written by Brill Building writers Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Alston was the lead on this song. Their next song was "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. The song had touchy subject about men hitting women, had limited airplay, but still has an underground following.
After "He Hit Me" failed, Spector started recording Darlene Love and her group The Blossoms as The Crystals. As the story goes, The Crytals weren't able to travel from New York to LA in time for a recording session. Spector wanted to record "He's A Rebel", a Gene Pitney written song, before anyone else could. Darlene Love and The Blossoms were available because they were based in LA. Spector recorded Love and her group as The Crystals. The best story is that Vikki Carr was recording "He's A Rebel at the same time as Spector. The Shirells had turned down the song because of it's anti establishment lyrics. The song marked a shift where girls stated singing about falling love with bad boys instead of the he's so sweet kind of guy. " He's A rebel" was The Crystal's only US #1 hit. The Crystals next hit was "He's Sure The Boy I Love" was also sung by Darlene and The Blossoms. It reached #11 on Billboard and had a spoken intro by Darlene Love.
The next release by the Crystals had to be one the strangest releases ever. The song was "Let's Dance To The Screw". No-one knows the real story, but most agree the Spector wanted to upset his former business partner Lester Sill. The song was six minutes long and was not playable on the radio in 1963. The song had basic instrumentation and Spector himself intoning "Dance The Screw. No-one knows if this group was The Crystals or The Blossoms. The single was never released commercially and the only copies to be found are marked DJ copy not for sale.
The real Crystals returned to the studio in 1963, but by this time Thomas had left the group. Alston never liked being on lead, finally gave it up and Brooks took over. Brooks had been singing Alston's lead in live shows for awhile. After "Let's Dance The Screw" the group's next release was "Da Doo Ron Ron" It has been said the the song was recorded by Darlene Love and her Blossoms, with Love on lead, but prior to release Spector erased Love's voice and replaced it with LaLa Brooks voice, and kept The Blossoms in the background. A soon to be discovered Cher was also in the background. The song hit the top 10 in the US and the UK. "Then He Kissed Me" was the first single since "He Hit Me" that featured all members of the Crystals as a definite group.
In 1964, because of lack of attention from Spector and a dispute over royalties, The Crystals were very unhappy with Spector. The group left Phillies Records and moved to United Artist Records in late 1964.
Wright left the group in 1964 and was replaced by Frances Collins, the group became a trio after Alston left. The group didn't have much success after this and disbanded in 1967. They reunited in 1971 and are still performing today.

Shirley Gunter and The Queens
Shirley Gunter and The Queens formed the group with some high school friends, pushed into it by her brother Cornel, future member of The Coasters. The group is considered the first real all-female Doo-Wop group. The group's 1954 recording of "Oop Shoop", is the first record to be written, and performed successfully by a group of young Black women. The song was recorded on Flair Records, and it was brother Cornel, who arranged for the girl's audition with the Bihari brothers owners of Flair Records.
Gunter recorded as a solo act at first, but it wasn't until Shirley had her friends join with her that things started to move. The uptempo "Oop Shoop", was recorded in just a couple of takes, and as some say the rest is rock & roll history.
Shirley recorded with The Queens before teaming up with her bother and the group called the Flairs. Shirley had an almost hit with a song called "Headin' Home". Shirley went solo again, but never had a major hit, not because she didn't have the talent, or for lack of effort, it just seems that the public wasn't ready.
It's been said that "Oop Shoop" lyrics and dance beat set the standard for future groups like The Bobbettes.
In a recording career the was only three years long, Shirley was part of the first female doo-wop group, written her own hits, and gave rock & roll it's first big female hit "Oop Shoop", Shirley was a big hit.

THE TEEN QUEENS
The Teen Queens were formed in the early 50's and are most rembered for their hit "Eddie My Love", recorded in 1956. The song went to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The group consisted of sisters Betty and Rose Collins, their brother was Aaron Collins of The Cadets. Aaron wrote "Eddie My Love", the song was released by RPM Records, but "Eddie MY Love" was their only hit dispite the release of a string of songs.
The group left RPM in 1958 and signed a one song contract with RCA Records, where they released "Dear Tommy", which failed to make the charts. The group then signed with Antler Records, however they had little success. The group disbanded in 1961.
The song "Eddie My Love" was covered by The Chordettes, and The Fontane Sisters, the song made the charts with both groups.

THE DELTAIRS
The Deltairs were formed in the South Jamaica projects of New York in 1955. The group came in second in a senior year talent show at Central Commercial High School. The original name was The Centraltone Debs, before switching to The Deltairs. The group included Mae Brown, Carol Stansbury, Henrietta Roper, and someone named Joyce.
After graduation Brown got married and Stanabury lost track of Roper and Joyce. Not wanting to give up music, after a few months Stansbury recruited her sister Thelma and a friend Shirley Taylor and The Deltairs were re-born. The group practiced with other young groups, like The 5 Sharps, The Beltones and The Cleftones. There was a fourth member of the group Barbara Lee who became a permanent member of the group.
At her job Carol Stansbury, became friends with Al Browne, a pianist and band leader. Browne introduced the group to Malcolm Dodds who told the group about a talent show at the boys club, they came in second. Malcolm liked the groups harmony and helped them with their arrangements.
In 1955 there weren't a lot of female groups around so the groups that influenced the girls were male groups. The group arranged their own versions of some of the standards of the day such as "Danny Boy", "That Lucky Old Sun", and "You'll Never Walk Alone".
The group played small clubs and schools when they could find work. In 1957 Shirley Taylor brought in a friend, Barbara Thompson and the four became five. Also in 1957 Al Browne introduced the girls to Stan Feldman, and Ed Portnoy, who became their managers. Wanting to showcase their talent, Feldman and Portnoy, formed Ivy Records.
At their first session with Ivy Records, the group recorded four songs, two of the songs were "Lullaby Of The Bells", and "Standing At The Altar", two songs that were written by Stansbury. The other two songs were "It's Only You Dear" written by Al Browne and Oliver Hall, and "I Might like It" written by veteran songwriter George Weiss. The orchestra was lead by Al Browne himself. Barbara Thompson led Lullaby Of The Bells", with Barbara Lee singing bass. Thomson and Stansbury teamed up on "It's Ony You". This recording was The Deltairs first record and the first release by Ivy Records. Later Portnoy teamed with Paul Winley of Winley Records (Remember that name??) to form Porwin Records, which recorded The Clovers in 1960.
The record started moving in the New York area and the group got booked on a show put on by DJ Hal Jackson at the Hunts Point Palace in the Bronx. The show included The Bobbettes, The Rays, The Chantels, The Dubs, The Rob-Roys, and a few more groups. The song did so well that the group was booked for a week at The Apollo in december of 1957. The show included some heavy weights in music, Bo Diddley, The Moonglows, The Drifters, Big Maybelle, The Dells, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Priscilla Bowman, and The Reuben Phillips Orchestra. In January of 1958 the group appeared on Paul Sherman's first show at the St. Nicholas Arena, with Roy Hamilton, The Dubs, Thruston Harris and others. The group played the Chittlin' Circuit and appeared at the Uptown in Philly, the Howard, in D.C., and the Royal in Baltimore. They sang "Come Go With Me" on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, and sang "Lullaby Of The Bells" on American Bandstand.
The Deltairs recorded more songs with the Ivy Label, but with no real success. Feldman and Portnoy brought in Bennie Benjamin and George Weiss to run the label while they spent their time recording artist. Benjamin wanted to be the girls manager but one of the parents didn't like Benjamin so the girls dropped Benjamin. Feldman and Portnoy farmed the group out to other labels. They made a deal with Feisted Records to take over the group. The group released a single on the label in 1958. Feldman, Portnoy and Weiss formed Evergreen Enterprises, a talent management company, to handle The Deltairs, and other groups.
Things started going bad with Evergreen, the girls weren't getting paid and had to buy their own outfits, and provide their own transportation, and they weren't getting much work.
Bennie Benjamin came through for the girls by introducing them to song writer Lincoln Chase. The group later recorded two of Chase's songs, "One Billion Seven Million Thirty-three", and "You're Such A Much" for the Hamilton label in late 1958, as The Tranquils.
Thompson left the group in early 1959 and was replaced by Stansbury's other sister Rose. The group struggled through 1960 and were working mostly on weekends. They had quit trying to sing for a living, but were now doing for the fun of it.
A lot of the oldies DJ's don't play "Lullaby Of The Bells" as often as they should, but the song is a solid oldies hit in New York.

THE PRIMETTES
The Primettes were formed in the mid 50's in Detroit, by Florence Ballard. The members of the group were Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Betty McGlown, later known as Betty Travis.
The Primettes were one of the most sought out backup groups for the many small recording labels in Detroit. The group had auditioned for Barry Gordy, but were turned away and told to come back after they graduated high school. Song writer Richard Morris introduced the group to Bob West, the owner of Lupine Records. West signed the group to his label mainly to backup and sweeten the vocals on other artist recordings. MOTOWN was the group's first love and they hung around MOTOWN as much as possible. The Primettes recorded a single on Lupine in 1959, the song was not released until 1964 after The Primettes had become The Supremes and were having some success. The single was "Pretty Baby/Tears Of Sorrow", which sounded much like what would be known as the Supreme sound. Mary Wilson lead on "Pretty Baby" and Diana Ross lead on "Tears of Sorrow", at this time all members of the group would lead depending on the song.
The group was well liked in the many studios around Detroit, because they did what they were asked, were easy to coach, and had a great sound in the background. McGlown left the group and was replaced by Barbara Martin. Martin would sing on some of The Supremes fist recordings, but would not be pictured or listed as a Supreme. The Primettes backed up so many groups that it is impossible to track all of their recordings. They recorded for many labels including Lupine, Cub, Correc-Tone, and Pussy Cat labels.
All of the hard work finally paid off in 1961 when the group was signed to MOTOWN. Gordy didn't like the name Primettes and Florence Ballard suggested The Supremes and the name stuck. Before the group changed their name they recorded some unreleased tracks with MOTOWN. These song didn't surface until 30 years later. The group backed up more than afew of MOTOWN's list of recording artist.
By this time their friends The Primes had merged with The Distants and had become The Temptations. Contrary legend The Primes and The Primettes never appeared on stage together, they did however record an early version of "Not Now I'll Tell You Later" together. The song would be recorded again as The Temptations with The Supremes as backup.
The group had a string of eleven singles that went nowhere, but starting with "Where Did Our Love Go", the group had an impressive string of hits as The SUPREMES. The group became the standard for girl groups.
As the Supremes the group would collect every recording award possible, but as The Primettes they are hardly remembered.

THE PONI-TAILS
The Poni-Tails were formed in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. The group included Toni Cistone, Karen Topinka, and Patti McCabe. Tom Ilius, a music publisher signed the group to Point Records a local label. At Point the group recorded their first single, "Your Wild Heart"/"Que la Bozena". "Your Wild Heart " was covered and became a hit by someone else. The group's next release was "Can I Be Sure" on Marc Records, was a flop. Topinka left the group and was replaced by LaVerne Novak.
The group moved to ABC/Paramount and released "Just My Luck To Be Fifteen", another flop. Next the group released "Come On Joey, Dance With Me"/"Born To Late". "Born To Late" got a lot of radio play and became the group's first and only hit. The song went to #11 on the US R&B chart and #7 on Billboard Hot 100. Their next few releases did not chart very high. Their last single, "Who, When And Why" did not chart.
ABC/Paramount offered the group a five year contract, but the group turned them down, and the members of the group left the music industry. They reunited to play a Cleveland festival in 1997.

I know that some of these groups are new to some of you, but without these groups our beloved Doo-Wop would be a lot less colorful. The so-called "Girl Groups" forced
the male groups to be better out of fear of being out done by the girls.

I need some suggestions as to what groups you would like to read about next.

THE BIRD GROUPS OF DOO-WOP

2010-02-08T15:11:00.015-05:00

In the 50's and 60's there were quite a few groups named after birds. The most famous were The Ravens and The Orioles, we'll look at these two groups and others in this blog.

THE RAVENS
The Ravens have stood the test of time as one of the pioneering R&B groups. The Ravens were the first group to use a bass and falsetto tenor to lead , rather than just be in the background. The Ravens also were the first group to add dance steps to their act. Before The Clovers and The Orioles, The Ravens would use bits of jazz, blues, and gospel, to create a sound that appealed to more than just White audiences. This seems to time when the term RACE music got started.
The Ravens were formed by Jimmy Ricks, and Warren "Birdland" Suttles, two waiters from Harlem. The two went to the Evans booking Agency to recruit two more singers, Ollie Jones, and Leonard Puzey, and formed the group in 1945. They named themselves The Ravens and started a craze to name groups after birds. The group hooked up with Howard Biggs, who became their musicical arranager and wrote many of their songs.
The Ravens first appeared at The Club Baron in Harlem in 1946. That same year the group signed with Hub Records and their first single was a song called "Honey". They released two more singles, the best of the two was a jump tune called "My Sugar Is So Refined". They opened with this song when they appeared on a show with Nat King Cole at The Apollo. Puzey started the song singing lead, but when they switched leads and Ricks took over with his booming bass, he brought down the house. Ollie Jones soon left the group and was replaced by a falsetto tenor Maithe Marshall.
The group signed with National Records in 1947 and released a series of songs with Ricks on jump tunes and Marshall with his clear falsetto singing the ballards. Marshall called himself the "B' side singer. In later years fans of the Ravens would fight to get copies of Ravens records just for the "B" side.
In 1947 "Write Me A Letter" on National Records, became the first R&B record to reach #24 on the national charts, but didn't hit the R&B charts until january 1948. The Ravens were the first group to hit the pop charts before they hit the R&B charts. The groups second release for National established the group and it's sound internationally, the song was a rhythmic version of "Old Man River". It was said to have sold over two million copies.
Between 1947 and 1949 the group released a string of ballards and jump tunes for National Records. "Bye, Bye, Baby Blues" reached #13 on the Juke Box chart.
Even though The Orioles were a new group, in 1948, The Ravens covered their first release, "It's Too Soon To Know". The Orioles version reached #1, while The Ravens version only reached #11.
The group started touring on the legendary chitlin circuit, a series of venues on the East Coast and Midwest where thousand of R&B acts performed.
In 1948 National released the groups version of "White Christmas", it went to #9 on the juke box chart. It's been said that this inspired The Drifters version of 1954, almost a note for note copy. The group also had a thrilling ballard version of "Silent Night". In 1949 "Ricky's Blues" went to #8 on juke box. The group's last single with National Records, was "Lilacs In The Rain" with Marshall on lead.
The Ravens signed with Columbia Records in 1950, releasing a number of great songs like the Ricks led "Time Takes Care Of Everything" and the Marshall led "I'm So Crazy For Love". The group recorded just a few singles for Columbia's Okeh affilliate before moving to Mercury late in 1951. With the exception of Ricks, this was an all new Ravens. Jimmy Steward replaced Puzey, Louis Frazier, replaced Heyward, and a falsetto named Joe Van Loan replaced Marshall.
The Ravens were considered one of the top drawer acts of the day, and at times recieved as much as $2,000.00 per show, which was a lot of money for the time.
Mercury issued some softer songs for the group, but they didn't hit the charts for two and a half years and the song was "Rock Me All Night Long". Their best sides for Mercury were "Who'll Be The Fool", and "September Song". Some think that the best ballard ever recorded by the group was the Joe Van Loan led "Don't Mention My Name" released in 1952. Even though three-fourths of the group was new, their sound was almost as good as the original group of the National Record days.
The group signed with Jubilee Records, but in the spring of 1956, Ricks decided to go solo. Van Loan did not want to quit just yet, so he recruited his brothers Paul and James, and David Bowers as the new Ravens. The group was able to maintain the true sound of The Ravens when they signed with Argo Records in 1956. With Van Loan on lead The Ravens had two moderate hits with "Kneel And Pray", and "A Simple Prayer". Van Loan was touching the sky with his glass breaking falsetto tenor. The groups last great hit was a cover of The Scarlets "Dear One" in the summer of 1957.
The groups manager, Nat Margo bought the Ravens name from Ricks, and from that point on a varity groups using the Ravens' name showed up on the circuit in the 60's and 70's.
While it's true Jimmy Ricks created one of the greatest doo-wop groups of all times, he neverd charted as a solo. He signed with a lot of labels overed the years, but finally moved to Florida to work with Count Basie. Ricks stayed active on the club circuit until he passed in 1974.

THE ORIOLES
The Orioles were formed by Earlington Carl Tilghman, (soon to be Sonny Til), in 1947. The original group included Til, Alexander Sharp, George Nelson, and Tommy Gaither. A wanna be song writer named Deborah Chessler discovered the group over the telephone and became their manager(see previous blog Deborah Chessler). In 1948 the group appeared as The Vibra-Naires, on the Arthur Godfrey radio talent show. Richard Williams was the bass for the show, but was replaced by Johnny Reed soon after. The group won a recording deal with a subsidiary of Jubilee Records. Jubilee owner, Jerry Blaine, changed the groups name to The Orioles. In July of 1948 Chessler wrote "It's To Soon To Know" on some toilet paper in a restroom. This was the group's first release. Til was on lead, and the song sold 30,000 copies which put the song at #1 on the R&B chart. Not only did The Ravens cover the song, but so did Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. It was the biggest race song to cross over to mainstream markets at the time.
The Orioles started touring all over and were moved off of the subsidiary label up to Jubilee. In 1949 they scored another hit with "Tell Me So", and again they were at #1 on the R&B charts but the song didn't cross over. The group had other hits that included "Forgive And Forget", and "Lonely Christmas". Unlike audiences at a Mills Brothers shows, where audience just sat there, The Orioles kept the audience excited, with girls screaming and trying to get to the stage and at Sonny Til. From 1948 to 1954 the group recorded over 120 sides for the National and Jubilee labels. By the late 1950 they were major stars, even though their hits had stop coming.
In 1950 a tragic car accident killed Gaither, and severly injured Nelson and Reed. Til and Sharp were in another car and didn't know about the accident until later. Til and Sharp performed as a duo for a short time, but soon added two new members, guitarist/second tenor, Ralph Williams, and pianist, Charlie Harris. Nelson and Reed both returned to the group. A year later the group had another accident, but this time no-one was hurt. In 1952 the group had a hit with "Baby Please Don't Go" which was an early 45 on red vinyl.
In 1953 Nelson left the group and was replaced by John Gregory Carroll, from the Four Buddies. Also in 1953 they recorded what was a country song by Darrell Glen. The song was "Crying In The Chapel", this song became the group's biggest hit, staying at #1 on the R&B charts for five weeks and reached #11 on the pop charts. This would be the group's last big hit. They had a minor hit later with "In The Mission Of St. Augustine". Williams left the group shortly in 1953, and in 1954 Chessler quit. In 1955 Reed left to join The Ink Spots. He was replaced by Maurice Hicks. The group disbanded in late 1955 or early 1956.
Left without a group Til took a group called The Regals and started The New Orioles. This new group included, Tex Cornelius, Diz Russell, Jerry Holeman, Billy Adams, and pianist Paul Griffin. With the new group Til found a new sound, and some of the old songs were re-recorded to fit the new sound. The group left Jubilee and moved to Vee-Jay Records. This group stayed together until 1957 when Cornelius left the group. Cornelius was replaced by Frank Todd, who lasted a short time and was replaced by Jimmy Brown. After Til's car was repossessed (the group's transportation), in 1959 Holeman and Russell left the group. This was the end of the second Orioles.
Til went solo for awhile, but then formed a third Orioles. This group included, Delton McCall, Billy Taylor, and Gerald Gregory from the Spaniels. This group lasted for awhile and recorded for Charlie Parker Records. Gregory left after a couple of years,and was replaced by Lawrence Joyner, this group split in 1960.
In 1966 Til met Bobby Thomas, a long time Oriole fan who had a group of his own. The group was call The Vibrannaires, (which was the Orioles original name). This group included Thomas, Clarence Young, Harry Accoo, and Mike Robinson. Thomas, Young, and Robinson joined Til as the fourth Orioles. This group recorded until 1975.
After the break-up of the fourth group, Til joined a version of The Ink Spots. With this group Til was able to be an Ink Spot one night and an Oriole the next. This group toured as both groups. Til formed another Orioles in 1977, with former members, Diz Russell, Jerry Holeman, and Billy Taylor. This group somtimes featured Eddie Palmer. The group was together until Til passed in 1981.
The group continued with Russell, Reese Palmer, Skip Mahoney, Larry Jordan and music director Eddie Jones. Jones and Mahoney were replaced by George Spann and Royal Height. Bobby Thomas later started his own Orioles.
There is still an Orioles group touring today, and they still sound great!!

THE FLAMINGOS
The Flamingos were founded in Chicago by cousins Jake and Zeke Carey. They recruited another set of cousins Paul Wilson and Johnny Carter that had met at a Black Messianic Jewish synagogue. Earl Lewis, (not from the Channels), soon joined the group. The group had many names before they settled on The Flamingos. Sollie McElroy replaced Lewis, who joined The Five Echoes. The group signed with Chance Records and their first single was "If I Can't Have You", was a moderate hit in Chicago. Their second single didn't fair much better. The group's reputation was established with a Johnny Carter written song, "Golden Teardrops". The song had Carters shrill falsetto backed up with some very complex harmonies. The group left Chance Records in late 1953 and signed with DJ Al Benson's Parrot Records. McElroy was there for the first recording session, but soon left the group and was replaced by Nate Nelson. Nelson lead on "I'm Yours", which was released in January 1955. Later that year the group moved to Chess Record's Checker label. Checker Records gave the group the materials they needed to score their first national hit, "I'll Be Home", which went to #5 on Billboard, and was covered by Pat Boone with incorrect lyrics. The group had some moderate hits with songs like, "A Kiss From Your Lips", "The Vow", and "Would I Be Crying", these songs still hold up as some of the greatest R&B records of all time. In 1956 The Flamingos appeared in Alan Freed's movie Rock, Rock, Rock.
Zeke Carey and Johnny Carter were both drafted that same year. Nelson, Jake Carey and Paul Williams, continued on with new member Tommy Hunt, and Terry Johnson who joined the group in 1956.
The group began recording for Decca Records in 1957. The group now included Nate Nelson, Tommy Hunt, Terry Johnson, Paul Wilson, and Jake Carey. The group recorded "The Ladder Of Love", but a dispute between Checker and Nelson ruined any chance of the song having any success. Zeke Carey returned to the group in 1958, making the group a sextet. When Johnny Carter was discharged, he joined The Dells, and stayed with them until he passed.
The Flamingos moved again to End Records and began recording for George Goldner (there's that name again), in New York. Goldner provided them with a more sophisticated sound. They weren't at End very long before they had a hit on the pop charts, "Lovers Never Say Goodbye", written by Terry Johnson, who shared lead on the song with Paul Wilson. This proved to be a winning formula and 3 of the next 12 songs were lead by Johnson and Wilson, on their first album "Flamingo Serenade". The group had a big hit with an old standard "I Only Have Eyes For You" in 1959. The song was recorded in 1934 by Dick Powell. The song has been featured in many movies and TV shows. The group then had a string of hits, which included, "Mio Amore", a Doc Pomus song, "Your Other Love", "Nobody Loves You Like Me" written by Sam Cooke, and "I Was A Fool". That same year the group appeared in Alan Freed's movie Go Johnny Go, songing "Jump Children". The group was known as much for their dancing as they were for their harmonnies. The Temptations and Tavares credit the group as influences.
The group started to fall apart in 1960. Tommy Hunt left for a solo career, Nelson and Johnson left and started The Modern Flamingos in 1961, and recorded as The Starglows for Atco records, in 1963. After some changes, some of the old names re-appeared. Zeke and Jake Carey, and Paul Wilson joined the new group, along with Billy Clarke, Eddie Williams, Alan Fontaine, and Julien Vaught. Clarke and Williams were the leads. A 6th vocalist, Doug McClure, was added in 1962. Clarke and Williams soon left the group. Wilson left in 1964, and Sidney Hall joined the group in 1966. Jake Carey's son J.C, joined the group in 1969. The group recorded several uptempo songs in the 60's, and got their first #1 on the UK charts, with "Ain't But Nothing A Party" during this time. Also at this time The Flamingos started their own label, Ronze, and starting producing their own recordings.
The group continued recording into the 70's and changed members many times over the years. The group appeared on the PBS Doo-wop 50 shows and flew in Tommy Hunt to work with them. Johnny Carter took time off from The Dells for the shows too. In 2005 the group split over a money dispute. There have been, and still are a number of Flamingos groups touring. Members of the group sued Pepsi Cola for using "I Only Have Eyes For You" without permission, the group was awarded $250,00.00.
The Flamingos were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2000, The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2001, and the Doo-Wop Hall Of fame in 2004. "I Only Have Eyes For You" was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame.
The Flamingos are considered one of the best Doo-Wop groups of all times!!

THE SWALLOWS
The Swallows were formed in Baltimore in 1946, but were first called The Oakateers. The group included Lawrence Coxson, Irving Turner, Earl Hurley and Norris Mack. The group practised on street corners until 1948, when they joined with Eddie Rich, and Frederick Johnson. Herman Denby was hired later. Turner left the group and became their valet.
The Swallows recorded "Will You Be Mine" in 1951, and the song is considered one of the first Doo-Wop hits. The song went to #9 on Billboard's R&B charts. In 1952 the group released "Beside You", which was the group's second national hit. The 78 year old Eddie Rich and The Swallows are still performing at clubs and cabarets all over the country.

THE PENGUINS
The Penguins were formed in 1953 by Cleveland Duncan and Curtis Williams, who were ex-members of a group called The Hollywood Flames. The two added Dexter Tisby, and Bruce Tate. At first their style was a cross between R&B and rock and roll.
The group took their name from Kool ciarettes, who used Willie the Penguin for advertising. Since the group was cool they decided to call themselves The Penguins.
When Williams joined the group, he brought with a song called "Earth Angel", that he had worked on while with The Hollywood Flames.
The group signed with Dootone Records, and recorded a single in 1954 with "Hey Senorita" as the intended "A" side, but somehow the DJ played the wrong side and played "Earth Angel" instead. "Earth Angel" went to #1 on the billboard charts and stayed there for 3 weeks in early 1955, Duncan sang lead on the song.
As was the custom of the time, if a song looked to be promising a white group would record and release a version of the same song at the same time. This happened with "Earth Angel", the white group in this case was The Crew-Cuts. Their cover of the song went to #3 on the Hot 100 chart five spot above The Pinguins' version. The success of this song launched the career of The Crew-Cuts as cover artist. More than a few singers made their careers as cover artist. Two of the more famous are Johnny Rivers, who stole from Chuck Berry and James Taylor, who robbed MOTOWN.
There was some dispute over who wrote "Earth Angel", so the credit was split between Curtis Williams, Gaynel Hodge, and Jesse Belvin. The song was influenced by Jesse and Marvin's #2 hit "Dream Girl", which contained many of the same vocal changes. The will you be mine phrase in the song came from The Swallows' song of the same name, "Will You Be Mine. The Hollywood Flames had recorded a song in 1953 called "I Know" which is a cord for cord layout of "Earth Angel", and had the same Curtis Williams' piano intro as "Earth Angel. The background harmony of repeated you-oo, you-oo, you-oo had been heard before in the Dominos' "These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You"
After their initial success the group asked Buck Ram to be their manager. Ram's main concern was The Platters, but he was able to make a two for one deal with Mercury Records, who agreed to take on The Platters so they could get The Penguins. As fate would have it, The Platters became the more successful act. The Penguins never had another hit.
In 1955 Bruce left the group and was replaced by Randy Jones (who would later sing with The Cadets). For awhile in 1956 Jones and Tisby were gone from the group. and were replaced by Ray Brewster, and Teddy Harper. Jones and Tisby returned then Williams left and Harper replaced him for good.
The group broke up in 1962, But Cleveland Duncan continued to record as The Penguins with Walter Saulsberry, and a group called The Viceoys as their backup. The group changed personell many times until Duncan was performing at times as The Fabulous Penguins.
The group performed on the PBS television special Doo-Wop 50 show. The Penguins were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2004.

THE WRENS
The Wrens were formed in 1950 by two friends from the Morrisania section of the Bronx. The friends were, Waldo (Champ Rollow) Champen, and Francis (Frenchie) Consepcion. The first group included Archangel (Archie) Oropeza, and Raoul McLeod. They sang together for awhile before drifting apart.
Determined to put a group together Concepcion, recruited two more singers, George Magnezid, James (Archie) Archer. They sang as a trio in the community center at PS 99, before adding a 4th member, Bobby Mansfield. Mansfield and Concepcion were the leads, Mansfield on uptempo songs and Concepcion on ballards. They admired the great groups of the day, The Clovers, The Ravens, and The Orioles. They practiced songs like "Red Sails In The Sunset", and "White Cliffs Of Dover" The group started appearing at community centers and amateur shows in the Bronx, Manhattan, and parts of New Jersey.
In 1954 the group heard about a talent contest being held by Freddy Johnson, an arranger/pianist. The group entered and won the contest, and Johnson became their manager.
After being urged by Johnson, Rama Records owner George Goldner (there's that name again) stopped by one of the group's rehearsals and liked what he heard. Goldner promised the group that if they signed with him, he would record them immediately. The group had a tentative agreement in place with another label, when Goldner made his offer. The group could not turn down Goldner's offer, so they signed with Rama Records. True to his word Goldner arranged a session for the group in late 1954. They recorded four songs at the session. The songs were "Love's Something That's Made For Two", Beggin' For Love", "Come Back My Love", and "Eleven Roses". The piano player was Freddy Johnson. For some reason Johnson parted with the group soon after the session, some think he was pushed out by Goldner. Goldner's policy was to have complete control of the groups on his labels. The first three songs were written by the group, but "Eleven Roses" was poem by Jack Wachs.
The Wren's first release was "Love's Something That's Made For Two"/"Beggin' For Love". Goldner said the record would be bigger than "Sh-boom". Rama Records didn't push the record very hard and the group only made a few promo appearances.
In early 1955, Rama released The Wren's second record, "Come Back My Love" backed by "Beggin' For Love", no-one knows why Rama used "Beggin' For Love" again. The group then recorded "Come Back My Love" again backed by "Eleven Roses". It was said that 1955 was a chaotic year for Rama Records and that a lot of strange things were happening.
Goldner may have liked The Wren's, but with gambling issues and his involvement with Morris Levy, Goldner was to busy to work with them.
The group released a number of songs, most written by Mansfield and Washington, but out of the blue, the name Vastola started showing up on the labels as a co-writer. This Vastola person was getting credit for songs he had nothing to do with. This name would appear on a number of songs recorded by Rama and Gee labels. As it turns out This person was Gaetano "Tommy" Vastola who was a business associate of Morris Levy (remember that name?).
The Wren's only had one big show and that was Alan Freed's Rock'n Roll Holiday Jubilee. The show ran for 10 days in the winter of 1955/56. The show was the last chance for the group to make it big, it didn't happen. The group drifted apart after the show. After the show Rama released a song that had been recorded earlier called "C'est La Vie". This was a great song but it didn't move, and this would the last time The Wrens' name would appear on a record.
The members of the group went their own way, some sang with other groups, and some tried solo carrers, but no-one had any great success.
The treatment of The Wrens and George Goldner was repeated many times with other groups. There were some very good groups that recorded for Goldner's labels, that never made it in the business. Some were neglected, but most were exploited by Goldner and his partners.

Robert & Johnny, The Falcons, The Clovers, and The Five Satins

2010-02-05T22:54:00.006-05:00

While I'm sure there was a lot of good information in my last blog, I'm equally sure that it was kind of boring. In my defense, I set you up. There are three names you need to take from the blog, and they are, Carole King, George Goldner, and Morris Levy. Their names will come up again and again as I talk about the artist of the doo-wop era.
Next up Robert & Johnny, The Falcons, The Clovers , and The Five Satins.

ROBERT AND JOHNNY
Robert Carr and Johnny Mitchell grew up in the same neighborhood and attended the same high school in the Bronx, a center of doo-wop activity.
The duo's style was to pause on a note when changing lead or when the two came together in the choruses. The duo made a number of recordings, but were really one hit wonders.
Robert & Johnny started recording for Old Town Records in 1956. "I Believe In You" was one of their first recordings. This estabished the duo in New York. "We Belong Together" put the duo on the list of all time great songs. The song went to #12 on the R&B charts and #32 on the pop charts in 1958. The duo however ended their recording career in late 1962 or early 1963.
Marv Goldberg's R&B notebooks list a number of recordings and shows that featured Robert & Johnny.
According to Goldberg the duo started in a group called The Royal Tones, which included Leo Macedon, Henry Wilkerson, and Eugene Tomkins. The group tried to get signed with Atlantic Records with a song called "Where will We Spend Eternity", which was written by Robert. Jerry Wexler liked the group and told them to get their parents consent so they could record for the label. The group broke up when Macedon's mother refused to sign. Robert then teamed up with guitar playing Johnny Mitchell. The two showed up at Hy Weiss' midnight auditions at the Tri-Boro Theater. Weiss was the owner of Old Town Records and was impressed with the two and hired them in early 1956. "I Believe In You" and "Train To Paradise" were released in April 1956, both sides got good reviews. Because of Old Town's bad distribution system the record never got out New York. Later in 1956 the duo recorded three more songs, "You're Mine", Million Dollars Bills", and "Your Kisses". At the same time Morris Levy (remember that name?) and his partners, purchased 50% of Old Town's Maureen Music publishing company and "You're Mine" and "Million Dollar Bills" were the first releases of the new set-up. Somehow Levy convinced Weiss to turn over local distribution of Old Town and Paradise labels to Tico Distributing. Tico was owned by George Goldner, who would become one of Levy's many many partners and victims. Levy also managed Alan Freed which made it easy for Levy to get songs from his labels played more often.
In November of 1956 the duo made their first of many trips to the famed Appollo as part of something called the Dr. Jive Show. They were at The Apollo again in February of 1957. In 1957 Robert and Johnny recorded "Don't Do It", "Broken Hearted Man", "Indian Marriage", "In The Rain" and "We Belong Together". January of 1958 found the duo at The Apollo again as part of another Dr. Jive Show. By February 1958 "We Belong Together" was a hit, and on March 25 of that same year they sang it on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, as well on his Saturday night show on the 29th. The song then became a hit in Los Angeles and made the national R&B charts at #12.
1958 and 1959 found the duo at The Apollo quite often.
In March 1959, the duo recorded "Dream Girl", "Oh My Love", "Bad Dan", and "Wear This Ring".
In April 1960 the duo were part of another Dr Jive show at The Apollo. In 1961 the duo joined an Oldies Show at The Apollo. They had become one New York's favorite acts.
Robert and Johnny finally left Old Town Records and like many of the artist that came in contact with Goerge Goldner and Morris Levy they wound up with little to show for their efforts.
The duo recorded many songs over the years, but are still considered ONE HIT WONDERS.

THE FALCONS
The Falcons formed in Detroit, in 1955, and were signed to Mercury Records. The first group Of Falcons included, Eddie Floyd, Bob Manardo, Arnett Robinson, Tom Shetler, and Willie Schofield. Their first hit was "You're So Fine" in 1959, on Lupine Records. Like most of the groups of the time there were many personnel changes over the years. Some of the people to pass through the group were, Joe Stubbs,(brother Of Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops), Wilson Pickett, Mack Rice, Lance Finnie and Robert Ward. Joe Stubbs would later become a member of The Contours and a member of The Originals, after that. Mack Rice was the first to sing "Mustang Sally" which would later become a hit for Wilson Pickett, after he left the group. Wilson Pickett was on lead when the group had a hit with "I Found A Love" on the Lupine label in 1962.
After Pickett left, the group broke up, but the name was carried on by a group called The Fabulous Playboys, who became The Falcons. That group included Carlis "Sonny" Monroe, James Gibson, Johnny Alvin, and Alton Hollowell. This group made the R&B charts in 1966 with "Standing On Guard".
From time to time various groups toured as The Falcons on the Doo-wop circuit.

THE FIVE SATINS
The Five Satins formed in 1954 in New Haven, Connecticut. The group included Fred Parris, Lou Peebles, Stanly Dortch, Ed Martin, and Jim Freeman. The group had little success, so Peebles and Dortch soon left the group, and Al Denby then joined the group.
The group recorded "In The Still Of The Night" as a b-side of a record called "The Jones Girls". "In The Still Of The Night" scored big, and charted at #3 on the R&B charts and #25 on the pop charts.
Parris went into the Army, and the group reorganized with Martin Freeman, Tommy Killebrew, Jessie Murphy, and new lead Bill Baker. This lineup had a hit with "To The Aisle" by Billy Dawn Smith.
When Parris returned from the Army the group reorganized again, this group consisted of Parris, Peebles, Sylvester Hopkins, Richie Freeman and Wes Forbes. This group was called Fred Parris and The Scarlets, until the Bill Baker lead group split-up. At this point Parris went back to being The Satins.
With more personell changes the group continued to record into the 80's, with no major hits. The Five Satins were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2003. The group still performs in the Northeast and record new material.

THE CLOVERS
The Clovers formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C. The group included Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added later. They were called The Four Clovers, with Bailey on lead. In an effort to perfect their sound, Shelton and Woods were pushed out of the group in 1948, and Matthew McQuarter and Harold Winley replaced them.
The group's break came in 1950 when Lou Krefetz became their manager. They signed with Rainbow Records in New York and released "Yes Sir, That's My Baby"/"when You Come Back To Me". Krefetz took the group to Atlantic Records and introduced them to Ahmet Ertegun, and the group signed with Atlantic in 1951. Guitarist Bill Harris was added to group about this time. The group made their first appearance at The Apollo in February of that year.
The Clovers first recording session with Atlantic produced three hits, "Don't You Know I Love You" went to #1 on the national charts, in 1951, "One Mint Julep" and "Fool, Fool, Fool, went to #1 in September of the same year.
Bailey went into the Army in 1952 and was replaced by John Phillip. Phillip was there for just a few months and was replaced by Charlie White, who had been with The Dominoes and The Checkers. White was fired in 1953 and was replaced by Billy Mitchell. The group was having little success with Atlantic at this time. Bailey came back from the Army in 1954, and rejoined the group making them a quintet. The group had a moderate success with "Devil or Angel" in 1955.
Mitchell left the group for a short time to chase a solo career, returning after deciding that he could do solo work and work with The Clovers.
Their contract with Atlantic expired, so Krefetz moved the group to his own label, Popular Records. Popular was sold to United Artist Records which put the group in touch with Leiber and Stoller. After a few recordings, the group had their biggest hit with "Love Potion #9" in July 1959, with Mitchell on lead. There are two versions of "Love Potion #9", the second version refered to love potion #10 and was played more often than the original.
After their United Artist contract expired in 1961 the group moved to Winley Records. The group had little success at Winley, and soon split. Lucas and Mitchell found two new members, James Walton and Robert Russell and recorded for Atlantic again. Bailey formed his own Clovers and recorded for Winley Records in 1962. Also in 1962 Mitchell left the group and was replaced by Roosevelt 'Tippie" Hubbard. The group recorded as Tippie and the Clovermen and Tippie and the Clovers for Tiger Records, a subsidiary of Rust Records. By the end of 1963 the group was a trio, consisting of Lucas, Bailey and Winley.
After The Searchers coverd "Love Potion #9, in 1965, some of the groups old tracks were leased to Pickwick International Records, who released an album called "The Original Love Potion #9 By The Clovers"
Lucas and Russell asked Hubbard and Walton to return, then added a 5th member Al Fox. They recorded as Tippie and The Wisemen for D.C's Shrine Records. When Fox left, the group went back to being The Clovers. Bailey fromed his owned version of The Clovers and re-recorded "Devil or Angel" and "Love Potion #9", for Lana Records in 1965. Harold Winley started a third Clovers group in 1968, which caused serious confusion, they recorded for Josie Records.
Russell passed in 1969 and was replaced by John Bowie. The group released a disco song called "Bump Jive" on D.C.'s Alladin Records in 1975. Soon after the release Walton passed and was replaced by Johnnie Mason. Tippie passed in 1980 and was replaced by Steve Charles.
At a reunion in 1988 in Austin, Texas. Lucas brought his Clovers and reunited with Bailey, McQuarter, and Winley. Lucas' group recorded for Ripete Records in Elliott, South Carolina.
Chuck Battle replaced Charles in 1990. Harold Lucas became ill and stop touring in 1993. The personell continues to change, but the group still tours and is popular on the doo-wop circuit.
The Clovers recieved the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, Pioneer Award in 1988, were inducted into The Doo-Wop Hall of Fame in 2001, inducted into The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2002, and inducted into The United in Group Harmony Hall Of Fame in 2002

As stated before we will see the names Leiber and Stoller, George Goldner, Morris Levy and Carole King over and over again. They where major players in the doo-wop era, along with many others, we'll try to get to them all.
Please send your comments and request so I can keep the blog going.

LABEL OWNERS, SONG WRITERS, AND PRODUCERS

2010-01-30T19:18:00.017-05:00

No matter how good a group was, they didn't make the charts if they couldn't find the right song, the right producer, or the right label! In most situations the groups needed a combination of all three elements.
While researching information for this blog, some surprises popped up. I knew that a large number of the groups that sang doo-wop were Black, and a smaller number were Italian, and a smaller number were Puerto Rician, but it's the other numbers that got me. It seems that while most of the groups were minorities, most of the management were non-minorities, mostly Jewish. It seems that the music buisness was a metaphor for what was happening across the country, racism and corruption was rampant through out the industry. Most of the people I'll write about in this blog, tried to be fair, but we'll also talk about some of the people who were deep into the corruption.

Let's start with DEBORAH CHESSLER.
According to Rolling Stone Magezine, Deborah Chessler was a young White girl working in a shoe store when her dream came true. In 1948, 18 year old Chessler, was a wanna be song writer. Chessler had one song, ("Tell Me So") that had been recorded, but it flopped bad. A friend ask Chessler to listen to a group over the telephone. The group was led by a young, Erlington Tilghman, soon to become Sonny Til, the group was called The Vibranaires. The sound she heard was the sound she was looking for. The rest is doo-wop history.
The writer of the Rolling Stone's article, tells how Chessler had to fight the established pattern of racism, sexism and corruption to make things happen. After a lot of hard work, Chessler got the group a contract with Jerry Blaine, owner of the Jubilee label. It was Blaine who changed the groups name to The Orioles. In true doo-wop tradition, Chessler wrote the groups smash hit, "To Soon To Know", on a roll of toilet paper in a rest room.
Most Black groups of the day, like The Mills Brothers and The Ink Spots, aimed their music at White audiences, but The Orioles did just the opposite. They went straight for the Black auduence, with the lyrical impressions of a young White woman, the group was a success. The song went to #1 on the "race" charts and #13 on the pop charts. "To Soon To Know" has been covered by many singers over the years.
In later years Chessler was there to discover eight year old Leslie Uggams.

FLORENCE GREENBERG
Here's a story of an unlikely housewife who turned the music world on it's head when she took an unknown girl group and made them stars. Florence Greenberg was a female pioneer in a male dominated world of Rhythm and Blues. Greenberg said of herself, that she was a triple anomaly: A "White woman" who is in a "Black Business", and "who couldn't carry tune". What she did have was a triple treat "an ear for popular music", "a sharp eye for talent", and "a driving ambition", which worked great for her and the rest of the music loving world. Greenberg is responsible for introducing The Shirelles to the world. Greenberg wrote "Soldier Boy" for the group, and recorded them on her Tiara label. Her labels also produced 60's hits like, "Louie Louie", by the The Kingsmen, "Twist And Shout" by The Isley Brothers, and "Walk On By", by Dionne Warwick. Greenberg also produced "Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head" sung by BJ Thomas and was on the soundtrack of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and won an academy Award in 1969.
After the release of "I Met Him On A Sunday" Greenberg made the rounds of all the radio stations and pestered DJ's until she got the song played. The song was such a hit that the demand for the song was fantastic. So much so that her small Tiara label could not handle the orders, so Greenberg sold The Shirelles contract to Decca Records. Not realizing what they had, and thinking the group would be a one hit wonder, Decca returnd The Shirelles to Greenberg, who formed Sceptor Records. Over the next decade, Sceptor became an industry sensation.
Greenberg's eye for talent was never more evident, than when Burt Bacharach, played her a demo. Greenberg said she didn't like the song, but she loved the singer. The next day Bacharach, returned saying that he had signed a new young singer named Dionne Warwick. Partly because of The Shirelles, and Dionne Warwicks successs Gulf and Western offered $6 million for Greenberg"s Sceptor label in 1965, Greenberg declined. This turned out to be a bad choice, Greenberg's success had faded over the years and by 1977, Sceptor folded and Greenberg lost everything.
Bette Midler wanted to make a movie of Greenberg's life, but could not get the required rights from two of the surviving Shirelles, so plans for the movie are dormant.

LUTHER DIXON
Luther Dixon wrote many songs that were hits for many groups of the 50's and 60's, like The Shirelles. Dixon was hired by Florence Greenberg to work at her Sceptor label. Dixon was in charge of artist development, while Greenberg ran the company. The Shirelles had their first hit with Dixon's arrangement of CAROLE KING and GERRY GOFFIN'S song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".
Dixon produced many more hits including "sixteen Candles", "I Don't Want To Cry", "Soul Serenade, "MaMa Said", and "Big Boss Man".

VIVIAN CARTER
Vivian Carter was one of a few Black record company executives of the doo-wop era. Carter won a talent contest conducted by Al Benson in 1948, for new DJs in Chicago. She worked WGES in Chicago and later at WJOB in Gary, Indiana. In 1944 Carter met and would latter marry Jimmy Bracken, who would also become her business partner.
In 1953 the couple started a record company, called Vee-Jay Records taking it's name from their initials. During the 50's and 60's Vee-Jay grew to become a major independent record label with acts including The Spaniels, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Gene Chandler, and Jerry Butler, The four Seasons and for a while The Beatles.
Because of Carter's relationship with the radio industry she was able to get her groups played and attract new talent.
Carter passed in 1989, but the groups that she recorded and managed will keep her memory alive.

BERT BERNS
Bert Berns was born in the Bronx to Russian Jewish parents. Berns contracted rheumatic fever as a child, and this would affect him for the rest of his life. He turned to music and found comfort in the music of his Black and Latino neighbors. Berns danced the mambo as a young man and made his way to Havana Cuba. After his return he began a seven-year run, from an obscure song writer to the owner of his own labels.
Berns first hit was "A Little Bit Of Soap", by The Jarmels in 1961. A year later he scored with "Twist And Shout", by The Isley Brothers. The song was written by Berns and Phil Medley. Berns wrote for many labels including Wand, United Artist, Capitol, Laurie,MGM, Big Top, Old Town,Roulette, and Atlantic Records.
In 1963 Berns replaced Leiber and Stoller as staff producer for Atlantic Records, where he produced Solomon Burke's "Cry To Me", and "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love", The Drifters' "Under The Boardwalk" and "Saturday Night At The Movies", Barbara Lewis' "Baby I'm Yours" and "Make Me Your Baby", Little Ester Phillips, Wilson Pickettt, and LaVern Baker. Berns was one of the few producers to travel to London, where he produced acts for British Decca.
Berns passed in 1967 and a golden era of rock, soul and doo-wop passed with him. One of his last songs was "Piece Of My Heart", that was recorded by Erma Franklin, the song was covered by many artist over the years.
Berns' BANG and Shout Records catalogue is owned by Sony Music, but the Berns family owns the publishing operations originally called WEB IV Music.
Berns' list of songs cover doo-wop to soul to R&B and the list is long. Berns was not as well known as other Brill Building writers, but Berns should be listed among the most significant and influential of his generation and on par with the likes of Leiber and Stoller, Holland-Dozier-Holland. Berns is also credited with bringing soul,rock, and Latin rhythms together.

CAROLE KING
Born Carol Klein in Brooklyn, New York. Later she added an "e" to her first name and changed her last name to King.
King started out playing piano and moved on to singing and formed a singing group, called The Co-Sines while still attending James Madison High School. It was while she was attending Queens College that she met Neil Sedaka. She was his inspiration for his song "Oh Carol", and in response King wrote "Oh Neil". King befriended Paul Simon and Gerry Goffin who would play an important part in her life for years to come.
King and Goffin soon started writing songs together. Working for Aldon Music at the Brill Building, where hit songs were turned out on a regular basis in the 60's. The first Goffin-King hit was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", recorded by The Shirelles in 1961. Like a lot of King's songs "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" has been covered by to many singers to count, and is still being sung today.
King and Goffin married in 1960 and divorced in 1968, but their song writing relationship continued during the marriage and after.
Some of the songs out of King's book are: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", By The Shirelles, "Some Kind Of Wonderful", and "Up On The Roof" by The Drifters, "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" and "Loco Motion", by Little Eva, "Hey Girl" by Freddie Scott, "One Fine Day", The Chiffons, "Oh No Not My Baby", by Maxine Brown, "Don't Foreget About Me" by Barbara Lewis and " You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin.
As the 60's moved on, King's music changed with the times. King had many more hits in the following years, but it's her early years that are important to doo-wop lovers.
King has been inducted into the Song Writers Hall Of Fame, King and Goffin have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. King has Recieved four Grammy Awards and is look at as one of the greatest song writers around.

GEORGE GOLDNER
Goldner was born in New York, and original made his living as a garment dealer. His love of Latin music led him to run dance halls in the early 40's In the late 40's Goldner started his first label, Tico Records. In and effort to promote his records, Goldner started paying DJ's at the radio stations to play his records. This practice came to be known as payola.
Goldner was a gambler,and was always in need of cash, this problem put him in contact with Morris Levy, another dance hall owner. Over time Goldner would sell parts of his labels to Levy for cash. Goldner and Levy formed Rama Records which would later record R&B music. The Crows" recording of "Gee" inspired the formation of another label, Gee Records, who's most successful act was Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. Goldner helped establish a number of labels, including Gone Records, End Records, and the more famous, Roulette. Morris Levy would take advantage of Goldner's gambling problems and take control of these labels.
Goldner recorded some of the best doo-wop groups of the time, including, The Crows, The Wrens, The Valentines, The Cleftones, The Five Crowns, (who would become The Drifters), The Heartbeats, The Chantels, Little Anthony and The Imperials, The Starlighters, The Flamingos, The Dubs, The Channels and The Isley Brothers.
Goldner's last run at success was Red Bird Records and it's Blue Cats subsidiary, co-founded by Leiber and Stoller. As a partner of the company Goldner was in charge of promoting Red Bird releases, while Leiber and Stoller worked on production. Red Bird only lasted two years, Leiber and Stoller wanted out of the music business and Goldner started having gambling problems again. Leiber and Stoller sold their part of Red Bird to Goldner for $1.00. The Red Bird catalogue (except for releases by The Shangri-Las, whos contract was sold to Mercury Records) was sold to Morris Levy's Roulette Records. Goldner passed in 1970.
Goldner had his problems, but he also had a big impact on the music scene and started more than few groups on their way.

MORRIS LEVY
Born Moishe Levy in the Bronx, New York, but was known as Morrie Levy to the insiders of the music business.
After leaving the Navy, Levy became the owner of a string night clubs. His most famous club was The Birdland, which Levy is said to have taken over from Joseph "Joe the Wop" Catalano in 1949.
By accident Levy found out the value of publishing rights of a piece of music. Each time a song he owned was performed or played he was entitled to royalties. Levy learned this when an ASCAP representative told Levy at Birdland he must pay publishing companies for performing live music. Levy's lawyer confirmed that fact and soon Levy formed his first publishing company, Patricia Music.
Levy was one of the bad ones. He founded Roulette Records in 1956 where he started what would become his most profitable side of his business. Levy began claiming writers rights on songs he had nothing to do with. The first and most famous is, he claimed writers rights on "Why Do Fools Fall In Love". It is believed that Frankie Lymon and Herman Santiago wrote the song. Levy repeated this pratice through out the years. Levy collected revenues from all sides of the business. He claimed writers rights, he claimed publishing rights and he claimed distribution rights, and he claimed the profits form the sale of his records. There are stories that Levy even bootlegged his own records. Levy became one of the wealthiest executives in the record business.
Levy had a long running law suit with John Lennon over a phrase Lennon used from a Chuck Berry song.
After a time Levy sold Roulette for an estimated $55 million. There was an investigation started in the 50's about Levy's business practices, but it wasn't until 1986 that the law caught up with him. Levy was convicted of extortion, but died in Ghent, New York before serving any time.
Some of Levy's business practices were adopted and perfected by Berry Gordy at MOTOWN.

Next we'll look at Robert and Johnny, The Falcons, The Clovers, The Five Satins, and The Harptones. I onow Robert and Johnny are not really doo-wopers, but Victoria requested them so they're up next.
Please continue to leave comments and make request for your favorite group. In a few weeks we'll look two of the best writers and producers of the doo-wop era, Leiber and Stoller, and we'll take another look a Smokey's songs and productions from the beginning.

THE DELLS

2010-01-27T15:17:00.003-05:00

The Dells are one of the longest lasting groups of all times! They have found a way to keep original members in the group for over forty nine years. Their line-up did not change from 1960 until the death of Johnny Carter on August 21, 2009. Over the years The Dells repertoire included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco, and rhythm and blues.
The Dells started singing together while attending Thorton Township High School, in Harvey, Illinois. The group formed in 1952, using the name, The El-Rays. The group consisted of Marvin Junior, Mickey McGill, Lucius McGill, Verne Allison, Chuck Barksdale, and Johnny Funches. Lucius McGill left the group in 1954, making the group a quintet. Lucius signed with the Chess brothers' Checker label and recorded a doo-wop single, "Darling I Know", the record flopped.
The group changed their name to The Dells in 1955, and soon signed with Vee-Jay Records. In 1956 they recorded their first hit, "Oh What A Night". Funches was a co-writer and lead singer on the song. The song went to #5 on the R&B charts and is listed at #260 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time. Follow up songs failed to have the same impact.
A tragic car accident in 1958, threatened to derail the group. Mickey McGill, nearly lost his leg in the accident. The group agreed to split-up to give McGill time to recover.
Barksdale joined a new version of The Moonglows, that included a young Marvin Gaye on lead. McGill did recover and Barksdale rejoined the group in 1960. By this time Johnny Funches, had left the group for good, frustrated with the group's slow progress. Funches was soon replaced by Johnny Carter, who came from The Flamingos. This would be the final line-up change for the group for over forty nine years. The Dells went on to sing background for the likes of Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, and Barbara Lewis, of "Hello Stranger" fame. The group got some fine tuning from Quincy Jones, and began to include jazz, and Broadway styled show tunes as part of their live and recorded acts.
The Dells returned to Chess' subsidiary label Cadet, working with Bobby Miller, and Charles Stepney. Stepney would later become an arranger and producer for Earth, Wind, and Fire.
In 1967, The Dells released an album called, "There Is", which included their first R&B hit in years with the titled track. The song featured a contrast to most other groups of the time by having the raspy baritone voice of Marvin Junior on lead, with the very tight harmony in the background. The song was also a top 20 pop hit. After "There Is", The Dells continued with a string of hits, including "Wear It On Your Face", "Always Together", "I can sing A Rainbow/Love Is Blue", and their first #1 hit "Stay In My Corner" in 1968. The song also went to #10 on the pop chart. "Stay In My Corner" featured another contrast, it featured Johnny Carter's first tenor balanced against Marvin Junior's baritone. This arrangement became a trademark of The Dells. The group had to wait until 1969 before they were looked at as R&B stars. That year the group revived their first hit, "Oh What A Night", which was re-produced under a classic soul format. Marvin Junior's husky lead made the song sound new. It was in stark contrast to Johnny Funches smooth tenor on the original recording, this version went to #1. They had more hits with "Open Up My Heart", "Oh What A Day", and "On The Dock Of The Bay".
"The Love We Had Stays On My Mind", was another top 10 hit for the group on the R&B charts in 1971. Charles Stepney took over production duties from Bobby Miller at this time. In 1973 The Dells had their first certified gold record, "Give Your Baby A Standing Ovation", that was produced by Don Davis. The Dells were now a top-selling recording act.
With The Chess Label having financial troubles, Cadet records, a subsidiary started having problems, so The Dells left at the end of 1974. The group then recorded for Mercury, ABC, 20th Century Fox, and Virgin labels, with a few hits including, "I Touched A Dream", which put the group back in the top 40.
For awhile The Dells were confined to the oldies market, until they were asked by Robert Townson to be creative consultants on his acclaimed 1991 musical "The Five Heartbeats". The movie was based loosely on the lives of The Dells. The group had a hit with the George Duke composition, "A Heart Is A Home For Love". The song was issued on the sound track of the movie and went to #13 on the R&B charts. This hit gave the group a push and made them the second group to chart singles in four different decades, after the Isley Brothers.
The group then moved to the Philadelphia International label, where they recorded the album "I Salute You". The Dells have kept an active touring schedule stopping from time to time to record an album, including 2003's "HOTT".
In 2004 the group was inducted in both the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame, and The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
Like the Imperials, The Dells don't consider themselves a doo-wop group, but on their 1974 recording "I Miss You" you can hear the doo-wops in the background, ten years after doo-wop was said to be dead. In my mind and heart no matter what The Dells sing I hear doo-wop.

The next blog will be about some of the writers, arrangers, producers and managers. These are the behind the scenes people that created the songs, and the acts to sing them. Very few groups were able to direct their own lives once these other people got involved. Some of these people were good for the groups and really helped them along. So many of these groups were young and were exploited by some of these people.

Please leave comments and request and we'll keep doo-woping!!

LITTLE ANTHONY AND THE IMPERIALS

2010-01-25T20:07:00.004-05:00

One of the longest lasting groups from the doo-wop era is Little Anthony & The Imperials.
The group started out in 1957 as The Chesters. The group included Clarence Collins, Tracy Lord, Nathaniel Rogers, and Ronald Ross. Anthony Gourdine joined the group and became the lead. Ross left the group and was replaced by Ernest Wright, and the group recorded for Apollo Records for a short time. Changing their name to The Imperials the group signed with End Records in 1958. Their first single was "Tears On My Pillow" which went straight to the top. One night while playing "Tears On My Pillow", D.J Alan Freed dubbed Anthony Gourdine, Little Anthony! The B-side "Two Kinds Of People" also became a hit. The next single, for the group was "Shimmy Shimmy , Ko Ko Bop" in 1960.
Little Anthony left the group for a solo career 1961, after their success dropped a little. Some other members left and the line-up became Collins, Wright, Sammy Strain and George Kerr. Kerr was then replaced by Kenny Seymour, this group had very little success.
Little Anthony returned in 1963, replacing Seymour. Little Anthony, Ernest Wright, Clarence Collins, and Sammy Strain, became the classic line-up for the group. With the help of record producer/songwriter Teddy Randazzo, (a long time friend of the group), The Imperials found success at a new label, DCP (Don Costa Productions) with a new release "I'm On The Outside Looking In" in 1964. Then came a string of hits, "Going Out Of My Head" (1964), "Hurt So Bad" (1965), "I Miss You So" (1965),"Take Me Back" (1965), "Hurt"(1966), and "Out Of Sight Out Of Mind"(1969). In 1965 The Imperials appeared on the CBS-TV special Murray The K, It's What's Happening, Baby. On the show they delivered an explosive perfromance of a 50's hit "I'm Alright" before a live audience in New York.
The Imperials then joined United Artist and were assigned to it's Veep subsidary and then back to the parent label. During this time they recorded "Better Use Your Head", "World Of Darkness", " If I Remember To Foreget", "Yesterday Has Gone", and the Thom Bell produced "Help Me Find A Way (To Say I Love You)".
After this the group moved to Janus Records where they recorded the single "Father Father", which they performed on The Merv Griffin Show. The group then moved to Avco Records in the early 70's and recorded an album "On A New Street, and charted with "La La La" and "I'm Falling In Love With You". The album was produced by both Bell and Randazzo. Most of these songs did well on the R&B charts, but not so well on the Pop charts. A second album for Avco "Hold On" was pulled from the market.
Ernest Wright left the group in 1971, to join Tony William's Platters. He was replaced by Kenny Seymour, who was replacd by Bobby Wade. Strain left in 1972, and joined The O'Jays. Harold Jenkins replaced Strain, he had been the groups choreographer. Jenkins and Seymour were together in The Impacts. Little Anthony left again for a some what successful solo career. Collins, Wade and Jenkins continued on as The Imperials. Clarence Collins left 1988 and was replaced by Sherman James. The group became Bobby Wade's Imperials. James left in 1992 and was replaced by Ron Stevenson. That same year Collins, Wright, Strain and Little Anthony reunited for a concert at Madison Square Garden. The reunion was so successful that the group decided to stay together. When the decision was made for the group to tour again, Wade gave up the use of the name Imperials, and his group became The Emperors. The Emperors became the house band at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Strain left The O'Jays and permanently returned to The Imperials. 1992 the year of the groups reformation, just happened to be the 40th anniversary of Dick Clark's American Bandstand, and he invited The Imperials to appear as part of the television special celebration.
The line-up of Anthony, Strain, Wright, and group founder Collins, is considered the classic and best Imperials line-up, this is the group that had the hits. It's this same group that has been seen by millions of fans on television shows like, The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Shindig, Hullabaloo, Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, The Mike Douglas Show, and other natioal shows. In 1977 they were featured on NBC's Today Show's Summer Concert Series. The group also appeared on two PBS Rock, Rhythm and Doo-wop shows.
Anthony, Strain, Collins, and Wright continued touring as Little Anthony and The Imperials, until Strain retired in 2004. Harold Jenkins returned to replaced him. As of now The Imperials are the second oldest group keeping original members over the years, they are second behind The Dells. The are also one a few groups that have reinvented themselves and went on to have consistent recording success well passed the 60's.

The Imperials songs have been covered by some of the biggest names in the buisness, Frank Sinatra, Linda Ronstadt, Sergio Mendez, The Delfonics, Wes Montgomery, Ray Conniff, Ella Fitzgerald, Luther Vandross, Reba McEntire, The Miracles, Chris Montez, and The Lettermen.
The Imperials were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall Of Fame, in 2006, and The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999 In Oct. 2008 the group recorded a new album called "You'll Never Know" ad they performed on The David Letterman Show that same year. The Imperials song "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop" was featured in the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big.On January 14, 2009 Little Anthony and The Imperials were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Sammy Strain is one of a few artist to be inducted in two different groups. The Imperials and The O'Jays.
The Imperials' last Doo-wop show was in June 2009, they did a half hour set, which displeased Little Anthony. He felt that 30 minutes was not enough time to showcase their talents. Anthony commented that The Imperials were not a Doo-wop group, but an R&B group.
On Oct. 29, 2009, The Imperials returned to Madison Square Gardens for the 25th anniversary of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert. They were featured in a segment devoted to The Originals of New York. The show was aired Thanksgiving, weekend.

The next group will be The Dells, another long lasting group.
Please leave comments and request for future blogs. Coming soon we'll talk about the writers, arrangers and producers. These people gave us some of the greastes

ITALIAN AMERICANS AND DOO-WOP

2010-01-22T18:04:00.010-05:00

We would need a social scientist of some kind to explain why so many Italian Americans found the so-called race music of the 50's and 60's so intoxicating. Even without the scientific explanation we know that Italian Americans in New York, D.C., Baltimore, and other cities had almost identical experiences when it came to doo-wop. The street corner groups, the tight harmonies, the doo-wop sounds in the songs, and the showmanship on stage. In many cases if you closed your eyes, you couldn't tell the Italian groups from the Black groups. They sounded the same, the high first tenor, and the deep rumbling bass. There must have been fifty groups Black and White that sang "Gloria". There were cross-over songs in New York long before MOTOWN. So in this blog we'll talk about some of those groups.

While doing the research for this blog, I found something that surprised me. I had always thought that TIMI YURO, was Black and Korean mixed. I was just going by her name and the sound of her voice. As it turns out, Timi Yuro was Italian American. Yuro is considered the first non Black female to sing soul and R&B with success. Timi Yuro (real name,Rosemary Timothy Yuro) was born in Las Vegas in 1940 to Italian American parents.
Yuro's family moved to Los Angeles to open a restaurant. Yuro sang in the restaurant and local clubs until she was discovered by executives of Liberty Records. After being signed to the label, Yuro had a #4 hit with a cover of a Roy Hamilton song, "Hurt" in 1961. She also scored a #12 hit with her follow up song, "What's The Matter Baby" (Is It Hurting You), in 1962. Yuro had an emotional style that she claimed was influenced by Dinah Washington and other Black Jazz singers. From her sound, many listners thought Yuro was Black.
In 1961 Yuro was asked to tour with Frank Sinatra on his Australian tour.
Yuro covered all kinds of music, on one album "Make The World Go Away", Yuro covered country and blues standards. Yuro added some soul to some of the standards of the day like, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", "Smile", and "I Apologize".
In the 60's Yuro made two appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and was on American Bandstand, Where The Action Is, and The Lloyd Thaxton Show. In 1967 Yuro appeared in a black and white film in the Philippines.
Yuro performed in venues from London to Las Vegas, but her career lost it's early momentum, and Yuro quit the business after she got married in 1969. Yuro started singing again in the 80's, but found out she had throat cancer. Her larynx was removed, but Yuro passed in 2004. Her last album called "Today" was released in 1982 by Ariola Records and was produced by her friend Willie Nelson.
Yuro is still admired in Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Now let's get to the Italian doo-wop groups!!!!!
Let's start with LARRY CHANCE and the EARLS. The Earls were a popular doo-wop group formed in the Bronx, New York. Their two biggest hits were "Remember Then" and "Life Is But A Dream". The group had two other songs that charted, "Never" and "I Believe". Some say the The Earls took the original Black doo-wop street corner harmony and refined it, but if you listen to their songs you'll find that they had more instruments, but the groove was the same as the Black doo-wopers.
Larry Chance was the driving force behind the group. Chance grew up in Philadelphia, and attended high school with Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, and Danny Rapp, of Danny and The Juniors. In 1957 Chance moved with his parents to the Bronx. Chance formed a group at Tecumsa Social Club, called the High Hatters. The group included Chance, Bob Del Din, Eddie Harder, Larry Palumbo, and John Wray.
In the fall of 1959 the group was singing in front of a subway station when Johnny Powers heard them and wanted them to sing on his small Rome label. The group had to use their own money to record four tracks, they were still the High Hatters at this point, but they soon changed their name to The Earls.
In 1960 Larry Palumbo was lost in an army skydiving accident.
In 1961 Rome Records released "Life Is But A Dream". The group soon found themselves in the big time performing for Murray the K and Dick Clark's American Bandstand. The Earls were helping to make doo-wop popular with non Black listners. It was in 1962 that the group hooked up with Stan Vincent and recorded the song they are most remembered for "Remember Then", for Old Town Records. The song went to #24 on the Billboard charts.
Some time in late 1963 or early 1964 Chance went solo for a short time and recorded "Let Them Talk". Chance went back to The Earls, who had recruited two new members, Bob Moricco,and Ronnie Calabrese. In 1967 the group started playing their own instruments.
The group is still one of the most requested groups on the oldies circuit.

THE TOKENS
The Tokens were formed in 1955 at Brooklyn's Abraham Lincoln High School and were known as the Linc-Tones. The group includd Neil Sedaka, Hank Medress, Eddie Rabkin, and Cynthia Zolotin. Rabkin left the group and was replaced by Jay Siegel in 1956. The band recorded it's first song, "While I Dream" that same year. In 1957 Sedaka and Zolotin left the group leaving Siegel and Medress who recruited two new members for the group, and recorded the single "Picture In My Wallet" as Darrell and the Oxfords. After some more changes the group became The Tokens. The changes included recruiting a 13 year old kid that played many instruments, brothers Mitch and Phil Margo and guitarist Joe Venneri.
In 1961 The Tokens released a single for Warwick Records called "Tonight I Fell In Love" which went to #15 on the Billboard charts and earned them a spot on American Bandstand. This opportunity got them the chance to cover the Solomon Linda's song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for RCA Victor. The song went to #1 on the Billboard charts and stayed there for three weeks. From 1962 to 1970 the group released nine more songs that made it to the top ten, including "I Hear Trumpets Blow" in 1964, and "Portrait Of My Love" in 1967. The group also served as producers for a number of other groups including, The Chiffons, Randy and The Rainbows, and The Happenings.
In 1973 Medress left the group and Siegel teamed with the Margo brothers and formed a group called Cross Country, which had some success when they covered "In The Midnight Hour"
The Tokens reunited in 1975 for some work on a game show called Musical Chairs. In 1978 the group recorded a song for School House Rock.
A version of of The Tokens still tours. There have been some law suits, about who owned the name of the group, and who owned the rights to their arrangement of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

VITO AND THE SALUTATIONS
Vito and The Salutation were a 60's doo-wop group out of New York (surprise!!), whose first recording, "Gloria", was a regional hit.
In 1963 The Salutations scored a hit with an up-tempo version of "Unchained Melody", which went to #60 on the Cash Box charts, and made the top ten in many cities.
The group lasted from 1961 to 1965, and had reunion in 1971. Lead singer Vito Balsamo,also sang with The Del Vons and The Kelloggs and still performs in The Golden Group Memories.
The group's version of "Unchained Melody" has been included in several movies, including the popular movie Goodfellas.

THE DUPREES
The group was formed in 1960 in Jersey City, New Jersey, by William L. Dickinson High School students Michael Arnone, Joe Santollo, John Salvato, Tom Bialoglow, and Joey Canzano.
George Paxton a former big band leader was impressed by the group's style and signed them to his Coed Records label. Their first single was a re-make of a Jo Stafford 1952 hit, "You Belong To Me". The Duprees version had doo-wop vocals and a big band backing and reached the top ten in the US.
The group had a few more top 40 hits over the years. They scored with "My Own True Love" a vocal adaptation of "Tara's Theme" from the soundtrack of Gone With The Wind. "Have You Heard" and "Why Don't You Believe Me" also reached the top 40. The group became know for mixing doo-wop vocals with big band arrangements. Like most of these groups The Duprees changed members often.
The Duprees continued to get work even after the British Invasion, by turning towards a more pop sound and had songs in the top 100 even into the 70's.
In Novenber 2008, The Duprees were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

THE CAPRIS
The story of The Capris reads like most of the stories of doo-wop groups, but this story has a twist.
The Capris formed in Ozone Park, Queens New York, in 1957. The group included Nick Santamaria (aka Nick Santo), Mike Mincelli, Frank Reina, Vinnie Naccarato, and John Cassese. All of the members were teenagers and still in school. In 1958 the final member of the group was recruited and the group was on their way. The Original name of the group was The Supremes, but soon changed to The Capris. They took their name from the 50's Lincoln Capri car.
The group gained experience and popularity by performing at local venues and school dances. In 1958 the group was at Bell Studios in New York recording their biggest hit, "There's A Moon Out Tonight". The song was released by Planet Studios in early 1959. They recorded only one other song called "Indian Girl".
After that release the group disbanded, and everyone went their own way.

Here comes the strange twist!
"There A Moon Out Tonight" was so popular, that collectors in New York scoured the city looking for copies of the record. A group of collectors bought the masters of the songs and pressed 330 copies on red vinyl and gave a few copies to some DJ's. The song became popular all over again. The song ended up in the hands of Murray the K at WINS. Murray had show called "Rate The Record". On the show Murray had five records going against each other. "There's A Moon Out Tonight" won one night and came in second on another night. Second to "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles. The Capris quit their jobs and reunited, the next week they were at The Apollo Theater, and then at Brooklyn's Paramount. They were everywhere and on the rise again. In 1961 the song hit the charts and stayed there for 14 weeks. The group released more songs and changed labels, but didn't have another hit until 1982. In 1982 the group released an album called "There's A Moon Out Tonight". On the album were some covers of some popular songs and a new track, "Morse Code Of Love". The song had the old doo-wop sound. Many people thought the song was a foregotten oldie, but not so, it was a new song. So 23 years after they had their first hit, and doo-wop was dead, the group had another doo-wop hit.
Some of the group's members have passed and some have retired from singing, but the remaining members are still performing on the oldies circuit.

These are just some of the groups that helped doo-wop cross over and become mainstream. With our Italian brothers singing what was considered race music (Black music) the doors were opened for Atlantic Records, Stax, and MOTOWN to become the labels that provided the sound tracks of our lives.

By no means is this the end of Italian Americans and doo-wop, we will re-visit them again!
Next up, Little Anthony and The Imperials. Please enjoy the blog and leave comments and request for information on other groups.

What is DOO-WOP and where did it come from??

2010-01-20T16:16:00.006-05:00

When we think of doo-wop today we think of the music of the 50's and 60's. The groups from the street corners, usally with tight five part harmony. What comes to most peoples mind is African Americans singing the songs of the day a capella and adding doo-wops and oohs to fill in where instruments would be. The strange thing is, that this style of singing became so popular that the professional artist started taking the sound into the studio. Before MOTOWN most groups had only small combos to back them up, maybe a piano, bass and guitar, or guitar, bass and drums. So the added sounds filled out the background and gave the songs a fuller sound.
It is an establish fact that the music of the time was seperated by race and there were very few mixed gruops at the time, however in the mid 50's things started to change, Whites and Blacks started listening to the same music. The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and The Orioles had set a standard that had everyone listening to them regardless of race. The Orioles appeared on The Arthur Godfrey Show in 1948, as the first Black group to be on national television. The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and The Platters soon followed on other shows. In my mind The Platters were the classiest of all.
The street corner sound seemed to be confined to the east coast for awhile. Most of the groups were concentrated in cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York City. Pittsburg, Clevland, and Detroit, carried the middle of the country. Black teenagers would form groups and sing on the corners trying to sound like their favorite groups.
There are a couple of ideas as to how the name Doop-wop came to be attached to this kind of music. One idea is that it was named after the sound that was made when the groups sang, doo-wop tee dee, doop-wop do ahhh, and so on. I think that there is one idea that is closest to the truth. Duop dego, is an Italian phrase that was used as a derogatory insult against what would be considered low class Italians. The same as using the N-word for African Americans. Here's where it comes together. For some unknown reason Italian Americans started listening to and singing the pop and R&B songs of the day. They formed their groups on the corners and sang what was considered race music,(Black music). Because these teens were singing what was look at as race music, which was unacceptable, they were called duop degos. The word duop is pronounced DOO-WOP, and the kids were called duopers. After awhile the word caught on, and anyone that sang that kind of music, was said to be duoping. As time went by the spelling and meaning changed.
There is some dispute as to which song first contained the phrase doop-wop, but the first hit to use the phrase was "When You Dance" by the Turbans in 1955. The chant doo-wop can be heard through-out the song.
The term doo-wop, first appeared in print in 1961, in the Chicago Defender.
The end came for doo-wop from two fronts. One was the British Invasion, the other was MOTOWN. I think that even with the British Invasion, doo-wop would have lasted a year or two more, if MOTOWN had not happened. In my mind MOTOWN wounded doo-wop, but The Temptations, killed it. Once The Temptations got started, everybody wanted to be them. Here was a group that had five lead singers. They had the smoothness of The Moonglows, the harmony of The Orioles and the stage presence of The Platters. When other groups heard The Temptations, everyone stopped what they were doing and tried to become The Temptations. However there is always one exception, and that would be The Dells. It seems to me that The Dells found a new way to do doo-wop and kept their style of doo-wop going for a few more years.

The next blog will be about the Italian American groups that sang doo-wop.
Please add your comments and pass the blog on to your friends, there is also a facebook page called Let's do-wop. If you can't leave a message on the blog please leave one on face book.
Thanks to everyone who has been to the blog. If there are any questions or if you have any groups that you would like to read about, please let me know. I would like to see this blog last for a long.

The Clickettes, The Chantels, and The Shirelles

2010-01-16T15:04:00.010-05:00

As we look at the groups of the 50's and 60's that were part of the Doo-wop generation, we have to look at some of the girl groups that set the stage for the likes of The Supremes, and The Marvelettes.
Today we'll talk about three of those girl groups that paved the way. The groups are The Clickettes, The Chantels and The Shirelles.

THE CLICKETTES
The Clicketts started out on the Dice Label in 1958, guided by hit duo Johnnie and Joe, who owned the label. According to biographer John Clemente, the original line-up was lead singer, Barbara English, alto, Sylvia Hammond, and two sopranos, Trudy and Charlotte McCartney. According to the group Charlotte sang baritone.
A year after their releases with Dice, the group changed. The McCartney sisters left the group to stay in school, and were replaced by Jean Bolden and Barbara Saunders. The group released five singles for Dice, notably the double-sided hit, "Because Of My Best Friend"/"To Be A Part Of You", which made the top spot in Pittsburgh and Philly in 1959. The group left Dice in 1960 and moved to Guyden records.
The Clickettes were later taken over by Richard Barrett, lead singer of The Valentines and manager of the legendary Chantels. Barrett wrote and produced the song "Where is He", on Guyden.
There were a number of Clickettes recordings released in the late 50's and early
60's, not all of them actually featured the girls. "Tonight And Forever" for instance was probably recorded by a group called The Teen Clefs. This type of thing happned all the time.
Barbara English and a number of ex-Clickettes continued to record into the early
60's for labels like Roulette, Warwick, and Elmor. Helen Powell of The Impacts, replaced Sylvia Hammond in 1961. The group recorded two singles for Roulette including a New York favorite, "We Need Them", billed as Barbara English and The Fashions. This group disbanded when Barbara left for a solo career in 1963 and Helen went to the Chantels.
The Clickettes made their first United Group Harmony appearance in March 2000, the crowd gave them a great welcome. This group included Barbara English, Trudy McCartney-Cunningham, and Sylvia Hammond-Akridge, all originals. The other original Charlotte could not join the group at the time so Lorraine Joyner of The Veneers was brought in to round out the group.
The Clickettes only reunited in 1999, but sounded like they had been singing together for the past thirty years. The comments form the concert were that the ladies were remarkable.
The group lost one of it's original members when Charlotte McCartney-Ford passed. In 2006 the group replaced Lorraine with the McCartney's youngest sister Carlene Sabb. She was an easy fit, she grew up listening to to the group rehearse, she also rehearsed with The Teen Clefs from time to time.

I have been informed that the Clickettes will soon be doing their thing in the Washington, D.C. area. They will be in concert at The Knights Of Columbus. 3611 Stewart Road, Forestville, MD. For more information call 301-839-2233. Also on the show The Marques, and Special Guest William DeVaughn. The Date is February 21, 2010 at 6:30 P.M. Doors open at 5:00.

THE CHANTELS
The Chantels were established in the early 50's at St. Anthony of Padua school in the Bronx. The group included lead, Arlene Smith, Sonia Goring, Rene Minus, Jackie Landry Jackson, and Lois Harris. they got their name from their rival school St.Frances de Chantal.
The group was discovered by Richard Barrett, lead singer of The Valentines and signed to End Records. Their first single was "He's Gone" which went to #71, in August of 1957. In January 1958 they released "Maybe" which went to #15 on billboard's hot 100. The group released afew more singles, but none had the success of "Maybe".
The group was dropped by End in 1959 and Arlene Smith decided to go solo. Lois Harris left to go college. Annette Smith (no relation to Arlene) joined the group in 1960. The group moved to Carlton Records where they had their second major hit, "Look In My Eyes" which went to #6 on the R&B charts. The group recorded several more singles and changed labels afew more times. Personnel changed throughout the 60's and they recorded their last single in 1970.
Arlene fronted a new group in the 70's that included Carol Douglas, who would later become a disco queen. The other original Chantels reformed and hired Noemi (Ami)Ortiz as their lead. Arlene Smith reunited with the group for a PBS Doo-Wop special and dedicated "Maybe" to Jackie Landry who passed in 1997.
The Chantels were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame in 2002. In 2001 they made the final cut for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did not get enough votes to be inducted. In September 2009 is was revealed they were one twelve nominees to be inducted in 2010.

The Shirelles
The Shirelles were a girl group from the 60's and the first girl group to have a #1 single on the Billboard hot 100. The members of the group included, lead Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston, then Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley, Beverly Lee, and Addie 'Micki' Harris. The group formed in New Jersey in 1958 and had a string of hits over the years, including "Dedicated To The One I Love", "Blue Holiday", "Foolish Little Girl", and "Baby It's You".
The group was first called The Poquellos' and wrote a song called "I Met Him On Sunday" and sang it a cappella in the school talent show. A school friend had them audition her mother, Florence Greenberg. Greenberg ran a small record label, and was so impressed with the group that she became the groups manager, and changed their name to The Shirelles and had them record the song. Two more single followed "I Met Him On A Sunday" , but flopped. Greenberg had licensed the groups songs to Decca Records, but after the two flops Decca refused the released any more records by the group. Greenberg then signed them to her new lable, Scepter Records, and brought in Luther Dixon whose imaginative arrangements would help shape the group's sound.
"Tonight's The Night" went to #20 on the R&B chart in 1960, but they had a huge hit with the Goffin/King song "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" released late in 1960. The song went to #1 on the pop charts, making them the first all-female group of the rock era to do that. The song also went to #2 on the R&B charts, and #2 in the UK in 1961. The success of this song made it possible for some of their older songs to be re-released and become hits. "Big John went to #2 that same year. In 1962 the group had another hit with "Soldier Boy" a Luther Dixon/Florence Greenberg song, that became their second #1 hit. In 1963 they scored with "Foolish Little Girl" which went to #9 on the R&B charts but the group found it difficult to maintain their previous level of success.
In the next year The Shirelles, recorded songs for the movie, "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World", headlined the first intergrated concert in Alabama, and helped a young Dionne Warwick get some exposure by having her sub for Reeves and Jackson when each took time off to get married.
A money dispute caused some problems in 1964, which kept the group from recording for awhile. The dispute was settled, but the group was stuck at a lable where their success had run out. Some say that the British invasion was part of the problem because it took attention away from American groups. There is some truth to that because a lot of groups that were just holding on, just dropped off the charts once the invasion started. Some of the groups songs were covered by some other groups, including The Beatles, Manfred Mann, The Temprees, The Mama and the Papas, The Masqueraders, and Roberta Flack. In 1967 They recorded "Last Minute Miracle", it didn't chart. Jackson soon left the group to remarry and raise a family. The group continued as a trio, recording for Bell Records, United Artist, and RCA, as Shirley and The Shirelles through 1971. The group toured the Oldies circuit and appeared in the 1973 documentary "Let The Good Times Roll". Shirley Alston left the group to start a solo career in 1975, and was replaced by Doris Jackson. Shirley Alston recorded as "Lady Rose" on the Scepter Strawberry subsidiary, and as Shirley Alston for a moonlighting Motown executive Barney Ales' Prodigal label until the label was purchase by Motown. That year she recorded an album called "With A Little Help From My Friends", with artist like Shep and The Limelites, The Five Satins, Danny and The Juniors, The Flamingos, and The Drifters singing on the album.
Doris Jackson took a leave of absence from 1979 to 1982 and was replaced by Louise Bethune. Doris Jackson returned to the group only to have Micki Harris die from a heart attack, during a performance in Atlanta on June 10,1982. Louise Bethune came back to the group to fill Harris' spot. The group split in 1986, but as with most of the groups of this era, multiple groups of Shirelles appeared on the scene. It got so bad that two of the best groups divided the country in half, and one group worked only on the west coast and the other worked the east coast. The hard part was finding an original Shirelle to be apart of these groups.
The group reunited brieffly for a program honoring them at their high school in New Jersey, and sang background for Dionne Warwick when she covered their song " Will You Love Me Tomorrow?". The Shirells sang with Bo Diddley one of his albums in 1996.
Beverly Lee secured the official trademark for the group's name. The group has been working hard for years for royalty reform, medical coverage and fair treatment of pioneer artist. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Shirelles at #76 on their all time Greatest Artist List. Passaic New Jersey honored the group by renaming part of Paulson Avenue for the group in 2008.

In the next blog we'll talk about what is DOO-WOP, and where did it come from. Please leave comments and suggestions for groups you would like to hear about.
Thank you again Dr. Nick for your help and Victoria for your comments.

Re-visit The Paragons

2010-01-12T19:46:00.005-05:00

As often happened in the doo-wop era, there were many groups with the same name. While doing my research for The Paragons I found what I thought was a reliable source of information. I checked two other sources and they pointed me in the same direction. However after posting the blog I got a call from Dr. Nick, a friend and doo-wop lover. Nick informed me that I had the wrong group of Paragons. The doo-wop group were not Jamaicans, but were from Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY.
So Victoria let me apologize for the mis-information, but thanks to DR. Nick I looked in a different place on found the New York PARAGONS. So Victoria here are The Paragons.

The Paragons were formed by three friends in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York city in 1955. The friends were Al Brown, Ricky Jackson, and Donald Travis. They found two more members, Gable "Ben" Frazier and Julius "Mack" McMichael, who became the lead.
Brown suggested the name Paragons because of all the Paragon oil trucks that moved through New York. The group used The Drifters and The Flamingos as inspiration. The group would practice near the Ralph Avenue subway station, because of the echos. In 1956 Hiram Johnson heard them and started working with them. The problem was that Johnson was working with another group called The Marvels who had a release on ABC-Paramount in November 1956. The record didn't chart, but Johnson believed they could make it so he put most of his time in on The Marvels. He even started Johnson Records to promote them. At this time they changed their name to The Dubs.
The Paragons heard about Paul Winley, whose Winley Records was right down the street from Johnson's office. The group jumped at the chance to work with Winley. Winley's brother was the bass singer for The Clovers.
The Paragon's first release was "Florence"/"Hey Little School Girl". Both songs were lead by McMichael. The keyboard work was done by Dave "Baby" Cortez (real name Davey Clowney). The group released two more songs "Two Are Better Than One" and "Twilight". In 1959 The group released an album called "The Paragons Meet The Jesters". This was the first rock and roll compilation album, and the best selling. At this time McMichael left the group to join The Olympics and was replaced by Bill Witt. Al Brown also left and was replaced by David Outlaw. Witt didn't stay long and was gone by the time the group released their last record for Winley. The song was "So You Will Know". From this point on there were too many changes to keep track of. The group disbanded in 1967. Some time later Bill Witt revived the group and they toured for afew years.

Later this week I'll be talking about some of the girl groups that came out of this period. I'll be talking about The Chantels, The Shirells, and The Clickettes.

Please leave your comments and request, I will address all request.
Thank you again Victoria for your request and thanks again Dr. Nick for your help!!

The Hearbeats/Shep and The Limelites, The Paragons and The Jesters

2010-01-08T21:29:00.006-05:00

In the last blog about The Miracles and Smokey Robinson, I got a request from a Victoria, who asked to read about The Heartbeats/Shep and The Limelites, The Paragons, and The Jesters. Request granted, here you go Victoria!

THE HEARTBEATS/SHEP AND THE LIMELITES
The Heartbeats were formed in the mid fifties and were best known for the song "A Thousand Miles Away". The group first called The Hearts, but changed their naame after a girl group started using the same name. The group got signed to deal shortly after James 'Shep' Sheppard, joined the group. They recorded "A Thousand Miles Away" in 1957, the song went to #53. The group recorded ten more songs, including "I won't Be A Fool Any More", "Down On My Knees", and "People Are Talking".
The group broke up in 1959, and Shep went on to start a new group called Shane Sheppard and The Limelites, but quickly changed the name to Shep and The Limelites.
Their first record was an answer song to The Hearbeats' "A Thousand Miles Away" called "Daddy's Home".
The Members of the group at this time were Shep, Clarence Bassett, Charles Baskerville. The group started recording for Hull Records in 1960. "Daddy's Home" went to #2. It was later covered by Jermaine Jackson in 1972. Later songs didn't do as well, but were popular. There was a story going around that Shep was in love with a woman who left him and moved to Houston, and that most of the songs he wrote were for her.
Kahl Music sued Shep because "Daddy's Home" sounded so much like "A Thousand Miles Away", Shep wrote both songs. Kahl Music lost the case, but the effects of the case caused the group to split. Bassett joined The Flamingos and Baskerville joined one of the Drifters groups. Shep tried to re-form the group with no success. Shep soon died. There are a number of stories of how Shep died but none have been confirmed. One story was that he was beaten and robbed, and left to die in his car, another story was that he was shot while sitting in his car, and the last was that he had a heart attack . It is for sure that Shep did die January 24, 1970. There was no further information.

THE PARAGONS
The Paragons were a rocksteady group from Kingston, Jamaica. The members of the groups were Garth "Tyrone" Evans, Bob Andy, Junior Menz and Leroy Stamp. Thier most famous song was "The Tide Is High".
The group was influenced by the doo-wop music of the time, and used their tight harmony to create a soulful sound. In 1964 the group caught the attention of Duke Reid and cut a number of singles on his Treasure Isle record label.
After some success Bob Andy quit the group and The Paragons quit their soulful sound and became the most popular rocksteady act in Jamaica. Fights over money caused the group to break-up in 1970. There is not alot of information on the group after that.
The biggest recording however came from a compilation album called "The Paragons Meet The Jesters". This album featured street corner harmony batttles and vocal duels. This album is considered the first rock & roll compilation album ever released.

THE JESTERS
Like so many of the doo-wop groups of the 50's and 60's The Jesters were a doo-wop group based in New York City. They were students at Cooper Junior High School in Harlem who graduated from singing under an elevated train station near 120th Street to the amateur night at the Apollo Theater. They were discovered by Paul Winley who signed them to his Winley Records label. Their first three singles were arranged by Winley's friend and collaborator Davey Clowney, better known as Dave "Baby" Cortez. The three singles barely made the charts, but made the group became popular in and around New York. With a different line-up The Jesters reached #110 on the charts with a cover of The Diablos' "The Wind", backed by a song called "Sally Green". They had two lesser singles "That How It Goes" /"Tutti Frutti" in 1960, and "Uncle Henry's Basement"/"Come Let Me Show You", in 1961.
It was Winley who concived the idea of the compilation album with their brother group The Paragons. "The Paragons Meet The Jesters", 1959. The album was a success with the two groups having vocal battles, they carried this idea into a live show which made the show and the album the most successful doo-wop compilation of all times.
The Jesters slowly drifted apart, but there have been different versions of the group appearing in doo-wop shows over the years.

I would like to thank Victoria for her request. I would like to see more request from some more of you. This is a labor of love! As you can see I don't talk about the sadder side of the arist. I talk about the music and the connectios that help create todays music and artist.
In the near future I'll talk about some of the great producers and arrangers like Buck Ram and Leiber and Stoller, etc. This will bring us back to Smokey one more time.

Re-visit The Miracles/Smokey Robinson

2010-01-04T20:06:00.003-05:00

It is impossible to talk about todays music without talking about the contributions of Smokey Robinson!! It is said that almost everyone who made it at Motown owes an huge debt to Smokey. Every act at Motown sang a song either written by, or arranged by Smokey. Smokey never wrote a song for Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye, but even they sang a Smokey song.
One of Smokey's songs created a whole new genre of easy listening evening radio programs. The song was "Quiet Storm" and radio stations around the country created programs for lovers in the early evening using "Quiet Storm" as their theme.
I think Smokey songs were so popular becasue everyone could understand what he was feeling with just a few simple words and phrases.
Over the years Smokey has won every award possible, but I think the greatest tribute to his understanding of the human heart is in the number of artist that covered his songs. To give you an idea of how many covers there were, I'll give you a small list of some of the songs that were covered.
The Rolling Stones covered "Going To A GoGo", Michael McDonald covered "I Second That Emotion",along with Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Manhattan Transfer, and The Temptations. "Oh Be My Love" was covered by Barbara Lewis and Barbara McNair."I Like It Like That" was covered by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels. "Who's Lovin You was covered by Archie Bell & The Drells and En Vogue. With hundreds of songs to choose from there was somrthing for everybody.
I have been a Smokey fan since the beginning of his career, and I'm still amazed at how many was he could find tell a woman how much he loved her.
If there are any Smokey fans out there please comments, and pass this blog along to your friends.

The Miracles/Smokey Robinson

2009-12-31T18:53:00.008-05:00

The Miracles had a following that included people who just loved good music, and some of the worlds greatest artist. In their 19 year stay on the music charts The Miracles recorded in multiple genres of music, including Do-wop, soul, disco, and R&B. The group charted over 50 hits and had 26 songs reach the top ten on the Billboard R&B charts, including 4 number ones. On the Billboard Hot 100 list The Miracles had 16 songs in the top 20, with 7 in the top ten.
The group was started by two friends from Detroit, William "Smokey" Robinson, and Ronnie White. The two made friends in the fifth grade and soon started singing together. There are two stories as to how Smokey got his name. One is he got the name because of his love of cowboy movies, the other is he got the name because of his smokey green eyes. No matter how he got the name, he is now a worldwide star! The first group was a do-wop group called The Five Chimes in 1955 at Northern High School. The first group members were: Smokey Robinson, Ronnie White, Pete Moore, Clarence Dawson, and James Grice. Within six months Dawson and Grice had been replaced by cousins Emerson and Bobby Rogers. The group now called themselves The Matadors. Bobby Rogers and Smokey were born on the same day (February 19, 1940) at the same hospital in Detroit, but did not meet until they were fifteen years old.
Emerson Rogers was drafted in 1956 and was replaced by his sister Claudette Rogers who later married Smokey in November 1959.
Marv Tarplin was added as a gitarist in 1958. Tarplin had originally been the accompanist for The Primettes, later to become The Supremes!
In 1958 The Matadors auditioned for Jackie Wilson's manager,who turned the group down. He felt that their make up was to similar to The Platters. While leaving the audition they met Wilson's head song writer Berry Gordy. Gordy liked the group and soon became the groups manager. Gordy and Smokey (the groups main song writer) worked together to improve Smokey's writing skills.
Gordy and a colleague Billy Davis had written a song called "Got A Job" as an answer to the song by The Silhouettes called "Get A Job". The group recorded the song and Gordy arranged a deal for the group to sign with End Records. They changed their name to The Miracles becaused The Matadors sounded to masculine for a group with a female member. Gordy became the groups main outside collaborator and he and Smokey wrote another song called "Bad Girl". Issued on Chess Records, "Bad Girl" became the group's first national hit.
Frustrated by low income due to the group's practice of selling their masters to various labels, Smokey suggested that Gordy start his own label. In 1959 Gordy, founded Tamla Records, which became MOTOWN. Gordy signed The Miracles as his first act. By 1961 Smokey was Vice President.
"Shop Around" backed by "Who's Lovin You" (1960) was the group's first hit under the Motown label. "Shop Around" reached #1 on national R&B charts, and the first to sell over a million copies for the Miracles. The Miracles were the first Motown group to perform on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, on December 27, 1960. "Shop Around was followed by so many more hits that they became a national sensation.
During this period The Miracles were the most popular group at Motown. The Miracles made paved the way for the rest of Motown's recording artist.
Gordy put together a tour of all the Motown acts called The Motown Revue. The Miracles were the stars of the tour. The Miracles influenced artist outside of Motown, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, first and The Zombies. A true tribute to the popularity of The Miracles music is the fact the their songs have been covered in every genre including, Jazz, Country & Western, Reggae, Hip Hop, Rock, Pop, as well as R&B and soul.
In the early days, Smokey was working behind scenes and doing most of the songwriting for most of the acts at Motown. Smokey tutored most of the groups at Motown, including The Supremes and The Temptations. By the time most of the groups at Motown had their hit, The Miracles already had a greatest hits album, "Greatest Hits From The Beginning".
Smokey, White, Rogers,Tarplin, and Moore all wrote songs for other groups at Motown. They wrote for Mary Wells, The Temptations, The Contours, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, and Brenda Holloway.
During the first Motown Revue, Smokey caught the Flu and could not sing, forcing Claudette to take his place as lead. Pete Moore was drafted and was gone for over a year. Smokey and Claudette wanted to start a family, but the life of touring caused Claudette to have several miscarrages, so in early 1964, Claudette retired from touring with the group. However she still continued to record with the group. With the exception of some early albums there are no official pictures of Claudette with the group, which lead some new comers to the Miracles to believe that Claudette was not really part of the group, but just a backup singer.
The Miracles were popular all over the world and had request to be the opening act on everybodies tour.
In 1965 The Miracles changed their name to Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, but were listed on their 45's as The Miracles until 1967. The group sang "Come Spy With Me" in 1967 for a 2oth Century Fox film of the same name. In 1968 the group gave a Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth.
In 1966 and 1967 the group had multiple hits with "Come Round here", " I second That Emotion", and "More Love". Even though there was a slight declind in their ratings the group still was making hits. In 1968 they hit the charts with, "If You Can Want", "Yester Love", and "Special Occasion" and again in 1969 with "Here I Go Again" and " Baby Baby Don't Cry".
Wanting to be home more and needing to concentrate on being vice president of Motown, Smokey started making plans to go solo. Smokey stayed with the group for two more years. In 1970 the goup was given it's own ABC television special, The Smokey Robinson Show, which stared The Miracles and guest starred The Temptation, The Supremes, and Stevie Wonder.
In 1971 after scoring a hit with "I Don't Blame You At All", Smokey announced that he would be leaving The Miracles. The group started on a six month farewell tour. During the tour the group released the last album with Smokey, "Flying High" with the lead single " We've Come To Far To End It Now".
Smokey made his last performance with the group at The Carter Barron, in Washington, DC.
Smokey introduced the new lead of the group Billy Griffin, on national television on NBC's Midnight Special. Billy Griffin's brother Donald replaced Marv Tarplin as the group's guitarist.
The Miracles had a few big hits after Smokey left but never again would they reach their old heights.
Over the years The Miracles recieved almost every award there is, but in 1987 Smokey was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act. This move caused a lot controversy, and hurt the feelings the of members of the group. The original Miracles were not inducted nor were the 70's version. Smokey and many of the Motown alums were upset by this move.
Smokey still preforms his solo act and has united with the members of the group from time to time. Smokey has a catelog of music that will last for generations. It seems that just when you think Smokey is finished a new group of music lovers discover him.
We'll re-visit the Miracles and Smokey again to show all of the connections that were created by this talented man and his group.

Nolan Strong and The Diablos

2009-12-31T14:55:00.003-05:00

Nolan Strong and The Diablos were a do-wop group formed in 1954.
Nolan Strong was born in 1934 and passed in 1977. Strong's smoth voice was influenced by Clyde McPhatter and Strong's voice in turn influenced Smokey Robinson. The original group consisted of Nolan Strong (lead singer), Juan Guitierrez (tenor), Willie Hunter (baritone), Quentin Eubanks (bass), Bob "Chico" Edwards (guitar). The Diablos recorded for Fortune Records a local label in Detroit. The group released a handful of 45's. "Adios My Desert Heart" a cha cha number was the groups first recording, their biggest hit however was "The Wind", recorded in 1954 and covered later by The Jesters. Most of their records were local hits in Detroit. In the sixties most of the group's records were credited only to Strong.
One of Strong's biggest problems was that he sounded so much like Smokey Robinson. Even though he came first, Strong was looked at as a Smokey wanna be, by people that didn't know the real story. Smokey has said many times over the years that Nolan Strong was a great influence on him and was one of his favorite singers.

Next up is The Miracles, a group that has out lasted mosted of the other groups from their era.

Please leave comments or request. Just click on comments and write what you have to say, write your name in the body of comment and then click anomymous if you don't want to join one of the listed groups.

Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers

2009-12-27T14:34:00.003-05:00

First of all HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's talk about a group that had an huge impact on Do-Wop and music in general for a long time. The group is Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers.
Frankie Lymon was born and raised in Harlem and was surrounded by music since birth. Lymon's father was a truck driver and his mother was a maid. Lymon's father (Howard), sang with a gospel group called The Harlemaires. As youngsters Lymon and his brothers, Lewis and Howie, sang with The Harlemaires Jr.
When Lymon was 12 years old, he heard a group call The Coupe DeVilles. This group had been formed by Jimmy Merchant. The group was a mix group in that there were two African Americans, Jimmy Merchant,and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Ricans, lead singer, Hermwn Santiago, and Joe Negroni. The group had gone through afew names before becoming The Teenagers. They were The Coupe DeVilles, The Ermines, and the Premiers.
Lymon became friends with the lead singer Herman Santiago and soon became a member of the group. A friend of Lymon's gave the group $500.00 to get them started.
In 1955 a neighbor gave the group some love letters in hopes that the letters would inspire a love song. Merchant and Santiago turned one letter into a song called " Why Do Birds Sing So Gay". With Lymon's input the song became "Why Do Fools Fall In Love". The song and the group impressed Richard Barrett, a singer with a group called the Valentines. Barrett got the group an audition with producer George Golder. On the day of the audition, lead singer Santiago was unavaiable, so Lymon took the lead.
Golder signed the group to Glee Records and "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" became their first single in January 1956. The single hit #6 on Billboard pop charts, and topped Billboard's R&B charts for five weeks. In the next year five other songs made the top ten charts, they were, "I Want You To Be My Girl", " I Promise To Rember", Who Can Explain", "Out In The Cold", and "The ABC"s Of Love".
With release of their second single the group became Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers. In 1956 an album "The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon" was released.
While the group was on tour in Europe the group broke apart. For some reason Golder started pushing Lymon as a solo act. Golder gave Lymon solo spots in the show. Lymon was doing a solo act with pre-recorded tapes as back-up. The last recording credited to Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers was "Goody Goody". The recording was really Lymon singing solo with studio singers as back-up. By September of 1957 Lymon had no connection with The Teenagers.
As a solo act Lymon's success was limited. Lymon was moved to Roulette Records. In July 1957 on an episode of Alan Freed's live ABC TV show The "Big Beat", Lymon sparked a scandal by dancing with a white teenage girl. This caused a back-lash amoung Southern TV stations owners and The Big Beat was canceled which almost killed Freed's career, and put Lymon career on hold.
Lymon voice changed which caused his sales to drop. Lymon started singing in a falsetto voice and kept trying to get his career back track. Lymon's highest charting record of this period was Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One". Lymon fell deeper into his addiction and was unable to work. Morris Levy took over Roulette in 1961 and ended Roulette's contract with Lymon. Lymon entered rehab. at this time.
After losing Lymon The Teenagers went through a long list of replacements. but never regained their success. At one time the group had a young lady named Pearl McKinnon, singing Lymon parts. nothing worked.
In 1961 Lymon and The Teenagers re-united without success.
Off and On over the years Lymon recorded and performed his old songs but could never find the majic again.
Lymon died at his grandmother's house in 1968 at the age of 25, what a lost!
Although their period of success was brief, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers' string of hits were highly influential on the rock and R&B performers who followed them. It is said that Lymon's high pitched voice was the predecessor to the girl group sound. Other groups that claimed that Lymon influenced them include: Ronnie Spector, The Chantels, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Len Barry, and The Beach Boys. Without a doubt the most visable evidence of Lymon's influence is seen in a group that became know world wide and it's lead singer became loved by millions, The Jackson 5, and Michael Jackson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next up Nolan Strong and The Diablos. This is the group that gave Smokey his inspiration.
Please leave comments.

The Platters and Buck Ram

2009-12-16T20:56:00.004-05:00

It is impossible to talk about The Platters with out talking about Buck Ram! Born Samuel Ram to Jewish parents, it has been said that the history of rock & roll could not be written without including Buck Ram. Ram was one of the top five song writers for BMI in it's first fifty years. Ram wrote, arranged, and produced for various artist, like The Coasters, The Drifters, Ike & Tina Turner, Ike Cole, Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, Ella Fitzgerald and others. The connection between Ram and future groups and future music runs from Ram through The Coasters and The Drifters to Leiber and Stoller. Ram started adding singers to groups to define a sound which is how Leiber and Stoller operated with their arrangements.
Ram is mostly remembered for his association with The Platters, whom he signed to a contract in 1953. Ram was working as a talent manager, A&R man for a dance band when Tony Williams, the brother of one of clients auditioned for him. Ram was looking for someone to sing the songs he had written and found the voice he was looking for in Tony Williams. Ram built The Platters around Williams. Ram arranged and produced all recordings by The Platters after they signed with Mercury Records, until his death. Ram also wrote their biggest hits including, "Only You (And You Alone)", "The Great Pretender", "Magic Touch",and "Twilight Time".
When Mercury announced that it would release "Only You" on their purple"race music" label Ram insisted that the records be relabeled stating that The Platters had worked to hard to have their market limited by a record label. Mercury agreed and the records were released on Mercury's regular label, thereby making The Platters one of the first cross-over artist.
As a follow-up to "Only You" Ram wrote "The Great Pretender" in a hotel washroom. "The Great Pretender" was anumber 4 hit for Freddie Mercury in 1987. Ram had no idea who Freddie Mercury was, but was thrilled that his songs was on the charts again, he laughed all the way to the bank. Ram also wrote "Twilight Time" and "Chew Chew Chew Your Bubble Gum" with Ella Fitzgerald.
Ram was involved in a controversy about the song "I'll Be Home For Christmas". Ram claims that he wrote the song and then talked about it two songwriters that he hardly knew, and that they took credit for the song until he forced them to give him credit. On Bing Crosby's recording of the song the credits are listed as Kent, Gannon, and Ram.
No matter what else Ram did in his life, his greatest success was The Platters.

THE PLATTERS
The Platters were a group formed in Los Angeles in the early 50's. They were managed by Ralph Bass and signed to Federal Records, where they had little success. The original group included, Alex Hodge, Cronell Gunther David Lynch, Joe Jefferson, Gaynel Hodge, and Herb Reed.
After signing with Ram, the group went through several changes before finding the mix that put them on the charts. The winning combination was Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor.
The Platters didn't chart at first, but a great touring group and were so successful that the The Penguins asked Ram to manage them as well. Mercury Records agreed to sign both groups. Sadly The Penguins never had a hit with Mercury Records.
Believe it or not Ram had to be talked into recording "Only You' by Tony Williams and Jean Bennett. Released in 1955 the song became the groups first top ten hit, and stayed on the charts for seven weeks. Their follow-up "The Great Pretender" went to number one and stayed on the charts for 11 weeks. In 1956 The Platters were in the first major motion picture based around rock & roll, Rock Around the Clock. They sang "Only You" and "The Great Pretender".
The Platters unique vocal style hit a nerve in America, and a string of hits followed. "I'm Sorry" (#11), "He's Mine" (#23) in 1957, "Enchanted" (#12) in 1959 and "The Majic Touch" (#4) in 1956. The Platters also found a way of making old hits new, with standards like, "My Prayer", "Twilight Time", "Harbor Lights", "If I Didn't Care" and Jerome Kerns, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". Kerns' widow expressed concern the that her late husband's song would be turned into a rock & roll song. It topped both American and British charts.
This hit making group stayed together until 1960, when trouble started creeping in.
As a group The Platters began to have some problems with their public. In 1959 four members of the group were arrestd in Cincinnati, on drug and prostitution charges. No one was convicted of the charges, but their professional reputation was seriously damaged and US radio stations started removing their song from their play list, forcing the group to book thenselves in Europe. During that time Tony Williams left the group for a solo career and was replaced by Sonny Turner. Mercury Records refused to issue any Platters records that did not have Tony Williams on lead. This action caused a law suite between Ram and Mercury Records. Mercury released only Williams lead records until The Platters contract expired.
From this point on it seems that there was always a law suit going on and a new group of Platters being formed. In 1966 The Platters had a small hit with "I Love You 1,000 Times". However they would never have the success of the Tony Williams group. It seems That every member of the group formed a group of Platters. There were so many groups of Platters that some were named for the lead of the group, like Herb Reed's Platters.
It is My opinion that The Platters were the classiest Do-Wop group ever!
There is not a lot of information about Tony Williams after he left The Platters, but if you listen to him sing "My Prayer" you can hear the power and control that he had with a song. His solo csreer should have compared with Jackis Wilson's, but it never did.

I would love to hear form readers in the comment section. Just click on the comment section and type in what you want to say including your name, then click anonymous to post your comments

Re-visit The Drifters

2009-12-09T20:18:00.004-05:00

As promised we're going to go back and look at the great lead singers of The Drifters. I must admit that while researching the group I found some things that even surprised me.
Let's start with Clyde McPhatter. McPhatter joined a gospel group called the Mount Lebanon Singers. In 1950 McPhatter joined Billy Ward's Dominoes, and can be heard on the hit "Sixty Minute Man". McPhatter recorded a number of songs with the group including, "Have Mercy Baby".
McPhatter left the Dominoes in 1953 and signed with Atlantic Records and formed a new group called the Drifters. The first version of this group recorded, "Money Honey", "Such A Night", "Honey Love", "Whatcha Gonna Do", and the classic "White Christmas", with Bill Pinkney on bass.
In 1954 McPhatter was drafted, but was able to record with the group because he was stationed in the US. When McPhatter returned from the military he found that there was no room for him in the group, so he decided to start his solo career. McPhatter teamed with Ruth Brown for his first hit, "Loved Has Joined Us Together". Over the next few years McPhatter recorded several songs without a hit. A song written by Brook Benton, "A Lovers Question", went to #6 in 1958. McPhatter released "Lover Please" that same year. Afew of McPhatter's song charted high in the UK.
McPhatter singed with MGM and released another string songs including, "I Told myself A Lie", "Think Me A Kiss", and "TaTa".
In 1960 McPhatter left the US and spent time in England where he was back by a UK band called ICE. McPhatter returned to the states and soon died of heart failure.
McPhatter complained over the years about how his replacement in The Dominoes (Jackie Wilson) was having a better solo career than he was.

Next in line is Bill Pinkney. Pinkney was part of the first group of Drifters, with Andrew and Gerhart Thrasher and bass singer Willie Ferbie. On The Drifters first recording "Money Honey", Pinkney a natural baritone sang first tenor. Willie Ferbie left the group and Pinkney then moved to bass, and can be heard on the classic White Christmas. The Drifters version of "White Christmas" was scorned at first, but the more it was played the more it caught on, and fifty years later it is still one of the top selling Christmas songs of all times.
Pinkney was in and out of the group over the next few years, he did not record with the group when they recorded "Fools Fall In Love", and "Drip Drop".
Pinkney later formed a new group of Drifters called The Original Drifters and toured with the group over the years.

Next up is Ben E. King. King started his career using his given name Benjamin Earl Nelson. In 1958 King joined a do-wop group called The Five Crowns. That same year the manager of The Drifters (George Tredwell) fired the members of The Drifters and hired The Five Crowns as the new Drifters. King only recorded 10 songs with the group, including "There Goes My Baby", which was co-written by King.
King left the group in 1960 after being refused a raise by Tredwell.
King's first hit was "Spanish Harlem" in 1961 followed by "Stand By Me". "Stand By Me" was written by King along with Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller. King had a fantastic career and is still touring at this time.

There was not a lot of information on Rudy Lewis. Lewis was the lead for The Drifters from 1960 until 1964. Sometimes switching off with Johnny Moore. Lewis lead on "Some Kind Of Wonderful", "Please Stay", "On Broadway", and "Up On The Roof". It seems that Lewis' biggest problem was folling Ben E. King as lead of The Drifters. Lewis died May 20, 1964, the night before a recording session. Johnny Moore took the lead at the session and The Drifters moved on.

Johnny Moore joined The Drifters in 1955 at age 21. He was drafted and forced to leave the group; upon returning he recorder as a solo act under the name of Johnny Darrow. He rejoined the group and became lead singer in 1964. Johnny Moore toured with a number of Drifters group over the years. Moore even moved to the UK with a group of Drifters in the 1970's. Moore stayed with the group until his death in 1998.

Last and by no means least is Charlie Thomas. Thomas was a member of The Five Crowns with Ben E. King when they were hired to be the new Drifters. Charlie Thomas' biggest song was "Sweets For My Sweets".

While doing my research I found some great connections. The first connection is Leiber and Stoller who were song writers and producrs who signed to the Atlantic label, but were allowed to write and produce for other labels. Leiber and Stoller wrote and produced songs for the likes of Elvis, The Coasters, and The Drifters. It seems that the duo had a majic touch for making hits, no matter who they worked with.

The second connection is the Drinkard Singers. Leiber and Stoller took a female gospel group that included Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, Sissy Houston, and at times Judy Clay and made them an important part of the Drifters success.
Leiber and Stoller arranged some of The Drifters songs so that The Drifters sang in unison on a note that was in harmony with the harmony of The Drinkards Singers. This arrangement kept The Drifters on the charts for years.

As time goes on we will visit Leiber and Stoller many times as we look at groups that were touched by the pair.

If there are any groups that you would like to hear about, please leave request in the comments section of this blog.

The 5 Royales

2009-12-01T21:02:00.004-05:00

Before I get to The 5 Royales, I have some unfinished buisness with The Drifters. There were so many singers and leads over the years, that it would be an injustice if we didn't profile some of them. So after I cover The 5 Royales I will come back and cover some of the singers that passed through The Drifters.

The 5 Royales were a gospel group form Winston-Salem, North Carolina, called The Royal Sons Quintet.They started recording in the early 50's and changed their name to The 5 Royales after moving from gospel to secular music. The group consisted of Lowman "Pete" Pauling who was the groups main writer and guitarist. Pauling wrote the group's first two hits. "Dedicated to the one I love" which was covered by the Shirells and The Momas and Papas, "Tell the Truth" covered by Ray Charles and "Think" covered by James Brown & The Famous Flames. It has been claimed that James Brown modeled his group after The 5 Royales. Steve Cropper of Booker T and the MG's credit Pauling as an influence.
Most of the group's recording were made in 1952 and 1953. The group consisted of Pauling, Jimmy Moore, Obadiah Carter, Otto Jefferies, and Johnny Tanner on lead. Tanners brother Eugene replaced Jeffries. Johnny Tanner had a big voice and lead on most of the group songs, including "Think". A sweeter voice was needed for the lead of "Dedicated to the One I Love", so Eugene Tanner was picked to lead. "Baby Don't Do It" became hits in 1953.
The group shared the stage with most of the major groups of the day including Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, and even filled in for The Raelettes, in Durham North Carolina.
In late 1952 some confusion arose when two 5 Royales groups started touring. The other group was from Detroit and was led by Hank Ballard. The confusion ended when a promoter sent the Detroit group to Winston-Salem and tried to pass them off as the original group. The audience was not fooled and soon after the Detroit group changed their name to The Midnighters. Both groups had hits at King records with Rock& Roll Hall of Fame producer Ralph Bass. The two groups became friends and from time to time staged battle of the bands. Hank Ballard and the Midnighters gained fame for the song and dance "The Twist". It has been claimed that the gospel group The Nightingales, wrote the song but could not sing it because of it's secular lyrics. The song was later covered by a new comer named Chubby Checker. The Midnighters gained greater fame with their risque series of "Annie" songs, ("Work With Me Annie", and "Annie Had a Baby").
In 1957 "Think" and "Tears of Joy" became hits for The 5 Royales. Some of their lesser known recording were now looked at as innovative.
The 5 Royales broke up in 1967, but various combination of musicians would tour with group's name into the 1970's
Pauling continued recording with pianist Royal Abbitt as El Pauling and the Royalton. Pauling's brother Clarence a former member of the Royal Sons Quintet found success as producer and song writer at Motown.
Most of the group's members lived well into the 1990's. Pauling however died of a seizure in December 1973.

The Drifters

2009-11-27T21:45:00.004-05:00

After learning that McPhatter had left the Dominoes, Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records singed McPhatter to form another group that would blend the gospel sound with the new R&B sound. McPhatter got four members of his old gospel group, The Mount Lebanon Singers to be the first Drifters. They were William "Chick" Anderson (tenor), David "Little Dave" Baughan, (tenor), David Baldwin (baritone), and James "Wrinkle" Johnson (bass). After the first recording, McPhatter saw that the combination wasn't working and changed the lineup. Again McPhatter pulled singers from the gospel ranks. They were Gerhart Thrasher (baritone), Andrew Trasher (tenor), Bill Pinkney (high tenor), Willie Ferbee (bass) and Walter Adams on guitar.

In their second recording session this group came up with group's first major hit, "Money Honey", which was released in September, 1953. A song called Luucille was the "B" side. "Money Honey" was a huge success and pushed The Drifters to immediate fame. Almost immediately the group started making changes in personell. Ferbee was in an accident and left the group, Adams passed away and was replaced by Jimmy Oliver. Ferbee was not replaced so the voice parts were switched around. Gerhart Thrasher moved to first tenor, Andrew Thrasher moved to baritone, and a change that would define the sound of The Drifters, Bill Pinkney moved to bass. "Such A Night" came from this configuration, and the combination of Pinkney, and McPhatter changing leads on an Irvin Berlin song, "White Christmas" created a Christmas standard that has stood the test of time. Since November, 1954, The Drifters version of "White Christmas" has been a best seller for years. The song is included on most gotta have songs for the Christmas season.
McPhatter was drafted in May, 1954, but was stationed Buffalo,NY, which made it possible for him to still record with group. Being in the Army made it impossible for McPhatter, to tour with the group. McPhatter last recording with the group was "What'cha Gonna Do". It was contended that when McPhatter left the Army there was no room for him in The Drifters.
The relationship with Billy Ward not paying the singers in the Dominoes their proper salaries, caused McPhatter to demand a large share of The Drifters profits. When McPhatter left he sold his share of The Drifters to George Tredwell the manager of the group. As a result many of the groups members made very little money. McPhatter did the same thing to The Drifters that Billy Ward had done to him.
McPhatter was replaced by David Baughn, his voice was simular to McPhatter's, but his behavior made him unsuitable for Atlantic Records.
Baughn, formed a new group called The Harps. Baughn would join Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters in 1958.
Johnny More joined the group and almost immediately had a hit "Adorable" which went to number one. The "B" side made it to number five. Two more hits followed, "Ruby Baby" and " I Got To Get Myself A Woman".
Low salaries caused burnouts and friction with the members of the group. Bill Pinkney was fired when he asked for more money. In protest Andrew Thrasher also left. Pinkney formed another group called The Flyers. There were so many people in and out of the group in the next few years that no one knew which was up. "Fools Fall In Love" was the last hit of 1957.
Moore was drafted in 1957 and was replaced by Bobby Hendricks. In 1958 the lineup was Hendricks, Gerhart Thrasher, Jimmy Millender, Tommy Evans, and Jimmy Oliver. This lineup had one ok hit "Drip Drop"
By May of 1958 both Hendricks and Oliver had quit, their replacements and the new lineup had a one week appearance at the Apollo, during the week one of The Drifters got ito a fight with someone at the theater, this pushed George Treadwell over the edge, and he fired the entire group on the spot.
In the mean time McPhatter had started his solo career with a duet with Ruth Brown.
Feeling that they had been messed over many of the ex-Drifters felt that they were the real Drifters and deserved piece of the pie. Bill Pinkney was the fist to make the move. He joined with the Trashers and David Bauhn to tour as The Original Drifters. Somewhere it got lost that they were part of the second Drifters. Pinkney continued to change members of the group often so at times the groups sound was not up to par and in many cases the faithful in the audience noticed, and sometimes there were walkouts during shows. There were too many Drifters to count by this time.
While all of this was going on George Tredwell was moving forward with his version of The Drifters. In the summer of 1958, Tredwell approached Lover Patterson the manager of a new group on the scene call The Five Crowns and hired them as The Drifters. This group included Ben E. Nelson (Ben E. King), Charlie Thomas, Doc Green, Elsbeary Hobbs.
Since the new group had none of the old members, sometime they met hostile audiences. The new group is widely considered the true golden age of the group.
The first release from this group was "There Goes MY Baby", it became an hit, and is considered the first Rock & Roll song to have a string orchestra. This version of The Drifters had six hit in row, also this version of the group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000 as Ben E King and The Drifters.
King, Tredwell and Lover Patterson had many conflicts about money which resulted in King leaving and starting his successful solo career.
Over the years since Kings group, there have been many many versions of the group. At times there have been as many as five groups of Drifters touring at on time. With so many singers in and out of the group, it's hard to pick the singers that did the most for the group. My picks would be Clyde McPhatter, Ben E. King, Johnny Moore, Rudy Lewis, Charlie Thomas.
The Drifters influenced a lot of groups in American music, and for a time in the early sixties had four or five hits in a row.
There is another strange connection to the Drifters, and Ben E. King, Lieber and Stoller produced and wrote many of the songs that became hits for The Drifters and King even after he left the group.
Clyde McPhatter had a modest solo career, his last hit was in 1962, it was "Lover Please". By now Jackie Wilson, McPhatter's replacement in The Dominoes, had started his solo career and seemed to be doing better than McPhatter. McPhatter was bitter about this and complained about it for years.
McPhatter died in 1972 after returning from a long stay in England.

Our next group will be The Five Royals.
Please check in and see what's up and feel free to comment!

Billy Ward and the Dominoes

2009-11-25T22:15:00.004-05:00

In the next few weeks we're going to talk about some of the groups that had long lasting effects on R&B and Rock & Roll.
The groups that we'll talk about are: Billy Ward and the Dominoes, The Five Crowns,the Drifters,The 5 Royals, Nolan and the Diablos, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Swallows, The Flamingos, The Orioles, The Impressions, The Heartbeats, Shep and The Limelites, The Moonglows, The Dells, The Jive Five, The Penguins, THe Platters, and The Spaniels.
Let's start with Billy Ward and the Dominoes. Billy Ward (Robert Williams) was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1921. Ward was a music prodigy and won awards for piano composition at the age of 14. After leaving the military Mr. Ward studied music at the Juilliard Music School in New York. There he met Rose Marks and the two became business and songwriting partners.
Ward's first group was first called the Ques. Clyde McPhatter (lead), along with Charlie White (tenor),Joe Lamont (baritone), and Bill Brown (bass) made up the group.
Ward acted as the groups pianist and arranger. The group had success at the Apollo Theater, and then appeared on the Auther Godfry show in 1950. The group was recommended to Ralph Bass of Federal Records a subsidiary of King Records. They singed with Federal Records and changed their name to the Dominoes, their first release was "Do something for Me". The song climbed to number 16, in 1951. The groups next hit was "Sixty Minute Man". The song was unique in many ways. First the lead on the song was the bass, second the song was about sex and a mans ability to make love for sixty minutes; 15 minutes of kissin, 15 minutes of teasin, 15 minutes of squeezin and 15 minutes of blowing his top. It reached number one on the R&B charts and stayed there for 14 weeks. The song was a cross-over hit and for that reason it was banned in some markets, which made it that even more popular. Some people contend that Sixty Minute Man was the first Rock & Roll record.
Ward was a strict disciplinarian and failed to pay the members of the group well. This caused major conflicts. Ward and Marks owned the Dominoes name and had the right to hire and fire and paid the singers barely enough to live on. The group started to fall apart in 1951 when Brown and White left the group. They were replaced by James Laon, David McNeil.
In 1952 Alan Freed picked the Dominoes to appear at his Moondog Ball. The group had another big hit with "Have Mercy Baby" wich stayed on the charts for 10 weeks.
In 1953 Clyd McPhatter got fedup and left the group and soon formed a new group called The Drifters.
While McPhatter's leaving the Dominoes was not a good thing for the Dominoes, it was great for do-wop and R&B. The Drifters in their many incarnations became a major influence in R&B. And if that wasn't enough Clyde McPhatter's replacement was none other than Jackie Wilson.
The Dominoes continued to tour and record but never got back to their greatness. Their last hit was a pop hit that went number 13 in 1957. This was their only million seller.
The group toured until the mid sixties.
Biiy Ward played small clubs and did arrangements for other groups. Mr Ward died in February 2002.
Tomorrow we'll talk about the many variations of the Drifters. Many singers passed through the Drifters, but with the exception of Clyde McPhatter, and later Ben E. King, there were no standout singers to emerge form the many different groups.

Let's get started

2009-11-17T22:07:00.000-05:00

In the late forties there were some popular Black groups that were becomming known around the country for their tight harmony; The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and The Orioles of Baltimore. The Orioles were one of the first groups to appear on TV, thanks to Auther Godfrey a white variaty show host. These groups were soon imitated by groups like The Platters, who were on of the first group that I can find that use the do-wop in the background of a song. The sound became popular with kids on the street that were trying to sing the popular songs of the day. They sang acapella, and their voices had to fill in where the insruments would have been. Do-wops and sha-booms became staples of the street music. Do-wop became so popular that as new groups started recoding they used the do-wop background even when they had instruments. As we move along with this blog we will highlight some of these groups and their contribution to do-wop and rock and roll.