My favorite is Johnny Maestro-sweetest one R.I.P. Johnny

Interesting question botz. I love Doo Wop. Several come to mind: Frankie Lyman (Why Do Fools Fall In Love); Peguins (Earth Angel); The Platters are awesome (Great Pretender, Only You, My Prayer); Can't list all their songs and am not sure if they were one-hit wonders but a couple of my very favorite 50's doo-wop are: The Five Satins (In The Still Of The Night) and The Diamonds (Little Darling.) Two of my favorite Doo Wops.

Artists that went into the 60's with their music: Dion DiMucci (I Wonder Why, Runaround Sue and tons of others); Little Anthony & the Imperials (Tears On My Pillow).

TIS

Ah, brings back memories of me and Mary Lou Reidinger. She had a huge 45 record collection. I like Maestro, but also Little Anthony (Just Two Kinds of People in the World; Tears was great also). There are so many.

TIS, some say that Still of the Night was the greatest Doo-Wop song. Remember Duke of Earl?

Oli,

I sure do remember "The Duke Of Earl." Loved it.

A while back when I was in Michigan the PBS channel had a reunion Doo-Wop shows with many great acts from the 50's, as they look now, including The Diamonds, Gogi Grant, the 5 Satins and many others.

They also had the artist (forgot the name) who sang "Lollipop". Remember that song? (Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli lollipop?) Anyway my whole family laughed at the one guy in the group who's only contribution to that song was the "pop" (inserting finger in mouth). Anyone who knows the song knows what I'm talking about.

TIS

The best white lead doo-wop vocalist ever. Hands down.



My favorite doo-wop vocal groups (aside from Johnny Maestro and the Crests) are the Duprees and the Skyliners.

The best doo-wop version of "Over the Rainbow" ever recorded was by the Mystics.

I'm an old New York doo-wop guy, veteran of every Alan Freed R&R show from '56 through '60, and an avid listener to Freed and Jocko. Two classes of favorites:

1. The smoothies: Flamingos, Harptones, Moonglows. Willie Winfield (Harptones) is my ace; my favorite is "On Sunday Afternoon."

2. The (younger) doo-woppers: Channels, Teenagers, Cleftones,Chantels, Bop Chords, Continentals, Paragons, Jesters, Billy Ward and the Dominos...the list is interminable. Channels and their lead singer, Earl Lewis, are my faves; their best is "The Gleam in Your Eye."

The best white groups were the Skyliners and Dion and the Belmonts.

Jackie Wilson was the greatest lead singer of the Fifties, with Clyde McPhatter coming in second.

Anyone else remember any of these?

Amen to that, TB .

Jackie's best ballad:

A very great and beautiful song, PB.

"To Be Loved" replaced "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" at every Italian and Jewish wedding in NYC in the Sixties. Jackie could have made a great operatic tenor if he'd gone that way.

You're creepy sometimes, TB.

My parents were married in '58 (I came along in '59). "To Be Loved" was their wedding song! That's the reason I posted it!

The song's initial release was in '57. Eddie Murphy made it a bit of a retro hit when he sang along to it in "Coming to America."

I love Jackie Wilson's voice but have to say that "To Be Loved" is only vaguely familiar to me. I don't know if it's because I wasn't listening or just waaaay too young.

And Clyde McPhatter, I had to look up cause I didn't know him by name, but of course, The Drifters I do. Another great group.

I too think that Tony Williams of The Platters had a wonderful voice as lead singer.

TIS

You'e older than me, Grandma, and I know that song all my life .

Maybe it was more popular in New York than in Detroit.

..
Yes, I'm answering your last letter that says we must part
I'm tearing it to pieces the way you tore up my heart
I smile when you kiss me and I thrill at your touch
My only sin was, I love you much too much

"Glory of Love"-The Velvetones

Good one Lilo.

How about "Stay" by Maurice Williams and how could I forget "At The Hop", by Danny & the Juniors.

Music was so "fun and innocent" back then wasn't it?




TIS

I like to watch the PBS special on Doo Wop. They have some great groups and the talent is STILL amazing. I'm always impressed at how strong their voices still are - these are not youngsters.

SB, On one of the PBS "Doo-Wop" reunion specials they had one gal (I think the one that sang "I've Told Every Little Star") who was like 12 or 15 or so when she originally had the hit. Well at roughly 60 something she was the youngster there. You're right tho, most of them do still sound pretty good.

The had the Platters as well but had Mel Carter (Hold Me, Thrill Me) take over the lead for Tony Williams.



TIS

Maurice Williams was with the Zodiacs when he made "Stay." He was with an earlier group, the Gladiolas, that made the original "Little Darling." But it was immediately "covered" by a white Canadian group, the Diamonds, and it was just about the biggest hit single in the NYC area in the summer of 1957. Both Alan Freed and Jocko had a policy of playing only the originals when a song was "covered," and their shows were where I heard the Gladiolas' version of "Little Darling."

Record producers in the Fifties and Sixties had a nasty practice: they'd con (mostly black) young singing groups into signing recording "contracts" that had them turn over the song rights to the producers. The producers then would then make the song available to (mostly white) singers and groups, and make royalties from both versions.

In an extreme case, a black group, the Rays, made a single with "Silhouettes" as the A-side and "Daddy Cool" as the B. It reached Billboard Top 10. Within a week, the Diamonds covered both sides on their single, and it reached Top 10, too.

I'm sure you remember this, TB, but "The Sopranos" tapped that storyline during the first season. I've read that the character of "Hesh" was loosely based on Herman Lubinsky, who founded Savoy Records. Lubinsky was a Newark area record producer who was almost universally hated by the African American music community.

Ironically, Herman Lubinsky was the grandfather of TJ Lubinsky, the young man who produces many of the PBS Doo Wop revival shows that we all love so much. TJ is a very young guy. Younger than 40, I think. But great music transcends age and time.

Randy and the Rainbows-Denise Denise is a great song

This is from www.bsnpubs.com:

Morris Levy ran the Roulette label from it's inception. He was born poor in the East Bronx, New York. He went into the nightclub business and eventually owned several big nightclubs in mid-town Manhattan. Levy was in business with disc jockey Alan Freed, and with Freed promoted the hugely successful Rock and Roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater. Levy's real money came from publishing copyrights that accumulated into a vast fortune over the years. It was hardly a secret that Levy had many "silent partners" in the Mafia underworld. Levy claimed he was being harassed by the government and had numerous run-ins with the law because of his association with the Genovese family, but he avoided serious prosecution for many years. Levy's luck ran out in May 1988 when he was convicted on extortion charges and drew a ten-year sentence, but he remained free on bail after an appeal, and died of cancer in 1990. The story of Morris Levy and Roulette Records is chronicled in the book Hit Men by Fredric Danner in the chapter titled "Lullaby of Gangland."

Doo Wop was on life support by 1963, but you'd never know it by this song. It's one of the great summer melodies of all time.

Way Back Then


1993

Nice Lilo. I can't say I remember that particular song but it most definitely is doo-wop. They sound pretty much the same in the newer version either.


TIS

So Much in Love is still one of my favorites. It reminded me of back in '63 of WAMO with Porky Chedwick, Pittsburgh's "platter pushin' poppa who would spliver your liver and splatter your bladder". Even then he was spinning golden oldies. WAMO was primarily a black station that now is a Catholic station.

God,if I could only have those days back again. Oh yes, "Oh what a night. Late September back in '63, what a very special time for me." I guess it was a special time for many of us.

Most Fifties doo-wop was recorded on small, independent labels that had only local or regional distribution. Result: a song could be Top 40 in New York and never be heard in, say, Atlanta, Houston or San Francisco. But, they could take a group of kids right off the street, record them the same day, and get (actually buy) airplay within a week.

After the "payola" investigations of 1959-60, most of the independent labels folded--they couldn't buy airplay anymore. The survivors all had national and even international distribution, had better-quality studios, improved marketing, etc. But they were a lot more selective in who they chose to record. Result: far fewer black singing groups made records.

Dion and the Belmonts - "Run Around Sue". Great Jitterbug song.

I was in Shop-Rite early this morning and they had an oldies station on and I heard Dion doing "Ruby".

Don't know if I'd call Jackie Wilson doo-wop, but man that guy had a voice unmatched today - "Lonely Teardrops", "Baby Workout", "That's Why I Love You So", "Reet Petite".

MC,

I love Dion! Runaround Sue is one of my favorites as well as Ruby and I think every other hit they had. I have the greatest hits album somewhere back in MI.

Here's The Temptations. I think they can be considered doo-wop even if from the 60's. I always loved the mellow dance routines and although not so much in this video, I loved their flashy dress style. .

Go Motown!!

TIS

TIS, I'd have to classify The Temps as soul really.

Does that mean I have to delete it?

Yea, you're right I guess. I know more about the 60's music than the 50's.

So, just enjoy the music.

TIS