The Teenagers

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The Teenagers
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.jpg
The original five Teenagers; from left to right: Jimmy Merchant, Herman Santiago, Frankie Lymon, Joe Negroni and Sherman Garnes.
Background information
Also known asThe Coup De Villes, The Earth Angels, The Ermines, The Premiers, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
Origin Harlem, New York City, New York, United States
Genres
Years active1954–2020
Labels Gee, Roulette, End
Past members Frankie Lymon
Jimmy Castor
Joe Negroni
Sherman Garnes
Billy Lobrano †
Johnny Houston
Lewis Lymon †
John Seda
Derek Ventura
Dickie Harmon
Timothy Wilson
Pearl McKinnon
Phil Garrito
Marilyn Byers
Roz Morehead
Eric Ward
Thomas Lockhart
  • Bobby Jay
  • Herman Santiago
  • Jimmy Merchant
  • Terrance Farward
  • Terry King
  • Joseph Rivera
  • Donald McCall

The Teenagers were an American music group, most noted for being one of rock music's earliest successes, presented to international audiences by DJ Alan Freed. [2] The group, which made its most popular recordings with young Frankie Lymon as lead singer, is also noted for being rock's first all-teenaged act. [2] They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Contents

History

The Teenagers had their origins in the Earth Angels, a group founded at Edward W. Stitt Junior High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan by second tenor Jimmy Merchant and bass Sherman Garnes. [3] Eventually, Garnes and Merchant had added lead singer Herman Santiago and baritone Joe Negroni to their lineup and evolved into The Coupe De Villes. [3] In 1954, 12-year-old Frankie Lymon joined the Coupe De Villes, who changed their name to first the Ermines and later the Premiers.

The same year Lymon joined the group, he helped Santiago and Merchant rewrite a song they had composed to create "Why Do Fools Fall In Love". The song got the Teenagers an audition with George Goldner's Gee Records, but Santiago was too sick to sing lead on the day of the audition. Lymon sang the lead on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" instead, and the group was signed to Gee as The Teenagers, with Lymon as lead singer. [4]

"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" was the Teenagers' first and biggest hit. The group, known for both their harmony and choreography, also had hits with "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" and "The ABC's of Love". [2]

By 1957, the group was being billed as "Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers". This caused in-fighting, and by September, Goldner had pulled Lymon out of the group to record solo. Lymon had little success as a solo artist. He became a heroin addict at the age of 15 and his sales dropped quickly in the early 1960s. In 1966, he stopped using heroin after being forced to go to the army, but on February 27, 1968, he decided to celebrate his good fortune by taking heroin (he was planning to launch a comeback) and died of a heroin overdose at the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom. He had been clean since entering the army two years earlier. The Teenagers continued recording, bringing in a new lead. [5] Billy Lobrano, as the group's first white member, made them more racially mixed, now with two black, one white, and two Hispanic members. The group had little success with Lobrano, and he left. Sherman Garnes died of a heart attack in 1977, [3] while Joe Negroni died a year later due to a cerebral hemorrhage. [3] Their replacements were Bobby Jay and Frankie's brother Lewis Lymon, respectively.

In the 1980s, the Teenagers had resorted to using a female singer to imitate Lymon's prepubescent voice, and Pearl McKinnon joined the band. The members at that time were Jimmy Merchant, Herman Santiago, Eric Ward, and Pearl McKinnon. [3] By 1983, Ward had been replaced by Derek Ventura, [3] and in 1984 Phil Garrito took over for Ventura. Roz Morehead replaced McKinnon, and Marilyn Byers moved into Morehead's lead spot. Later in the 1980s the group had settled on a new lead, Jimmy Castor. Castor remained lead until the 1990s, when he was replaced by Timothy Wilson, former lead of Tiny Tim and the Hits. This line-up appeared on the PBS special Doo Wop 51 in 2000.[ citation needed ]

The group's line-up was Herman Santiago, Bobby Jay, Terry King and Terrance Farward. They were often billed as Frankie Lymon's Legendary Teenagers or The Legendary Teenagers.[ citation needed ]

As of 2019 the line-up was Herman Santiago, Bobby Jay, Joseph Rivera and Donald McCall. [6]

Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers discography

Albums

YearAlbum Record label
1956 The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon Gee Records

Singles

YearTitlePeak chart
positions
Record Label B-side Album
US Pop
[7]
US R&B
[7]
UK
[8]
1956"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" 1611 Gee Records "Please Be Mine"The Teenagers
Featuring Frankie Lymon
"I Want You to Be My Girl" 2133"I'm Not a Know It All"
"I Promise to Remember"5710"Who Can Explain?" (R&B #7) [7]
"The ABC's of Love"778"Share"
"I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent"12"Baby, Baby" (UK #4) [8]
1957"Teenage Love""Paper Castles"
"Out in the Cold Again" 110"Miracle in the Rain"
"Goody Goody" 32024"Creation of Love"
"Everything to Me""Flip-Flop"Lead Vocals by Billy Lobrano
1958"My Broken Heart" Roulette Records "Mama Wanna Rock"
1960"Can You Tell Me" End Records "A Little Wiser Now"Featuring Freddie Houston
1963"The Lemon-Twist Dance"Tahoe Records"The Twisting Rhumba"
1989"Why Do Fools Fall in Love"84N/ARe-release
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Notes:

Films

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doo-wop</span> Style of rhythm and blues music

Doo-wop is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the bridge, a melodramatically heartfelt recitative addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables is a common characteristic of these songs. Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was "artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s and continued to influence performers in other genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankie Lymon</span> American singer (1942–1968)

Franklin Joseph Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll doo-wop group The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African-American members, Lymon, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes; and two Puerto Rican members, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", was also their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and that of the Teenagers fell into decline. In 1968, Lymon was found dead at the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom from a heroin overdose. Lymon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of the Teenagers. His life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herman Santiago</span> Puerto Rican singer

Herman Santiago is a Puerto Rican rock and roll pioneer and songwriter who was previously a member of the vocal group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. He (disputedly) co-wrote the group's iconic hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love".

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Why Do Fools Fall in Love may refer to:

<i>Why Do Fools Fall in Love</i> (film) 1998 film by Gregory Nava

Why Do Fools Fall in Love is a 1998 American biographical drama film directed by Gregory Nava. Released by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the true story of Frankie Lymon, lead singer of the pioneering rock and roll group Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers for one year. Moreover, the film highlights the three women in his life, each of whom claim to have married Lymon and lay claim to his estate.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Negroni</span> American singer (1940–1978)

Joe Negroni was an American singer of Puerto Rican descent. He was a rock and roll pioneer and founding member of the rock and roll group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent</span> 1956 single by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers

"I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" is a song written by George Goldner and performed by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers for the 1956 film Rock, Rock, Rock!, which also appeared on the soundtrack for the film's 50th anniversary. It reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1957. It was released in November 1956 in the US and February 1957 in the UK, and is the last song featured on the 1956 album The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon.

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Sherman Garnes was an American singer and member of the doo-wop group, The Teenagers. Garnes attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School where he met Jimmy Merchant. Garnes and Merchant formed a group called The Earth Angels, and in 1954 formed the Coupe De Villes along with Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni. This group, with the addition of Frankie Lymon, later became The Teenagers and had a hit song with Why Do Fools Fall in Love. Garnes died on February 26, 1977, from a heart attack when he was only 36 years old. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of the Teenagers.

References

  1. Green, Al. "Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers". Rhino.com. Rhino Entertainment . Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Fontenot, Robert. "Doo-Wop's Boy Band: Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers" . Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Doo Wop: Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. The Entertainers We Love" . Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  4. Goldberg, Marv (2001). "Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook: The Teenagers". Archived from the original on February 10, 2005. Retrieved November 19, 2006.
  5. "The Big Guys' Rantings » William Lubrano, a/K/A Billy Lobrano". Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
  6. The Teenagers I Promise , retrieved October 11, 2023
  7. 1 2 3 "Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers Top Songs / Chart Singles Discography". Music VF. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  8. 1 2 "TEENAGERS - full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company . Retrieved December 2, 2021.

Bibliography