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Doo-wop is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated among African-American youth in the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, DC, 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, but continued to influence performers in other genres.
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, Frankie 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. He was found dead at the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom from a heroin overdose. His life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall In Love.
The Teenagers are an American doo wop group, most noted for being one of rock music's earliest successes, presented to international audiences by DJ Alan Freed. 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.
The Chiffons were an American girl group originating from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, in 1960.
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets is the fourth studio album by the Mothers of Invention. Released on December 2, 1968, on Bizarre and Verve Records with distribution by MGM Records, it was subsequently remixed by Frank Zappa and reissued independently.
The Tokens were an American male doo-wop-style vocal group and record production company group from Brooklyn, New York. They are known best for their chart-topping 1961 single, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
"Sh-Boom" is an early doo-wop song by the R&B vocal group The Chords. It was written by James Keyes, Claude Feaster, Carl Feaster, Floyd F. McRae, and William Edwards, members of The Chords, and published in 1954. It was a U.S. top-10 hit that year for both the Chords and The Crew-Cuts.
The Jarmels was an American doo wop rhythm and blues group formed in 1959 in Richmond, Virginia best known for their only 1961 hit, "A Little Bit of Soap".
The Jesters were a doo-wop group based in New York City who achieved success in the late 1950s. 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 contest at the Apollo Theater, where Paul Winley discovered them and later signed them to his Winley Records.
"He's So Fine" is a song written by Ronnie Mack. It was recorded by The Chiffons who topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in the spring of 1963. One of the most instantly recognizable golden oldies with its doo-lang doo-lang doo-lang background vocal, "He's So Fine" is also renowned as the plaintiff song in the famous plagiarism case against George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord".
The Valentines were one of the most highly regarded American doo-wop groups from the mid-1950s.
The Solitaires are an American doo-wop group, best known for their 1957 hit single "Walking Along". Although they never had a national chart hit, they were one of the most popular vocal groups in New York in the late 1950s.
Jimmy Norman was an American rhythm and blues and jazz musician and a songwriter. In his early career, Norman had a charting single of his own, "I Don't Love You No More ", as well as performing session work with Jimi Hendrix, but he is better known as a lyricist and songwriter. He wrote the expanded lyrics of the song "Time Is on My Side", which became a hit for The Rolling Stones and was later re-recorded and produced by Stephen Vanderbilt featuring "St. Tropez" as the A side of a 45 released from the album Home throughout Europe. Norman composed a number of songs performed by well-known musicians including Johnny Nash and Bob Marley. In 1969 he became involved with doo-wop band The Coasters, first as a producer and then as a touring member. He was also recording independently, releasing a solo album in 1998, the same year poor health forced him to retire from performance. Like many other musicians of his time, he was not financially prepared for retirement or heavy medical bills, and with few royalties for his writing soon found himself in economic crisis. With the assistance of charitable organization Jazz Foundation of America, Norman regained his feet and resumed performing, releasing his first wide-distribution album in 2004, Little Pieces. He performed in the Manhattan area until shortly before his death.
Luther Dixon was an American songwriter, record producer, and singer. Dixon's songs achieved their greatest success in the 1950s and 1960s, and were recorded by Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Jackson 5, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dusty Springfield, Jimmy Reed and others. As a producer, Dixon helped create the signature sound of the girl group the Shirelles.
Ronald Augustus Mack was an American songwriter, singer and talent manager who wrote "He's So Fine", a number one chart hit in 1963 for the Chiffons and the apparent inspiration for George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord". Mack's early death reportedly inspired Holland, Dozier and Holland to write the song "Jimmy Mack".
Lillian Leach, also known by her married name, Lillian Leach Boyd, was an American singer who performed lead vocals with the Bronx-based doo-wop group the Mellows. She was noted for her mellifluous voice and wistful singing style. The Mellows recorded several hit songs in the 1950s, including "Smoke From Your Cigarette", "Yesterday's Memories", and "How Sentimental Can I Be?"
The Furys were an American doo-wop group of the 1960s featuring tenors Tony Allen and Jimmy Green with baritone Jerome Evans. They were best known for a cover of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart, produced by James McEachin, and their performance of Gene Pitney's “If I Didn't Have a Dime".
The Willows are an American doo-wop group formed in Harlem, New York, in 1952. The group was an influential musical act that performed into the mid-1960s and had a Top 20 R&B hit with "Church Bells May Ring", a song which was covered with greater commercial success by The Diamonds.
The Vocaleers were an American doo-wop group formed in Harlem, New York, in 1952. Managed by record producer Bobby Robinson, the group released a string of regional hits and scored one national R&B hit with the song "Is It a Dream" in 1953. Highlighted by the distinctive vocal delivery of Joe Duncan, "Is It a Dream" became a standard component of several R&B acts in Harlem and, briefly, the Vocaleers were among the most popular attractions of the city's music scene.
The Bop Chords were a musical group from Harlem, New York, founded in 1955. They had a hit record titled Castle in the Sky.
References
- ↑ Gribin, A. Schiff, M. The Complete Book of Doo-wop 2000 p.257
- ↑ Blue Suede News 2004 p.28
- 1 2 3 4 5 Charlie Horner, "Little Jimmy & the Tops", ClassicUrbanHarmony.net, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016
- 1 2 3 "Little Jimmy & The Tops", Doo-Wop Groups. Retrieved 9 August 2016
- ↑ Dik de Heer, "The Chiffons", Black Cat Rockabilly. Retrieved 9 August 2016