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.
Boogaloo or bugalú is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly among teenage Hispanic and Latino Americans. The style was a fusion of popular African American rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music with mambo and son montuno, with songs in both English and Spanish. The American Bandstand television program introduced the dance and the music to the mainstream American audience. Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That" was a famous boogaloo song.
Bigtop Records was an American record label started by music executive Johnny Bienstock and the major music publisher Hill & Range Music and was co-owned along with Big Top Record Distributors (sic). Hit artists included Del Shannon, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Lou Johnson, Sammy Turner, Don Covay, Don and Juan and Toni Fisher. Big Top Record Distributors also distributed Paul Case's Dunes Records label in the early 60's, which had hits from Ray Peterson and Curtis Lee, both records produced by Phil Spector. Bell Records briefly distributed Bigtop prior to the label closing, around 1966. Bigtop also released two Mad magazine music parody themed albums; Mad Twists Rock 'n' Roll and Fink Along with Mad in 1963.
"The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" is a song by American singer–comedian Julie Brown. It appeared as the B-side to her 1983 single "I Like 'em Big and Stupid". Brown's satire of valley girl culture also parodies 1950s-1960s "teen tragedy" songs.
"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.
Desolation Boulevard is the third studio album by the British glam rock band Sweet, originally released in the United Kingdom in November 1974. Two noticeably different versions of the album were released: one by RCA Records in Europe, and another by Capitol Records in the United States, Canada and Japan.
Nicholas Barry Chinn is an English-American songwriter and record producer. Together with Mike Chapman he had a long string of hit singles in the UK and US in the 1970s and early 1980s, including several international number-one records. The duo wrote hits for The Sweet, Suzi Quatro, Mud, New World, Arrows, Racey, Smokie, Tina Turner, Huey Lewis and the News and Toni Basil.
Robert Bloom was an American singer-songwriter. He is known best for being a one-hit wonder with the 1970 song, "Montego Bay", which was co-written with and produced by Jeff Barry.
"Who Put the Bomp " is a doo-wop style novelty song from 1961 co-written and recorded by Barry Mann. It was originally released as a single on the ABC-Paramount label (10237).
"Let's Fall in Love" is a song written by Harold Arlen (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics) for the film Let's Fall in Love and published in 1933. In the film, it is heard during the opening credits and later sung by Art Jarrett and chorus, and by Ann Sothern.
The Mark IV were an American musical ensemble, based in Chicago, consisting of Bob Peterson, Leon McGeary, William (Bill) Thomas, and Michael McCarthy. They were originally named The Rhythm Makers. They later changed their name to Mark V, and then – as members left – to The Mark IV, and eventually ending in the 1980s as The Mark IV Trio. The band appears to have recorded only as The Mark IV, however, and they had their biggest hit in 1959 with the novelty song, "I Got a Wife". "I Got a Wife" was set to a lively polka beat, and reached No. 24 in US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and No. 14 on Canadian radio station CHUM's "Chum Chart". The song was later covered by Frankie Yankovic and other polka bands.
A teenage tragedy song is a style of ballad in popular music that peaked in popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Examples of the style are also known as "tear jerkers," "death discs" or "splatter platters", among other colorful sobriquets coined by DJs that then passed into vernacular as the songs became popular. Often lamenting teenage death scenarios in melodramatic fashion, these songs were usually sung from the viewpoint of the dead person's sweetheart, as in "Last Kiss" (1961), or another witness to the tragedy, or the dead person. Other examples include "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning (1959), "Tell Laura I Love Her" by Ray Peterson (1960), "Ebony Eyes" by the Everly Brothers (1961), "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean (1964), and "Leader of the Pack" by the Shangri-Las (1964). The genre's popularity faded around 1965, but inspired a host of similar songs and parodies over the years.
Daddy Cool are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria in 1970 with the original line-up of Wayne Duncan, Ross Hannaford, Ross Wilson and Gary Young. Their debut single "Eagle Rock" was released in May 1971 and stayed at number 1 on the Australian singles chart for ten weeks. Their debut July 1971 LP Daddy Who? Daddy Cool also reached number 1 and became the first Australian album to sell more than 100,000 copies. The group's name came from the 1957 song "Daddy Cool" by US rock group The Rays. Daddy Cool included their version of this song on Daddy Who? Daddy Cool.
The Six Teens were an American pop group from Los Angeles, California, United States.
The Royal Teens were an American rock and roll band that formed in New Jersey in 1956 and originally consisted of Bob Gaudio on piano, Tom Austin on drums, Billy Dalton on guitar, and Billy Crandall on saxophone. The group is best known for its single "Short Shorts", which was a number 3 hit in the United States in 1958. The follow-up single, 1959's "Believe Me", hit number 26. They never recorded an album, and broke up in 1965.
"Daddy Cool" is a song by US doo-wop group The Rays and was released on Cameo Records as the B-side of their 1957 single "Silhouettes". It became a #3 hit on the Billboard Pop singles chart. The song was written by Bob Crewe and Frank Slay, who had also written the A-side, "Silhouettes". The song became a #1 single on the Australian singles charts when covered by novelty band Drummond in 1971, and remained there for seven weeks. UK cover band Darts also had a hit single with the song, which reached #6 in 1977.
This is the solo discography for American alternative rock/power pop musician Matthew Sweet.
The Viscaynes were an American doo-wop group from Vallejo, California, United States, that released a few singles in the early 1960s. They also had a regional hit with the song "Yellow Moon". One of their members Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone would front the multi-racial group Sly & the Family Stone. They were unique in being one of the very few integrated doo-wop groups of their time.
Len Stark was a Philadelphia-based record label owner, composer and producer. He founded the Melron Records label which acts such as William Penn and the Quakers, Essau, Rocky Brown, Bobby Eli, Pheasants and Colly Williams recorded for.
"Come Back My Love" is a song by American doo-wop group The Wrens, released in 1955 by Rama Records. The song is best known for the version by the British doo-wop revival band Darts in 1978, which peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.
