Doo Wop and Vocal Groups
82 articles
Frankie Lymon: Headache for the £9-a-Week Teenager
Report and Interview by Tony Brown, Melody Maker, 23 March 1957
THE RELATIONS of 14-year-old Frankie Lymon with the Teenagers are very much dependent on the ability of Frankie to drink in his personal success without ...
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 22 September 1962
DO YOU LIKE a real, bluesy, earthy, down-south American sound? If you do, then your ears will flap when you listen to 'Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow', a new ...
The Marcels: Fallen Idols No. 13: The Marcels
Retrospective by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 16 February 1963
EVER SINCE the big beat came in it has been the custom to re-hash the standards into the mood fashionable at the time. ...
The Drifters, Ben E. King: The Great Unknowns No.4: Ben E. King
Discography by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 April 1963
The Latin-Tinged Balladeer Who Never Quite Made It! ...
The Drifters: The Big Daddy Group
Profile and Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 3 April 1965
THE MOST interesting thing about the Drifters isn't the fact that they've been singing for ten years, that they've sold millions of records, that they've ...
Frankie Lymon: I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent: The Death of Frankie Lymon
Obituary by Bill Millar, Soul Music Monthly, 8 March 1968
THE LAST TWO months have been sad times for blues, rock and soul fans all the world over. All three idioms have had their brutal ...
Obituary by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 9 March 1968
FRANKIE LYMON, described by one national newspaper as "a 26-year-old American Rock'n'Roll singer," died last week in New York. ...
The Coasters, Tom Dowd, The Drifters: Atlantic's Tom Dowd: The Real Music Man
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, May 1968
TOM DOWD is a walking encyclopedia on the history of American pop music. In fact, Tom Dowd created twenty years of pop history since he ...
The Platters, The Who: The Who: Fillmore East; The Platters: Felt Forum, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 8 June 1969
Britain's High-Decibel Group, The Who, Is Still Thundering ...
The Dells: 1953 Doo Wop to 1969 Class
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, September 1969
By Chuck Barksdale of the Dells ...
The Flamingos, The Jive Five: The Jive Five: Where Are You Now
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 27 September 1969
To the editor, R 'n' B World, New York. ...
The Persuasions: Bitter End West, West Hollywood CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 1971
IF YOUR friends are going to think less of you if they see you floating two feet above the ground with a silly grin stretched ...
Labelle, Laura Nyro: Laura Nyro and Labelle: Gonna Take a Miracle (Columbia)
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 20 January 1972
THIS ALBUM comes at the nicest time within Laura Nyro's career, for like most of the other performers that have cut a swath through pop ...
The Cadillacs: Speedo's Back In Town
Interview by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, 26 February 1972
EARL CARROLL is still a rocker. The other Coasters wear Afros but Mr. Earl's hair is black, shiny and slickered back. Thumbing through a copy ...
The Persuasions: Street Corner Symphony
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972
THE PERSUASIONS ceased to be a pleasant, though strange, acappella curiosity with their last album, We Came to Play. That album took a more pop ...
Acappella: The Rise And Fall Of Acappella
Guide by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, 4 June 1972
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, 1954. Five young men stood around a tape recorder in a church cellar and gang. They couldn't afford a band but wouldn't ...
The Persuasions: Street Corner Symphony (Island)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, International Times, 19 June 1972
THE PERSUASIONS are a five-strong black vocal group who perform acappella. Their album Street Corner Symphony is just what it says: a set of songs ...
Memoir by Jerry Wexler, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972
(Jerry Wexler is Executive Vice-President at Atlantic Records, the most significant of the early independent labels that recorded R&B. He and Ahmet Ertegun produced the ...
The Persuasions: Spread The Word (Capitol)
Review by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 10 December 1972
GHETTO KIDS don't have parents who can spare a few hundred dollars for an electric guitar like their suburban counterparts. But they do possess an ...
Clyde McPhatter: Atlantic Masters (Atlantic)
Review by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 10 March 1973
WELL, IS SINGING coming back or not? The signs are, maybe yes. Billy Paul, for instance, and the Chi-Lites, Stylistics, and Detroit Emeralds. ...
The Coasters: Atlantic Masters (Atlantic).
Review by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 17 March 1973
HOW CRUEL fate is. At the very moment that Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are proving themselves to be perfectly tuned in to 1973, with ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 29 March 1973
DION WAS the original punk. Stand him up next to his contemporary male teen idols – Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Vee, Brian Hyland, Bobby Rydell, ...
Review by Gene Sculatti, Creem, June 1973
YEARS AGO, Mad ran a feature on "What Kind of Parents Will Today's Teenagers Make?" It depicted a pair of graying, pot-bellied rockers in leathers, ...
The Persuasions: Big Legs 'n' Bad Asses
Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 13 October 1973
WE'RE BACKSTAGE at Birmingham's Odeon, logjammed into a feeble grey van – a constable and sergeant at the controls – and now we're going to ...
Booker T. Jones, The Persuasions: Booker T., the Persuasions: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, The Village Voice, 6 January 1975
Booker T. and the Persuasions: Black Folk Music ...
Retrospective by Penny Reel, Let It Rock, February 1975
1961. Rock'n'roll was dead and buried. The Beatles weren't even a twinkle in Epstein's eye. Pop was Kenny Ball and Anne Shelton, Acker Bilk and ...
Doo-wop: Still White & Alright
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, May 1975
FIRST, A BOOK. Despite the comparatively recent growth industry in rock'n'roll literature, we still don't have a half-way decent encyclopaedia worthy of the name. The ...
Retrospective and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Essence, April 1976
ASK MOST PEOPLE to name their favorite record by the Dells and among them you will always hear two titles: 'Oh, What a Night', originally ...
Nona Hendryx, Labelle: Labelle: Lady Songwriter Thinks She's God
Interview by David Hancock, National RockStar, 6 November 1976
MORE THAN any other vocal group, CBS's Labelle have thrived on that old cosmic image. They deal with grand themes as deftly as if they ...
Manhattan Transfer: Battling Against Nostalgia
Interview by David Hancock, National RockStar, 5 March 1977
DAVID HANCOCK dons his gloves and his satin shorts, and goes a few brutal rounds with Alan Paul ...
Profile by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 8 October 1977
DOO-WOP was a term applied to the singing style of American R 'n' B vocal groups of the Fifties, originating in the fact that the ...
The Persuasions: The Dying Art Of Friendly Persuasions
Interview by John Morthland, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1977
NEW YORK – PERSUASIONS leader Jerry Lawson checked the refrigerator in his Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment one recent morning and found it nearly empty. ...
The Darts: Getting To The Point With The Darts
Profile by John Tobler, ZigZag, December 1977
THIS IS GOING to be a two part feature. This is the first part, as the more astute among you have probably already worked out, ...
The Prisonaires: Five Beats Behind Bars
Retrospective by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, 11 January 1978
With doo-wop increasing in popularity, MARTIN HAWKINS reveals the 'inside' story of the Prisonaires, one of the South's finest vocal harmony groups. ...
The Imperials: Old Doo Waps Never Die
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 14 February 1978
The Imperials discover that Britain love 'em ...
The Darts: One of these Men Is a Fitness Fanatic
Profile and Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 29 September 1979
ALONG A LONELY Somerset lane a man from West 68th St. Manhattan is making good time. Twelve miles behind him and eight to go, he ...
14 Karat Soul: Sister Suzie Cinema Strikes 14 Karat Soul
Report by Don Waller, New York Rocker, 14 January 1980
The whole world is a stage And everybody's playing a part The stage is set, the curtain goes up The scene is a broken ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, The History of Rock, 1982
White vocal groups of the Fifties embraced a variety of styles and sounds, ranging from adult pop groups (the Ames Brothers, the Four Aces, the ...
Book Excerpt by Alan Betrock, Omnibus Press, 1982
Extract from Girl Groups — The Story of A Sound ...
The Four Seasons: Valli's Evergreens
Retrospective by Bob Fisher, The History of Rock, 1982
Why the Four Seasons were perennial chart-toppers ...
Doc Pomus: "Doc" Pomus: Songwriter Superhero
Retrospective and Interview by Gary Kenton, Musician, June 1982
The writer of such greats as 'Save The Last Dance For Me', 'Teenager In Love', 'Hushabye' and 'Suspicion' talks about his life as a Brill ...
14 Karat Soul: Fridge, Brixton, London
Live Review by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 16 April 1983
SUBLIMENESS ...
Special Feature by Dan Nooger, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1989
ONE OF the year's most heralded events in record-collecting fandom was the discovery of the legendary first acetate recordings, made in 1953, by the very ...
Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1991
THE AMERICAN RHYTHM & blues vocal group was a development of the Pop groups that enjoyed heavy popularity from the 1910's into the 1950's. When ...
Retrospective by Pete Grendysa, Goldmine, 21 February 1992
THE GOLDEN DREAM of rock 'n' roll goes like this: a few guys or girls get together, work out some songs, are discovered and recorded, ...
Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
Retrospective by Jeff Tamarkin, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1993
RONNIE SPECTOR, in her autobiography, Be My Baby, wrote, "A lot of entertainers can't or won't tell you where they got their style from. But ...
Sonny Til & The Orioles: Is This The Woman Who Invented Rock & Roll?: The Deborah Chessler Story
Retrospective and Interview by Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone, 24 June 1993
IN AN EARLY EPISODE of Homicide: Life on the Street, Barry Levinson's recent TV series about a team of Baltimore cops, the detective played by ...
Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Bear Family, 1995
IN JANUARY, 1956, a skinny and bespectacled 16-year old laid down his dollar and got 11 cents change and a shiny new 45rpm record (resplendent ...
Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, MCA Records, 1997
THEY DIDN'T ROCK; they didn't roll. Their singing had nothing of the street corner or local school yard about it. With roots in a little-known ...
Interview by Frank Broughton, Rock's Backpages audio, 2 October 1998
The Winley Records man talks about writing for the Clovers, Ruth Brown and more for Atlantic Records in the '50s; starting his label (and being cursed out by Billie Holiday); hearing rap via his daughters; cutting Afrika Bambaataa's first sides, and putting together the Super Disco Brake's series of breakbeat albums.
File format: mp3; file size: 34mb, interview length: 37' 10" sound quality: ***
Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Collectables, 1999
ON A COLD JANUARY NIGHT in 1970, a journey of thousands of miles finally came to an end. It was just another crime statistic in ...
Sleeve notes by Pete Grendysa, Collectables, 2000
DURING THE HEIGHT of the vocal group era, groups could be found singing on every streetcorner, hoping to be discovered and make that one big ...
The Ink Spots: Blotting Up The Tears: The Ink Spots as avatars of indie
Essay by Tim Footman, Tangents, 2001
DON ESTELLE WAS in the identity parade on Never Mind The Buzzcocks the other evening. Leaving aside the leap of imagination required to contemplate that ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Danny Rapp, b. 10 May 1941, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 5 April 1983, Arizona; Dave White, b. David White Tricker, September 1940, Philadelphia (replaced by ...
Little Anthony & the Imperials: Little Anthony and The Imperials
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Little Anthony, b. Anthony Gourdine, 8 January 1940, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Tracy Lord (replaced by Sam Strain, b. 9 December 1940); Ernest Wright, b. ...
Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Maurice Williams, b. 26 April 1938, Lancaster, North Carolina, USA; Willie Bennet; Henry Gaston; Charles Thomas ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
James 'Shep' Sheppard, b. New York, USA, d. 24 January 1970; Clarence Bassett, b. New York; Charles Baskerville, b. New York ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Johnny Maestro, b. John Mastrangelo, 7 May 1939, Brooklyn, New York, USA; Jay Carter, b. 1939, Brooklyn (replaced by Eddie Wright in 1960); Harold Torres, ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Norman Wright, b. 21 October 1937, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Corinthian 'Kripp' Johnson, b. 1944, Cambridge, Maryland, d. 22 June 1990, Pontiac, Michigan; Donald 'Gus' Bakus, ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Len Barry, b. Leonard Borisoff, 6 December 1942, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Arnie Satin, b. 11 May 1943, Philadelphia; Jerry Summers, b. 29 December 1942, Philadelphia; ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Compainion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Lowman 'Pete' Pauling, b. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, d. 1975; Curtis Pauling, b. Winston-Salem (replaced by Johnny Tanner 1950); Eugene Tanner, b. Winston-Salem; Clarence Pauling, ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Fred Parris, b. 26 March 1936, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Rich Freeman, b. December 1940, New Haven; Al Denby, b. New Haven; Ed Martin, b. ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Sollie McElroy (replaced 1954 by Nathaniel Nelson, b. 10 April 1932, Chicago, Illinois, USA); John Carter (replaced by Tommy Hunt, b. 18 June 1933, Pittsburgh, ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Gary Troxel, b. 28 November 1939, Centralia, Washington, USA; Barbara Laine Ellis, b. 20 February 1940, Olympia, Washington; Gretchen Diane Christopher, b. 29 February 1940, ...
Four Preps,The: The Four Preps
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Bruce Belland; Glen Larson; Ed Cobb; Mary Ingram; Marvin Inabett; Don Clarke ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Cornelius Harp, b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Ronald 'Bingo' Mundy, b. Pittsburgh; Fred Johnson, b. Pittsburgh; Dick Knaus (replaced by Allen Johnson, b. Pittsburgh); Gene Bricker, ...
Sonny Til & The Orioles: The Orioles
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Sonny Til, b. Earlington Tilghman, 18 August 1925, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, d. 9 December 1981; George Nelson, b. Baltimore, d. 1968; Alexander Sharp, b. Baltimore, ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
Jimmy Ricks; Maithe Marshal; Warren Suttles; Leonard Puzey ...
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, January 2001
WHILE TROLLING AROUND an MP3 newsgroup one day, I saw the name 'Delta Rhythm Boys.' I had no idea who they were but the name ...
The Persuasions: Perpetual Harmony
Profile and Interview by j. poet, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 May 2006
"THE PERSUASIONS! Aren't you that old do-wop group?" ...
Retrospective and Interview by Lois Wilson, Record Collector, July 2006
From doo wop to R&B, from deep soul to Northern Soul, they are the most enduring story in vocal group history. Lois Wilson celebrates 50-plus ...
Yesterday Once More: Digging the 1970s Fifties Revival
Comment by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 1 December 2006
ANY GOOD STUDENT of pop-music history knows what happened in the 1970s: The broken bricks from the aesthetic street-fights of the '60s were scooped up ...
Clyde McPhatter, The Drifters: Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, August 2007
"I fell in love with the man's voice. I toured with the group and watched Clyde and listened; finally I got a chance to join ...
The Dells: Originals: The Dells
Retrospective by Mike Atherton, Echoes, 2008
THE RAYS, formed by five youngsters from Harvey, Illinois in 1952, were just one of the thousands of doo-wop groups springing up in America's cities ...
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Collector's Choice Music, 8 July 2008
"I WAS 12 years old when I first heard Frankie Lymon singing 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love' on my grandmother's radio," wrote Ronnie Spector ...
The Coasters: Carl Gardner, 1928-2011
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 13 June 2011
Singer and founding member of the R&B hitmakers the Coasters. ...
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Catalog for Doug Aitken's Song 1 exhibition, June 2012
I WAS FOURTEEN YEARS OLD – a glam-rock brat awakening to the golden innocence of pre-Beatles American pop – when I shelled out for the ...
The Penguins: Cleve Duncan, 1935-2012
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 November 2012
Singer and founder member of the Penguins, noted for their hit 'Earth Angel' ...
Interview by Michael Simmons, MOJO, February 2013
Shooting up with Ray Charles, blown away by Katrina, the voice of New Orleans has seen tough times. Now Keith Richards is reaching out. "I ...
Dion: The Wanderer Pens a New Love Letter to the Big Apple
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 January 2016
OFTEN, EARLY rock and roll artists were tied to a certain geographical area, becoming something of unofficial (and unelected) city representatives. Elvis meant Memphis. Buddy ...
Book Excerpt by Richard Carlin, 'Godfather of the Music Business' (U. Miss Press), March 2016
'WHY DO FOOLS Fall in Love' is one of the classic hits of the '50s. Along with its importance to the history of rock 'n' ...
Review and Interview by Wayne Robins, Copper, Summer 2020
THE FIRST ALBUM I ever bought with my own money was Presenting Dion and the Belmonts (Laurie LLP 1002). In faded red ink from a ...
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