T
Thomps2525
Guest
The Earth Angel Singer Is Now An Angel
(Okay, so I'm not the world's best headline writer.)
Cleve Duncan was born in 1934...or maybe 1935. He died November 6...or maybe November 7. For some reason there is a lot of conflicting information. Anyway, Cleve Duncan has died. He was the lead singer of the Penguins, who had one big hit, Earth Angel, which got to number one on the r&b chart and #8 on the Top 100 in early 1955. Two years later they got to #15 on the r&b chart with Pledge Of Love.
In the 1950s most pop radio stations wouldn't play black artists. Instead they played white cover versions of r&b hits. Sh-Boom, Tutti Frutti, Ain't That A Shame, Tweedle Dee, I'm Walkin', Fever, Lucille, Sincerely and dozens of other songs were recorded by black artists and then by white artists. In the case of Earth Angel, the Crew-Cuts, a white quartet from Toronto, had the bigger version, but the few stations in late 1954 that were starting to play the new "rock'n'roll music" gave enough airplay to the Penguins' version to make it a top-ten hit. (An aside to Los Angeles radio fans: one of the Crew-Cuts, Rudi Maugeri, became a program director at KFI.)
Longtime Los Angeles DJ Art Laboe (KFWB, KPOP, KDAY, KRLA, KRTH) used to stage big rock'n'roll/r&b shows at El Monte Legion Stadium. Laboe owned Original Sound Records and put out the original Oldies But Goodies album series. In 1963 he released an album of songs by the groups who appeared at his El Monte shows. It was called Memories Of El Monte. The title track, Memories Of El Monte (of course), became a big local hit. It was credited to the Penguins but it was actually just Cleve Duncan backed by the Viceroys. Frank Zappa co-wrote the song and played xylophone on it. Zappa would later form the Mothers of Invention.
With a long succession of different singers, Duncan kept the Penguins going for five decades. Until radio stations decided to quit playing songs from prior to 1964, Earth Angel was usually among the top ten songs in the annual "Top 300" lists.
(Okay, so I'm not the world's best headline writer.)
Cleve Duncan was born in 1934...or maybe 1935. He died November 6...or maybe November 7. For some reason there is a lot of conflicting information. Anyway, Cleve Duncan has died. He was the lead singer of the Penguins, who had one big hit, Earth Angel, which got to number one on the r&b chart and #8 on the Top 100 in early 1955. Two years later they got to #15 on the r&b chart with Pledge Of Love.
In the 1950s most pop radio stations wouldn't play black artists. Instead they played white cover versions of r&b hits. Sh-Boom, Tutti Frutti, Ain't That A Shame, Tweedle Dee, I'm Walkin', Fever, Lucille, Sincerely and dozens of other songs were recorded by black artists and then by white artists. In the case of Earth Angel, the Crew-Cuts, a white quartet from Toronto, had the bigger version, but the few stations in late 1954 that were starting to play the new "rock'n'roll music" gave enough airplay to the Penguins' version to make it a top-ten hit. (An aside to Los Angeles radio fans: one of the Crew-Cuts, Rudi Maugeri, became a program director at KFI.)
Longtime Los Angeles DJ Art Laboe (KFWB, KPOP, KDAY, KRLA, KRTH) used to stage big rock'n'roll/r&b shows at El Monte Legion Stadium. Laboe owned Original Sound Records and put out the original Oldies But Goodies album series. In 1963 he released an album of songs by the groups who appeared at his El Monte shows. It was called Memories Of El Monte. The title track, Memories Of El Monte (of course), became a big local hit. It was credited to the Penguins but it was actually just Cleve Duncan backed by the Viceroys. Frank Zappa co-wrote the song and played xylophone on it. Zappa would later form the Mothers of Invention.
With a long succession of different singers, Duncan kept the Penguins going for five decades. Until radio stations decided to quit playing songs from prior to 1964, Earth Angel was usually among the top ten songs in the annual "Top 300" lists.