Play All The Oldies

[TheFonz]

My music listening began in the early 50's and by the mid to late 50's the term Doo Wop was a well known identifier of the genre among my peers. A lot of it was the original dance music of my generation - especially the slow dances. I doubt you could find anyone in my youth that called this music "group harmony" as a name nor would anyone call it trivializing. We loved it.

Wow. This thread has been resuscitated! My memory tells me that group music in the '50s was simply called Rock & Roll. Or if you were really "hep", you might have called it Rhythm & Blues.

 

[RADIO TRUTH]

I grew up around New York City. The New York area term for this music was always group and/or group harmony records. The term doo wop wasn't used in New York until the early 1970s. The New York area people who used the term doo wop were a generation younger and learned about the music second hand by seeing these groups at various oldies concerts.

 

[Thomps2525]

I was a teenager in the 1920s.* Back then, popular music was known as "swing music." Songs recorded by Negro artists were known as "race records." Songs by backwoods people accompanied by fiddle and guitar and banjo were known as "hillbilly music."

(*Okay, not really, but I wanted to show how the terminology has changed. Did I succeed?)

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

I grew up around New York City. The New York area term for this music was always group and/or group harmony records. The term doo wop wasn't used in New York until the early 1970s. The New York area people who used the term doo wop were a generation younger and learned about the music second hand by seeing these groups at various oldies concerts.

I can spot you one solid ditto. I myself was raised close enough to NYC to know you nailed this. Your account in fact parallels my own experience.

 

[landtuna]

My memory tells me that group music in the '50s was simply called Rock & Roll. Or if you were really "hep", you might have called it Rhythm & Blues.

Southwestern Top-40 radio stations played "Be-bop" in the mid-to-late 50's. Sometime in the early 60's that changed to "Rock" or "Rock and Roll".

"R&B" was a completely different genre and was not played on T-40 where I lived because there were almost no Blacks living in that metro area. When I moved to S.F. in 1960 there was an R&B station which also played Jazz and the two sounds kind of fused together. "Progressive Jazz" then broke out of the nightclub/hippie scene and became jazz with a beat (Take Five is a good example) and some of these made the T-40 playlists. R&B seemed to migrate more towards Blues and not so much rhythm.

 

[landtuna]

I was a teenager in the 1920s.* Back then, popular music was known as "swing music." Songs recorded by Negro artists were known as "race records." Songs by backwoods people accompanied by fiddle and guitar and banjo were known as "hillbilly music."

I wasn't alive and listening to music in the 20's but from historical references I seem to remember it was called "The Jazz Age" because that was the popular form of music then. It wasn't jazz as we know it now but rather a form of jazz suitable for dancing.

Swing came about in the 30's and lasted until shortly after WWII. Sometimes it is also called Big Band because of the size of the touring bands in those days. I remember going to an office Christmas party at the Waldorf Hotel in NYC in 1970 and the band then playing was Lester Lannin - a big band playing Swing.

"Who Put The Bomp" is a song recorded in 1961 by Barry Mann and is, and refers to, Doo-Wop music. I'm pretty sure it got played on WABC although I didn't live in NYC until 1969. Since Doo-Wop originated in the Northeast (mostly NYC and Philly areas) it is difficult for me to believe the term Doo-Wop wasn't common long before 1970.

 

[TheFonz]

"Who Put The Bomp" is a song recorded in 1961 by Barry Mann and is, and refers to, Doo-Wop music. I'm pretty sure it got played on WABC although I didn't live in NYC until 1969. Since Doo-Wop originated in the Northeast (mostly NYC and Philly areas) it is difficult for me to believe the term Doo-Wop wasn't common long before 1970.

I haven't heard that song in awhile, but I don't remember the words "doo wop" in it. I do remember "bop sh-bop" and wama-lama ding dong".

 

[landtuna]

I haven't heard that song in awhile, but I don't remember the words "doo wop" in it. I do remember "bop sh-bop" and wama-lama ding dong".

Yes, no "Doo-Wop" reference directly but the nonsense "rama lama ding dong" and "bop, she bop dip, da, dip, dip" sounds are those of the DW genre.

 

[Thomps2525]

Mister landtuna, You mentioned be-bop. In 1956 Gene Vincent had a hit with Be-Bop-A-Lula and a year later Ricky Nelson had a hit with Be-Bop Baby. Be-bop originally referred to jazz and/or scat singing. Wikipedia---which, as we all know, is never wrong---has an explanation of the origin of the term. But how did the term begin to be used in rock'n'roll? Any guesses?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Mister landtuna, You mentioned be-bop. In 1956 Gene Vincent had a hit with Be-Bop-A-Lula and a year later Ricky Nelson had a hit with Be-Bop Baby. Be-bop originally referred to jazz and/or scat singing. Wikipedia---which, as we all know, is never wrong---has an explanation of the origin of the term. But how did the term begin to be used in rock'n'roll? Any guesses?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop

Good call. And let's not forget Dan Seals, I Wanna Be Bop You Baby...

 

[TheFonz]

"R&B" was a completely different genre and was not played on T-40 where I lived because there were almost no Blacks living in that metro area.

So your T-40 stations didn't play Top 40 songs like "When You Dance", "At My Front Door" or "(I'll Remember) In The Still Of The Night"?

 

[Thomps2525]

In Los Angeles, KFWB switched from MOR to top 40 on January 2, 1958. Their first Top 30 survey included Sam Cooke's You Send Me and For Sentimental Reasons, Lee Andrews' Teardrops and three Johnny Mathis songs. The following week's survey added the Dubs' Could This Be Magic, Larry Williams' Bony Moronie and Roy Hamilton's Don't Let Go. In its fourth week, the survey became a Fabulous Forty but the r&b songs continued to make up only around 15-20% of the playlist. By early 1959, as more "white" kids discovered "black" music, around one third of the top forty songs were r&b hits.

Mister landtuna didn't hear a lot of r&b on the radio when he was growing up because his home was in Goteborg, Sweden.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Mister landtuna didn't hear a lot of r&b on the radio when he was growing up because his home was in Goteborg, Sweden.

Excuses, excuses. Changing clothes in a phone booth was Clark Kent's excuse. Me, I got stranded in London near Picadilly Square, standing in line at the Lu (just try soapboxing on a full bladder).

Seriously, I simply worshipped Nat King Cole, Leslie Uggams and Johnny Mathis. Also, had a high posthumos regard for Billie Holiday. Never even heard of Ms Holiday until college, where I first heard her mentioned in Eric Burdon & War's Can't Take Away Our Music. Playing this now largely forgotten number on our college FM station stirred my curiosity, so I studied up on this trouble spirit (no internet yet, had to do things the old fashioned way, looking her up in the library).

Ok, enough about me... NEXT POST...

 

[landtuna]

So your T-40 stations didn't play Top 40 songs like "When You Dance", "At My Front Door" or "(I'll Remember) In The Still Of The Night"?

At My Front Door - no.
When You Dance - unknown but don't recognize the title
In The Still Of The Night - yes (and a favorite)

The first T-40 station in my town didn't fire up until 1956 so it missed the heavy Doo-Wop era but it was right on target with the Be-boppers.

 

[landtuna]

Mister landtuna didn't hear a lot of r&b on the radio when he was growing up because his home was in Goteborg, Sweden.

Tucson, Arizona ;D

 

[TheFonz]

So your T-40 stations didn't play Top 40 songs like "When You Dance", "At My Front Door" or "(I'll Remember) In The Still Of The Night"?

At My Front Door - no.
When You Dance - unknown but don't recognize the title
In The Still Of The Night - yes (and a favorite)

The first T-40 station in my town didn't fire up until 1956 so it missed the heavy Doo-Wop era but it was right on target with the Be-boppers.

"When You Dance" reached #33 on the Billboard Pop charts and #3 R&B in 1955. "At My Front Door" reached #17 Pop and #1 R&B in the same year.

 

[Thomps2525]

Mister landtuna, instead of making another attempt at humor or sarcasm, I'm going to give you---and anyone else who may be interested---a link to a tribute site for Tucson's legendary "Color Radio Channel 99," KTKT:

http://www.ktkt99.com/

If you want a link to the video for Send Me Down To Tucson by Mel Tillis, let me know.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

If you want a link to the video for Send Me Down To Tucson by Mel Tillis, let me know.

Ah yes, Tillis and "Tuscon", classic DooWop !! "...sh-sh-sh-shooby d-d-doo wa wah wa-wa wadah !!

 

[Thomps2525]

Long after Dion DiMucci left the Belmonts to go solo, the Belmonts recorded Street Corner Symphony, a medley of choruses of famous doo-wop songs. If I had been the producer of that session, I would have added a hundred more choruses...but here is the song on good ol' YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn1ujJK9W3k

See how many of the songs you recognize!

 

[landtuna]

Mister landtuna, instead of making another attempt at humor or sarcasm, I'm going to give you---and anyone else who may be interested---a link to a tribute site for Tucson's legendary "Color Radio Channel 99," KTKT:

http://www.ktkt99.com/

If you want a link to the video for Send Me Down To Tucson by Mel Tillis, let me know.

It's a great site. As for the content.....I was there.

I r-r-r-r-remember M-M-M-Mel b-b-but n-n-n-not t-t-the s-s-song.