Does anybody here know this song? I heard it on a internet staton that plays old obscure (and very good) music. They said it's from 1958. I was suprised to see it didn't chart at all. It's a catchy song. I would call it doo wop with an edge. Did any stations ever play it in the 50s? This internet station plays it and I was able to find it on YouTube so it's not totally unknown. I wonder what the story is of this song and why it didn't chart?
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Sheriff and the Revels-Shambalar
- Thread starter Jay F
- Start date
Jay F said:
Is IS a good song...................on Vee Jay records. Mostly played on R&B stations in the '50s. Mainstream radio didn't play a lot of R&B (now called doo wop). This was more of a novelty song...............similar to Rubber Biscuit by the Chips (and later by the Blues Brothers).
I was an avid teen listener to T-40 radio in 1958 but don't recall that record at all. In fact, if I've ever heard it I would immediately hit the pre-set. Nothing but noise. I can hear the faint, very faint, resemblance to Doo-Wop (which is NOT the same as R&B) but it is missing several factors including a slower beat and the signature Doo-Wop bass singer.
I can easily understand why this song didn't chart.
I can easily understand why this song didn't chart.
TheFonz said:
Your memory is fading Old Timer. Before there was Rock n Roll (mid-50's) there was R&B (sometimes called "black music") which morphed into "white" RnR from the likes of Elvis etc. Doo Wop was a vocal genre that originally existed on the street corners of New York and Philly and overlapped the coming of RnR but disappeared completely by about 1960.
H
hornet61
Guest
Fanz and Landtune both make valid points on this tough issue of the term "Doo-Wop", you won't find the term Doo-Wop referenced pre-late 70's (Lyrics wise, yes, there is some evidence of a variation of the term "Doo-Wop" in some lyrics as far back as the early 50's)..I also contend the term wasn't coined (possibly by Richard Nadar)till around the mid-70's , when it was applied for some Oldies revival shows on the east coast. over the years the term was retro-actively applied to the music (right or wrong) some as far back as 1954..Obviously many of us who have been listening to this music all our lives,we all have varying opinions on the chronology of the term and where and when it applies. Again,Fonz and Landtuna both made valid points, I could add a third, and someone else else a fourth , we could all be in the same ball-park..it's a tough question to answer.TheFonz said:
hornet61 said:
I can remember the term "Doo Wop" being used as early as the very early 1960's and identifying popular music made in the early 1950's. Johnny Cymbal played homage to the genre in 1963 with his hit "Mr. Bass Man" but other songs proceeded his. By that time the Surf sounds of the Beach Boys had replaced a lot of older pop music and then the Beatles, Stones etc. led the British Invasion which totally replaced all past popular music including Be-Bop, Doo-Wop and ballads.
landtuna said:
Then I would ask that you supply your own documentation. Now there might have been some kid on a streetcorner in 1955 who used the term "doo wop". I wouldn't know............I wasn't there. But if you believe Wickipedia, the term was first used by the media in 1961. To quote Chuck Berry in 1956.............."Roll Over Beethoven and dig these Rhythm and Blues".
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hornet61
Guest
Somewhere , someone uttered the term doo-Wop may have been in the 50' , maybe the 60's , maybe the 70's...... but it was not a main stream radio term till it was retro-fit in the 70's.
all historical airchecks that surface from the 50's and 60's, that I have heard, never refer to the term Doo-Wop. Those days It was called either R&B or Rock N Roll, that i recall. If some has an air check from the 50's or 60's that uses that term , I sure would like to hear it.
all historical airchecks that surface from the 50's and 60's, that I have heard, never refer to the term Doo-Wop. Those days It was called either R&B or Rock N Roll, that i recall. If some has an air check from the 50's or 60's that uses that term , I sure would like to hear it.
Early Rock N' Roll songs was initially listed in the Rhythm and Blues (also called "Blues and Rhythm") charts until 1958. Check Galen Gart's monumental 11 volume series if you require documentation. 1959 was the year when Rock N' Roll and R&B split off into different musical directions. R&B was already morphing into Soul, due to the influence of Berry Gordy, Jr.'s Tamla/Motown labels. Groups like Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and The Falcons were changing the style that R&B would become at this time. What is called R&B today bears absolutely no similarity to what was produced 1949-58. R N' R was becoming more "pop-like" with the inclusion of strings and full orchestration, evident when one listens to The Skyliners, The Passions and other late 1950s - early 1960s groups. Also, in my opinion, the quality of the vocal harmony was decreasing. There was a lot of off-key harmonization discernible in records during this later period.
Bebop wasn't an influence on R&B or R N'R simply because both of those genres were in the tradition of swing, which made the music danceable, something Bebop wasn't. Bebop had its beginnings in the early 1940s and incorporated improvisation as its hallmark. Because of this, the music sounded disjointed, using different progressions (Swing used a One-Three, Bebop used a Two-Four beat) not suited for dancing.
What the Wikipedia article doesn't say about Doo Wop is that probably the first recording to use this hook was "The Stars Are Out Tonight" by The Teardrops (white group from Brooklyn), recorded in 1954 and released on Josie 45-766. Unlike The Clovers' "Good Lovin" or Carlysle Dundee & The Dundees' "Never", one can clearly hear the "doo-wop-wah-doo-da-doo-day" by the backing vocals.
Just my two cents (not adjusted for inflation or other economic variables).
Bebop wasn't an influence on R&B or R N'R simply because both of those genres were in the tradition of swing, which made the music danceable, something Bebop wasn't. Bebop had its beginnings in the early 1940s and incorporated improvisation as its hallmark. Because of this, the music sounded disjointed, using different progressions (Swing used a One-Three, Bebop used a Two-Four beat) not suited for dancing.
What the Wikipedia article doesn't say about Doo Wop is that probably the first recording to use this hook was "The Stars Are Out Tonight" by The Teardrops (white group from Brooklyn), recorded in 1954 and released on Josie 45-766. Unlike The Clovers' "Good Lovin" or Carlysle Dundee & The Dundees' "Never", one can clearly hear the "doo-wop-wah-doo-da-doo-day" by the backing vocals.
Just my two cents (not adjusted for inflation or other economic variables).
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