Is there anything remotely close to "I only have eyes for you?" in the Doo Wop universe?

Seriously, "I Only Have Eyes For You" is one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

It's not doo wop, but "Harlem Shuffle" by Bob & Earl delivers the same chill up my back.

well, there WAS that elvis dude.

Oh, don't even start.

"Little Star," by the Elegants, is in the same league though.

"Metal Postcard" - Siouxsie and the Banshees

(Not argumentative - genuinely curious.)

yeah but Elvis's "Blue Moon" really isn't very different from the standard - just different instrumentation. The tempo's the same, the delivery's not really "now here's the rock version" nor even particularly "here's the Elvis version" - he's doin' his thing, but he's not doing what Flamingos do, which is to completely reimagine the song in a way nobody would have guessed at. "Blue Moon" is clever; "I Only Have Eyes" is radical, disjunctive, all them fifty-cent words one uses to say "unbelievably asskicking." That's all I mean: that while others did "jazz versions" or "rock versions" or what have you, this one's different insofar as it really reimagines the song from top to bottom.

paul anka "Put Your Head on my Shoulder"
roy orbison "Only the Lonely" and "Crying" and "Dream Baby"

neither of those are very doo wop tho. yeah, i think doo wop involves harmony action. "doo wop" being the kind of vocalization that might come behind the person singing word lyrics.
m.

(kinda x-post)

As great as the Cramps are, the Ricky Nelson version is actually better.

While none of these quite match the Flamingos' record, I would also mention:

Sleepwalk/Santo and Johnny
Hushabye/Mystics
Image of a Girl/Safaris (NOT Surfaris of “Wipe Out” fame)

Also very fond of Dion's "Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound." With or without strings. And speaking of the Flamingos, also love "Lovers Never Say Goodbye."

there's a doo-wop universe?
Well, there certainly is a dooo-wop cafe where, in fact, the history of the doo-wop "Gloria" is explained.

had this song on repeat all night. it's hitting me so hard

still have it on repeat tbh

feelin kinda like fuck all other music ever made

I don't know if we're in a garden

or on a crowded avenue

oobopshoobop

It's not necessarily doo-wop, but sonically the closest I've heard to "I Only Have Eyes For You" is the original "Goin' Out Of My Head."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkCa5l_UGAk

this fucking song!

"daddy's home" deserves a mention here

I just read Greg Milner's fabulous book on audio recording, Perfecting Sound Forever, and I'm thinking about "I Only Have Eyes" in its terms right now. The way it sounds is the most crucial thing about it--the book talks about the longstanding tension between adherents of music-capturing without adornments like room noise (Milner dubs them Edisons: Thomas Alva idealized getting down the instruments only) and those who wanted the sound bouncing off the walls as well as coming from the players' fingers. "I Only Have Eyes" is a clear example of the latter, and there's so much mystery to it, coming from its drenched, echoing sonic quality. The instruments seem to blur, though there's plenty of definition; the echo conjures a vast space. It's enormous but the arrangement and especially the vocals are super-delicate; it's one of the most uniquely proportioned records I know of. It's a great ambient record while at the same time being an interpretive masterpiece.

Great post. I think the main thing is how it takes a rather minimal arrangement and fills this huge space with it.

worth remembering I think that it is a live recording - not minimizing the choices made by the engineers about mic/instrument/amp placement & the choices made by the musicians about how to play, but the fact that what you're hearing is taking place in real space & time contributes, I think to the wonder & to the ambient quality matos notes: the ambience is real and palpable.

(however according to Terry Johnson vocal reverb was added in mastering, and reverb's an essential part of the overall sonic picture, so the point is if not moot reduced)

I wrote something about this song a couple years ago & I was pretty happy with it, so what the hell:

http://pitchfork.com/features/resonant-frequency/6555-resonant-frequency-44/

That book looks interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, Matos.

great post matos, OTM all the way

see it's songs like this that make me realize i'm not just being and "audiophile" d-bag (or at least i hope i'm not)...but the way records are recorded now would strange every bit of life out of this song...

frankly anymore i think - outside of hip hop - i probably like music just as much based on its recording...i really feel like good sounding records are such a dying breed, like i wanna support ppl on the good side of the battle...

he records me a lot, so puttin that on the table, but scott solter is old-school love-of-sound engineer all the way - I don't know if much/any of what he records would be in your neighborhood but if you listen to what he does just at a sonic level, he is truly incredible

this song is the Rite of Spring of doo-wop

Meaning French bohemians pelted each other with fruit upon hearing it?

Damn, can't post the Busby Berkeley "dames" clip from an iPad.

"I Only Have Eyes for You" > "Sh-Boom" by the Crew-Cuts > all other songs ever recorded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA52-IbB98o

Only know the Chords' version of "Sh-Boom," which is great.

Huh, so you've never heard "A-nonny ding dong, a-lang a-lang a-lang. Boom bah-doh, bah-doo, bah-doodle-ay" and "Sh-boom, sh-boom. A-ya-da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da da"? Well, we'll have to fix that right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9G0-4TWwew

This song, which was featured prominently in Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror sounds quite similar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6vbgaKcikE

Peeps upthread are correct w/r/t the Orioles' "It's Too Soon To Know":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1q7xXXVoCY

Meaning French bohemians pelted each other with fruit upon hearing it?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, June 18, 2014 10:48 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Stupid late-night drunk thread revival, but there is something very shocking to the ear about it (in a beautiful way).

Fans of this kind of thing would probably enjoy the final tune on the last Dirty Projectors record (I hope):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7p6lD66MHo

It's Too Soon To Know otm

This song, which was featured prominently in Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror sounds quite similar.

IIRC this was written by randy newman

also

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57tK6aQS_H0

what what

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIUf6dOGc1c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggwKYZlPBaE

not sure why but this song strikes me as super intense, dreamy and psychedelic.

it is!

nothing matches "i only have eyes for you", but these songs are special:

the mellows and lilian leach - smoke from your cigarette

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVetDItX6Z0

the spaniels - you gave me peace of mind (check out gerald gregory's bass vocals):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iNppW4MCO8

i suppose this is cheating when talking about other-worldly doo-wop, but i have a great fondness for the dissonant harmonies (wait, is that actually even possible?) of the nu sounds' "black sky and blue moon":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryh-2x3ERvE

"Lilacs In The Rain" sounds like nothing else I've heard, for some reason that I'm not able to ID right now. I heard it this afternoon for the first time and I thought of this thread right away, where most of the suggestions seem to answer "What are some classic doo-wop singles?" rather than "What are the most otherworldly druggy jams that did not reach what The Flamingos achieved but at least came sorta close?"

I think "Black Sky and The Blue Moon" fits the criteria though. Those other two sound pretty cool.

Not had a chance to read through whole thread so will just assume that the story of their background has come up. Apparently Flamingoes were black jews so they grew up with a different singing model than the more prevalent Christian church alumni.
I have a full length cd of Flamingoes material and I'm not sure how comprehensive of their work it is.
Great group and that song has always been a fav of mine.
Mercury Rev did a pretty good version around the turn of the milenium.

the "black hebrew" aspect seems... complicated. not because the flamingos weren't formed out of a black hebrew israelite congregation- they were- but i'm not sure how much documentation there is on the singing model of black hebrew israelite congregations versus black christian congregations of the era.

for instance, here's a contemporary recording from a black hebrew congregation. now i'm not an expert on gospel tradition, but this seems pretty similar to christian gospel recordings, to the point where one of the singers, presumably out of habit, keeps invoking jesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxSbeHZpvdY

it's possible that in the '40s and '50s black hebrew israelite musical styles diverged from black christian gospel before re-converging at some later date, but given the, uh, racism-abetted lack of strong historical links between black hebrew israelites and other forms of judaism, i'm skeptical of making too much of the flamingos' black hebrew israelite background.