Doo wop recommendations?

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Can anyone make recommendations of records for me for the doo wop genre? Excepting the Beach Boys as I have virtually all their records. My taste so far extends from them to the Four Seasons' maverick album, "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette", some Zappa doo wop and some Moonglows and Flamingos...
Does anyone recommend any bona fide classic or very interesting *albums* as such in the genre (largely the post-Today/Pet Sounds era, when albums became the thing over singles)? Or if not that, indeed compilations of certain artists...?

― Tom May, Monday, 2 December 2002 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm not sure what you mean by post-pet sounds? i understand doo-wop to be late 1950s?

anyway, i strongly recommend Theres A Moon Out Tonite by The Capris

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

If you actually like this type of music try Neil Young and The Shocking Pinks, his doo wop album from his genre hopping period on Geffin. Otherwise I like to think of it as his worst album.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

The Beach Boys? Doo Wop? Are you sure?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

mmmm, I love Doo Wop. I'm not so hot on albums but I can give a few songs you should check out:

Lots and lots of Dion and the Belmonts and solo Dion DiMucci. His album with Spector in the 70s is good, not really doo wop but lush as hell. There're loads of great Dion tracks, just get a compilation or contact me on Soulseek (username: nic_he_ian or Ian SPACK) and I can send you them.

The Cellos - 'Japanese Sandman' The maddest doo wop song I've ever heard, I used to adore but it annoys me now. Still, worth hearing.

Most Frankie Lymon stuff is worth hearing, cute little kid goin doo wop mental.

The Del-Vikings have that 'Come go with me' track which is superb, the Beach Boys covered it.

I used to have a tape of some other great songs but I'm having trouble remembering who did them. Does anyone know who did the definitive version of 'Mr Bassman'?

The Chantels - 'Maybe' Great song, but the Shangri-Las do a vastly superior live cover of it.

That's just a selection but I'm sure other people here know more. If you want these mp3s, just ask.

― Ian SPACK (Ian SPACK), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i was about to post that, but seeing as i hate the Beach Boys and know nothing about them i kept quiet...

basically Doo Wop is split into two: rocking uptempo sides and ballad sides, and it's very much a singles genre so you're looking at compilations (or 200 quid original 7"s ;)

there's a good ballads comp on Charly called 'Smoochin' In Chicago' which is nice and bluesy, but it's basically all good! plus Doo-Wop groups have the best names...

a few of my faves that i can think of:
The Impressions - For Your Precious Love (pre Curtis classic)
The Flamingos - I Only Have Eyes For You
The Delltones - A Lovers Prayer
The Skyliners - Pennies From Heaven
The Five Satins - In the Still of the Night
The Mystics - Hush-a-bye
The Dukays - Festival of Love
The Moonglows - Secret Love
The Ad-Libs - Human
The Cadets - Smack Dab in the Middle

and i second the Dion and Frankie Lymon recommendations. Ace Records have loads of Doo Wop (among loads of other genres - http://www.acerecords.co.uk/) - you can get a free catalogue from their site

― michael (michael), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Gareth: Post "Pet Sounds": well, I know that few of the people like the Moonglows were "album bands" etc. I was wondering if many people took the doo-wop style into an albums-based direction, after the mid-sixties...?

Martin: Well, the Beach Boys in the early days had a very strong doo wop influence, and indeed four part harmony bands are a vestige of the doo wop days. They were, prior to "In My Room" say, effectively doo wop/surf, with some rock n' roll/pop influence.

― Tom May, Monday, 2 December 2002 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I suppose I could extend this to people with a strong doo wop influence; i.e. people like the Roches... their debut album (the only I have) is a revelation; unique mix of folk, bluegrass, Cole Porter and doo wop influences...

― Tom May, Monday, 2 December 2002 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

This Rhino collection is a great starting point:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd800/d858/d85815x523q.jpg

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

i'd forgotten about 'In My Room' - that's a nice track. i can see your point now re: the Beach Boys, although i still don't like them!

i can think of a Paul Simon song partly about Doo-Wop: 'Rene and Georgette Magritte and their dog after the war' on the Hearts and Bones LP (one pound at your local second hand shop) which is nice.

his last album (The Capeman musical thing, again probably one pound on CD second hand!) is all Doo-Wop...

but that's all not very helpful really

― michael (michael), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned Sublette, Lawrence Weiner and the Persuasions "Ships at Sea" kind of, er, po mo doo wop.

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 2 December 2002 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

That Rhino Box is just the first of three four-CD boxes! If you find that daunting, there's an earlier pair of single disc compilations, one of ballads and one uptempo. I have the ballad disc. It's dreamy, altho' a bit overfamiliar. A later single disc comp from Rhino, Street Corner Serenade appears to overlap the other two.

The fine Spike Lee documentary Doin' It A Capella from around 1990 covered some doo-wop along with other vocal styles, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The soundtrack isn't as compelling as the film itself.

For post-Pet Sounds doo-wop albums, there's Billy Joel's An Innocent Man, but I don't recommend it.

― Curt (cgould), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm dubious about a lot of the things here being doowop, including the Beach Boys, influence notwithstanding, and the Persuasions - doing everything with the voices doesn't make you doowop, but what exactly they are is hard to pin down (lyrically gospel a lot of the time). No doowop band proper ever turned into an albums group while staying doowop. There are loads of good comps.

I don't have the patience right now to work out my top 100 doowop numbers, but I have to mention my all time favourite, Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by the Casinos.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Some other really good doo-wop singles:
"Little Star" by the Elegants
"Hearts of Stone" by the Jewells (caveman doo-wop)
"Earth Angel," the Penguins
"Image of a Girl," the Safaris
"Book of Love," the Monotones
"Over the Mountain Across the Sea," Johnny and Joe.

Also: I'm not sure if "For Your Precioius Love" really counts as doo-wop, but it's definitely not "pre-Curtis" Impressions. (There is no such thing.)

― Burr, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

For Your Precious Love was cut in their first recording session. Not to defend that "pre-Curtis" error, but it is from the time when Jerry Butler led the group, and CM only came to the fore when he left them. I don't think it's doowop either, but the line between soul and doowop gets pretty blurry around there. See also Going Out Of My Mind by Little Anthony And The Imperials.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks isn't a doo wop record.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 4 December 2002 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Martin; Yeah, doo-wop *strictly* is maybe not the right tag for the Beach Boys, despite their using very much of doo-wop harmonies in virtually all their important records. They fused other genres in combination with doo-wop. "Friends" for example, what genre is this but prime leisurely, slightly askew Brian Wilson? ;-)

Doo-wop is really difficult to describe in terms other than with its norm of three or four part harmonies; yet, its music is certainly distinctive... definitely jazz songs and early rhythm and blues influences are there, yet with perhaps more of the old time songwriting of the likes of Gershwin, Cole Porter etc. Fats Waller would have to be an influence slightly.

― Tom May, Thursday, 5 December 2002 00:26 (twenty-two years ago)

you are a joycean chap, indeed sir. this is an odd definition of doo wop, but a really interesting one.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 5 December 2002 01:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks. :-) It's a genre I love from what I've heard, which isn't that much; i.e. two Flamingos albums, the Chess Moonglows compilation, and plenty of stuff influenced by doo-wop, from after its main period (1955-63 say?).
Some of the more upbeat Moonglows ones definitely bear a strong mark of the early R and B about them... The main element in doo wop's musical style has to be old barbershop quartets obviously, and as I say, the "classic songwriting" of the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, the Flamingos cover at least one Cole Porter song, and plenty of other quite well known ones. The Moonglows I slightly prefer to the Flamingos; more original material, harmonies even more to die for, and songs like "Secret Love" (as mentioned by someone higher up here), "We Go Together" and "Sincerely"...

― Tom May, Thursday, 5 December 2002 01:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you'd really like The Ink Spots. "I don't want to set the world on fire" is so haunting. Maybe this isn't news to you.

Also, I really love The Dixie Cups record on Red Bird... more girl group/R&B than straight doo wop but really lovely stuff. "Gee The Moon Is Shining Bright" kinda fits with the mood you're talking about.

More straight ahead doo wop is the early stuff by The Dells. "Time Makes You Change Your Mind" is a really wise little number.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 5 December 2002 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

re: the dells - they mutated into a straight ahead soul group by the late sixties... i'm talking about the 50's stuff

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 5 December 2002 01:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I've a couple of decidedly decent Five Royales LPs, if that's any help to you. Compilations are definitely the way to go though.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 5 December 2002 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

This may help a bit.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 5 December 2002 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

you cheated
you lied
you said that you loved me

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 03:23 (twenty years ago)

Check out the Belmonts' 'Cigars, Acappella (sic), Candy,' from 1972, I wanna say. This was in print on an Elektra CD for a while.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

Rhino has a single CD Doo Wop compilation that is a little easier to handle than the 4 CD set. The set is good if you want to really get into it, because it divides it up into eras and has a lot of history, as well as 101 (or so) songs. the compilation features pretty much the best of all that, and has over 20 songs on its own.

also search: Flamingos' "Mio Amore"

what a great group they were.

― AaronK (AaronK), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 11:21 (twenty years ago)

I thought the box set would be daunting but it really wasn't at all, so I say jump right in.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

The only Doo-Wop/Beach Boys connection I can seem to make is:

The Crows - Gee (1953)

This was quoted as the opening (after Our Prayer) to Smile. It was also part of the Mark Linnett constructed (?) Heroes & Villains II on the GV boxed set.

I'm wondering if you're just lumping all multi-part harmony as Doo-Wop.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

i think i could probably stand a 20-CD doo wop box set (please leave off the "doo wop revival" stuff, thanks). there are 1,000s of comps out there. (though it seems the heyday of doo wop reissues is well over.)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

and when i say "1,000s of comps," that's not rhetorical overstatement. i bet there are probably about 1,000 or more. ok, maybe 500.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

sixteen years pass...

https://www.nationscapitaldoowop.org/

website for Washington DC doo wop - the Marquees with a young Marvin Gaye ; the Clovers; many more

article about it

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/550604/documenting-d-c-s-doo-wop-histories/

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 9 March 2022 12:16 (three years ago)

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