Doo Wop: Search & Destroy

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I like Doo Wop. But i know nothing about it, instruct me. I

― gareth, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(bastard computer. i hadn't finished)

i do know that i love The Capris - There's A Moon Out Tonight. other people i know seem to know this song as well. I'm presuming that it is not obscure in that case because i don't hang out with a Doo Wop Kru.

― gareth, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know nothing about doo wop, but every once in a while I like to comment on what a weird and wonderful record is "I Only Have Eyes For You" by The Flamingos. There is something otherworldly about that song, like a half-remembered dream. It actually scares me a little. Is anyone else haunted by this record?

― Mark, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Can't go wrong with the Penguins - Earth Angel.

Any compilation involving them is cool, but make damn sure you check the dates because doo wop compilations more than almost any keep using stuff recorded 40 years past its sell-by date. You need 40s/50s era for the vintage stuff.

I'm assuming you know about the Ink Spots, only the greatest damn vocal group on God's earth, but there is so much stuff available I don't know what to recommend. The earlier the better, probably, and with Do I Worry or Whispering Grass.

Dion (yes, the same Dion) did some great doo wop stuff late 50s, and if you're looking for compilations (and yes, compilations is a good way to start) then try the Ace label. I have one called Randell lee Rose's Doo Wop Shop (Ace CDCHD392) which includes the Skyliners, Harptones, Randy & The Rainbows' peerless Denise, Teen Queens' Eddie My love, The Capris, and of course Earth Angel. Earls are damn fine, too. Looking at the dates, it seems anything up to about 1963 is just fine and dandy.

Ace also released three (at least) volumes of Dootone Doo Wop, all recommended...

I can give you more names, but I need to research my vinyl.

― Jerry, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(That's Denise as later exquisitely covered by Blondie.)

― Jerry, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark, I was about to mention that song! It's easily one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Don't know the genre well, but the first Rhino Doo Wop Box does it for me. Particularly the Chords doing "Sh-Boom."

Still waiting to find a used copy of it ...

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and the Dell Vikings' "Come Go With Me" -- actually one of the first songs I ever really loved. Plus pleasant associations with Joe Versus the Volcano.

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If you want to splash out on that box-set right away, let me recommend the Rhino single disc compilation "The Best Of Doo Wop Uptempo" (I think there's also a "Ballads" version). It has The Dell-Vikings, The Crows, The Marcels, Dion and Frankie Lymon amongst others and basically every single song is a winner. I especially like the fact that track 2 is called "I Love You" (The Volumes) and number 3 is called "I Really Love You" (The Stereos).

― JoB, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I meant "If you DON'T want to" et cetera...

― JoB, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Doo wop was music that youths on street corners made in groups to pass the time while waiting for the development of shouting violent poetry to the accompanyment of a boombox.

― Curt, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Of which the Force MD's were prob the last significant offshoot of that tradition......unless you know differently.

― Billy Dods, Tuesday, 14 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Destroy: Neil Young And The Shocking Pinks.

Otherwise I couldn't name any full albums or bands, though I did sell several doo wops greatest hits comps ($5.99 with 20 litres purchase) at my olde gas station.

― zacko, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

Search:
Jive Five "No Not Again" or "When I Was Single"
Coasters "Little Egypt"
Rob Roys "Pizza Pie"
yes, the Penguins "Earth Angel" but also the b-side "Hey Senorita"
Olympics "Well" or "Shimmy Like Kate"
Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent"
The Larks "The Jerk"

― ian, Saturday, 28 March 2009 16:04 (seventeen years ago)

Would anyone actually come to a doo wop bar night in Brooklyn? Aside from old dudes with moustaches and white sneakers?

― ian, Saturday, 28 March 2009 16:05 (seventeen years ago)

Depends on how you market it

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 28 March 2009 16:32 (seventeen years ago)

it will be either awesome old people or shitty teenagers in poodle skirts & vests.

― ian, Saturday, 28 March 2009 16:43 (seventeen years ago)

Mr. Fine Wine DJs at Legion Bar Saturday, April 18: Honeysuckle doo-wop/R&B dance party with special guests Billy and Miriam from Norton Records. 790 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg Brooklyn, 10 till 4, free.

― curmudgeon, Saturday, 4 April 2009 02:32 (seventeen years ago)

i saw miriam walking their dog yesterday.
their dog is spoiled.

― ian, Saturday, 4 April 2009 03:48 (seventeen years ago)

twelve years pass...

Perhaps as good a thread as any for this story, which is a treat of a read.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dont-call-it-doo-wop-180977950/

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 25 June 2021 18:04 (four years ago)

seven months pass...

Above Smithsonian article on Philly record store is something.

Has anyone read these books:

Group Harmony: The Black Urban Roots of Rhythm and Blues
by Stuart L. Goosman

or The Doo-Wop Decades, 1945-1965: A Resource Guide To Vocal Groups and Their Recordings by B. Lee Cooper (Author), Frank W. Hoffmann (Author)

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 15 February 2022 20:23 (four years ago)

have not read those. i did happen to come across this old robert palmer article.

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/23/arts/doing-all-right-by-doing-doo-wop.html

― Thus Sang Freud, Wednesday, 16 February 2022 01:04 (four years ago)

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