Doo-wop

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For the Lauryn Hill single, see Doo Wop (That Thing).

Doo-wop is a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music, which was started in the black community and became popular in the 1950s to the early 1960s in the United States.^[1]

1 Origin of "Doo-wop"
2 History
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Origin of "Doo-wop"

An African-American vocal style known as doo-wop emerged from the streets of north-eastern cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Doo-wop, with its smooth harmonies, was the closest rock style to mainstream pop in the 1950s. The Orioles helped develop the doo-wop sound with their hits "It's Too Soon to Know" (1948) and "Crying in the Chapel" (1953). Other important African American doo-wop groups included the Coasters, the Drifters, the Moonglows, Little Anthony and the Imperials , the Teenagers and the Platters. The style spread to singing groups of other ethnicities, such as the Capris, Dion and the Belmonts, the Earls, and the Tokens. The term "doo-wop" was taken from the ad-lib syllables sung in harmony in doo-wop songs. Two songs in particular may lay claim to being the "first" to contain the syllables "doo wop" in the refrain: the 1955 hit, "When You Dance" by The Turbans, in which the chant "doo wop" can be plainly heard; and the 1956 classic "In the Still of the Night" by The Five Satins, with the plaintive "doo wop, doo wah" refrain in the bridge. It has been erroneously reported that the phrase was coined by radio disc jockey Gus Gossert in the early 1970s. However, Gossert himself said that "doo-wop(p) was already being used [before me] to categorize the music in California."^[2] It became the fashion in the 1990s to keep expanding the definition backward to include rhythm and blues groups from the mid-1950s and then even further back to include groups from the early 1950s and even the 1940s. There is no consensus as to what constitutes a doo-wop song and many aficionados of R&B music dislike the term intensely, preferring to use the term "group vocal harmony" instead.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

In the black community, teenagers rarely had enough money to get instruments, so they used what they had (their voices) to create nonsense syllables from which the name of the style is derived. The name was later extended to group harmony . An example of this includes "Count Every Star" by The Ravens (1950), which includes vocalizations imitating the plucking of a double bass. This created a template for later groups.

1951 was perhaps the year doo-wop broke into the mainstream in a consistent manner. Hit songs included "My Reverie" by The Larks, "Where Are You?" by The Mello-Moods, "Glory of Love" by The Five Keys, "Shouldn't I Know" by The Cardinals, "I Will Wait" by the Four Buddies, and "Will You Be Mine" by The Swallows.

By 1953, doo-wop was extremely popular and disc jockey Alan Freed began introducing black groups' music to his white audiences with great success. Groups included The Spaniels, The Moonglows, and The Flamingos, whose song, "Golden Teardrops," is a classic of the genre. Other groups, like The Castelles and The Penguins, innovated new styles, most famously uptempo doo wop, established by The Crows' 1954 song, "Gee" and The Cleftones' 1956 hit "Little Girl of Mine". 1956 was also the year that Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers became a teen pop sensation with songs like "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Many consider the forementioned Five Satins hit, "In the Still of the Night (I Remember)," to be the quintessential doo-wop recording, but in terms of popular sales, "Get a Job" by The Silhouettes, a hit in 1958, was arguably the most successful doo-wop song of all time. The late 1950s-early 1960s also saw the rise of Italian doo-wop groups, including Dion and the Belmonts, The Capris, the Mystics, and the Duprees. Two racially integrated groups were The Del-Vikings and The Crests.

Doo-wop remained popular until just before the British Invasion of 1964. 1961 might have been the peak of doo-wop, with hits that include The Marcels' "Blue Moon". There was a revival of the nonsense-syllable form of doo-wop in the early 1960s, with popular records by the Marcels, the Rivingtons, and Vito & The Salutations. A few years later, the genre had reached the self-referential stage, with songs about the singers ("Mr. Bass Man") and the songwriters ("Who Put the Bomp?" by Barry Mann)

The genre has seen mild surges throughout the years, with many radio shows dedicated to doo-wop. It is said to have had its roots in the 1930s and 1940s music, with groups like the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers. Its main artists are concentrated in urban areas (New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Newark, Los Angeles, and others), with a few exceptions. Revival shows on TV and boxed CD sets (ex. DooWop Box 1-3) have kept people's interest in the music. Groups have done remakes of doo-wops with great success over the years. Part of the regional beach music or shag music scene, centered in the Carolinas and surrounding states, includes both the original classic recordings and numerous re-makes over the years. Other artists have had doo-wop or doo-wop-influenced hits in later years, such as Led Zeppelin's 1973 song, "The Ocean", David Bowie's 1973 hit, "Drive-In Saturday," Billy Joel's 1983 hit, "The Longest Time", Frank Zappa's 1981 song, "Fine Girl," or Electric Light Orchestra's 1977 smash "Telephone Line". Horror punk bands like the The Misfits also included a healthy amount of doo-wop in their early songs. The last known doo-wop hit was "It's Alright" by Huey Lewis & the News, which reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary charts in June 1993.

It has been noted that doo-wop groups tend to be named after birds. These include The Orioles, The Ravens, the Cardinals, the Crows, the Wrens, the Robins, the Swallows, the Larks, the Flamingos and the Penguins. Also after cars: The Edsels, The Cadillacs , Little Anthony and the Imperials , The Fleetwoods , The El Dorados , The Impalas , etc.

Doo-wop is popular among collegiate a cappella groups due to its easy adaptation to an all-vocal form.

Doo-wop recently experienced a resurgence in popularity with PBS' doo-wop concert programs: Doo-Wop 50, Doo Wop 51, and Rock, Rhythm, and Doo Wop. These programs brought back together, live on stage, some of the better known doo-wop groups of the past. Doo-wop is also known as "one hit" music. Jay K. Rock le Kool is probably the most famous of the current doo-woppers.