listening to Doo Wop

by **Dayna** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:17 am

On Sunday nights on my local radio station has a special Doo Wop show called Sunday Night Cruise. I haven't always been interested in it, but some of the things I've been learning here, are making me apprectiate a lot of the qualities in it.
Some of it sounds like a mixture of Jazz, & other things. It has some good singing, & good guitar. The artists I've heard tonight are The Diamonds, Drifters, The Halos, & The Sharps.

Does anyone else like it?

by **Adam Blake** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:49 am

I love doo-wop. It's one of my few real regrets in life that I don't have a voice deep enough to sing the bass parts in a doo-wop vocal group.

by **Rob Hall** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:22 am

Me too, I love it. My favourite bass voice is that of Jimmy Ricks who sang with the Ravens.

by **Dayna** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 9:20 pm

One of those bands I heard Sunday, performed their song all with their voices. No instruments at all. It was pretty interesting.

There used to be a good show on TV back in the 70s. I don't know if it was ever over there or not. I just barley remember it. It was called Sha Na Na. The lead guy of that group, I think he was Bowzer & he was kind of a tough looking guy & nice looking, with a nice deep voice. I just heard news not too long that he had died from drugs. How sad, that happens to people with so much talent.

by **Des** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:53 pm

Sha Na Na played Woodstock - they are on the video of the festival. They seemd a bit out of place alongside Jefferson Airplane and Hendrix!

by **Des** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:27 am

...and what was Doo Wop's main influence? Gospel? Blues? Rock n Roll? All of these? Was it a mainly 'black' or a 'white' phenomenon? Anyone know?

So many questions.

by **judith** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 4:40 am

"It has been noted that doo-wop groups tend to be named after birds. These include
The Ravens,
the Cardinals,
the Crows,
the Wrens,
the Robins,
the Swallows,
the Larks,
the Flamingos,
the Penguins,
and the Feathers."
..............................Hi Des!

(quoted from Wikipedia: Doo Wop)

by **Des** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:12 pm

judith wrote:"It has been noted that doo-wop groups tend to be named after birds. These include
The Ravens,
the Cardinals,
the Crows,
the Wrens,
the Robins,
the Swallows,
the Larks,
the Flamingos,
the Penguins,
and the Feathers."
..............................Hi Des!

(quoted from Wikipedia: Doo Wop)

Awesome!

by **Dayna** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:40 am

Some of this music can be good & some of it can be boring. I just heard the original version of Louie Louie, by Richard perry and the Pharohs. I think I still like the version by Kingsmen better, although you can understand the lyrics in the original.

They just played a song by Planetones, that I've never heard before & it was absolutly beautiful! I recorded it but don't even know what it's called. They almost sounded like Righteous Brothers.

by **Dayna** » Fri May 11, 2007 12:39 am

My Mom sent me an email of a Classic Car show with a slide show of 1950s cars. The music on it is kind of a funny electronic version of Lets Go to The Hop.

http://www.wtv-zone.com/cal731/SH/c1/frames.html

by **Dayna** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:18 am

I am listening to this show again tonight, on WBBG since it was on my car radio, on Clear Channel. I love the way this station broadcasts in HD now.

Watusi, by The Orlons
It's funny how it sounds so similar to Monster Mash.

by **Nick Boyes** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:41 pm

Sometime ago I bought a compilation cd 'For Sentimental Reasons' 28 doo-wop classics, and it is !
Quoting from the inlay
'The R&B vocal groups of the Fifties created a new genre of rock music labelled doo-wop ,which derived from the street corner acappella harmonising of young black kids in the major conurbations.They started appearing in flocks avicular like, sporting the names of ever more exotic birds. These quartets and quintets were to a great extent musically self sufficient and required minimal musical backing, a factor that appealed to the indie label owners, as did their financial naivety. The groups proliferated and the record labels raked in the money.'

Interesting groups on this cd are The Prisonaires , inmates of Tennessee State Penitentiaty and The Skyliners who were all white.
The Chantels with I'm Confessin'( that I love you ) doo-wop it for the girls.

nice to see you back Des, your posts got me to register on this site in the first place.

by **Dayna** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:40 am

Does anyone think it's interesting how some Doo Wop has an African rhythm, like the Diamond's Little Darlin', a song I've heard by Clyde McPhatter- A Lover's Question ?

by **Mike Atherton** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:35 am

'Little Darlin', both in its original incarnation by Maurice Williams & The Gladiolas and in the white cover version, does have an ear-catching rhythm - though I have always thought of it as more Latin than African.

In answer to an earlier posting, certainly many of the best doo-wop groups were black, including the shamefully few of the many hundreds of talented groups who went on to achieve any kind of lasting success: The Drifters, The Flamingoes, The Dominoes etc. But there was also a strong Italian doo-wop contingent: Dion & The Belmonts are probably the most famous ones, but others such as The Crests deserve a listen; and lest we forget, that Italo-American doo-wop tradition begat The Four Seasons.

by **Adam Blake** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:41 am

Mike Atherton wrote:and lest we forget, that Italo-American doo-wop tradition begat The Four Seasons.

It's funny though, I can listen to old 50s Doo Wop till the cows come home but a little bit of The Four Seasons goes a very long way indeed.

listening to Doo Wop

listening to Doo Wop

Who is online