The Best Doo Wop Club On The Net The Doo Wop Cafe is dedicated to preserving the best music there ever was ... vocal group harmony of the 1950s. We also love "Oldies" of all kinds and R&B. But, most of all, we believe in having fun along the way ! Come and join us. |
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Billy Vera had made a name for himself on both sides of the recording scene as a hit artist with a career of 20+ years, including hits with Judy Clay in 1967 ("Storybook Children) and on his own with the only #1 single in Rhino's history, 1987's "At This Moment" and as a historian and compiler of intelligent reissues. A visit to a well-stocked record store these days will find his name prominently displayed on anthologies from the Vee-Jay, Specialty and RCA labels, among others. As a self-confessed doo wop fanatic and historian, Billy had a number of intriguing thoughts about the genre, and we felt it wise to just let him go his own way in this article. "WHAT ON EARTH IS DOO WOP?" by Billy Vera (Part One of Two) Fair question. To many younger people, experiencing the idiom for the first time at an "oldies" show, it may seem like a bunch of 50-something Italian guys wearing bad rugs and even worse pastel tuxedos out of some Long Island wedding, singing other people's hits, exhorting the audience to "come on 'n'clap your hands." Or it may mean three black guys who weren't even born when the "hits" they sing were on the radio. But what is doo wop - really? To paraphrase Louis Armstrong, if you have to ask, you ain't gonna get it anyway. Too many writers have tried to explain the idiom with words like "walking basses," "soaring falsettos," or "blow harmony," pompously deciding that this is doo wop and that is not. The truth of the matter is, in the words of the late Eddie Cochran, who cares? Actually, ahem, I care. Why? Well, record Collectors, especially vocal group collectors, are the most pedantic, opinionated group of anal-retentive, compulsive/obsessive whack jobs on the planet. Despite the great number of years and dollars I have spent on therapy, I still share this Deed to spout my opinions, which, like those of all record collectors, have more importance than world peace or the disappearing ozone layer. So, in all humility, may I impart the following chart of tidbits to your warehouse of useless knowledge:
By now, many of
you are saying, "Billy, you have an amazing grasp of the obvious." May
I remind you that there are more people out there, hopefully, some of whom
have purchased this set, than the few hundred of us who are the maladjusted
products of a youth misspent burrowing among the bins of that shrine-in-the
subway arcade, Yet within the community of fans of group harmony, raging arguments - often leading to fisticuffs - can easily erupt at the suggestion that a particular group or record might or might not be authentically "doo wop." If I were in a rascally mood, I bet I could start a virtual war lasting for generations with the mere suggestion that the merits of the "Imperial Goons" outweigh those of the "Schlep-tones." Why would grown men (and some women) spend so much time and energy dissecting a bunch of old records, most of which contain stupid, semiliterate lyrics and more out-of-tune singing than an aviary full of macaws? After all, it's not even good music, you say. Balderdash, I say. Duke Ellington, - Billy Vera
LINK to Part Two of the article |
Times
Square Records and that some of those people might find this stuff informative
and helpful in their understanding of this urban folk-music form.
the
greatest American composer/musician of the century, said that if you like
it, it's good. Doo wop is good, not only to nostalgia buffs reliving the
past and mooning over that lost high-school love, but to genuine music
aficionados not too proud or insecure to stand up for something that moves
them. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Appreciation of this
music is akin to a love of primitive or native art.