Some of the best doo wop is as primitive and unschooled as it can get. A few cases in-point are the Jewels "Hearts Of Stone," the Willows' "Church Bells May Ring," and The Dubs' "Don't Ask Me (To Be Lonely)." These are performances so absolutely magical that the groups were never again able to match them. Many of these groups sound as if they practiced on the mythical corner and came up with chord patterns so unorthodox that the studio musicians had difficulty figuring out what to play to Fit behind them, e.g., The Crows' "Gee" or The Channels' "The Closer You Are."

Sometimes, however, the trained backup bands and the "talented amateurs" happened to gel. When this happens, you get a "Speedoo" (Cadillacs) or a "Little Girl Of Mine" (Cleftones) or a "Please Say You Want Me" (Schoolboys). Occasionally, you even get an amateur band backing an amateur vocal group and it works; the results can be astonishing almost 40 years later, as in The Five Satins' "In The Still Of The Night, " which is, incidentally, often voted the most popular oldie of all time, regardless of subgenre or decade.

Although the first acknowledged doo wop group is usually considered to be Baltimore's Orioles, a particularly amateurish-yet-wonderful aggregation, amateurism is not necessarily the essential component of the genre. Quite a few practitioners of the style are hard-core professionals who rehearsed in real rehearsal halls with real musicians (or, in some cases, were musicians themselves). Examples of this would include The Moonglows, Flamingos, and Little Anthony & The Imperials, all of whom come out of the great black vaudeville tradition, their milieu being the proscenium rather than the front stoop of a Bronx brownstone tenement building.

While much of vocal group singing falls into the category of "entertainment," one would be hard-pressed to find recordings more musical than The Moonglows' "Ten Commandments Of Love" or as inventive as The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You." In the hands of The Flamingos, the latter almost becomes a different song. An example of a song which did evolve into a different one is "Gloria," originally written by Leon Rene and recorded First by Charles Brown in 1948 and shortly thereafter by The Mills Brothers, a non-doo wop vocal group. After the Cadillacs wrapped their vocal chords around what they could remember of the tune, it became one of the songs by which other street-corner groups would measure themselves.

What would genre music be without the subgenre? One such subgenre, given ample space on this package, is what came to be known as the Kiddie lead" record. The first of these to achieve great success was the never-to-be-beaten-or-forgotten Frankie Lymon of The Teenagers. The tiny pride of Washington Heights has never been topped, even by the Stevie Wonders and Michael Jacksons of the world. There would never have been a Ronnie Spector were it not for Frankie Lymon. Other groups that made wonderful records include The Students' "I'm So Young," the aforementioned "Please Say You Want Me" by The Schoolboys, and "I'm So Happy" by Frankie's brother Lewis and his Teenchords.

Like The Teenagers, many groups were known primarily for their lead singers, whose force of personality or sheer prowess often overpowered their backup vocalists. The Ravens 'Jirnmy Ricks, The Five Keys' Rudy West, The Harp-Tones' Willie Winfield, The Spaniels' Pookie Hudson, The Moonglows' Bobby Lester, The Hearts' Lee Andrews, and The Platters' Tony Williams are all astonishing singers of consummate skill and emotional clarity with or without a group behind them. I once attended a Murray the K show at the Brooklyn Fox Theater where Johnny Mathis had the unenviable task of following The Harp-Tones. The group opened their act with a simple chord from their pianist/composer Raoul J. Cita, which propelled Willie Winfield into a raftershaking five words: "Will you take part in ..... If he'd sung no more of "Life Is But A Dream" than that, Mathis would have still had his hands full; as it was, Winfield wiped up the stage with Johnny, who is no slouch himself.

As early as 1951, the influence of the great gospel quartets such as The Swan Silvertones and The Pilgrim Travelers could be heard in the stirring performances of almost-doo wop groups like The Dominoes with Clyde McPhatter, heard here in his next incarnation as lead singer of The Drifters. Other gospel-like groups on this set are The Jewels, Nutmegs, Silhouettes, and Jerry Butler And The Impressions. The gospel element, ironically, "did in" doo wop as a commercially viable idiom in the'60s.

The distaff side of doo wop is represented here by only one group, The Chantels, featuring the magnificent Arlene Smith. The Chantels were preceded by their Bronx neighbors, The Hearts, with Jeanette "Baby" Washington. They were followed by The Shirelles, a more primitive group, whose "I Met Him On A Sunday (RondeRonde)" gave no hint of the changes to come.

The "juvenile delinquent" was one of the great '50s icons. Marlon Brando answering the question "What are you rebelling against?" with "Whaddaya got? " personified the decade and inspired the cover of a best-selling album, The Paragons Meet The Jesters with its motorcycle jacket-clad hoods in full battle regalia. This hoodlum element of doo wop is not to be overlooked; The Charts, Dion & The Belmonts, and The Elegants gave the impression that they just might stick up a gas station on the way to the studio. The implied danger of these guys, down to the sound of their records, was no small attraction to the often real delinquents and just-as-often wannabes who bought these records.

Bordering the black neighborhoods that spawned doo wop were working-class, usually Italian communities. And as often happens when cultures collide, yet another subgenre was born. One part Four Aces pop and two parts black teen doo wop, groups like the early Frankie Valli-led Four Lovers, or The Neons, had rock 'n' roll hits as early as 1956. The Mello-Kings, Dion & The Belmonts, The Passions, The Elegants, The Capris, The Mystics (all from New York), as well as The Skyliners (from Pittsburgh), all garnered airplay on black radio stations of the '50s and appeared at black theaters to great acclaim. During the '60s "oldies" revival, neo-doo wop artists perfected the "white group" sound, noted for its tricky multisyllabic backgrounds. Practitioners included The Tokens, Regents, Earls, Five Discs, and Vito & The Salutations. Often the effect was almost cartoonish, as in The Quotations' "Imagination" or The Excellents' "Coney Island Baby."

Racially integrated groups came out of and inspired -rock 'n' roll's capacity for racial harmony, opening the door for the next decade's civil rights movement. The Dell Vikings, Norman Fox & The Rob Roys, The Impalas, The Marcels, and The Crests (who had the luxury of one of the all-time powerhouse leads, Johnny Maestro) exemplify the strengths of this racial harmony.

During the '60s revival, which coincided with the new soul era, there were a number of anachronistic black vocal groups still working within the doo wop idiom, and they too fell into several subcategories (and often were categories unto themselves). Maurice Williams, formerly of The Gladiolas, and his Zodiacs were a singing band who played their own instruments. James Sheppard, formerly of The Heartbeats, formed Shep & The Limelites in the early' 60s. The Jive Five were pure retro-delinquent-styled doo woppers, propelled by Eugene Pitt's great leads. The Velvets and The Marvelows straddled the line of soul and doo wop, slightly favoring the latter.

For the past 25 years, heated debates have centered around the question "Is doo wop dead?" Record companies hesitate to reissue it along with their blues and rock 'n' roll compilations, citing poor sales figures and pain-in-the-ass collectors who fail to put their money where their mouths are (perhaps preferring to fondle and scratch their original 45s instead of tickless compact discs). The good news is that the Brits have finally discovered doo wop and have begun to attack it in their usual, fanatic manner. Those of us willing to ferret out those imports have been treated to some wonderful moments. Hopefully, this set will whet the appetite of the newcomer and serve as a one-stop repository of favorites for the veteran listener.

- Billy Vera
June 1993