Episode 50: Street Corner Doo Wop #6 - Watchin’ Submarine Races

The vocal harmony group tradition, known as Doo Wop, developed in the post-World War II era. It was the most popular form of rhythm and blues music among black teenagers, especially those living in the large urban centers of the eastern coast, in Chicago, and in Detroit. To those of us kids who were color-blind, it was just cool music coming from our transistor radios. That was the beauty of radio. Music wasn’t defined by a color, just by the beat and the mood you felt deep in your soul. Many groups specialized in romantic ballads that appealed to the sexual fantasies of teenagers in the late 1940s and early 1950s. By the mid-1950s, vocal harmony groups had transformed the smooth delivery of ballads into a performance style incorporating the nonsense phrase, “Doo Wop-Doo Wop” as vocalized by the bass singers, who provided rhythmic movement for an a cappella song style.
In this episode you’ll hear:
1) Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me of You) by Little Caesar & The Romans
2) Tonight Could Be The Night by The Velvets (with Virgil Johnson)
3) Oh Gee, Oh Gosh by The Kodaks
4) Streets Of The Bronx by The Earls (aka Larry Chance & The Earls)
5) We Belong Together by Robert & Johnny
6) Hey Good Lookin' by The Jewels (with Billy Abbott)
7) You by The Aquatones (with Lynne Nixon, lead singer)
8) Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home) by The Impalas
9) Angel Baby by Rosie & The Originals
10) Blue Moon by The Marcels
11) Runaround by The Regents
12) Coney Island Baby by The Excellents
13) Two People In The World by Little Anthony & The Imperials
14) (You've Got) The Magic Touch by The Platters
15) Gloria by Vito & The Salutations
16) Six Nights a Week by The Crests
17) I Need A Girl by The Righteous Brothers (aka The Paramours)
18) I Wonder Why by Dion & The Belmonts
19) Some Kind Of Wonderful by The Drifters (with Rudy Lewis, lead)
20) There's A Moon Out Tonight by The Capris
21) When You Dance by The Paramounts
22) Boys by The Shirelles
23) Come On Little Angel by The Belmonts
24) Just To Be With You by The Passions
25) Come Back My Love by The Wrens
26) Juke Box Saturday Night by Nino & The Ebb Tides
27) Let Me In by The Sensations (with Yvonne Mills, vocal)
28) Who's That Knocking by The Genies
29) Tell Me Why by Norman Fox & the Rob Roys
30) Book of Love by The Monotones
31) Church Bells May Ring by The Willows
32) Every Night (I Pray) by The Chantels (With Arlene Smith, lead)
33) Ala Men Sy by The Quotations
34) Stay by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
35) Tonight, Tonight by The Mello-Kings
36) This Is My Love by The Emjays
37) Gee Whiz by The Innocents
38) My True Story by The Jive Five (with Eugene Pitt)
39) Oh Why by The Teddy Bears
40) You Cheated by The Slades
41) Heart and Soul by The Cleftones
42) Peek-A-Boo by The Cadillacs
43) Tonight I Fell In Love by The Tokens
44) Dance by the Light of the Moon by The Olympics
45) Silhouettes by The Rays
46) Memories Of El Monte by The Penguins (with Cleve Duncan, lead)
47) Goody Goody by Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
48) For Your Precious Love by Jerry Butler & The Impressions
49) Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko-Bop by Little Anthony & The Imperials
50) If I Can't Have You by Etta James & Harvey Fuqua
51) Sandy Went Away by The Impalas (with Joe Frazier, lead vocalist)
52) Lovers Never Say Goodbye by The Flamingos