Death of Doo Wop

Doo wop enjoyed two lives, and suffered through the same number of deaths. The popularity of doo wop stemmed from its appeal to a a newly emerging teenage generation in the early to mid-50s. It was the perfect medium to enable teens to carve out identities different from the generation preceded it. Teens needed and used their own music, along with the latest styles of dress and speech, to figure out who they were in relation to their peers and rest of the world. But as fate would have it, each succeding generation had the same need.

Concurrent with the fickleness of teenagers was the growth and evolution of the music and the artists that created it. Just as young listeners gave enormous weight to the newness of the sound, young artists have always attempted to expand or extend the sounds they grew up with. The identity of these artists were better defined by their own creations then by the imitating the works of others. Thus paleo-doo-wop was created in the early 1950s with the addition of youthful idealism to its predecessor, rhythm and blues.

First Demise

Classical doo-wop evolved with the wholesale entry of the teenage generation to the market in 1955. Artists in this period were young, enthusiastic and musically unsophisticated. They worked, it seemed in retrospect, along parallel lines to develop the perfect doo-wop song. the result was the musically and lyrically simple, love oriented rockaballad or four chord doo-wop song, in all possible variations. These songs were the fruit of the classical period. However,by 1960, the classical doo-wop had run its course. doo-woppers had apparently said all they had to say. The new generation of teens, three to five years younger then the classical aficionados. were ready for their own, new music, classical doo-wop faded from the pop music charts.

As the music changed, so did the dances. While the classical doo-wop generation gyrated to the Lindy, Stroll and Grind, the teenage feet of the early 60s turned cold to these offerings. Rather, the moved to the beat of the Twist (Chubby Checker Joey Dee and the Starliters), the Pony and the Hucklebuck (Chubby Checker), the Swim (Bobby Freeman), the Mashed Potatoes (Dee Dee Sharp) and the Monkey (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Major Lance).

There were other reasons for the demise of classical doo-wop. The notorious convention of deejays held in Miami in may of 1959, brought the excesses of the industry to the attention of the public. The Harris subcommittee, convened in the fall of the same year, made the term payola a household word and included umerous , including, Alan Freed, Tommy "Dr. Jive" Samuels, Jack Walker and Peter Tripp. Freed's fate was particularly tragic. His popularity made him target for attempts by members of the establishment to find a scapegoat for the increasing, as they saw it. the corruption of the youth. Always a staunch defender of the music and the teenagers that espoused, Freed was accused of taking payola (which was not illegal at the time ) and subsequently tax evasion. Freed would die in poverty from complications relating to alcoholism in 1965 at the age of 43.

As the personality deejays disappeared from the airwaves, their replacements played the "Top 40 or "Countdown" format. This programming initiated by Todd Storz several years before had the unintended effect of shutting out the small timers. Struggling small independent record companies, without public relations departments, had a difficult getting their records on the air. Doo-wop groups especially, because they were not household names, fell prey to to new regime.

Additionally, around 1959, a second wave of single artists flooded the market, ushering the group sound into disfavor on their road to stardom. Frankie Avalon (January 1959), Bobby Rydell (April 1959), Bobby Darin (May 1958), Freddie Cannon ( (May 1959), Bobby Vee (September 1959) and Bobby Vinton (May 1962). Clyde McPhatter (November 1955), Dion DiMucci (October 1960) and Johnny Maestro (January 1961) all left doo-wop oriented groups to try and make it on their own. The new idols were manufactured and/or by record companies, and were sold as clean-cut products in an attempt to mollify adults. Parents might still hold their children's tastes as misguided, but were hard press to identify the new idols as marauding and pillaging delinquents.

The new music delivered by the new wave of idols was geared to engender idolatry in teens. For the most part, these attempts were successful. This was made possible in part by the increasing importance of the television in the life of the average teenager. In the early 50s, teens inherited radios as their parents moved on to better things. By 1960, teens were inheriting first generation TV's as their parents bought newer ones. Also, because they were predominately black, doo-wop artists were less of a drawing card to the overwhelmingly white teenage television audience.

Resuscitation

As classical doo-wop was heard less and less, the small record companies that were the backbone of the doo-wop era went under or sold out. With few exceptions, Atlantic and Vee-Jay among them, the Indies died as classical doo-wop waned around 1960. Additionally, many of the youngsters that sang classical doo-wop were now in their 20s. The majority had never received more than token monies for their efforts and were forced to get jobs outside the music industry to support themselves or their families. A doowop group could have sold several thousand records and have received nothing because they had signed of their rights on the advice of the record company, because the record company failed, because the record writer's name was changed, because the record was covered or because of a combination of these events. Most doo-wop groups died as members left for financial security in other fields. Only a select few were able to make a living in the music field, one such person was Harvey Fuqua, lead singer of the Moonglows, who went on to become a record producer for Motown a and Teddy Randazzo, who produced records for United Artists.

Fate intervened to give doo-wop a second life. The oldies rival of 1960-1962, led by men such as Art Laboe who issued a series of Oldies But Goodies albums, classical doo-wop songa like "Earth Angel," "In the Still of the Night," and "Tonite, Tonite" received as much attention or more than when they were originally issued. Albums were hot supplanting 45s and doo-wop benefited from this trend. Irving Rose owner of Times Square record store issued or reissued classical doo-wop songs on five labels (Times Square, Candlelight, Victory, Romantic Rhythn and Shield). He also sponsored radio shows that featured rare doo-wop recordings. Through a generation of deejays like Cousin Bruce Morrow, Murray Kaufmann and Alan Fredericks, a second generation of teens came to appreciate classical doo-wop and responded favorably to neo-doo-wop. Further, musically talented who cut their teeth on classical doo-wop entered the arena. Creative songwriting teams and producers introduced more complicated melodies and placed greater emphasis on instrumentation. the result was tin pan alley doo-wop of the early 1960s.

Attempts to add to what came before resulted in the neo-doo-wop era which hasten the demise of the genre. Neo-doo-wop-groups added to classical doo-wop by using more falsetto and bass, and by exaggerated use of nonsense syllables. This produced songs such as "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" by the Rivingtons, "Surfer Birs" by the Trashmen and "Mr. Bassman" by Johnny Cymbal. Neo-doo-wop period also brought about a lessening of these same classical doo-wop characteristics of falsetto, bass and nonsense syllable through cross fertilization with other styles of music.

Second Demise

By 1963 neo-doo-wop went from current events to the history books. This process was fairly slow, beginning by 1962 and ending by 1965. Group by group, song by song, and year by year, the traits of falsetto, bass and nonsense syllables were left behind. The wide range of voices that were so much part of doo-wop style were replaced by instruments such as lead guitar, violin (replacing falsetto) and bass guitar (replacing the bass singer). In some cases group harmony was reduced to Ooh Ooh or some variation. In other cases, group harmony and bass echoed the lead singer's assertions with words rather than nonsense syllables.

In the later work of the Tokens, Crests, Marvelettes they left behind their earlier doo-wop style in favor of more instrumentation and different vocal patterns. So neo-doo-wop groups moved to the Motown (The Four Tops as the Four Aims) and the Supremes (as the Primettes) or other soul sounds. Others moved to mainstream pop music and others just disappeared. Jerry Butler of the Impressions became a pop/soul singer.

The British invasion, Motown and surf music administered to the coup de grace to the neo doo-wop sound. This time the doo-wop era ended. Part of the reason for the de-evolution of doo-wop lay with the beginning of Marshall amplification systems that allowed better sound volume and lent more emphasis to to guitar and other instruments. Stereophonic sound, by allowing the separation of instruments and voices. Most members of the doo-wop groups were not musicians and were at a disadvantage. Club owners, if hiring a doo-wop group, would need to hire a band. Also enormous importance was the newness of the coming musical styles. The new generation of 13 year-olds had many sounds which to chose from and on which they could base their own culture: The British music of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, the surf sounds of the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, the Philadelphia sound of the Orlons and Patti Labelel & the Blue Belles, or the Motown groups like the Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops and Miracles. Each succeeding generation of teens has had the need to reinvent its own musical wheel.

Isolated doo-wop efforts achieved popularity after 1963-1964, in songs by Reparta and the Delrons ("Whenever a Teenager Cries"), Bill Deal and the Rondells ("May I"), The Capris ("Morse Code of Love") and even Billy Joel with a back-up group ("For the Longest Time"), but by and large the age of doo-wop had come and gone.