What is DOO-WOP and where did it come from??

When we think of doo-wop today we think of the music of the 50's and 60's. The groups from the street corners, usally with tight five part harmony. What comes to most peoples mind is African Americans singing the songs of the day a capella and adding doo-wops and oohs to fill in where instruments would be. The strange thing is, that this style of singing became so popular that the professional artist started taking the sound into the studio. Before MOTOWN most groups had only small combos to back them up, maybe a piano, bass and guitar, or guitar, bass and drums. So the added sounds filled out the background and gave the songs a fuller sound.
It is an establish fact that the music of the time was seperated by race and there were very few mixed gruops at the time, however in the mid 50's things started to change, Whites and Blacks started listening to the same music. The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and The Orioles had set a standard that had everyone listening to them regardless of race. The Orioles appeared on The Arthur Godfrey Show in 1948, as the first Black group to be on national television. The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and The Platters soon followed on other shows. In my mind The Platters were the classiest of all.
The street corner sound seemed to be confined to the east coast for awhile. Most of the groups were concentrated in cities like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York City. Pittsburg, Clevland, and Detroit, carried the middle of the country. Black teenagers would form groups and sing on the corners trying to sound like their favorite groups.
There are a couple of ideas as to how the name Doop-wop came to be attached to this kind of music. One idea is that it was named after the sound that was made when the groups sang, doo-wop tee dee, doop-wop do ahhh, and so on. I think that there is one idea that is closest to the truth. Duop dego, is an Italian phrase that was used as a derogatory insult against what would be considered low class Italians. The same as using the N-word for African Americans. Here's where it comes together. For some unknown reason Italian Americans started listening to and singing the pop and R&B songs of the day. They formed their groups on the corners and sang what was considered race music,(Black music). Because these teens were singing what was look at as race music, which was unacceptable, they were called duop degos. The word duop is pronounced DOO-WOP, and the kids were called duopers. After awhile the word caught on, and anyone that sang that kind of music, was said to be duoping. As time went by the spelling and meaning changed.
There is some dispute as to which song first contained the phrase doop-wop, but the first hit to use the phrase was "When You Dance" by the Turbans in 1955. The chant doo-wop can be heard through-out the song.
The term doo-wop, first appeared in print in 1961, in the Chicago Defender.
The end came for doo-wop from two fronts. One was the British Invasion, the other was MOTOWN. I think that even with the British Invasion, doo-wop would have lasted a year or two more, if MOTOWN had not happened. In my mind MOTOWN wounded doo-wop, but The Temptations, killed it. Once The Temptations got started, everybody wanted to be them. Here was a group that had five lead singers. They had the smoothness of The Moonglows, the harmony of The Orioles and the stage presence of The Platters. When other groups heard The Temptations, everyone stopped what they were doing and tried to become The Temptations. However there is always one exception, and that would be The Dells. It seems to me that The Dells found a new way to do doo-wop and kept their style of doo-wop going for a few more years.



The next blog will be about the Italian American groups that sang doo-wop.
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