Saturday, February 20, 2010

THE LADIES OF DOO-WOP

In this installment we're going look at some of the girls groups of the 50's and early 60's. For the most part the girl groups weren't considered doo-wopers, but as we look back there are afew groups that would fit the bill. With the exception of the Shirells, and the Chantels most of the early girl groups came and went without much notice.
We'll look at The Bobbettes, The Crystals, Shirley Gunter and The Queens, The Teen Queens, The Deltairs, The Primettes, and The Poni-Tails.


The Bobbettes
The Bobbettes were formed in Harlem, New York in 1955. At first they called themselves The Harlem Queens. They met as young ladies while singing at the Glee Club at P.S. 109 in Harlem. The group was discovered by James Dailey, a record producer who became their manager, while playing a concert at the famed Apollo. They were signed to Atlantic Records.
In 1957 the girls released their first hit "Mr. Lee", an uptempo tune where the group proclaims their devotion for their school teacher. The girls actually disliked the real life Mr. Lee. The original lyrics were a put down to the real Mr. Lee, but the label insisted that the lyrics be changed. The song became the group's biggest hit, it peaked #6 on Billboard Pop chart and spent 4 weeks at #1 on the R&B chart. This made The Bobbettes the first girl group to have a #1 R&B hit that also made the Pop top 10.
After the release of some novelty songs for Atlantic, that didn't score, the group recorded the original "I Shot Mr. Lee". Atlantic refused the song and the group left the label and signed with Teddy Vann, and a new version of the song was recorded on the Triple-X label, the song went to #52 on the Billboard Hot 100, which forced Atlantic to release the first version of the song.
Over the years they recorded a series of songs that didn't move, the group disbanded in 1974.
The Bobbettes were nominated for induction into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.


The Crystals
The Crystals were a girl group out of New York, and are considered one of the defining girl acts of the early 60's. Between 1961 and 1964 the group charted hits with songs like, "Uptown", "He's A Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me". All of the songs were producd by Phil Spector and featured three different leads.
The original group included Barbara Alston, Mary Thomas, Dolores "Dee Dee" Kenniebrew, Myrna Girard and Patricia "Patsy" Wright. The group signed with Phil Spector's Phillies Records. Phil Spector choose Alston to lead the group even though she was afraid of singing in front of audiences.
The groups first hit was "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", in 1961, the B-side was "Oh Yeah , Maybe Baby", with Wright on lead. The song was written by Spector and Leroy Bates, and reached #20 on the Billboard chart, giving Spector a good start for his new label. The group's second hit was "UpTown" written by Brill Building writers Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Alston was the lead on this song. Their next song was "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. The song had touchy subject about men hitting women, had limited airplay, but still has an underground following.
After "He Hit Me" failed, Spector started recording Darlene Love and her group The Blossoms as The Crystals. As the story goes, The Crytals weren't able to travel from New York to LA in time for a recording session. Spector wanted to record "He's A Rebel", a Gene Pitney written song, before anyone else could. Darlene Love and The Blossoms were available because they were based in LA. Spector recorded Love and her group as The Crystals. The best story is that Vikki Carr was recording "He's A Rebel at the same time as Spector. The Shirells had turned down the song because of it's anti establishment lyrics. The song marked a shift where girls stated singing about falling love with bad boys instead of the he's so sweet kind of guy. " He's A rebel" was The Crystal's only US #1 hit. The Crystals next hit was "He's Sure The Boy I Love" was also sung by Darlene and The Blossoms. It reached #11 on Billboard and had a spoken intro by Darlene Love.
The next release by the Crystals had to be one the strangest releases ever. The song was "Let's Dance To The Screw". No-one knows the real story, but most agree the Spector wanted to upset his former business partner Lester Sill. The song was six minutes long and was not playable on the radio in 1963. The song had basic instrumentation and Spector himself intoning "Dance The Screw. No-one knows if this group was The Crystals or The Blossoms. The single was never released commercially and the only copies to be found are marked DJ copy not for sale.
The real Crystals returned to the studio in 1963, but by this time Thomas had left the group. Alston never liked being on lead, finally gave it up and Brooks took over. Brooks had been singing Alston's lead in live shows for awhile. After "Let's Dance The Screw" the group's next release was "Da Doo Ron Ron" It has been said the the song was recorded by Darlene Love and her Blossoms, with Love on lead, but prior to release Spector erased Love's voice and replaced it with LaLa Brooks voice, and kept The Blossoms in the background. A soon to be discovered Cher was also in the background. The song hit the top 10 in the US and the UK. "Then He Kissed Me" was the first single since "He Hit Me" that featured all members of the Crystals as a definite group.
In 1964, because of lack of attention from Spector and a dispute over royalties, The Crystals were very unhappy with Spector. The group left Phillies Records and moved to United Artist Records in late 1964.
Wright left the group in 1964 and was replaced by Frances Collins, the group became a trio after Alston left. The group didn't have much success after this and disbanded in 1967. They reunited in 1971 and are still performing today.

Shirley Gunter and The Queens
Shirley Gunter and The Queens formed the group with some high school friends, pushed into it by her brother Cornel, future member of The Coasters. The group is considered the first real all-female Doo-Wop group. The group's 1954 recording of "Oop Shoop", is the first record to be written, and performed successfully by a group of young Black women. The song was recorded on Flair Records, and it was brother Cornel, who arranged for the girl's audition with the Bihari brothers owners of Flair Records.
Gunter recorded as a solo act at first, but it wasn't until Shirley had her friends join with her that things started to move. The uptempo "Oop Shoop", was recorded in just a couple of takes, and as some say the rest is rock & roll history.
Shirley recorded with The Queens before teaming up with her bother and the group called the Flairs. Shirley had an almost hit with a song called "Headin' Home". Shirley went solo again, but never had a major hit, not because she didn't have the talent, or for lack of effort, it just seems that the public wasn't ready.
It's been said that "Oop Shoop" lyrics and dance beat set the standard for future groups like The Bobbettes.
In a recording career the was only three years long, Shirley was part of the first female doo-wop group, written her own hits, and gave rock & roll it's first big female hit "Oop Shoop", Shirley was a big hit.

THE TEEN QUEENS
The Teen Queens were formed in the early 50's and are most rembered for their hit "Eddie My Love", recorded in 1956. The song went to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The group consisted of sisters Betty and Rose Collins, their brother was Aaron Collins of The Cadets. Aaron wrote "Eddie My Love", the song was released by RPM Records, but "Eddie MY Love" was their only hit dispite the release of a string of songs.
The group left RPM in 1958 and signed a one song contract with RCA Records, where they released "Dear Tommy", which failed to make the charts. The group then signed with Antler Records, however they had little success. The group disbanded in 1961.
The song "Eddie My Love" was covered by The Chordettes, and The Fontane Sisters, the song made the charts with both groups.

THE DELTAIRS
The Deltairs were formed in the South Jamaica projects of New York in 1955. The group came in second in a senior year talent show at Central Commercial High School. The original name was The Centraltone Debs, before switching to The Deltairs. The group included Mae Brown, Carol Stansbury, Henrietta Roper, and someone named Joyce.
After graduation Brown got married and Stanabury lost track of Roper and Joyce. Not wanting to give up music, after a few months Stansbury recruited her sister Thelma and a friend Shirley Taylor and The Deltairs were re-born. The group practiced with other young groups, like The 5 Sharps, The Beltones and The Cleftones. There was a fourth member of the group Barbara Lee who became a permanent member of the group.
At her job Carol Stansbury, became friends with Al Browne, a pianist and band leader. Browne introduced the group to Malcolm Dodds who told the group about a talent show at the boys club, they came in second. Malcolm liked the groups harmony and helped them with their arrangements.
In 1955 there weren't a lot of female groups around so the groups that influenced the girls were male groups. The group arranged their own versions of some of the standards of the day such as "Danny Boy", "That Lucky Old Sun", and "You'll Never Walk Alone".
The group played small clubs and schools when they could find work. In 1957 Shirley Taylor brought in a friend, Barbara Thompson and the four became five. Also in 1957 Al Browne introduced the girls to Stan Feldman, and Ed Portnoy, who became their managers. Wanting to showcase their talent, Feldman and Portnoy, formed Ivy Records.
At their first session with Ivy Records, the group recorded four songs, two of the songs were "Lullaby Of The Bells", and "Standing At The Altar", two songs that were written by Stansbury. The other two songs were "It's Only You Dear" written by Al Browne and Oliver Hall, and "I Might like It" written by veteran songwriter George Weiss. The orchestra was lead by Al Browne himself. Barbara Thompson led Lullaby Of The Bells", with Barbara Lee singing bass. Thomson and Stansbury teamed up on "It's Ony You". This recording was The Deltairs first record and the first release by Ivy Records. Later Portnoy teamed with Paul Winley of Winley Records (Remember that name??) to form Porwin Records, which recorded The Clovers in 1960.
The record started moving in the New York area and the group got booked on a show put on by DJ Hal Jackson at the Hunts Point Palace in the Bronx. The show included The Bobbettes, The Rays, The Chantels, The Dubs, The Rob-Roys, and a few more groups. The song did so well that the group was booked for a week at The Apollo in december of 1957. The show included some heavy weights in music, Bo Diddley, The Moonglows, The Drifters, Big Maybelle, The Dells, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Priscilla Bowman, and The Reuben Phillips Orchestra. In January of 1958 the group appeared on Paul Sherman's first show at the St. Nicholas Arena, with Roy Hamilton, The Dubs, Thruston Harris and others. The group played the Chittlin' Circuit and appeared at the Uptown in Philly, the Howard, in D.C., and the Royal in Baltimore. They sang "Come Go With Me" on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, and sang "Lullaby Of The Bells" on American Bandstand.
The Deltairs recorded more songs with the Ivy Label, but with no real success. Feldman and Portnoy brought in Bennie Benjamin and George Weiss to run the label while they spent their time recording artist. Benjamin wanted to be the girls manager but one of the parents didn't like Benjamin so the girls dropped Benjamin. Feldman and Portnoy farmed the group out to other labels. They made a deal with Feisted Records to take over the group. The group released a single on the label in 1958. Feldman, Portnoy and Weiss formed Evergreen Enterprises, a talent management company, to handle The Deltairs, and other groups.
Things started going bad with Evergreen, the girls weren't getting paid and had to buy their own outfits, and provide their own transportation, and they weren't getting much work.
Bennie Benjamin came through for the girls by introducing them to song writer Lincoln Chase. The group later recorded two of Chase's songs, "One Billion Seven Million Thirty-three", and "You're Such A Much" for the Hamilton label in late 1958, as The Tranquils.
Thompson left the group in early 1959 and was replaced by Stansbury's other sister Rose. The group struggled through 1960 and were working mostly on weekends. They had quit trying to sing for a living, but were now doing for the fun of it.
A lot of the oldies DJ's don't play "Lullaby Of The Bells" as often as they should, but the song is a solid oldies hit in New York.


THE PRIMETTES
The Primettes were formed in the mid 50's in Detroit, by Florence Ballard. The members of the group were Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Betty McGlown, later known as Betty Travis.
The Primettes were one of the most sought out backup groups for the many small recording labels in Detroit. The group had auditioned for Barry Gordy, but were turned away and told to come back after they graduated high school. Song writer Richard Morris introduced the group to Bob West, the owner of Lupine Records. West signed the group to his label mainly to backup and sweeten the vocals on other artist recordings. MOTOWN was the group's first love and they hung around MOTOWN as much as possible. The Primettes recorded a single on Lupine in 1959, the song was not released until 1964 after The Primettes had become The Supremes and were having some success. The single was "Pretty Baby/Tears Of Sorrow", which sounded much like what would be known as the Supreme sound. Mary Wilson lead on "Pretty Baby" and Diana Ross lead on "Tears of Sorrow", at this time all members of the group would lead depending on the song.
The group was well liked in the many studios around Detroit, because they did what they were asked, were easy to coach, and had a great sound in the background. McGlown left the group and was replaced by Barbara Martin. Martin would sing on some of The Supremes fist recordings, but would not be pictured or listed as a Supreme. The Primettes backed up so many groups that it is impossible to track all of their recordings. They recorded for many labels including Lupine, Cub, Correc-Tone, and Pussy Cat labels.
All of the hard work finally paid off in 1961 when the group was signed to MOTOWN. Gordy didn't like the name Primettes and Florence Ballard suggested The Supremes and the name stuck. Before the group changed their name they recorded some unreleased tracks with MOTOWN. These song didn't surface until 30 years later. The group backed up more than afew of MOTOWN's list of recording artist.
By this time their friends The Primes had merged with The Distants and had become The Temptations. Contrary legend The Primes and The Primettes never appeared on stage together, they did however record an early version of "Not Now I'll Tell You Later" together. The song would be recorded again as The Temptations with The Supremes as backup.
The group had a string of eleven singles that went nowhere, but starting with "Where Did Our Love Go", the group had an impressive string of hits as The SUPREMES. The group became the standard for girl groups.
As the Supremes the group would collect every recording award possible, but as The Primettes they are hardly remembered.

THE PONI-TAILS
The Poni-Tails were formed in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. The group included Toni Cistone, Karen Topinka, and Patti McCabe. Tom Ilius, a music publisher signed the group to Point Records a local label. At Point the group recorded their first single, "Your Wild Heart"/"Que la Bozena". "Your Wild Heart " was covered and became a hit by someone else. The group's next release was "Can I Be Sure" on Marc Records, was a flop. Topinka left the group and was replaced by LaVerne Novak.
The group moved to ABC/Paramount and released "Just My Luck To Be Fifteen", another flop. Next the group released "Come On Joey, Dance With Me"/"Born To Late". "Born To Late" got a lot of radio play and became the group's first and only hit. The song went to #11 on the US R&B chart and #7 on Billboard Hot 100. Their next few releases did not chart very high. Their last single, "Who, When And Why" did not chart.
ABC/Paramount offered the group a five year contract, but the group turned them down, and the members of the group left the music industry. They reunited to play a Cleveland festival in 1997.


I know that some of these groups are new to some of you, but without these groups our beloved Doo-Wop would be a lot less colorful. The so-called "Girl Groups" forced
the male groups to be better out of fear of being out done by the girls.

I need some suggestions as to what groups you would like to read about next.