Vanilla Doo-wop

By Robert Reynolds

VANILLA DOO-WOP shares accounts of white vocal groups originating along the Atlantic Coast, during the fifties and sixties. Many of these artists became music legends, recording endearing hits. Others achieved notoriety as one-hit wonders with but a single tune as their legacy. In Vanilla Doo-Wop, read how a melody written for one promising group
was unceremoniously given to another and became a Top Five hit. See how a popular group declined a song that would be recorded by their
former lead singer and become one of the top R&R songs of all time.
Learn of the vocalist whose hit record came out while he served military
duty. He later joined one of America's most successful rock groups to
sing lead on their biggest hit ever. Stroll down Memory Lane as we recall many of the era's great songs--"Little Star," "Hushabye," "Baby Blue"--sung by some of the finestdoo-wop artists. These intriguing stories are all here, plus many more in VANILLA DOO-WOP.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365806452

Robert Reynolds

Based in Calgary, Robert is an emerging author who spends his days working in the oil and gas industry but has been a big fan of the spy thriller genre ever since his childhood when he read one of his grandfather's original James Bond paperbacks from the late 50's. He is married with a young daughter and when he's not day dreaming about dangerous adventures in exotic locales he enjoys running and other outdoor pursuits.

Book preview

Vanilla Doo-wop

Vanilla

Doo-WoP

White

Vocal

Groups

of the

50s and 60s

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Robert Reynolds

Copyright 2017:  ISBN:  978-1-365-80645-2

Cover Photo: Unidentified vocal group

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Introduction

During the late fifties and early sixties, optimistic young men wiled away their idle time harmonizing on busy street corners, beneath dusty boardwalks and even in tenement hallways and showers, where it was said acoustics were especially good. 

Vanilla Doo-wop examines white vocal groups that took phonograph records to the very top and others that never touched even the lowest reaches of the charts.  It examines how groups formed, how some flourished and how others quickly faded away. 

With New York City as the hub for many of these groups/individuals, you may note that certain record labels, record company executives, songwriters and artists were often entwined.

For example, one musician helped lead three different groups to major hit records. 

Another story relates how a popular group passed on a song their former lead singer would record and turn into a national number two hit. 

You’ll discover how a particular song was written for a specific group, but taken away and given to the label’s most popular act. At the request of the record company, the writers quickly composed a second song. Both numbers became hits, a single record label number apart. 

Still another tale tells of a group having competing records released at the same time by the same label.  To pull this off they used different artist names for each record. 

For the sake of space, only select records are listed in the partial discographies at the end of each chapter.

***

Perhaps the most enjoyable way to read this book would be to put some scratchy old vinyl discs on your turntable and let them play softly in the background.  

Picture a lazy summer night. Couples strolling along the boulevard.

The hiss of rubber rolling over warm pavement as old sedans cruise past—Chevys, Fords, Buicks…  Radios blaring Top 40 hits.

The mellow sounds of a clean-shaven quartet practicing beneath a corner street lamp.

Do doo do doo wah…

Old friends sharing a park bench.

Pop open a cold Nehi, close your eyes, soak in the harmonies, and as the song says, take a Mind Excursion.

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1 The Royal Teens

In 1956, two New Jerseyites formed the Royal Tones, at Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Fort Lee is a borough within the New York City metro area and sits atop the Hudson River palisades.  The George Washington Bridge offers a straight shot into Manhattan.

At age 14 pianist Bob Gaudio and 17-year-old drummer Tom Austin decided to form a band, by putting together the best area musicians they could find.  The budding musicians enlisted Bill Crandall (14) to play saxophone and Bill Dalton (16) guitar.

Young and inexperienced, the boys composed their own music while diligently honing their skills, developing a repertoire and gaining confidence.  Clad in fashionable white tuxedos with nifty plaid lapels, the boys entered a battle of the bands contest at Fort Lee. Other contestants were more established, but engaging young ladies eagerly dug this new young band. Others noticed too.

The Three Friends, a doo-wop group that had a regional hit in Blanche, were duly impressed and invited The Royals to provide background at their next recording session. 

Fortuitously, The Royals met Friends’ manager Leo Rogers who encouraged the boys to also do backing for his other clients. Meanwhile, Rogers promised the boys an opportunity to record.

Initially, two songs were released, Sitting with My Baby and Mad Gas. The latter is an enthusiastic instrumental with rousing sax, similar to Johnny and the Hurricanes’ fare.  The disc was unsuccessful.

Nevertheless, the group would soon strike pay dirt.  There are two versions of how this came about. 

Version one goes: The Royals were in Manhattan’s Bellsound Studio in 1958 when Leo Rogers, co-owner of the obscure Power Records label, decided to use excess studio time to cut an instrumental the boys often performed on stage.  They weren’t keen to the idea, but improvised some lyrics to go along with the instrumental jam.  About that time, they noticed a couple young ladies wearing very short cut off jeans leaving Luhmann’s Sweet Shoppe.

The other version tells of Austin and Gaudio driving along Bergenfield, New Jersey’s Washington Avenue in Austin’s red and white ’57 Ford Fairlane. Needing a new title, the boys spied the girls in their cut offs.  Thus the song Short Shorts was born. 

Prior to the song Short Shorts there was no fashion trend to follow.  Gaudio and Austin pretty much defined the new trend based solely on their song title. 

However, a more established Royals already existed, so Rogers insisted the boys change their name.  It’s unclear if the competitor was the 50’s R&B group, the 5 Royales. The boys reluctantly altered their name and became the Royal Teens. 

The song burst onto the charts and rose near the top on most major airplay markets.  Rogers realized his tiny label couldn’t match the demand and distribution for the record and negotiated to sell the master to ABC Paramount Records for $18,000. 

By February 17 the song was the #4 Best Seller In Stores (per Billboard Magazine), after only three weeks of being released. 

The Royal Teens gained instant popularity, with Dick Clark, Beechnut Gum (Saturday Night Beechnut Show), Alan Freed, numerous magazines and Columbia Records all clamoring for the group.   The Royal Teens’ Big Name Button was chosen as the Beechnut jingle as sponsor of Clark’s Saturday night show.

With Short Shorts riding high, the band was booked to go on one of many rock and roll tours that prevailed during that period.  But this didn’t come easily. 

Crandall’s parents wouldn’t allow their son to drop out of school, so 17-year-old Larry Qualiano replaced him on sax. Austin had recently graduated from Fort Lee High School.  Dalton took a leave of absence from high school. On the other hand, Gaudio’s parents allowed young Bob to temporarily drop out of school. 

The Royal Teens would soon tour with future music legends Jackie Wilson, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Avalon, Sam Cooke and Bo Diddley. 

Competing with the likes of the Everly Brothers’ All I Have To Do is Dream, Domenico Modugno’s Volare, Elvis Presley’s Don’t, and immensely successful novelty tunes like Sheb Wooley’s Purple People Eater, and David Seville’s  Witch Doctor, Short Shorts became the #35 song for 1958. 

Additional singles followed.  Harvey’s Got A Girl Friend, came out in ’58 and reached #78.  Next came Open the Door, another novelty tune that failed to chart.  Both songs were fast and silly, but lacked the immediate contagiousness of Short Shorts.

The band changed labels again, briefly moving first to the Mighty Records label where they released Leotards b/w Royal Blue. The former is very much in the Short Shorts vein, but the rollicking lyrics extoll you to …play it cool in leotards. The flip side is strictly instrumental.  The record flopped and the band signed with Capitol Records. 

With the band often touring, fourteen-year-old Al Kooper (later of Blood, Sweat and Tears and the Blues Project), frequently appeared with them during 1959.

The group struck on Capitol that year with arguably the finest song of their career—Believe Me.  It’s a romantic melody expressing teen angst, with Joe Villa singing lead. Villa had taken over lead when the group moved to Capitol. 

Believe Me is a medium tempo number with a soaring chorus.  The touching lyrics claim All the kids in town will know, They will know you hurt me so, Did you have to tell them all, That I still love you…[1]. It was one of the