The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 10 (ALT)

Vocal group delight

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

And legends once more is what you will get from me, vocal legends that already featured another radio show that I did. Next to the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, I guest DJ every now and then for WSLR, a tiny little community radio station in Sarasota, FL, every time I'm in the Sunshine State, which is, actually, a few times a year. Part of each trip has become a guest appearance on a show that is titled the Doowop to Soul show and I go into the studio for a two-hour live show.

And now I took some tunes from a show I did there before, all vocal groups, and I will show you that second hand is not second choice. And best is to show that with the music itself, so here is the first one of today. From the Atco label, the Coasters with their famous Zing went the strings of my heart.

01 - Coasters - Zing went the strings of my heart
02 - Solitaires - Walkin' And Talkin'

On the Old Town label from 1958 the Solitaires with Walking and Talking. They came from Harlem and formed in '53 but their greatest success came after lead singer Herman Curtis left the group and was replaced by former Concords singer Milton Love. Their biggest his was of course Walking Along from 1957, that later was covered by the Diamonds.

The next that I'm going to play was from the very early years of the Platters when they were signed at Federal records but they had little success. It wasn't until 1955 and their change to Mercury records that their career took off with "Only You". Listen to their 1954 song Voo Vee Ah Bee.

03 - Platters - Voo Vee Ah Bee
04 - Mellow Larks - Goody Gumdrop

(jingle)

05 - Chavelles - Red Tape
06 - Chateaus - Satisfied

You heard the Chateaus with Satisfied, issued in 1959 on Warner Bros, the flip of Brown Eyes. The group is backed up by the orchestra of Leroy Kirkland. Before that the Chavelles with Red tape and then I have to account for the song before the jingle, that were the pretty obscure Mellow Larks with Goody Gumdrop.

Next Otis Williams and his Charms with One night only. Otis Wiliams joined the vocal group that he later christened the Charms in 1952 as a teenager and they attracted the attention of Syd Nathan of King records, that was in their home town Cincinnati. After a few unsuccesful releases on King's subsidiary Rockin' records, they were transferred to the DeLuxe label and it was there that they had their greatest successes with Hearts of Stone, Ling, Ting, Tong and Two Hearts.

In 1955 record boss Henry Stone persuaded Otis Williams' backing group to leave Williams and go on for their own on his newly-founded Chart label, but after a court battle Williams was granted the right to keep the name of the Charms with a newly-formed backing group. It's with this new group that his sings One Night Only that's from '56.

07 - Otis Williams & His Charms - One Night Only
08 - Ravens - Come A Little Bit Closer

The Ravens with Come A Little Bit Closer with that wonderful bass voice of Jimmy Ricks. The Ravens were from an earlier generation of vocal groups with their roots in the forties, and that bass voice of Ricks would grow out of fashion in the Rock 'n Roll era that brought the groups that nowadays we call doowop bands - and it never got back in fashion since - tenors and falsettos dominated the sixties and seventies. This Come A Little Bit Closer was from 1953, so still in the heydays of the Ravens.

Next up - definitely one of the sexiest voices of the Rock 'n Roll era. Lillian Leach & The Mellows - a group that is best known for their doowop ballads, but here is, on the Jay Dee label from 1955 their mid-tempo Lovable Lilly.

09 - Lillian Leach & The Mellows - Lovable Lilly
10 - Richard Berry & The Pharaohs - Rock Rock Rock (This Dance Is Crazy)

And that was Richard Berry - and he the original composer and singer of the Rock 'n Roll classic Louie Louie - covered by hundreds of artists. It first appeared on Flip records as the flipside of You are my sunshine, and it drew some attention, and that's why it was re-released as A-side - oddly enough with the same catalog number - with a song called Rock Rock Rock (This Dance Is Crazy) on the flip.

Now eventually 40,000 copies of Louie Louie were sold but that was over a longer period and Berry never made the charts with it. He ended up selling the rights to Max Feirtag, the owner of the Flip label, for $750 as his girlfriend demanded she'd get an expensive wedding ring. Well, I flipped the record over and got you Rock Rock Rock (This Dance Is Crazy) from me.

Now the nice thing of that vocal group style is that it managed to survive the Rock 'n Roll craze without major changes in style. That didn't apply to the groups itself. The Larks for instance where already disbanded twice in the fifties, but in the sixties there still existed a vocal, doowoppish group with that name. So I'll make a brief jump to the sixties with a few songs from that decade. I start with 1964, on the flip of Money 106 the Larks with Forget Me.

11 - Larks - Forget Me
12 - Top Notes - Always Late (Why Lead Me On)

And another early sixties one, the Top Notes with Always Late (Why Lead Me On) on the Atlantic label from 1961.

Well - still in the late fifties but here's a star that would become a soul icon in the sixties. Still very young here is Marvin Gaye, as a member of the vocal group the Marquees with Rock My Blues Away.

13 - Marquees - Rock My Blues Away
14 - Wanderers - Shadrach Meshack and Abednego

And what a gem was that - the Wanderers with a spiritual from 1959, they sang the bible story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who were saved from the fires of Babylon for their devotion to God. It was the flip of a typical doowop ballad which was not gospel.

And some more vocal delight - I want to share a true finding with you. It's a complete obscure record from 1958 on the Edison International label, of the Four Flares. And it's a real gem. I wonder why it has never been re-released, why it never got any attention, and how come that the group apparently never got noticed. The A-side is called Jump back honey and it's a tremendous good vocal work. The flip is quite special too - it's a version of the country standard Ghost riders in the sky, with that Yippee-a-Yay chorus, but man, what a good work they did on that. And it'll probably the only version out there with a saxophone break in it. So you'll get a two-sider from me of a group that was as obscure as they were talented. Here are the Four Flares.

15 - Four Flares - Jump Back Honey
16 - Four Flares - Riders In The Sky

(jingle)

17 - Spaniels - I Like It Like That

The spaniels with I Like It Like That and they, like so many of these vocal groups, started in high school, as Pookie Hudson & The Hudsonaires and they were one of the first groups to sigh at the newly formed Vee-Jay label. This was released in 1959 on Vee-Jay 310 as the flip of Trees.

And we're reaching for the last ten minutes of today's show but in the second half of the fifties the average song length had deminished little more that two minutes, so there's still place for a few. And let me start with a recording of the Dynamics from 1958 on the Impala label. Here is Moonlight.

18 - Dynamics - Moonlight
19 - Plaids - He Stole Flo

From 1959 on the Era label that were the Plaids with He stole flo. And to finish I'm going back to that earlier generation of vocal groups with the Orioles. From 1954 on the Jubilee label here is Longing.

20 - Orioles - Longing
21 - Ravens - Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You)

The Ravens with Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You), And with the dark brown voice of Jimmy Ricks today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman comes to an end. Well you got a parade of mostly mid to late fifties vocal groups and I know the doowop sound has remained tremendously popular with the lovers of oldies, so I hope I did a good shot. I'd say, why don't you let me know if you dug what I played. My email address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com and you know, I love to find a mailbox full of compliments. You can also visit me on the web, just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. As for now, byebye and have a great day. No - have a rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!