Editing Doo-wop (section)

==Development==
[[File:The Moonglows 1956.jpg|thumb|The Moonglows, 1956]]
The vocal harmony group tradition that developed in the United States after World War II was the most popular form of rhythm and blues music among black teenagers, especially those living in the large urban centers of the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]], in Chicago, and in Detroit. Among the first groups to perform in the vocal harmony tradition were [[The Orioles]], [[The Five Keys]], and [[The Spaniels]]. They specialized in romantic ballads that captured the emotional intensity of teenage life in the late 1940s and early 1950s, focusing on themes of love, longing, and heartbreak. The nonsense string of syllables, "doo doo doo doo-wop", from which the name of the genre was later derived, is used repeatedly in the song "Just A Sittin' And A Rockin", recorded by the [[Delta Rhythm Boys]] in December 1945.<ref name="Warner200624">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://archive.org/details/americansingingg00warn|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=24]}}</ref> By the mid-1950s, vocal harmony groups had transformed the smooth delivery of ballads into a performance style incorporating the nonsense phrase<ref name="GribinSchiff2000">{{cite book|author1=Anthony J. Gribin|author2=Matthew M. Schiff|title=The Complete Book of Doo-Wop|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kEUAQAAIAAJ&q=%22doo%20doo-wop%22|date=January 2000|publisher=Krause|isbn=978-0-87341-829-4|page=7}}</ref><ref name="Weinstein2015" /> as vocalized by the bass singers, who provided rhythmic movement for ''a cappella'' songs.<ref name="PalmerCulture2006" /> Soon, other doo-wop groups entered the pop [[Record chart|charts]], particularly in 1955, which saw such cross-over doo-wop hits as "[[Sincerely (song)|Sincerely]]" by [[the Moonglows]],<ref name=pc11/> "[[Earth Angel]]" by [[the Penguins]], the Cadillacs' "Gloria", the Heartbeats' "A Thousand Miles Away", Shep & the Limelites' "[[Daddy's Home (song)|Daddy's Home]]",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/shep-the-limelites-mn0000020809 | title= Shep & the Limelites Biography | website= [[AllMusic]] | access-date=10 August 2020}}</ref> [[the Flamingos]]' "I Only Have Eyes for You", and [[the Jive Five]] "[[My True Story (song)|My True Story]]".<ref>{{cite web|author=The Jive Five |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-jive-five-mn0000769693 |title=The Jive Five {{pipe}} Biography, Albums, Streaming Links |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=10 October 2019}}</ref>

Teenagers who could not afford musical instruments formed groups that sang songs ''a cappella'' at high school dances and other social occasions. They rehearsed on street corners and apartment stoops,<ref name="PalmerCulture2006">{{cite book|author1=Colin A. Palmer|author2=Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture|title=Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Black Experience in the Americas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cS0OAQAAMAAJ&q=%22they%20evolved%20a%20type%20of%20group%20harmony%22|year=2006|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|isbn=978-0-02-865820-9|page=1534}}</ref> as well as under bridges, in high school washrooms, and in hallways and other places with echoes:<ref name="Cosby2016" /> these were the only spaces with suitable acoustics available to them. Thus they developed a form of group harmony based in the harmonies and emotive phrasing of black spirituals and gospel music. Doo-wop music allowed these youths not only a means of entertaining themselves and others, but also a way of expressing their values and worldviews in a repressive white-dominated society, often through the use of innuendo and hidden messages in the lyrics.<ref name="Rabaka2016">{{cite book|author=Reiland Rabaka|title=Civil Rights Music: The Soundtracks of the Civil Rights Movement|url=https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmusic0000raba|url-access=registration|date=3 May 2016|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-1-4985-3179-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmusic0000raba/page/127 127]–128}}</ref>

Particularly productive doo-wop groups were formed by young [[Italian-American]] men who, like their black counterparts, lived in rough neighborhoods (e.g., the Bronx and Brooklyn), learned their basic musical craft singing in church, and would gain experience in the new style by singing on street corners. New York was the capital of Italian doo-wop, and all its boroughs were home to groups that made successful records.<ref name="Cinotto2014">{{cite book|author=Simone Cinotto|title=Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpKUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT198|date=1 April 2014|publisher=Fordham University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5626-6|page=198}}</ref>

By the late 1950s and early 1960s, many Italian-American groups had national hits: [[Dion and the Belmonts]] scored with "[[I Wonder Why]]", "[[Teenager in Love]]", and "[[Where or When]]";<ref name="Helander2001">{{cite book|author=Brock Helander|title=The Rockin' 60s: The People Who Made the Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4mbHDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT200|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Schirmer Trade Books|isbn=978-0-85712-811-9|page=200}}</ref> [[the Capris]] made their name in 1960 with "[[There's a Moon Out Tonight]]"; [[Randy & the Rainbows]], who charted with their Top 10 1963 single [[Denise (song)|"Denise"]]. Other Italian-American doo-wop groups were [[the Earls]], [[The Chimes (US band)|the Chimes]], [[the Elegants]], [[the Mystics]], [[the Duprees]], [[Johnny Maestro]] & [[the Crests]], and [[The Regents (doo-wop band)|the Regents]].

[[File:Herman Santiago.jpg|thumb|Herman Santiago, original lead singer of the Teenagers]]
Some doo-wop groups were racially mixed.<ref name="Pitilli201647">{{cite book|author=Lawrence Pitilli|title=Doo-Wop Acappella: A Story of Street Corners, Echoes, and Three-Part Harmonies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTO5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA47|date=2 August 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-4430-6|pages=47–48}}</ref> Puerto Rican [[Herman Santiago]], originally slated to be the lead singer of [[the Teenagers]], wrote the lyrics and the music for a song to be called "Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?", but whether because he was ill or because producer [[George Goldner]] thought that newcomer [[Frankie Lymon]]'s voice would be better in the lead,<ref name="Sullivan2013">{{cite book|author=Steve Sullivan|title=Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWBPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA616|date=4 October 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8296-6|page=616}}</ref> Santiago's original version was not recorded. To suit his tenor voice Lymon made a few alterations to the melody, and consequently the Teenagers recorded the song known as "[[Why Do Fools Fall in Love (song)|Why Do Fools Fall in Love?]]". Racially integrated groups with both black and white performers included [[the Del-Vikings]], who had major hits in 1957 with "[[Come Go With Me]]" and "[[Whispering Bells (song)|Whispering Bells]]", the Crests, whose "[[16 Candles (song)|16 Candles]]" appeared in 1958, and [[the Impalas]], whose "[[Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home)]]" was a hit in 1959.<ref name="HendersonStacey2014">{{cite book|author=Greg Bower|editor1=Lol Henderson|editor2=Lee Stacey|title=Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8W2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA179%7C|date=27 January 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-92946-6|page=179|chapter=Doo-wop}}</ref> Chico Torres was a member of the Crests, whose lead singer, Johhny Mastrangelo, would later gain fame under the name Johnny Maestro.<ref name="Cinotto2014207">{{cite book|author=Simone Cinotto|title=Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpKUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT207|date=1 April 2014|publisher=Fordham University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5626-6|pages=207–208}}</ref>

Female doo-wop singers were much less common than males in the early days of doo-wop. [[Lillian Leach]], lead singer of the Mellows from 1953 to 1958, helped pave the way for other women in doo-wop, soul and [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]].<ref name="hinckley">{{cite news|last1=Hinckley|first1=David|title=Lillian Leach Boyd, singer for The Mellows, dead at 76|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/lillian-leach-boyd-singer-mellows-dead-76-article-1.1330276|newspaper=New York Daily News|date=29 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503103443/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/lillian-leach-boyd-singer-mellows-dead-76-article-1.1330276|archive-date=3 May 2013}}</ref> Margo Sylvia was the lead singer for [[the Tune Weavers]].<ref name="RubinMelnick2001">{{cite book|author=Reebee Garofalo|editor=Rachel Rubin Jeffrey Paul Melnick|title=American Popular Music: New Approaches to the Twentieth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/americanpopularm00rubi|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|location=Amherst|isbn=1-55849-268-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanpopularm00rubi/page/125 125]|chapter=VI. Off the Charts}}</ref>

===Baltimore===

Like other urban centers in the US during the late 1940s and early 1950s, Baltimore developed its own vocal group tradition. The city produced rhythm and blues innovators such as [[the Cardinals]], [[the Orioles]], and [[the Swallows]].<ref name="Sasfy1984">{{cite news |author1=Joe Sasfy |title=Doo-Wop Harmony |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/11/21/doo-wop-harmony/86cf2110-2ee6-401a-b440-cf91e93b5c6b |access-date=17 November 2020 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=21 November 1984}}</ref> The [[Royal Theatre (Baltimore)|Royal Theatre]] in Baltimore and the [[Howard Theatre|Howard]] in Washington, D.C. were among the most prestigious venues for black performers on the so-called "[[Chitlin Circuit]]",<ref name="NYT1985">{{cite news |author1=Staff |title=Comeback On 'Chitlin Circuit' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/12/us/comeback-on-chitlin-circuit.html |access-date=17 November 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=12 June 1985}}</ref> which served as a school of the [[performing arts]] for blacks who had [[Great Migration (African American)|migrated]] from the [[deep South]], and even more so for their offspring. In the late 1940s, the Orioles rose from the streets and made a profound impression on young chitlin' circuit audiences in Baltimore. The group, formed in 1947, sang simple ballads in rhythm and blues harmony, with the standard arrangement of a high tenor singing over the chords of the blended mid-range voices and a strong bass voice. Their lead singer, [[Sonny Til]], had a soft, high-pitched tenor, and like the rest of the group, was still a teenager at the time. His style reflected the optimism of young black Americans in the postmigration era. The sound they helped develop, later called '"doo-wop", eventually became a "sonic bridge" to reach a white teen audience.<ref name="Runowicz201038">{{cite book|author=John Michael Runowicz|title=Forever Doo-wop: Race, Nostalgia, and Vocal Harmony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqzcQgAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-824-2|pages=38–41}}</ref>

In 1948, [[Jubilee Records]] signed the Orioles to a contract, following which they appeared on Arthur Godfrey's ''Talent Scout'' radio show. The song they performed, "It's Too Soon to Know", often cited as the first doo-wop song,<ref name="BogdanovWoodstra2002">{{cite book|author1=Vladimir Bogdanov|author2=Chris Woodstra|author3=Stephen Thomas Erlewine|title=All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-pH4i3jXvAC&pg=PA1306|year=2002|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-653-3|page=1306}}</ref> went to number 1 on ''Billboard'''s "Race Records" chart, and number 13 on the pop charts, a crossover first for a black group.<ref name="Olesker2013">{{cite book|author=Michael Olesker|title=Front Stoops in the Fifties: Baltimore Legends Come of Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UesEAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT39|date=1 November 2013|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-1-4214-1161-3|pages=39–40}}</ref><ref name="Larkin2011">{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_NNmFiUnSmUC&pg=RA31-PA1998|date=27 May 2011|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-0-85712-595-8|page=31}}</ref> This was followed in 1953 by "Crying in the Chapel", their biggest hit, which went to number 1 on the R&B chart and number 11 on the pop chart.<ref name="Zak201289">{{cite book|author=Albin Zak|title=I Don't Sound Like Nobody: Remaking Music in 1950s America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DEc_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|date=4 October 2012|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-03512-0|pages=89–90}}</ref> The Orioles were perhaps the first of the many doo-wop groups who named themselves after birds.<ref name="Simmons2018" />

The sexual innuendo in the Orioles' songs was less disguised than in the vocal group music of the [[Swing music|swing]] era. Their stage choreography was also more sexually explicit, and their songs were simpler and more emotionally direct. This new approach to sex in their performances did not target the white teen audience at first—when the Orioles took the stage, they were appealing directly to a young black audience,<ref name="Sullivan2013379">{{cite book|author=Steve Sullivan|title=Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWBPAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA379|date=4 October 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8296-6|page=379}}</ref> with Sonny Til using his entire body to convey the emotion in the lyrics of their songs. He became a teen sex symbol for black girls, who reacted by screaming and throwing pieces of clothing onto the stage when he sang. Other young male vocalists of the era took note and adjusted their own acts accordingly.<ref name="Runowicz201038"/> The Orioles were soon displaced by newer groups who imitated these pioneers as a model for success.<ref name="MancusoLampe1996">{{cite book|author1=Chuck Mancuso|author2=David Lampe|title=Popular Music and the Underground: Foundations of Jazz, Blues, Country, and Rock, 1900-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ws0iAQAAIAAJ&q=%22key%20component%22|year=1996|publisher=Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8403-9088-2|page=440}}</ref><ref name="Pitilli201624">{{cite book|author=Lawrence Pitilli|title=Doo-Wop Acappella: A Story of Street Corners, Echoes, and Three-Part Harmonies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTO5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|date=2 August 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-4430-6|pages=24–25}}</ref>

The Swallows began in the late 1940s as a group of Baltimore teenagers calling themselves the Oakaleers. One of the members lived across the street from Sonny Til, who went on to lead the Orioles, and their success inspired the Oakaleers to rename themselves the Swallows.<ref name="Simmons2018">{{cite book|author=Rick Simmons|title=Carolina Beach Music Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE1nDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT267|date=8 August 2018|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-6767-6|pages=259–260}}</ref> Their song "Will You Be Mine", released in 1951, reached number 9 on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart.<ref name="Warner2006303">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA303|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=303}}</ref> In 1952, the Swallows released "Beside You", their second national hit, which peaked at number 10 on the R&B chart.<ref name="Warner2006303"/>

Some Baltimore doo-wop groups were connected with street gangs, and a few members were active in both scenes, such as Johnny Page of [[the Marylanders]].<ref name="Goosman2010">{{cite book|author=Stuart L. Goosman|title=Group Harmony: The Black Urban Roots of Rhythm and Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ccDAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA47|date=9 March 2010|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-2108-4|page=47}}</ref> As in all the major urban centers of the US, many of the teen gangs had their own street corner vocal groups in which they took great pride and which they supported fiercely. Competitive music and dance was a part of African American street culture, and with the success of some local groups, competition increased, leading to territorial rivalries among performers. Pennsylvania Avenue served as a boundary between East and West Baltimore, with the East producing the Swallows and [[the Cardinals]] and [[the Blentones]], while the West was home to the Orioles and [[the Four Buddies]].<ref name="Ward1998">{{cite book|title=Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race|first=Brian|last=Ward|year=1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0-520-21298-3|url=https://archive.org/details/justmysoulrespo000ward/page/62/mode/2up|pages=62–63}}</ref>

Baltimore vocal groups gathered at neighborhood record stores, where they practiced the latest hits in hopes that the store owners' connections with record companies and distributors might land them an audition. A [[King Records (United States)|King Records]] talent scout discovered the Swallows as they were rehearsing in Goldstick's record store. Sam Azrael's Super Music Store and Shaw's shoeshine parlor were also favored hangouts for Baltimore vocal groups; [[Jerry Wexler]] and [[Ahmet Ertegun]] auditioned the Cardinals at Azrael's. Some groups cut [[Demo (music)|demos]] at local studios and played them for recording [[Executive producer#Music|producers]], with the aim of getting signed to a record deal.<ref name="Ward1998" />

===Chicago===

The city of Chicago was outranked as a recording center in the United States only by New York City in the early years of the music [[music industry|recording industry]]. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, independent record labels gained control of the black record market from the major companies, and Chicago rose as one of the main centers for rhythm and blues music. This music was a vital source for the youth music called rock 'n' roll. In the mid-1950s, a number of rhythm and blues acts performing in the vocal ensemble style later known as ''doo-wop'' began to cross over from the R&B charts to mainstream rock 'n' roll.<ref name="Cateforis2019">{{cite book|author=Johnny Keys|editor=Theo Cateforis|title=The Rock History Reader|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nPmADwAAQBAJ&pg=PT20|date=15 January 2019|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-315-39480-0|page=20|chapter=Du-Wop}}</ref> The Chicago record companies took note of this trend and scouted for vocal groups from the city that they could sign to their labels.<ref name="Pruter19961">{{cite book|author=Robert Pruter|title=Doowop: The Chicago Scene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j06dhDdsgioC&pg=PA1|year=1996|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-06506-4|page=1}}</ref> The [[record label]]s, record distributors, and nightclub owners of Chicago all had a part in developing the vocal potential of the doo-wop groups, but Chicago doo-wop was "created and nourished" on the street corners of the city's lower-class neighborhoods.<ref>Pruter 1996, pp. 2, 10</ref>

The Chicago doo-wop groups, like those in New York, started singing on street corners and practiced their harmonies in tiled bathrooms, hallways, and subways;<ref>Pruter 1996, pp. 2, 17</ref> however, because they came originally from the deep South, the home of gospel and blues music, their doo-wop sound was more influenced by gospel and blues.<ref name="GribinSchiff2000136a">{{cite book|author1=Anthony J. Gribin|author2=Matthew M. Schiff|title=The Complete Book of Doo-Wop|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kEUAQAAIAAJ&q=%22gospel%20and%20blues%22|year=2000|publisher=Krause|isbn=978-0-87341-829-4|page=136}}</ref>

[[Vee-Jay Records]] and [[Chess Records]] were the main labels recording doo-wop groups in Chicago. Vee-Jay signed [[the Dells]], [[the El Dorados]], [[Johnny Keyes and the Magnificents|the Magnificents]], and the Spaniels, all of whom achieved national chart hits in the mid-1950s. Chess signed the Moonglows, who had the most commercial success (seven Top 40 R&B hits, six of those Top Ten<ref>[[Joel Whitburn|Whitburn, Joel]], ''The Billboard Book of TOP 40 R&B and Hip Hop Hits'', Billboard Books, New York 2006, p. 407</ref>) of the 1950s doo-wop groups,<ref name="Collis1998">{{cite book|author=John Collis|title=The Story of Chess Records|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZASIpS00zv8C&pg=PA106|date=15 October 1998|publisher=Bloomsbury USA|isbn=978-1-58234-005-0|page=106}}</ref> and the Flamingos, who had national hits as well.<ref name="Halker2004">{{cite web |author1=Clark "Bucky" Halker |title=Rock Music |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1084.html |website=www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |access-date=9 October 2020 |date=2004}}</ref>

===Detroit===
In 1945,<ref name="Stone2017">{{cite book|author=Marsha Music|editor1=Joel Stone|title=Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLK1DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT63|date=5 June 2017|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-4304-3|page=63|chapter=Joe's Record Shop}}</ref> Joe Von Battle opened Joe's Record Shop at 3530 Hastings Street in Detroit; the store had the largest selection of rhythm and blues records in the city, according to a 1954 ''Billboard'' business survey. Battle, a migrant from Macon, Georgia, established his shop as the first black-owned business in the area, which remained primarily Jewish up to the late 1940s.<ref name="Fletcher2017">{{cite book|author=Tony Fletcher|title=In the Midnight Hour: The Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=92d4DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-025294-6|page=27}}</ref> Young aspiring performers would gather there in hopes of being discovered by the leading independent record company owners who courted Battle to promote and sell records, as well as to find new talent at his shop and studio. Battle's record labels included JVB, Von, Battle, Gone, and Viceroy;<ref name="BjornGallert2001">{{cite book|author1=Lars Bjorn|author2=Jim Gallert|title=Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K11GJ-xaEcoC&pg=PA173 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-06765-6|page=173}}</ref><ref name="Komara2006">{{cite book|author=Edward M. Komara|title=Encyclopedia of the Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-w-uGwm_LhcC&pg=PA555|year=2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-92699-7|page=555}}</ref> he also had subsidiary arrangements with labels such as King and Deluxe. He supplied Syd Nathan with many blues and doo-wop masters recorded in his primitive back-of-the-store studio from 1948 to 1954. As the pivotal recording mogul in the Detroit area, Battle was an important player in the independent label network.<ref name="Broven2011">{{cite book|author=John Broven|title=Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3zdJ66VAOQC&pg=PA321|date=11 August 2011|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-09401-9|pages=135, 321}}</ref>

Jack and Devora Brown, a Jewish couple, founded [[Fortune Records]] in 1946 and recorded a variety of eccentric artists and sounds; in the mid-1950s they became champions of Detroit rhythm and blues, including the music of local doo-wop groups. Fortune's premier act was the [[Nolan Strong & the Diablos|Diablos]], featuring the soaring tenor of lead vocalist Nolan Strong, a native of Alabama. The group's most notable hit was "[[The Wind (Nolan Strong & The Diablos song)|The Wind]]".<ref name="Ward1998464">{{cite book|author=Brian Ward|title=Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibrrPmSpLTAC&pg=PA464|date=6 July 1998|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21298-5|page=464}}</ref> Strong, like other R&B and doo-wop tenors of the time, was profoundly influenced by [[Clyde McPhatter]], lead singer of the Dominoes and later of the Drifters. Strong himself made a lasting impression on the young [[Smokey Robinson]], who went out of his way to attend Diablo shows.<ref name="Liebler2016">{{cite book|author1=M. L. Liebler|author2=S.R. Boland|title=Heaven was Detroit: From Jazz to Hip-hop and Beyond|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIUyjwEACAAJ|year=2016|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-4122-3|pages=100–104|chapter=3: The Pre-Motown Sounds}}</ref>

In late 1957, 17-year-old Robinson, fronting a Detroit vocal harmony group called the Matadors, met the producer [[Berry Gordy]], who was beginning to take up new styles, including doo-wop.<ref name="Flory2017">{{cite book|author=Andrew Flory|title=I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LEc_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 |date=30 May 2017|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-03686-8|page=26}}</ref> Gordy wanted to promote a black style of music that would appeal to both the black and white markets, performed by black musicians with roots in gospel, R&B, or doo-wop. He sought artists who understood that the music had to be updated to appeal to a broader audience and attain greater commercial success.<ref name="StuessyLipscomb2006">{{cite book|author1=Joe Stuessy|author2=Scott David Lipscomb|title=Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YUUYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22roots%20were%20in%20gospel%22|year=2006|publisher=Pearson Prentice Hall|isbn=978-0-13-193098-8|page=209}}</ref> Early recordings by Gordy's [[Tamla Records]], founded several months before he established the [[Motown Record Corporation]] in January 1959,<ref name="Cotten1989">{{cite book|author=Lee Cotten|title=The Golden Age of American Rock 'n Roll|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IyLaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22first%20single%20on%20Motown%20Records%22|year=1989|publisher=Pierian Press|isbn=978-0-9646588-4-4|page=169}}</ref> were of either blues or doo-wop performances.<ref name="MacKenzie2009">{{cite book|author=Alex MacKenzie|title=The Life and Times of the Motown Stars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yik3AQAAIAAJ&q=%22started%20Tamla%20Records%22|year=2009|publisher=Together Publications LLP|isbn=978-1-84226-014-2|page=146}}</ref>

"[[Bad Girl (The Miracles song)|Bad Girl]]", a 1959 doo-wop single by Robinson's group, [[the Miracles]], was the first single released (and the only one released by this group) on the Motown label—all previous singles from the company (and all those following from the group) were released on the Tamla label. Issued locally on the Motown Records label, it was licensed to and released nationally by Chess Records because the fledgling Motown Record Corporation did not, at that time, have national distribution.<ref name="Larkin1997309">{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HLo7AQAAIAAJ&q=%22doo-wop%20novelty%22|year=1997|publisher=Virgin|isbn=978-0-7535-0149-8|page=309}}</ref> "Bad Girl" was the group's first national chart hit,<ref name="Dahl2011">{{cite book|author=Bill Dahl|title=Motown: The Golden Years: More than 100 rare photographs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qsCrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT243|date=28 February 2011|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4402-2557-4|pages=243}}</ref> reaching number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100.<ref name="Simmons2018234">{{cite book|author=Rick Simmons|title=Carolina Beach Music Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE1nDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT234 |date=8 August 2018|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-6767-6|page=234}}</ref> Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' president Berry Gordy, "Bad Girl" was the first of several of the Miracles' songs performed in the doo-wop style during the late 1950s.

===Los Angeles===

Doo-wop groups also formed on the west coast of the United States, especially in California, where the scene was centered in Los Angeles. Independent record labels owned by black entrepreneurs such as [[Dootsie Williams]] and [[John Dolphin (music producer)|John Dolphin]] recorded these groups, most of which had formed in high schools. One such group, the Penguins, included Cleveland "Cleve" Duncan and Dexter Tisby, former classmates at [[John C. Fremont High School|Fremont High School]] in the [[Watts, Los Angeles|Watts neighborhood]] of Los Angeles. They, along with Bruce Tate and Curtis Williams, recorded the song "Earth Angel" (produced by Dootsie Williams), which rose to number one on the R&B charts in 1954.<ref name="Macías2008">{{cite book|author=Anthony Macías|title=Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Sf8V7FUjZAC&pg=PA182|date=11 November 2008|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-8938-5|pages=182–183}}</ref>

Most of the Los Angeles doo-wop groups came out of the Fremont, [[Belmont High School (Los Angeles)|Belmont]], and [[Jefferson High School (Los Angeles)|Jefferson]] high schools. All of them were influenced by [[the Robins]], a successful R&B group of the late 1940s and the 1950s who formed in San Francisco, or by other groups including [[the Flairs]], the Flamingos (not the Chicago group) and [[the Hollywood Flames]]. Many other Los Angeles doo-wop groups of the time were recorded by Dootsie Williams' Dootone Records and by John Dolphin's Central Avenue record store, Dolphin's of Hollywood. These included the Calvanes,<ref name="Rosalsky2002">{{cite book|author=Mitch Rosalsky|title=Encyclopedia of Rhythm & Blues and Doo-Wop Vocal Groups|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4ghJfL5iBIC&pg=PA45|year=2002|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-4592-3|page=45}}</ref> the Crescendos, the Cuff Linx, the Cubans, the Dootones, the Jaguars, the Jewels, [[the Meadowlarks]], the Silks, the Squires, the Titans, and the Up-Fronts. A few groups, such as [[the Platters]] and Rex Middleton's Hi-Fis, had [[Crossover music|crossover]] success.<ref name="Hoskyns2009">{{cite book|author=Barney Hoskyns|title=Waiting for the Sun: A Rock 'n' Roll History of Los Angeles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7oB2UKVxgQC&pg=PA33|year=2009|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-943-5|page=33}}</ref>

The Jaguars, from Fremont High School, was one of the first interracial vocal groups; it consisted of two African Americans, a Mexican American, and a Polish-Italian American. Doo-wop was popular with California Mexican Americans, who were attracted in the 1950s to its ''a capella'' vocals; the romantic style of the doo-wop groups appealed to them, as it was reminiscent of the traditional ballads and harmonies of Mexican folk music.<ref name="Macías2008" /><ref name="Guevara201883">{{cite book|author=Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara|title=Confessions of a Radical Chicano Doo-Wop Singer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqhSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83|date=13 April 2018|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-96966-7|page=83}}</ref>

In 1960, [[Art Laboe]] released one of the first [[oldies]] compilations, ''Memories of El Monte'', on his record label, [[Original Sound]]. The record was a collection of classic doo-wop songs by bands that used to play at the dances Laboe organized at [[El Monte Legion Stadium|Legion Stadium]] in [[El Monte, California]],<ref name="Miles1970">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BW1Jom4nswwC&pg=PA71 |title=Zappa |author=Barry Miles |page=71 |year=1970 |publisher=Grove Press |isbn=9780802142153}}</ref> beginning in 1955. It included songs by local bands such as the Heartbeats and [[the Medallions]]. Laboe had become a celebrity in the Los Angeles area as a [[disc jockey]] for radio station [[KTNQ|KPOP]], playing doo-wop and rhythm and blues broadcast from the parking lot of Scriverner's Drive-In on [[Sunset Boulevard]].<ref name="GuzmánFragoza2020">{{cite book |author1=Webre |first=Jude P. |title=East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte |date=14 February 2020 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-1-978805-48-4 |editor1=Guzmán |editor-first=Romeo |pages=227–231 |chapter=Memories of El Monte: Art Laboe's Charmed Life on the Air |editor2=Fragoza |editor-first2={{proper name|Carri|bean}} |editor-link2={{proper name|Carri|bean}} Fragoza |editor3=Cummings |editor-first3=Alex Sayf |editor4=Reft |editor-first4=Ryan |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nnNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA227}}</ref>

In 1962, [[Frank Zappa]], with his friend Ray Collins, wrote the doo-wop song "[[Memories of El Monte]]". This was one of the first songs written by Zappa, who had been listening to Laboe's compilation of doo-wop [[Single (music)|singles]]. Zappa took the song to Laboe, who recruited the lead vocalist of the Penguins, Cleve Duncan, for a new iteration of the group, recorded it, and released it as a single on his record label.<ref name="GuzmánFragoza2020" />

===New York City===
Early doo-wop music, dating from the late 1940s and early 1950s, was especially popular in the Northeast industrial corridor from New York to Philadelphia,<ref name="Albrecht2019">{{cite journal |last1=Albrecht |first1=Robert |title=Doo-wop Italiano: Towards an understanding and appreciation of Italian-American vocal groups of the late 1950s and early 1960s |journal=Popular Music and Society |date=15 March 2019 |volume=42 |issue=2 |page=3 |doi=10.1080/03007766.2017.1414663 |s2cid=191844795 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321896991 |access-date=7 November 2020}}</ref> and New York City was the world capital of doo-wop.<ref name="GribinSchiff2000136b">{{cite book|author1=Anthony J. Gribin|author2=Matthew M. Schiff|title=The Complete Book of Doo-wop|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kEUAQAAIAAJ&q=%22world%20center%E2%80%9D |year=2000 |publisher=Krause|isbn=978-0-87341-829-4|page=136}}</ref> There, African American groups such as the Ravens, the Drifters, the Dominoes, [[The Charts (American group)|the Charts]], and the so-called "bird groups", such as the Crows, the Sparrows, the Larks, and [[The Wrens (R&B band)|the Wrens]], melded rhythm and blues with the gospel music they had grown up singing in church. Street singing was almost always ''a cappella''; instrumental accompaniment was added when the songs were recorded.<ref name="Albrecht2019" /> The large numbers of blacks who had migrated to New York City as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] came mostly from Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas. In the 1940s black youths in the city began to sing the rhythm and blues styling that came to be known as doo-wop.<ref name="WeissmanWeissman2005">{{cite book|author1=Dick Weissman|author2=Richard Weissman|title=Blues: The Basics|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yYtR20TlGOoC&pg=PA95|year=2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-97068-6|pages=95–96|chapter=New York and the Doo-wop Groups}}</ref> Many of these groups were found in [[Harlem]].<ref name="Shaw1978">{{cite book|author=Arnold Shaw|title=Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZyY6AQAAIAAJ&q=%22thousands%22%20%22Harlem%22 |year=1978 |publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-02-610000-7|page=xix}}</ref>

Blacks were forced by legal and social segregation, as well as by the constraints of the [[built environment]], to live in certain parts of New York City of the early 1950s. They identified with their own wards, street blocks and streets. Being effectively locked out of mainstream white society increased their [[Group cohesiveness|social cohesion]] and encouraged creativity within the context of African American culture. Young singers formed groups and rehearsed their songs in public spaces: on street corners, apartment stoops, and subway platforms, in bowling alleys, school bathrooms, and pool halls, as well as at playgrounds and under bridges.<ref name="Runowicz201038" />

[[Bobby Robinson (record producer)|Bobby Robinson]], a native of South Carolina, was an independent record producer and songwriter in Harlem who helped popularize doo-wop music in the 1950s. He got into the music business in 1946 when he opened "Bobby's Record Shop" (later "Bobby's Happy House") on the corner of [[125th Street (Manhattan)|125th Street]]<ref name="Eligon2007">{{cite news |author1=John Eligon |title=An Old Record Shop May Fall Victim to Harlem's Success (Published 2007) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/nyregion/21bobbys.html |access-date=7 November 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=21 August 2007}}</ref><ref name="Morris2011">{{cite news |author1=Christopher Morris |title=Music entrepreneur Bobby Robinson dies at 93|url=https://variety.com/2011/music/news/music-entrepreneur-bobby-robinson-dies-at-93-1118030020/|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110115003747/http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118030020?refCatId=16 |archive-date=15 January 2011}}</ref> and [[Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)|Eighth Avenue]], near the [[Apollo Theater]], a noted venue for African-American performers. The Apollo held talent contests in which audience members indicated their favorites with applause. These were a major outlet for doo-wop performers to be discovered by record company talent scouts.<ref name="Zak2012">{{cite book|author=Albin Zak|title=I Don't Sound Like Nobody: Remaking Music in 1950s America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DEc_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|date=4 October 2012|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-03512-0|page=89}}</ref> In 1951, Robinson started Robin Records, which later became [[Red Robin Records]], and began recording doo-wop; he recorded the Ravens, the Mello-Moods, and many other doo-wop vocal groups.<ref name="MooreCross2002">{{cite book|author=Dave Headlam|editor1=Allan Moore|editor2=Jonathan Cross|title=The Cambridge Companion to Blues and Gospel Music|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-P5JyRVS6UC&pg=PA171|year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-00107-6|page=172|chapter=Appropriations of blues and gospel in popular music}}</ref> He used the tiny shop to launch a series of record labels which released many hits in the US.<ref name="Hinckley2011">{{cite news |author1=David Hinckley |title=Harlem legend dead Bobby Robinson, owner of Happy House on 125th St. |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/news/harlem-legend-dead-bobby-robinson-owner-happy-house-125th-st-article-1.150627 |access-date=6 November 2020 |work=New York Daily News |date=8 January 2011}}</ref> Robinson founded or co-founded Red Robin Records, Whirlin' Disc Records, Fury Records, Everlast Records, Fire Records and Enjoy Records.<ref name="Govenar2010">{{cite book|author1=Alan B. Govenar|title=Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cia6lyn3c4YC&pg=PT126|year=2010|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-55652-962-7|pages=126}}</ref>

[[Arthur Godfrey]]'s long-running (1946–1958) morning radio show on CBS, [[Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts|Talent Scouts]], was a New York venue from which some doo-wop groups gained national exposure. In 1948, the Orioles, then known as the Vibra-Nairs, went to the city with [[Deborah Chessler]], their manager and main songwriter, and appeared on the show. They won only third place, but Godfrey invited them back twice. Chessler leveraged a few demo recordings the group had cut, along with the recent radio exposure, to interest a distributor in marketing the group on an independent label. They cut six sides, one of which was a doo-wop ballad written by Chessler called "[[It's Too Soon to Know]]". It reached no. 1 on ''Billboard's'' national Most-Played Juke Box Race Records chart, and, in a first for a doo-wop song, the record crossed over to the mainstream pop chart, where it reached no. 13.<ref name="Zak201289" />

[[The Du Droppers]] formed in Harlem in 1952. Members of the band were experienced [[gospel music|gospel]] singers in ensembles dating to the 1940s, and were one of the oldest groups to record during the era. Among the Du Droppers' most enduring songs are "I Wanna Know" and "I Found Out (What You Do When You Go Round There)", which both reached number three on the [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|''Billboard'' R&B charts]] in 1953.

Frankie Lymon, lead vocalist of [[the Teenagers]], was the first black [[teen idol]] who appealed to both black and white audiences. He was born in Harlem, where he began singing doo-wop songs with his friends on the streets. He joined a group, the Premiers, and helped members [[Herman Santiago]] and [[Jimmy Merchant]] rewrite a song they had composed to create "[[Why Do Fools Fall in Love (song)|Why Do Fools Fall In Love]]", which won the group an audition with [[Gee Records]]. Santiago was too sick to sing lead on the day of the audition, consequently Lymon sang the lead on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" instead, and the group was signed as the Teenagers with Lymon as lead singer. The song quickly charted as the number one R&B song in the United States and reached number six on the [[Billboard Hot 100|pop chart]] in 1956,<ref name="Phelps1999">{{cite book|editor=Shirelle Phelps|title=Contemporary Black Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzR2AAAAMAAJ|date=August 1999|publisher=Gale Research Incorporated|isbn=978-0-7876-2419-4|pages=137–139}}</ref><ref name="Smith2012">{{cite book|author1=Jessie Carney Smith|title=Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=93SDBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46|date=1 December 2012|publisher=Visible Ink Press|isbn=978-1-57859-424-5|page=46}}</ref> becoming the number one pop hit in the United Kingdom as well.<ref name="Besel2020">{{cite web |author1=Peter Besel |title=Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers (1954–1957) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/frankie-lymon-and-teenagers-1954-1957/ |access-date=7 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107171044/https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/frankie-lymon-and-teenagers-1954-1957/ |archive-date=7 November 2020 |date=2 December 2018}}</ref>

[[The Willows (group)|The Willows]], an influential street corner group from Harlem, were a model for many of the New York City doo-wop acts that rose after them. Their biggest hit was "[[Church Bells May Ring]]", featuring [[Neil Sedaka]], then a member of [[The Tokens#Career|the Linc-Tones]], on [[Tubular bells|chimes]]. It reached number 11 on the [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|US R&B chart]] in 1956.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Willows, "Church Bells May Ring" Chart Positions|url=http://musicvf.com/song.php?title=Church+Bells+May+Ring+by+Willows&id=48906|access-date=August 23, 2018}}</ref><ref name="MorrowMaloof2007">{{cite book|author1=Cousin Bruce Morrow|author2=Rich Maloof|title=Doo Wop: The Music, the Times, the Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CDKHWB1amlgC&pg=PA132|year=2007|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4027-4276-7|page=132}}</ref>

Although they never had a national chart hit, [[the Solitaires]], best known for their 1957 [[hit single]] "[[Walking Along]]", were one of the most popular vocal groups in [[New York City|New York]] in the late 1950s.<ref name="Goldberg2009">{{cite web|author1=Marv Goldberg|author-link=Marv Goldberg|title=The Solitaires|url=http://www.uncamarvy.com/Solitaires/solitaires.html|website=Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks|access-date=31 March 2015|quote=While never achieving the national stature of many of their contemporaries, the Solitaires managed to outlast most of them in a career that saw them as one of the top vocal groups on the New York scene.}}</ref>

The heyday of the girl group era began in 1957 with the success of two teen groups from the Bronx, [[the Chantels]] and [[the Bobbettes]]. The six girls in the Bobettes, aged eleven to fifteen, wrote and recorded "Mr. Lee", a novelty tune about a schoolteacher that was a national hit. The Chantels were the second African-American [[girl group]] to enjoy nationwide success in the US. The group was established in the early 1950s by five students, all of them born in the Bronx,<ref name="Hoffmann2005">{{cite book|author=Frank W. Hoffmann|title=Rhythm and Blues, Rap, and Hip-hop|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wNfx07-AJwcC&pg=PA38|year=2005|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-6980-4|page=38}}</ref> who attended the Catholic [[St. Anthony of Padua Church (Bronx)|St. Anthony of Padua School]] in [[the Bronx]], where they were trained to sing [[Gregorian Chant]]s.<ref name="Weller2008">{{cite book|author=Sheila Weller|title=Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Uz9qcETMwAC&pg=PT56|date=8 April 2008|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-4165-6477-5|page=56}}</ref> Their first recording was "He's Gone" (1958), which made them the first [[pop rock]] girl group to chart. Their second single, "Maybe" hit the charts, No. 15 on ''Billboard''{{'}}s Hot 100.<ref name="Cole2009">{{cite book|author=Clay Cole|title=Sh-Boom!: The Explosion of Rock 'n' Roll (1953–1968)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T8JQmqUBag0C&pg=PA208|date=October 2009|publisher=Wordclay|isbn=978-1-60037-638-2|page=208}}</ref>

In 1960, [[the Chiffons]] began as a trio of schoolmates at [[James Monroe High School (New York)|James Monroe High School]] in [[the Bronx]].<ref name="Warner2006265">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA265|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=265}}</ref> [[Judy Craig]], fourteen years old, was the lead singer, singing with Patricia Bennett and Barbara Lee, both thirteen. In 1962, the girls met songwriter [[Ronnie Mack]] at the after-school center; Mack suggested they add Sylvia Peterson, who had sung with [[Little Jimmy & the Tops]], to the group. The group was named the Chiffons when recording and releasing their first single, "[[He's So Fine]]". Written by Mack, it was released on the [[Laurie Records]] label in 1963. "He's So Fine" hit No. 1 in the US, selling over one&nbsp;million copies.<ref name="Murrels">{{cite book |author1=Joseph Murrells |year=1978 |title=The Book of Golden Discs |edition=2nd |publisher=Barrie and Jenkins Ltd |location=London |page=157 |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr/page/157 |isbn=0-214-20512-6 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Public School 99, which sponsored evening talent shows, and Morris High School were centers of musical creativity in the Bronx during the doo-wop era. Arthur Crier, a leading figure in the doo-wop scene in the [[Morrisania, Bronx|Morrissania]] neighborhood,<ref name="Naison2004">{{cite journal |author1=Mark Naison |title=From Doo Wop to Hip Hop: The Bittersweet Odyssey of African-Americans in the South Bronx {{!}} Socialism and Democracy |journal=Socialism and Democracy |date=2004 |volume=18 |issue=2 |url=http://sdonline.org/36/from-doo-wop-to-hip-hop-the-bittersweet-odyssey-of-african-americans-in-the-south-bronx/ |access-date=7 November 2020 |archive-date=13 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200213164340/http://sdonline.org/36/from-doo-wop-to-hip-hop-the-bittersweet-odyssey-of-african-americans-in-the-south-bronx/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> was born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx; his mother was from North Carolina. Crier was a founding member of a doo-wop group called the Five Chimes, one of several different groups with that name,<ref name="Groia1983">{{cite book|author=Philip Groia|title=They All Sang on the Corner: A Second Look at New York City's Rhythm and Blues Vocal Groups|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2zYYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Arthur%20Crier%22|year=1983|publisher=P. Dee Enterprises|isbn=978-0-9612058-0-5|page=130}}</ref> and sang bass with [[the Halos]] and [[the Mellows]].<ref name="McLaughlin2019">{{cite book|author=Carolyn McLaughlin|title=South Bronx Battles: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Renewal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knGODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA110|date=21 May 2019|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-96380-1|page=110}}</ref> Many years later he observed that there was a shift in the music sung on the streets from gospel to secular rhythm and blues between 1950 and 1952.<ref name="Crier2015">{{cite journal |author1=Arthur Crier |title=Interview with the Bronx African American History Project. |url=https://research.library.fordham.edu/baahp_oralhist/144/ |journal=Oral Histories |publisher=Fordham University |access-date=7 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620055431/https://research.library.fordham.edu/baahp_oralhist/144/ |archive-date=20 June 2020 |page=10 |date=25 September 2015}}</ref>

New York was also the capital of Italian doo-wop, and all its boroughs were home to groups that made successful records. The Crests were from the Lower East Side in Manhattan; Dion and the Belmonts, the Regents, and [[Nino and the Ebb Tides]] were from the Bronx; the Elegants from Staten Island; [[the Capris]] from Queens; the Mystics, the Neons, the Classics, and [[Vito & the Salutations]] from Brooklyn.<ref name="Cinotto2014198">{{cite book|author=Simone Cinotto|title=Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpKUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT198|chapter=Italian Doo-Wop: Sense of place, Politics of Style, and Racial Crossovers in Postwar New York City|date=1 April 2014|publisher=Fordham University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5626-6|page=198}}</ref>

Although Italians were a much smaller proportion of the Bronx's population in the 1950s than Jews and the Irish, only they had significant influence as rock 'n' roll singers. Young people of other ethnicities were listening to rock 'n' roll, but it was Italian Americans who established themselves in performing and recording the music.<ref name="Naison2019">{{cite journal |author1=Mark Naison |title=Italian Americans in Bronx Doo Wop-The Glory and the Paradox |url=https://fordham.bepress.com/baahp_essays/1 |journal=Occasional Essays |publisher=Fordham University |access-date=6 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106032821/https://research.library.fordham.edu/baahp_essays/ |archive-date=6 November 2020|pages=2–4 |date=29 January 2019}}</ref> While relationships between Italian Americans and African Americans in the Bronx were sometimes fraught, there were many instances of collaboration between them.<ref name="Gennari20178">{{cite book|author=John Gennari|title=Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZUtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA8|date=18 March 2017|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-42832-1|pages=8–9|chapter=Who Put the Wop in Doo-wop?}}</ref>

Italian Americans kept African Americans out of their neighborhoods with racial boundary policing and fought against them in turf wars and [[Gang#Gang violence|gang battles]], yet they adopted the popular music of African Americans, treated it as their own, and were an appreciative audience for black doo-wop groups.<ref name="Tricarico2018">{{cite book|author=Donald Tricarico|title=Guido Culture and Italian American Youth: From Bensonhurst to Jersey Shore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzKBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|date=24 December 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-030-03293-7|page=38}}</ref> Similarities in language idioms, masculine norms, and public comportment<ref name="Gennari2017">{{cite book|author=John Gennari|title=Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0D0bDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA91|date=18 March 2017|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-42832-1|pages=22–23, 48, 71, 90–95}}</ref> made it possible for African American and Italian American young men to mingle easily when societal expectations did not interfere. These cultural commonalities allowed Italian Americans to appreciate the singing of black doo-woppers in [[Deterritorialization|deterritorialized]] spaces, whether on the radio, on records, at live concerts, or in street performances.<ref name="Cinotto2014204">{{cite book|author=Simone Cinotto|title=Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpKUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT204|chapter=Italian Doo-Wop: Sense of place, Politics of Style, and Racial Crossovers in Postwar New York City|date=1 April 2014|publisher=Fordham University Press|isbn=978-0-8232-5626-6|page=204}}</ref> Dozens of neighborhood Italian groups formed, some of which recorded songs at Cousins Records, a record shop turned label, on Fordham Road.<ref name="Warner2006434">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA434|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=434}}</ref> Italian American groups from the Bronx released a steady stream of doo-wop songs, including "Teenager In Love" and "I Wonder Why" by Dion and the Belmonts, and "Barbara Ann" by the Regents.<ref name="Naison2019" /> Johnny Maestro, the Italian American lead singer of the interracial Bronx group the Crests, was the lead on the hit "[[16 Candles (song)|Sixteen Candles]]". Maestro said that he became interested in R&B vocal group harmony listening to the Flamingos, [[the Harptones]], and the Moonglows on [[Alan Freed]]'s radio show on [[WINS (AM)|WINS]] in New York. Freed's various radio and stage shows had a crucial role in creating a market for Italian doo-wop.<ref name="Cinotto2014204" />

===Philadelphia===

Young black singers in Philadelphia helped create the doo-wop vocal harmony style developing in the major cities of the US during the 1950s. Early doo-wop groups in the city included [[the Castelles]], [[the Silhouettes]], the Turbans, and [[Lee Andrews & the Hearts]]. They were recorded by small independent rhythm and blues record labels, and occasionally by more established labels in New York. Most of these groups had limited success, scoring only one or two hit songs on the R&B charts. They had frequent personnel changes and often moved from label to label hoping to achieve another hit.<ref name="McCarthy2016">{{cite web |author1=Jack McCarthy |title=Doo Wop |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/doo-wop/ |website=philadelphiaencyclopedia.org |publisher=Rutgers University |access-date=3 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921095844/https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/doo-wop/ |archive-date=21 September 2020 |date=2016}}</ref>

The migration of blacks to Philadelphia from the southern states of the US, especially South Carolina and Virginia, had a profound effect not only on the city's demographics, but on its music and culture as well. During the Great Migration, the black population of Philadelphia increased to 250,000 by 1940. Hundreds of thousands of southern African Americans migrated to the [[metropolitan area]], bringing their secular and religious folk music with them. After World War II, the black population of the metro grew to about 530,000 by 1960.<ref name="KernodleMaxille2010">{{cite book|editor1=Emmett G. Price III|editor2=Tammy Kernodle|editor3=Horace J. Maxile, Jr.|title=Encyclopedia of African American Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVxgs_E57_EC&pg=PA727|date=17 December 2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34200-4|page=727}}</ref>

Black doo-wop groups had a major role in the evolution of rhythm and blues in early 1950s Philadelphia. Groups like the Castelles and the Turbans helped develop the music with their tight harmonies, lush ballads, and distinctive [[falsetto]]s. Many of these vocal groups got together in [[secondary school]]s such as [[West Philadelphia High School]], and performed at neighborhood recreation centers and teen dances.<ref name="KernodleMaxille2010" /> The Turbans, Philadelphia's first nationally charting R&B group,<ref name="Talevski201019">{{cite book|author=Nick Talevski|title=Rock Obituaries: Knocking On Heaven's Door|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DykffzkFALoC&pg=PA19|date=7 April 2010|publisher=Music Sales|isbn=978-0-85712-117-2|page=19}}</ref> formed in 1953 when they were in their teens. They signed with [[Herald Records]] and recorded "Let Me Show You (Around My Heart)" with its B side, "When We Dance", in 1955.<ref name="Archive2011">{{cite web |title=The Turbans on Herald Records |url=https://archive.org/details/TheTurbansOnHeraldRecords/herald458aWhenYouDance.mp3 |website=archive.org |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=11 November 2020 |date=2011}}</ref> "When We Dance" became a national hit,
rising to no. 3 on the R&B charts and reaching the Top 40 on the pop charts.<ref name="Leszczak2013">{{cite book|author=Bob Leszczak|title=Who Did It First?: Great Rhythm and Blues Cover Songs and Their Original Artists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQJ1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA238|date=10 October 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8867-8|page=238}}</ref>

The Silhouettes' crossover hit "[[Get a Job (song)|Get a Job]]", released in 1957, reached number one on the pop and R&B charts in February 1958, while Lee Andrews & the Hearts had hits in 1957 and 1958 with "Teardrops", "[[Long Lonely Nights]]", and "Try the Impossible".<ref name="McCarthy2016" />

[[Kae Williams]], a Philadelphia deejay, record label owner and producer, managed the doo-wop groups Lee Andrews & the Hearts, [[the Sensations]], who sold nearly a million records in 1961 with the song "[[Let Me In (The Sensations song)|Let Me In]]",<ref name="Warner2006287">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA287|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=287}}</ref> and [[the Silhouettes]], who had a number 1 hit in 1958 with "Get a Job". After the nationally distributed [[Ember Records (US label)|Ember label]] acquired the rights to "Get a Job", [[Dick Clark]] began to play it on ''[[American Bandstand]]'', and subsequently it sold over a million copies, topping the Billboard R&B singles chart and pop singles chart.<ref name="Jackson1999">{{cite book|author=John Jackson|title=American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29jhBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120|date=3 June 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028490-9|page=120}}</ref>

Although ''American Bandstand'''s programming came to rely on the musical creations of black performers, the show marginalized black teens with exclusionary admissions policies until it moved to Los Angeles in 1964.<ref name="KernodleMaxille2010" /> Featuring young whites dancing to music popularized by local deejays [[Georgie Woods]] and Mitch Thomas, with steps created by their black teenage listeners, ''Bandstand'' presented to its national audience an image of youth culture that erased the presence of black teenagers in Philadelphia's youth music scene.<ref name="Delmont201215">{{cite book|author=Matthew F. Delmont|title=The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6Z7VI39WDMC&pg=PT15|date=22 February 2012|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95160-0|pages=15–16, 21}}</ref><ref name="Jackson2004">{{cite book|author=John A. Jackson|title=A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ug0TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13|date=23 September 2004|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-514972-2|pages=13–14}}</ref>

Broadcast from a warehouse on 46th and Market Street in West Philadelphia, most of ''American Bandstand'''s young dancers were Italian Americans who attended a nearby Catholic high school in South Philadelphia.<ref name="Jackson2004" /> Like the rest of the entertainment industry, ''American Bandstand'' camouflaged the intrinsic blackness of the music in response to a national [[moral panic]] over rock 'n' roll's popularity with white teenagers, and the show's Italian American dancers and performers were deethnicized as "nice white kids", their Italian American youth identity submerged in whiteness.<ref name="LeonardD'Acierno1998">{{cite book|author1=George J. Leonard|author2=Pellegrino D'Acierno|title=The Italian American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nevq7gnw-WgC&pg=PA437|year=1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8153-0380-0|pages=437–438}}</ref><ref name="ConnellPugliese2017">{{cite book|author=John Gennari|editor1=William J. Connell|editor2=Stanislao G. Pugliese|title=The Routledge History of Italian Americans|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inM3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT580|date=27 September 2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-04670-5|page=580|chapter=Groovin': A Riff on Italian Americans in Popular Music and Jazz}}</ref><ref name="Tricarico201837">{{cite book|author=Donald Tricarico|title=Guido Culture and Italian American Youth: From Bensonhurst to Jersey Shore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzKBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|date=24 December 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-030-03293-7|pages=37–38}}</ref>

Dick Clark kept track of the national music scene through [[Promotion (marketing)|promoters]] and popular disc jockeys. In Philadelphia, he listened to [[Hy Lit]], the lone white deejay at [[WHAT (AM)|WHAT]], and African American disc jockeys Georgie Woods and [[Jocko Henderson|Douglas "Jocko" Henderson]] on [[WDAS (AM)|WDAS]]. These were Philadelphia's two major black radio stations; they were black-oriented, but white-owned.<ref name="Jackson199951">{{cite book|author=John Jackson|title=American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29jhBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|date=3 June 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028490-9|page=51}}</ref><ref name="McCarthy2016a">{{cite web |author1=Jack McCarthy |title=Radio DJs |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/radio-djs/ |website=philadelphiaencyclopedia.org |publisher=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia {{!}} Rutgers University |access-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319111927/http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/radio-djs/ |archive-date=19 March 2017 |date=2016}}</ref>

The program director of WHAT, Charlie O'Donnell, hired Lit, who was Jewish, to deejay on the station in 1955, and Lit's career was launched. From there he went to WRCV and then around 1956 to [[WNTP#History|WIBG]], where over 70 percent of the radio audience in the [[broadcast range|listening area]] tuned in to his 6–10 p.m. program.<ref name="Hatmaker2017">{{cite web |author1=Julia Hatmaker |title=25 memorable DJs and radio personalities from Philadelphia's past |url=https://www.pennlive.com/life/2017/06/25_memorable_djs_and_radio_per.html |website=pennlive |publisher=Advance Local Media |access-date=12 November 2020 |language=en |date=15 June 2017}}</ref>

[[Cameo-Parkway Records|Cameo Records and Parkway Records]] were major record labels based in Philadelphia from 1956 (Cameo) and 1958 (Parkway) to 1967 that released doo-wop records. In 1957, small Philadelphia record label XYZ had recorded "[[Silhouettes (The Rays song)|Silhouettes]]", a song by local group the Rays, which Cameo picked up for national distribution. It eventually reached number 3 on both the [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|R&B Best Sellers]] chart and [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] Top 100,<ref name="Whitburn2004">{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004|author= Joel Whitburn |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=484}}</ref><ref name="Warner2006284">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA284|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=284}}</ref> and also reached the top five on both the sales and airplay charts. It was the group's only top 40 hit.

Several white Philadelphia doo-wop groups also had [[Record chart#Chart hit|chart-toppers]]; [[The Capris (Philadelphia group)|the Capris]] had a regional hit with "[[God Only Knows (1954 song)|God Only Knows]]" in 1954.<ref name="Larkin2000">{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Brown, Marion – Dilated Peoples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gkKAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Philadelphia%20sound%22|year=2000|publisher=MUZE|isbn=978-0-19-531373-4|page=175}}</ref> In 1958, [[Danny & the Juniors]] had a number-one hit with "[[At the Hop]]" and their song "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" reached the top twenty. In 1961, [[the Dovells]] reached the number two spot with "[[Bristol Stomp]]", about teenagers in [[Bristol, Pennsylvania]] who were dancing a new step called "The Stomp".<ref name="McCarthy2016" />

[[Jerry Blavat]], a half-Jewish, half-Italian, popular deejay on Philadelphia radio, built his career hosting dances and live shows and gained a devoted local following.
He soon had his own independent radio show, on which he introduced many doo-wop acts in the 1960s to a wide audience, including [[The Four Seasons (band)|the Four Seasons]], an Italian American group from Newark, New Jersey.<ref name="Blavat2013">{{cite book|author=Jerry Blavat|title=You Only Rock Once: My Life in Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2fIfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA157|date=13 August 2013|publisher=Running Press|isbn=978-0-7624-5018-3|page=157}}</ref><ref name="ConnellPugliese2017" />

===Jamaica===
The history of modern Jamaican music is relatively short. A sudden shift in its style began in the early 1950s with the importing of American rhythm and blues records to the island and the new availability of affordable transistor radios. Listeners whose tastes had been neglected by the lone Jamaican station at the time, [[RJR 94 FM#History|RJR]] (Real Jamaican Radio), tuned into the R&B music being broadcast on the powerful nighttime signals of American AM radio stations,<ref name="Kauppila2006">{{cite journal |author1=Paul Kauppila |title=From Memphis to Kingston: An Investigation into the Origin of Jamaican Ska |journal=Social and Economic Studies |date=2006 |volume=55 |issue=1 & 2 |pages=78–83 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/70410093.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515204823/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/70410093.pdf |archive-date=2021-05-15 |url-status=live |access-date=15 November 2020}}</ref> especially [[WLAC#Late night rhythm and blues|WLAC]] in Nashville, WNOE in New Orleans, and [[WINZ (AM)|WINZ]] in Miami.<ref name="GuilloryGreen1998">{{cite book|author=Grant Fared|editor1=Monique Guillory|editor2=Richard Green|title=Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ls7wHSpjed8C&pg=PA67|year=1998|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-8147-3084-3|pages=67–69|chapter=Wailin; Soul}}</ref><ref name="Fredericks2000">{{cite web |author1=Brad Fredericks |title=American Rhythm and Blues Influence on Early Jamaican Musical Style |url=https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/fredericks.html |website=debate.uvm.edu |access-date=15 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001017195824/http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/fredericks.html |archive-date=17 October 2000}}</ref><ref name="Lindsay2014">{{cite news |author1=Clinton Lindsay |title=Jamaican records fill R&B gap |url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140720/ent/ent3.html |access-date=15 November 2020 |work=jamaica-gleaner.com |date=20 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140720124359/http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140720/ent/ent3.html |archive-date=20 July 2014 |language=en}}</ref> On these stations Jamaicans could hear the likes of [[Fats Domino]] and doo-wop vocal groups.<ref name="Joyner2008">{{cite book|author=David Lee Joyner|title=American Popular Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-s3AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Jamaica%22%20%22doo-wop%22|date=27 June 2008|publisher=McGraw-Hill Education|isbn=978-0-07-352657-7|page=252}}</ref>

Jamaicans who worked as migrant agricultural workers in the southern US returned with R&B records, which sparked an active dance scene in [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]].<ref name="Fredericks2000" /> In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many working-class Jamaicans who could not afford radios attended sound system dances, large outdoor dances featuring a deejay ([[Disc jockey#Dancehall/reggae deejays|selector]]) and his selection of records. Enterprising deejays used mobile sound systems to create impromptu street parties.<ref name="CampbellBrody2007">{{cite book|author1=Michael Campbell|author2=James Brody|title=Rock and Roll: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XTo8AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA339|date=27 February 2007|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-111-79453-8|page=339}}</ref> These developments were the principal means by which new American R&B records were introduced to a mass Jamaican audience.<ref name="Kauppila2006" />

The opening by [[Ken Khouri]] of Federal Studios, Jamaica's first recording facility, in 1954, marked the beginning of a prolific recording industry and a thriving rhythm and blues scene in Jamaica.<ref name="Fredericks2000" /> In 1957, American performers including [[Rosco Gordon]] and [[the Platters]] performed in Kingston.<ref name="Kauppila2006" /> In late August 1957, the doo-wop group Lewis Lymon and the Teenchords arrived in Kingston as part of the "Rock-a-rama" rhythm and blues troupe for two days of shows at the Carib Theatre.
[[The Four Coins]], a Greek American doo-wop group from Pittsburgh, did a show in Kingston in 1958.<ref name="Witmer1987">{{cite journal |author1=Robert Witmer |title="Local" and "Foreign": The Popular Music Culture of Kingston, Jamaica, before Ska, Rock Steady, and Reggae |journal=Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana |date=1987 |volume=8 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/948066 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/948066 |access-date=15 November 2020 |issn=0163-0350|page=13|jstor=948066|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Like their American exemplars, many Jamaican vocalists began their careers by practicing harmonies in groups on street corners, before moving on to the talent contest circuit that was the [[wikt:proving ground|proving ground]] for new talent in the days before the rise of the first sound systems.<ref name="O'Hagan2020">{{cite news |author=Sean O'Hagan |title=A thousand teardrops: how doo-wop kickstarted Jamaica's pop revolution |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/12/a-thousand-teardrops-how-doo-wop-kickstarted-jamaica-pop-revolution-reggae-rocksteady |access-date=16 November 2020 |work=The Guardian |publisher=Guardian News & Media |date=12 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012150802/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/12/a-thousand-teardrops-how-doo-wop-kickstarted-jamaica-pop-revolution-reggae-rocksteady |archive-date=12 October 2020}}</ref>

In 1959, while he was a student at [[Kingston College (Jamaica)|Kingston College]], [[Dobby Dobson]] wrote the doo-wop song "Cry a Little Cry" in honor of his shapely biology teacher, and recruited a group of his schoolmates to back him on a recording of the song under the name Dobby Dobson and the Deltas on the Tip-Top label. It climbed to number one on the RJR charts, where it spent some six weeks.<ref name="Black2015">{{cite news |author1=Roy Black |title=Roy Black Column: Dobby Dobson |url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20150222/roy-black-column |access-date=16 November 2020 |work=The Gleaner |date=22 February 2015 |location=Kingston, Jamaica |language=en}}</ref>

The harmonizing of the American doo-wop groups [[the Drifters]] and [[the Impressions]] served as a vocal model for a newly formed (1963) group, [[Bob Marley and the Wailers|the Wailers]], in which [[Bob Marley]] sang lead while [[Bunny Wailer]] sang high harmony and [[Peter Tosh]] sang low harmony.<ref name="GuilloryGreen1998" /> The Wailers recorded an homage to doo-wop in 1965 with their version of Dion and the Belmonts' "[[A Teenager in Love]]".<ref name="O'Hagan2020" /> Bunny Wailer cited Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Platters, and the Drifters as early influences on the group. The Wailers covered Harvey and the Moonglows' 1958 doo-wop hit, "Ten Commandments of Love", on their debut album, ''[[Wailing Wailers]]'', released in late 1965.<ref name="Unterberger2017">{{cite book|author=Richie Unterberger|title=Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Ultimate Illustrated History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vEpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|date=September 2017|publisher=Voyageur Press|isbn=978-0-7603-5241-0|pages=15, 30–31}}</ref> The same year, the Wailers cut the doo-wop song "Lonesome Feelings", with "There She Goes" on the [[A-side and B-side|B-side]], as a single produced by [[Coxsone Dodd]].<ref name="Thompson2002">{{cite book|author=Dave Thompson|title=Reggae & Caribbean Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARrDQKqFo7AC&pg=PA361|year=2002|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-655-7|page=361}}</ref>