Just when I was in a quandary about what to post about, Kali sent me this video(above). What a pal! What a pal! How do you like the moves the blond-haired guy makes?
"Bread and Butter" got me started watching doo wop videos (above). I still don't understand what happened to do wop. Where did it go?
"Blue Moon" (above) was considered prime makeout music.
BTW: I think the blond-haired guy in the Bread and Butter video is the same as the guy who sings "High Boots" in the video above.
17 comments:
Back in the day, I had a 45 single of "Blue Moon" -- though now that I have grown up to be an actual Rodgers and Hart fan, I can imagine how they must thrash about in their graves every time this version of their beautiful ballad is played.
George Liquor knows what happened to DooWop. It was the Beatles.
It was so bizarre! I actually found it from a friend too! I guess that's how the internet works, haha.
My favorite Doo- op song... maybe it should have been called "I Only Have Reverb For You"
Flamingos
Blue Moon is Doo -op, but I don't know about the other two....
You think we dont know what you mean when you say, "I want to hold your hand"? you know who has hands THE DEVIL! and he uses em for holdin!
Good post i love that bill clinton guy in the first video. Its hilarious that he would look like that then sing in that voice. heres my favorite song by the mystics an Italian doowop group i believe couldnt find a video though. oh well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jftVbuahRiQ
Spit puddles are replacing cigarette butts and gum as the prime offenders on city streets. We can argue about which is worse, but there's really no point - we can either clean our acts up or else we deserve whatever's coming to us.
Frank Zappa did to doo-wop what Jim Henson did to puppetry - he grabbed on to it just as it was on its way out and turned it into something completely his own, but did it so brilliantly that he scared everyone else away from putting their own spin on it, which "everyone knows" could never be as ingenious, clever or specific. Thus it languishes in the dustbin of fast-evolving forms aborted too early.
The world needs more Doo-Wop.
I hate doo wop because I was forced to listen to it nonstop growing up. But it is a very influential genre. I don't think it's dead so much as it got swallowed up. You hear it in Motown, you hear it in the Beach Boys, you hear it in the latest pop ballads and hip hop tracks. You can even hear it in the vocal harmonies of the early Beatles. The influence is so pervasive that a lot of actual doo wop songs can seem super cheesy...everything about them has been done to death for the past 50 years.
Lester: I wonder if Francis Langford ever did a version of that? I think Mary Ford did.
Kali: Many thanks!
Ben: I just watched some Mystics videos. The one you linked to was the best.
Fried: I haven't gotten tired of it, but then again I didn't have parents who listened to it all the time, like you probably did.
Cool post, Eddie!
I like the way the blond guy makes his natural stiffness part of his dance style. The way his movement pivots around his crotch & the way he lifts his knees gives him an air of itchy sexuality repressed by the upper half of his body. The quick, crisp overlap on his head suggests a subtle syncopation instead of being simply off-beat.
White people's search for a culturally authentic dance style has been suppressed by the black stand-up comedy community & pressure from more highly developed dance cultures.
Just saw my link didn't work... and that I spelled Doo Wop incorrectly.
Just really like the drney electronic sounding backing track...
flamingos
Thomas: Boy, the Flamingos do a good job. You could argue that it's better than the Platters version, and it's no easy job to best the Platters.
You sure can smoke a mean soda straw, Eddie.
I can't stop watching Bread and Butter. Is that Jay Leno? I'm sort of having that same reaction some folks had the first time Sarah Boyle was sprung on them. Which is doubly strange since we already know the song is going to sound exactly like that.
Glad you like the clip. I guess the difference between the Flamingos' and Platters' versions is the production.
It actually sounds a bit like Phil Spector, but I don't think he was around yet.
I looked it up... the production was done by a member of the Flamingos, Terry "Buzzy" Johnson.
Eddie, I'm sure you've seen this, but I think it's only too appropriate that it be linked to here...
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