The Golden Age of American Rock ‘n’ Roll: Special Doo Wop Edition 1953-1963

Few golden oldie fans/collectors/historians will dispute that Ace Records of the U.K. ranks at the very top of a short list of the best distributors of such music (others being Eric, Bear Family, Jasmine, Acrobat, ASV Living Era, Collectors Choice, Rhino), both in terms of the quality of their sound and in the provision of detailed background notes/discographies, whether for multi-artist compilations of the best of single artists/groups.

Their top series of multi-artist volumes has to be The Golden Age Of American Rock `N’ Roll which, at last count, had 11 individual volumes, along with a number of off-shoots (Special “Bubbling Under” Edition, The Follow-Up Hits, Special Novelty Edition, Special Country Music Edition, and this one covering Doo Wop (they also have a related series titled The Golden Age Of American Popular Music - one volume so far - and two off-shoots called The Country Hits and The Folk Hits).

Just as they could have produced an entire Golden Age Of American Country Music series, as they did with the R&R instrumental (Teen Beat series) and Girl-Group Sound (Early Girls series), so too does Doo Wop lend itself to a multi-volume set. This sub-genre of both R&B and R&R can trace its African-American roots to legendary groups such as The Mills Brothers and Ink Spots, who began their careers in the Thirties, and later acts such as The Delta Rhythm Boys, The 5 Red Caps, and The Charioteers.

In the late Forties and early Fifties, as young blacks began gathering on the street corners of major cities in the U.S. northeast blending what soon became their trademark smooth harmonies with improvised lyrics to more or less compensate for the lack of instruments, the best of them, such as The Orioles from Baltimore and The Ravens from New York City, eventually wound up in recording studios. Their success led to searches by record producers for new talent and soon they were joined by The Dominoes, Clovers, Mello-Moods, Five Keys, Cardinals, “5″ Royales, Spiders, Four Buddies, Swallows, Larks, and Drifters (among many others), but it wasn’t until 1955 that those ad lib nonsensical lyrics, often heard as “doo wop,” surfaced in a recording by a Philadelphia quartet calling themselves The Turbans (When You Dance, a # 3 R&B late that year on the Herald label - but unfortunately not in this volume).

When, exactly, the style became generally known as Doo Wop is a matter of some controversy even today, and it’s now not uncommon to see the label applied to groups who date back well into the early 1940s. Some even detest the name, preferring to use “group vocal harmony,” but one thing is certain: it eventually spread to white groups such as The Capris, Dion & The Belmonts and The Mystics and even racially-mixed acts like The Del Vikings and Crests.

The style stayed highly popular right up to 1964 and the British Invasion, which ushered in a whole new sound, with 1961 often being cited as the apex of Doo Wop. Indeed, no less than 11 of the 30 selections presented here were 1961 hits, full details of which are contained in the voluminous liner notes which accompany every Ace release.

And there are hard-to-find gems of the genre in here such as You Cheated by The Slades, a # 42 Billboard Pop Top 100 in 1958 (usually you see the version by The Shields, a # 11 R&B/# 12 Top 100 that same year), Peanuts by Rick & The Keens, a # 60 Hot 100 in 1961 (the one most often presented is by Little Joe & The Thrillers (# 22 Top 100 in 1957), In My Heart by The Timetones, a # 51 Hot 100 in 1961), Wizard Of Love by The Ly-Dells, a # 54 Hot 100 in 1961, and You Tickle Me Baby by The Royal Jokers, a # 77 Top 100 back in the formative year of 1955.

I would love to see additional volumes compiled by the masters at Ace Records of London.