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YAKKITY-YAK, IT'S COMING BACK
The Family Harmony of Doo-Wop Music
by Mark Gerson
From the Summer 1993 issue of Policy Review
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     "I know why you're all here. You're here because you want
some good, clean, non-suggestive fun!" roared Lenny Coco of the
Chimes to a packed audience of 15,000 people in East Rutherford,
New Jersey's Brendan Byrne Arena during a Doo-Wop concert
extravaganza on December 26, 1992.
     Doo-Wop is back. Thirty-five years after the music fad that
marked the birth of American rock and roll, Doo-Wop, the music of
the jukebox and the sock hop, is filling arenas like Madison
Square Garden and Carnegie Hall. While champions of the bandstand
like the Cleftones and the Channels draw halls full of
reminiscing baby boomers, the music of the 1950s is also gaining
in popularity with young people. Very often, the hottest
attraction of Doo-Wop shows are a cappella groups of college-age
youth, such as Vito and the Twilights and the Monels.
     Although Doo-Wop's heyday was the late 1950s to early 1960s,
the music has proved durable. Some of America's most recognizable
songs come from this genre, including "Speedo" by the Cadillacs,
"Sixteen Candles" by Johnny Maestro and the Crests, "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love" by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and "In the
Still of the Night" by Freddy Paris and the Five Satins. The
harmony in the background of many of these early hits is the
phrase, "Doo-Wop," which is where the music gets its name.
     While the Doo-Wop craze started around 35 years ago in New
York and Philadelphia, its renaissance has spread across the
country. The United In Group Harmony Association (UGHA), a New
Jersey-based group dedicated to preserving and presenting Doo-Wop
music, fills 18 concert halls a year, from New York to Germany.
Richard Nader, the leading Doo-Wop concert promoter in America,
puts on dozens of shows a year all across the country. Nader says
that those who perform at and attend his concerts cover all ages
and socioeconomic backgrounds because the music is so universally
appealing.
     Perhaps the man most directly responsible for the revival of
Doo-Wop music in New York is Don K. Reed, a disc jockey at
WCBS-FM, an oldies station. Reed's show, "The Doo-Wop Shop," airs
every Sunday night from 7 P.M. to midnight, and is the number-one
radio show in its time slot in the metropolitan area. He attrib-
utes the revival of interest in Doo-Wop to the fact that,
"Doo-Wop music is fun, enjoyable, and a forgotten and original
American art form. It is popular today because it helps people to
remember better days." The Doo-Wop craze earned a cover story on
the "Arts and Leisure" section of the New York Times in January
1993.
     Why the burgeoning interest in Doo-Wop? The melodious vocal
harmony that is the basis for Doo-Wop surely is part of its
attraction, but the traditional, conservative themes in Doo-Wop
lyrics may be just as important. Doo-Wop songs are full of hope,
love, family, and responsibility. Playing the Edsels' "Rama Lama
Ding Dong" backwards won't reveal any hidden meaning, and the
Monotones' "Book of Love" does not suggest anything more
provocative than a yearning for a monogamous spouse and a whole-
some lifestyle. Much of today's popular music, including some rap
and heavy metal, is angry and hostile. Doo-Wop music reflects the
innocence of the 1950s; such artists as the Eternals and the
Elegants follow in the conservative tradition of celebrating
life's simple beauty and everyday pleasures with such classics as
"Babalu's Wedding Day" and "Little Star."

Twilight Harmony

     It is Doo-Wop's traditional themes and vocal harmony that
unite those who perform in and attend Doo-Wop revival concerts.
Vito Nole, the lead singer of Vito and the Twilights, a group of
male vocalists in their early twenties, describes this. "The
lyrics of Doo-Wop music are beautiful; they come from the heart.
Today's music, more or less, comes from below the belt. In ad-
dition to the great vocal harmony, Doo-Wop is special because it
is a family experience. My whole family can come to my concerts
without having to worry about the elders or the kids hearing
anything suggestive. The music is terrific because its happy and
hopeful lyrics are enjoyed by everyone and bring everybody to-
gether." This inclusiveness is an important aspect of Doo-Wop's
growing appeal.
     Vito and the Twilights is a Doo-Wop a cappella group from
Rutgers University. The group leader, Vito, long felt he had
Doo-Wop in his blood; his father was a Doo-Wop singer in his
youth, and the two spent countless hours listening to and
discussing Doo-Wop.
     At Rutgers, Vito met Chris Serrulo, another Doo-Wop fan, and
the two started singing together. They realized that they sounded
good and had considerable talent. Vito figured that he and Chris
could put together a group as good as the Monels, a popular
Doo-Wop group their age. They responded when the opportunity
struck.
     Chris was in a college theater company and recruited three
other students to join Vito and him in a singing group. Their
first performance opened to rave reviews from a campus previously
unexposed to this music.
     Vito and the Twilights, as they called themselves,
blossomed, and the group regularly performed in clubs and opened
for Doo-Wop groups in the New York metropolitan area. The
highlight of this experience came in September 1992, when they
opened a major concert at the Meadowlands where such famous
groups as the Students, the Five Satins, the Five Discs, and the
Danleers were performing.
     Such groups as Willie Winfield and the Harptones and the
Cleftones spent a lot of time with Vito and the Twilights
backstage, reminiscing and giving them points on their
performances. The singers also got acquainted with the fans who
attended the concerts. Vito says that a special bond exists among
those in the Doo-Wop community, with the elders encouraging the
youths to keep the music alive.
     Vito maintains that the burgeoning love of Doo-Wop is
emblematic of something larger in the culture. He cites the
sensation of "MTV Unplugged," where viewers of music television
are enthralled by music harmony like that of Doo-Wop, free of
electrical accompaniment. The harmony specific to Doo-Wop also is
making larger inroads, with such popular groups as Boys II Men
performing remakes of standards from the 1950s.
     Now, with several recordings to their credit, the group is
thrilled by their success, and intend to continue performing
after they graduate from college this year.

Respect for Parents

     The themes of romantic love in Doo-Wop music are rarely
sexually suggestive. The furthest anyone ever gets in a Doo-Wop
song is kissing. Relationships in Doo-Wop are based not only on
love, but on example. The lack of male responsibility today--
which has contributed to the rising incidence of single parent-
hood, welfare, divorce, and abortion--has no place in Doo-Wop.
Relationships in Doo-Wop songs are hard-earned treasures that
demand respect and appreciation. Typical of these lyrics is the
Doo-Wop classic that was perhaps the ultimate make-out song of
the 1950s, "One Summer Night" by the Danleers.

     One summer night, I held you close, you and I under the moon
     of love/You kissed me oh so tenderly, and I knew this was
     love/And as I held you, oh so close, I knew no one could
     ever take your place.

The thrill is not so much in the physical, but in the emotional
bond that is established by love.
     The complete lack of sexual implication in Doo-Wop music is,
paradoxically, almost shocking to the modern sensibility. Few
people today would have to think twice of what is implied by the
title of the Velours classic, "Tonight Could be the Night."
However, what the Velours anticipate is not wild lovemaking, but
the elusive possibility that, "Tonight, could be the night, when
I fall in love, with someone like you." There is no confusion as
to the ultimate goal of a boy when he is chasing a girl. In-
variably, he wants to marry her, often when they are both still
too young.
     The desire to marry as a teenager provides one of the few
sources of generational conflict in Doo-Wop music. Generally, the
teenagers respect their parents and agree not to "talk back" as
in "Yakkity-Yak" by the Coasters, and realize that they must "Get
a Job," as in the Silhouettes' classic. Love and respect for par-
ents is an important theme of Doo-Wop, as in Paul Peterson's "My
Dad": "My Dad, to me, he is everything strong, he can't do
anything wrong, my dad." However, when the subject of marriage
comes up, parents discourage their children, as in the Miracles
song "Shop Around."
     But when Doo-Wop lovers do get married, they do so in a
church. Religion is an important element of Doo-Wop, as seen in
many song titles: "Chapel of Dreams" by the Dubs, "Chapel Bells"
by the Fascinators, "You Saw Me Crying in the Chapel" by Sonny
Till and the Orioles, and "Church Bells May Ring" by the Willows.
While respect for religion is an integral part of songs dealing
with marriage, it is also a component in songs about other
topics. Some examples include the Moonglows, "Ten Commandments of
Love," and "My Prayer" by the Platters.
     The importance of religion to Doo-Wop music is clearly
demonstrated by the song that quiets every crowd at a Doo-Wop
concert. This song, "I Believe," is an old standard revived and
made popular by Larry Chance and the Earls. The song--which
champions religious faith and the heavenly rewards of leading a
good life--has become so popular that it perennially appears on
the top-five list of WCBS's top-500 rock-and-roll songs.

     I believe above the storm the smallest prayer will still be
     heard/I believe that someone in the great somewhere hears
     every word/Every time I hear a new-born baby cry, or touch a
     leaf, or see the sky/Then I know I believe, I BELIEVE!

     The revival of Doo-Wop music alone does not signify a
cultural transformation, but it may be significant that there has
been an explosion of interest in an art form that glorifies
traditional values. As Richard Nader says, "Music is simply a re-
flection of the time.... [T]he music of today has gone well
beyond suggestive, and in fact incorporates blatant sexual
overtones ... Doo-Wop music speaks of the way we actually commu-
nicate, or wish we could communicate."
     As the booming market in Doo-Wop paraphernalia attests, this
revival reaches people on a level that extends beyond
appreciation of good music. Fans want Doo-Wop back not only for
its great sound but for the times and ideas it represents. The
music of Doo-Wop is about appreciation of simplicity, family,
religion, and community--values that are not as prevalent as they
have been or should be, and values that may be coming back if the
Doo-Wop fans have anything to say about it.

MARK GERSON is a senior at Williams College and president of the
James A. Garfield Republican Club.

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