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The
early 1950’s signified the true beginning of Doo Wop
music, which was a derivative of the rhythm and blues and
jazz music styles.
Doo Wop first began
in the inner cities, most prominently Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Doo Wop began with friends gathering on street corners,
on their back porches, or just about anywhere, and making
up songs.
Doo Wop got its name
for its characteristically senseless lyrics. It is filled
with lines like "doo-be-doo-be", "sh-boom,
sh-boom", “do-be-do-be-do”, etc., which
are most often sung by the baritone singer. Mostly these
senseless lyrics were used as background while somebody
sang the lead on top.
Instead of one vocalist
with musicians to back them up, Doo Wop relied solely on
the vocalists themselves to create all the harmonies. While
later Doo Wop was sometimes done with instruments, the instrumentation
was very minimal, and voiced harmonies still remained the
main aspect of Doo Wop music. Harmonizing is the key in
Doo Wop music.
There are several characteristics
of Doo Wop music, one of which is the unique range of voices.
The typical ranges of voices in a Doo Wop group are the lead
singer, the falsetto/first tenor, second tenor, and a baritone
singer. While falsetto was usually done as background, one
group in particular, the Four Seasons, capitalized on their
lead singer, Frankie Valli’s, amazing 3 and a half octave
vocal range, making falsetto the lead voice. Another characteristic
of Doo Wop music is that it is usually very simple and easy
to sing along to, which is one of the main factors leading
to its success. Many people enjoyed it because they could
participate in it, and recreate it themselves.
Some of the first Doo Wop
groups were the Orioles and the Ravens in the early 1950’s.
By 1954, Doo Wop was the leading music style of the time.
Prime examples of Doo Wop are songs such as “Blue Moon”,
“Sh-boom (Life Could Be a Dream)” or “I
Wonder Why”, which is often considered to be the National
Anthem of the Doo Wop music style.
From the year 1954
until around 1964, Doo Wop dominated the radio waves. Doo Wop
was nearly wiped off the charts by the so-called British invasion
of the mid-sixties. British Groups such as the Beatles came
onto the music scene. Nevertheless, several American Doo Wop/rhythm-and-blues
artists still continued to record Doo Wop music, most notably
the Four Seasons, who are known as the “fifties Doo Wop
group of the sixties”. Neil Sedaka also continued to
record a few great Doo Wop hits, such as “Next Door
to an Angel” and “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”.
The seventies musical group “Sha-na-na” is also
a Doo Wop revival group.
Doo Wop is still a
favorite music style among many people, and many vocal groups
of the nineties covered famous Doo Wop songs. Most notably
there was the musical group from Philadelphia, Boys II Men,
with their version of “In the Still of the Night”.
It seems as though doo wop never died and continues to exist
right up until this day.
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Doowoop
