I have now listened to the On the Beat doo wop special and it can be thoroughly recommended. I think it's possible for US readers to access it too, so click here, wherever you are, if you want to hear an engrossing interview punctuated by lots of doo wop. The programme, which is on BBC Radio Merseyside and presented by Spencer Leigh, lasts two hours. I don't have the time to give a blow by blow account but will add a few thoughts here.
I make no apology for featuring once again the Valentines' A Christmas Prayer. I love the soulful, ragged feel. And no Richard Barret, no Frankie Lymon. It really is that simple. I like the detail that Barrett lived above the shop where the young Lymon worked. Also Barrett's overprotectiveness towards (I think) the Chantels, which I suspect may have been related to his inability to protect Lymon. On the half hour documentary Promise to Remember, filmed around the time the surviving Teenagers were regrouping - the final shot of the PBS shows that Frankie's replacement for a gig at Stitt Junior High (which Barrett used for rehearsals) is ... a woman. No chance of the voice breaking, and time will bring in changes more slowly. But the line which stays with me from the doc is Barrett saying that Lymon's early demise will haunt him for the rest of his days.
Anyway, that's not very Christmassy. So here is A Christmas Prayer. This is doo wop singing as I like and understand it, and I commend it to you:
Oh, and if you're wondering about the strapline, that's because I was going to embed the Orioles' superb version of Oh Holy Night but the PC in the hotel where I type this can only access some aspects of youtube. Still, there's a pool and the food is delish. Merry Christmas one and all. And try to listen to Oh Holy Night yourself. Go here. It's listed as an alternate take but it sounds like the version I know from CD. Anyway, the point is that towards the end ("Oh ni-i-ight, oh hooo - leee ....") Sonny Till bends the notes in a way that suggests Presley must have been a keen student.
No pontificating on this occasion, no stupid pun in the title - just one of my doo wop faves which continues to give pleasure. But of one thing I am certain: it is not Richard Barrett who is on trial. It is YOU.
As a reluctant nod to the season, herewith Christmas Prayer, a lesser-known Valentines track from 1955 - at least it isn't on the Collectables Best of collection that I have. I first came across it on a UK compilation of Christmas-related songs from "the Roulette family of labels" on the now-defunct Westside label, which issued quite a lot of doo wop.
As the Collectables CD of the group's Rama recordings includes an amusing but hardly essential snippet of song in praise of Boston DJ Joe Smith, I'm surprised by Christmas Prayer's absence. It was released at the time and an A side, and it isn't just a novelty: the rough edge to the singing and harmonising is highly pleasing to these ears, despite the corny saxophone quote ("jingle all the way") just in case anyone should be in any doubt about the seasonal nature of the song.
I presume Richard Barrett, the man who discovered Frankie Lymon, and later achieved fame as a producer, is the lead vocalist, and we're definitely talking gospel-inflected, soul-anticipating mode. And it sounds like there was a bit of leeway in the harmonising too - it's not that the singing is ragged, just that it doesn't sound rehearsed to death, and that another take might have been different again. Anyway, have a listen and see what you think.
Chimes by the Pelicans is one of my favourite doo wop recordings. Think I first heard it in the late nineties - certainly in time for me to nominate it as one of five faves on the doo wop shop board in September 2000 in a post archived on this blog here.
I first came across it on a CD reissue (above) of two compilations of rhythm and blues tracks mostly or exclusively on the Imperial label which had been compiled by Canned Heat's Bob Hite, if memory serves. I see from Mike Callahan's Imperial discography on the excellent Both Sides Now website, here, that both albums were originally issued in 1968.
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