Doo Wop On The Porch Saturday, July 27th, 2024
Birthdays & Anniversaries
July 14th, 1931/1995 – Junior Walker
July 14th, 1936/2005 – Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Bass voice of The Four Tops
July 18th, 1929/2000-Screaming Jay Hawkins
July 18th, 1939 –  Dion Dimucci (85)
July 18th, 1941 – Martha Reeves (83), Martha & The Vandellas
July 19th, 1925/2021 – Sue Thompson, Sad Movies Make Me Cry (#5), Norman (#3), both in 1961
July 26th, 1941 – Darlene Love (83), 3 records in the BB top 100 in 1963, 1 with The Blossoms 1961 Son-In Law answer to Ernie K-Doe
July 14th, 1965 – Paul McCartney recorded Yesterday, 59 years ago July 18th, 1953 – Elvis Presley walked into the Memphis Recording Services office, soon to be renamed Sun Records, and pays $3.98 to record two songs, My Happiness & That’s When Your Heartaches Begin. July 19th, 1958 – George Treadwell, manager of The Drifters hired The Five Crowns with lead singer Ben E King to replace all the members of the group after either he fired them or they quit, the story goes both ways.
July 20, 1940- Billboard Magazine published it’s first comprehensive record chart. Their very first #1 record I’ll Never Smile Again by Frank Sinatra & The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
July 25th, 1960- Speaking of the Billboard Charts, Roy Orbison reaches #2 with Only The Lonely. He wrote the song and pitched it to both The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley, both turned the song down so he decided to record it himself and launched his career.
July 27th, 1958 – Esso, which formerly was Standard Oil and would become Exxon) warned the general public that listening to Rock & Roll music on your car radio will cost you money. Their rationale was that the rhythms of Rock & Roll caused drivers to be more heavy footed on the throttle and therefore waste gasoline.

Deaths this week
July 18th – Jerry Fuller, songwriter and producer. Wrote Travelin’ Man, It’s Up To You & Young World for Ricky Nelson, Young Girl, Lady Willpower & Over You for Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, wrote and produced Show & Tell for Al Wilson and produced Lies for The Knickerbockers and Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp & Little Green Apples for O. C. Smith. Quite a career.
July 22 – Abdul “Duke” Fakir the last surviving original member of The Four Tops

Could It Be You – Four Tops, 1956 Chess; The Four Tops formed in Pershing High School in Detroit in 1953. Levi Stubbs, Renaldo “Obie” Benson, Lawrence Payton & Duke Fakir stayed together and resisted Motown’s effort to rename them Levi Stubbs & The Tops for the rest oftheir individual lives.It’s Never Too Late – Blue Sonnets, 1963, Columbia; Lou Fasanaro, Eric Nathanson, Joseph Piazza & Robert Kurtner were from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn and formed as The Vocalaires and had one release in 1962 on Herald Records in NYC. They recorded It’s Never to Late in 1963 and somehow got it released on a major label, Columbia, who wouldn’t or possibly didn’t know how to promote it and it died. DJs in Pittsburgh picked it up for their local dances and it became a club and oldies hit there.

Just Across The Street – Del-Rios, 1962, Stax; Formed in the mid 50s in Memphis, The Del-Rios enjoyed some local club success. They began hanging around the Satellite Record Shop, a retail arm of Stax Records early on and were the backing group on Stax first hit record, Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes) by Carla Thomas. They released several records on Stax without success. Lead singer William Bell became a solo Stax act and staff songwriter, You Don’t Miss your Water & Born Under A Bad Sign.

My Angel Lover- Cleftones, 1991, Classic Artists; Formed from two groups, The Clefs and The Silvertones, at Jamaica High School in Queens in 1955, The Cleftones were one of the most prolific and successful groups to emerge from the New York streets during the Doo Wop Era. They had releases from 1956 thru 1964 and lead singer held the group together with various changes in membership until illness forced him to retire in 2017. Their last recording was for the Classic Artists Label who sought 50s Doo Wop groups to reform in some manner and record for them in the late 80s and early 90s. This is their last recording billed as Herb Cox & The Cleftones.