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I was watching a show Doo Wop Gold, on PBS and then I went to Youtube to flisten to some more, I just love this genre and time period. Some of my faves: Little Darlin, Maybe, Blue Moon Duke of Earl, Teen Angel, The Lion Speaks Tonight, heck I could go on forever, there's tons of great Doo Wop songs.

Do they get sung where you are?

Not.
At.
All.

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hi-voxentertainment

In 12 years, ONE singer, who was an ex professional. Such a shame, really, because it's great fun to do it.

Same here, it's such a rarity if they do happen to get done that I can't even count the times.
When I first started in the wee early 90's, Lion Sleeps Tonight was done often, Blue Moon & a couple others, but when Sound Choice started putting out more current stuff, those songs subsided quickly.

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Nope. Not too many falsetto artists in the karaoke ranks.

I have seen it twice in 3 years of intensive karaoke. A musical theater performer in Philadelphia, who is actually a bass in chest voice, has a great falsetto and did "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Sherry".

Then a guy in Homestead, Florida, who did a couple of numbers (can't remember exactly what they are, but they qualify).

I actually had "Goodnight Sweetheart" sung in my room recently. That counts doesn't it?

A regular singer's mom, who had never sang anything before, brought up the slip without the title - just the book number. I though she made a mistake, so I went over to their table and asked her what she really wanted to sing because the number she wrote was to "Goodnight Sweetheart". She replied "Yeah that's it!"

She sang it well before closing to a full room and it did get some puzzled looks at first.... that "Huh?" expression that comes over the room when someone sings something totally out of the box. And this definitely qualified for that.

About 5 years ago I had a gig that catered to late 40's thru 70's age group and it was very popular. In fact I went out and purchase a 100 song Do-Wop set as a result. Occasionally I will get someone who will sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" but thats it.

I sing "Goodnight Sweetheart" as the last song quite often and I always have folks that want to take a mic and join in. It's actually quite popular. On other nights I sing Frank Sinatra's "One For My Baby" (non-Do Wop)

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Well, as I've noted before, I end my show with "Goodnight Sweetheart" as a sing along. And I am amazed at how many twenty year olds enthusiastically join in.

A couple of shows in my area in S Fl regularly have people singing pure doo wop, and some related material.

some examples of locally performed doo wop:
You Belong to Me - Duprees
This Magic Moment - Drifters or Jay & Americans
Sh-Boom - Chords or Crew Cuts
Under The Boardwalk - Drifters
Tonight Could Be The Night - Velvets
Why Don't You Believe Me - Duprees
Lion Sleeps Tonight - Tokens
Town Without Pity - Gene Pitney
It's Too Late - Carol King
Who Put the Bomp - Barry Mann
Stand By Me - Ben E King
Stay - Maurice Williams
Finding An Echo - Old55

I've heard a few of those listed sung, like The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Sherry, Under the Boardwalk and This Magic Moment. I've sung I Only Have Eyes for You by the Flamingos.

Goodnight Sweetheart was also a group sing a long at one of the places I went to!

That Flamingo's song is great. Haven't heard in awhile, but it used to be done quite often.
we do have a lot of locals who had been involved with music during the doo wop era, and some of them are just great in that regard

That's doo wop? Then I have exactly no idea what it is, as most of those other numbers don't register with me either.

Heck, I do "Up on the Roof", but I don't consider it to be doo wop.

One of the boy bands did a great doo-wop style version of one of their songs - wish I could remember what it was, but a couple of guys came in one night and did harmony along with the recorded backup harmony - it was great. (something about "too late to say goodbye" or something like that. CRS is bad today)
I have an a capella S/C disc and it was on there.

k

mcky

I guess, even to many of us who were very much involved, what is actually "doo wop" is hard to "nail down". If pressed about it, I wouldn't include gene pitney or carol king. However, as with all music, doo wop "morphed" and there were tunes that were lumped into doowop that wouldn't have fit the earlier "mold" of the genre. IMHO, while "Tonight" by the Tokens is doo wop, in the strictest terms, the "Lion Sleeps Tonight" really isn't! Nonetheless, most everyone would consider the Tokens to be a doo wop group!

For one, the original doo wop was sung by groups, in four-part harmony
The bass line was commonly distinctive
It was primarilly R&B in nature

PS: Anything by the Drifters is considered doo wop by most everyone!

Daddy's Home by Shep and the Limelights gets covered a bit also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QirZBmPR46o


How about Memories Are Made of This by Dean Martin? Would that be Doo Wop? Doo Wop Lite? Hmmm....

"Memories Are Made Of This" always struck me as being more like Belafonte/Calypso lite.

Very lite.

This is the Doo Wop set I have:

Number of tracks: 90
Track Song In The Style Of
Disc 1 / Track 1 Only You The Platters
Disc 1 / Track 2 Why Don't You Believe Me The Duprees
Disc 1 / Track 3 I Believe The Earls
Disc 1 / Track 4 Speedo Cadillacs
Disc 1 / Track 5 Sincerely The Moonglows
Disc 1 / Track 6 I'm On The Outside Looking In Little Anthony and The Imperials
Disc 1 / Track 7 Look In My Eyes Chantels
Disc 1 / Track 8 Tonight Could Be The Night Velvets
Disc 1 / Track 9 Story Untold Nutmegs
Disc 1 / Track 10 You've Really Got A Hold On Me Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
Disc 1 / Track 11 Oh Girl Chi-Lites
Disc 1 / Track 12 Chapel Of Love Dixie Cups
Disc 1 / Track 13 Little Star The Elegants
Disc 1 / Track 14 Stay In My Corner The Dells
Disc 1 / Track 15 A Little Bit Of Soap The Jarmels
Disc 1 / Track 16 I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) Otis Redding
Disc 1 / Track 17 Sorry, I Ran All The Way Home The Impalas
Disc 1 / Track 18 You Cheated You Lied Shields
Disc 2 / Track 1 Just To Be With You Passions
Disc 2 / Track 2 Ten Commandments Of Love The Moonglows
Disc 2 / Track 3 Hurt So Bad Little Anthony & The Imperials
Disc 2 / Track 4 Torn Between Two Lovers Mary McGregor
Disc 2 / Track 5 Once In A While The Chimes
Disc 2 / Track 6 You're So Fine The Falcons
Disc 2 / Track 7 Till Then The Classics
Disc 2 / Track 8 Happy Happy Birthday Baby Tune Weavers
Disc 2 / Track 9 Gloria Cadillacs
Disc 2 / Track 10 Come Go With Me Del Vikings
Disc 2 / Track 11 Coney Island Baby Excellents
Disc 2 / Track 12 Maybe Chantels
Disc 2 / Track 13 Mr. Big Stuff Jean Knight
Disc 2 / Track 14 Little Girl Of Mine Cleftones
Disc 2 / Track 15 Hushabye The Cascades
Disc 2 / Track 16 Sixteen Candles The Crests
Disc 2 / Track 17 Letter, The Box Box Tops
Disc 2 / Track 18 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters
Disc 3 / Track 1 You're A Thousand Miles Away Five Heartbeats
Disc 3 / Track 2 My Own True Love The Duprees
Disc 3 / Track 3 Don't Mess With Bill Mary Wells
Disc 3 / Track 4 Going Out Of My Head Over You Little Anthony & The Imperials
Disc 3 / Track 5 My Prayer The Platters
Disc 3 / Track 6 Ya Ya Lee Dorsey
Disc 3 / Track 7 Let It Be Me Jerry Butler
Disc 3 / Track 8 Mashed Potato Time Dee Dee Sharp
Disc 3 / Track 9 Who's That Knockin' Genies
Disc 3 / Track 10 Tonight I Fell In Love The Tokens
Disc 3 / Track 11 Love Potion #9 The Searchers
Disc 3 / Track 12 Image Of A Girl Safaris
Disc 3 / Track 13 Silhouettes The Rays
Disc 3 / Track 14 Party Lights Claudina Clark
Disc 3 / Track 15 Please Let Me Love You Paragons / Jesters
Disc 3 / Track 16 Break Up To Make Up The Stylistics
Disc 3 / Track 17 Devil Or Angel The Clovers
Disc 3 / Track 18 Sunday Kind Of Love (Slow Version) The Harptones
Disc 4 / Track 1 We Belong Together Robert and Johnny
Disc 4 / Track 2 Today I Met The Boy I'm Going To Marry Darlene Love
Disc 4 / Track 3 Ain't No Sunshine Bill Withers
Disc 4 / Track 4 The Angels Listened In The Crests
Disc 4 / Track 5 Pledging My Love Johnny Ace
Disc 4 / Track 6 The Great Pretender The Platters
Disc 4 / Track 7 Step By Step The Crests
Disc 4 / Track 8 Teardrops Lee Andrews / Hearts
Disc 4 / Track 9 Once Upon A Time Rochelle feat Candels
Disc 4 / Track 10 So Much In Love Tymes
Disc 4 / Track 11 When We Get Married The Dreamlovers
Disc 4 / Track 12 Long Lonely Nights Lee Andrews / Hearts
Disc 4 / Track 13 Rama Lama Ding Dong The Edsels
Disc 4 / Track 14 He Will Break Your Heart Jerry Butler
Disc 4 / Track 15 Da Doo Ron Ron The Crystals
Disc 4 / Track 16 Tower Of Strength Gene McDaniels
Disc 4 / Track 17 Remember Walking In The Sand The Shangri-Las
Disc 4 / Track 18 A Million To One Jimmy Charles
Disc 5 / Track 1 Life Is But A Dream (Slow Version) The Harptones
Disc 5 / Track 2 I Count The Tears The Drifters
Disc 5 / Track 3 Over The Mountain Across The Sea Johnnie and Joe
Disc 5 / Track 4 Give Him A Great Big Kiss The Shangri-Las
Disc 5 / Track 5 Goodnight Sweetheart The Spaniels
Disc 5 / Track 6 My True Story Jive Five
Disc 5 / Track 7 Lavender Blue Sammy Turner
Disc 5 / Track 8 Make It Easy On Yourself Jerry Butler and The Impressions
Disc 5 / Track 9 Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes) Carla Thomas
Disc 5 / Track 10 Mr. Blue The Fleetwoods
Disc 5 / Track 11 I Only Have Eyes For You The Flamingos
Disc 5 / Track 12 Diamonds And Pearls The Paragons
Disc 5 / Track 13 Hello Stranger Barbara Lewis
Disc 5 / Track 14 Closer You Are Channels
Disc 5 / Track 15 For Your Precious Love Jerry Butler
Disc 5 / Track 16 You Got What It Takes Marv Johnson
Disc 5 / Track 17 Along Came Jones The Coasters
Disc 5 / Track 18 Save The Last Dance For Me The Drifters

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Pretty popular where I did it in Portland... always had a group of bikers come up and sing "My Girl" together... was a hoot. And yep, many of the songs listed here were sang!

My only problem with "Lion Sleeps Tonight" is I always think of "The Lion King", and want to shout out "C'mon buddy, back me up!... Ummm, Poomba?"

Sure I here it all the time. Young and old sing it. I pretty much get all styles of music sung at karaoke though.

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While there are songs that were never done anyway except in Doowop style, it can be applied to any song in the book. We have applied it to country. I have done about 1/3 of the songs in the above list and many more in this list Some many times. My favorite and one of my siggies is Lost In The Fifties Tonight. An old friend of mine (a band member) sings Daddy's Home once in a while. When he does the entire bar comes to a complete standstill. At the end there is hardly a dry eye in the place and most of the time before the applause is over he has left.

Here is a good history of it

link

All it takes is that slapback bass rhythm and 2 or 3 background singers sing the doo doo part. Yes Memmories Are Made of This can be doowop. The chorus singers are singing Sweet Sweet The Memries You Gava Me. Learning how to doowop improves singing skillls and gives you your own style. There are certain songs like Neal Diamonds Brother Love I like to do but wont unless I have about 3 gals doing doowop chorus with me. The reason you dont see much doowop at karaoke is because of the duet rules. That is one reason why I dont go to others shows much anymore.

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My wife does this one all the time....