Introducing "Doo Wop" to Doo Wop Music

Albeit not a few doo wop groups were one-hit wonders, the significance of doo wop as a subgenre of R&B is huge. If you couldn't afford a guitar, but could sing, you could form a doo wop group and make some money. The deep roots of doo wop return to "barbershop" harmony that began to become popular at the verge of the 20th century. Barbershop harmony had arisen in the latter 19th century via the custom in black communities of using barbershops as social gathering hubs. While waiting to get their hair cut black men often sang folk, spiritual and popular music. White folk had their own variety of barbershop, usually a quartet. Formally called a cappella (vocals minus instruments), doo wop developed a style that accommodated instrumentation as well. Among the distinguishing features of doo wop is the use of nonsense syllables in rhythmic support of melody (which in jazz often became the melody itself, known as scat singing). Progenitors of doo wop in the recording of vocal harmony go back as far as the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots in the thirties.

Among the earliest uses of the phrase "doo wop" is by the Drifters (below) recorded in 1953, although the tune wasn't released until 1960 [SecondHandSongs]. The Dundees, members of which would later become the Calvanes, used the term in 1954. The Turbans sang the term in 1955. The Velvets used it in 1961, during which decade disc jockeys began to commonly refer to doo wop as doo wop. Early uses of the phrase "doo wop" in doo wop music:

'Never'   The Dundees   Space S-201 B   1954

Composition:  Mosely / Killough

'When You Dance'   The Turbans   1955

Composition:  Andrew Jones

'I Belong to You'   The Fi-Tones   1955

Composition:  Lowe Murray

'Let the Boogie Woogie Roll'   Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters

Recorded 9 August 1953 toward issue on Atlantic 45-2060 in April 1960

Composition:  Ahmet Ertegun / Jerry Wexler

'Tonight Could Be the Night'   The Velvets   1961

Composition:  Virgil Johnson

The term "doo-wop" found its way into print for the first time in an issue of 'The Chicago Defender' in 1961 in reference to the Marcels. This brief introduction to doo wop enables acknowledgement of major expertise in the subject, and other matters R&B, below: