Swinging Boy Harmony: Samplefocus

Doo-Wop is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation.

When I think of Doo-Wop, I think of Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, “ Why Do Fools Fall In Love”, The Flamingos - “ I Only Have Eyes For You”, and “Earth Angel” by the Penguins.

It was in the 70s when I learned about Doo-Wop because of the American rock and roll Doo-Wop cover group Sha Na Na. But when I was a little girl watching their variety series that ran from 1977 to 1981, I called them Sha Na Na Na. The group’s name was taken from a series of nonesense syllables (Sha Na Na Na Sha Na Na Na Na) in the song “Get a Job” originally recorded by the Silhouettes.

The song that I remember Sha Na Na singing most is “Goodnight Sweetheart”. That’s the song they would sing when they ended their show. That was my day of Doo-Wop in the 70s.
Doo-Wop is fun. I love the harmonic singing and nonsense syllables. Gaining popularity in the 1950s, Doo-Wop was “artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s, but continued to influence performers in other genres.