From Barbershop To Doo Wop - Part Three: 1944-1952

Artist Song
The Mills Brothers  Till Then (1944) 
The Charioteers  No Soup (1945) 
The Cats & The Fiddle  Shorty's Got To Go (1946) 
The Ink Spots  Prisoner Of Love (1946) 
The Deep River Boys  That Chick's Too Young To Fry (1946) 
The Ravens  Bye Bye Baby Blues (1946) 
The Delta Rhythm Boys  One O'Clock Jump (1947) 
The Delta Rhythm Boys  Take The 'A' Train (1947) 
The Ravens  Ol' Man River (1947) 
The Ravens  It's Too Soon To Know (1948) 
The Four Bluebirds  My Baby Done Told Me (1948) 
The Orioles  Barbara Lee (1948) 
The Orioles  Tell Me So (1949) 
The Ravens  Leave My Gal Alone (1949) 
The Ravens  Someday (1949) 
The Orioles  I'd Rather Have You Under The Moon (1950) 
The Dominoes  Chicken Blues (1950) 
The "5" Royales  Too Much Of A Little Bit (1951) 
The Swallows  Beside You (1951) 
The Swallows  It Ain't The Meat (1951) 
The Orioles  Baby, Please Don't Go (1951) 
The Cardinals  Shouldn't I Know (1951) 
The Clovers  Fool, Fool, Fool (1951) 
The Dominoes  Love, Love, Love (1951) 
The Royals (aka: The Midnighters)  Moon Rise (1952) 
The Orioles  It Ain't Gonna Be Like That (1952) 
The Clovers  Ting-A-Ling (1952) 
The Marylanders  Make Me Thrill Again (1952) 

Comment:

I've posted quite a few 'two-parters' lately and most of them could easily be continued onto third and fourth volumes. This one however was always going to be (at least!) a four-parter, since I'd put THIS collection together long before I recorded the two volumes which now preceed it! Starting where the last mix left off (which is hardly surprising since I put that last mix together in order to lead right up to the start of this one!) the first few songs are from the same jazz vocal groups - The Mills Brothers, The Cats & The Fiddle and Ink Spots - which had dominated the vocal group sound for the previous decade or so. The arrival of the so-called 'Bird Groups' like The Ravens and The Orioles in the late 1940s - bringing elements of Rhythm & Blues to the genre - heralded a more recognisably 'Doo Wop' sound, while The Dominoes and The Clovers followed a couple of years later with an even more distinct R&B flavour. Since this was originally designed as a companion to the Roots of Soul and Rock n Roll collections I'd put together for the same brother I avoided using any of the same songs although of course a lot of the same artists crop up in each of the mixes since all three styles share a lot of common ancestry. This meant that I had to go for some less 'obvious' selections by some of the artists on here - such as The Ravens' cover of The Orioles' "It's Too Soon To Know" rather than the original which fitted better on the Roots of Soul mix; or chosing "Chicken Blues" by The Dominoes since "Sixty Minute Man" seemed to belong in the story of Rock n Roll (both musically AND lyrically!) Whenever I do a 'musical evolution' mix (and let's face it... it's something I do quite often!) I'm always particularly fascinated by the period covering the moment when that particular style finally 'arrived' - and in the case of Doo Wop it definitely occurred at some point between 1944 and 1952, and as ever it's a matter of opinion exactly when... but if I had to chose one song from this mix as the first fully-fledged Doo Wop record I'd probably go for the gorgeous Cardinals' ballad "Shouldn't I Know" from 1951. Your mileage may vary!

Feedback:

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slipperyhangdoglook
Date: 7/23/2005
your knowledge & collection is first rate !
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Sean Lally
Date: 7/23/2005
Excellent!