GOOD MORNING P.O.U.!
We continue our look at Doo-Wop Music.
The Penguins were an American doo-wop group of the 1950s and early 1960s, best remembered for their only Top 40 hit, “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)”, which was one of the first rhythm and blues hits to cross over to the pop charts. The song peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but had a three-week run at #1 on the R&B chart.
The original members of The Penguins were:
* Curtis Williams (December 11, 1934 – August 10, 1979) (bass-baritone)
* Cleveland Duncan (July 23, 1935) (tenor)
* Dexter Tisby (March 10, 1935) (tenor)
* Bruce Tate (January 27, 1937 – June 20, 1973) (baritone)Duncan and Williams were former classmates at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, California, and Williams had become a member of The Hollywood Flames. In late 1953, they decided to form a new vocal group, and added Tisby and Tate. Their midtempo performance style was a cross between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Williams brought with him a song, “Earth Angel,” on which he had worked with Gaynel Hodge, another member of the Hollywood Flames.[1]
The Penguins were one of a number of doo-wop groups of the period named after birds (such as The Orioles, The Flamingos, and The Crows). One of the members smoked Kool cigarettes, which, at the time, had “Willie the Penguin” as its cartoon advertising character. They considered themselves “cool,” and accordingly decided to call themselves “The Penguins.”[1]
Dootone Records released The Penguins’ single “Hey Senorita” in late 1954 as the intended A-side, but a radio DJ flipped the record over to the B-side: “Earth Angel” worked its way up to #1 on the Billboard charts (the only Penguins song ever to fly that high), and held that place for three weeks early in 1955.Duncan sang lead on “Earth Angel.” He reprised his performance a decade later on Frank Zappa’s “Memories of El Monte,” an elegiac 1963 song in which he suddenly breaks into “Earth Angel” as one of the various songs remembered.[2] El Monte, a city near Los Angeles, had spawned such popular performers as Tony Allan, Marvin & Johnny, The Shields, as well as the Penguins. Those groups were also emulated as part of Zappa’s tribute to early days of rock and roll.
In a common practice of the time, radio stations frequently featured segregated playlists. Thus, “Earth Angel” was simultaneously recorded by the white group, The Crew-Cuts in 1955. The Crew-Cuts cover peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 chart, five spots higher than the Penguins version. The single’s success launched the Crew-Cuts’ own successful career of recording “crossover”-friendly covers of R&B hits. [Actually, the Crew-Cuts’ first successful cover was “Shboom” which hit #1 on Billboard in 1954]
The songwriting genesis for “Earth Angel” was a matter of some dispute, eventually ending up in a split credit between Penguins baritone Curtis Williams, Gaynel Hodge, and Jesse Belvin. The song had evolved through several Los Angeles area groups, and was based on the “Blue Moon” chord changes that were so popular with many doo-wop groups.[citation needed] The song was influenced by Jesse and Marvin’s #2 R&B hit “Dream Girl,” which contained many of the same vocal inflections used to great effect in “Earth Angel.” The “Will you be mine?” hook in “Earth Angel,” which was also the song’s subtitle, was borrowed from the #9 R&B hit of the same name by the Swallows.[citation needed] The Hollywood Flames had also recorded “I Know” in 1953, a song which has been called “a chord-for-chord blueprint for “Earth Angel,” and which featured the same Curtis Williams piano intro that Williams himself reused on the Penguins hit. The coda of “Earth Angel,” with the repeatedly harmonized word “You-oo… you-oo… you-oo… you-oo,” had previously been heard in the Dominoes’ #5 R&B cover of “These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You.”
(SOURCE: Wikipedia)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCkC2kg2KlQ?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ykKpDMsvU?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
The Penguins “Earth Angel” was the first “pure” doo-wop record. “Earth Angel” blended pop’s melodicism and lyrical innocence with the emotional directness of gospel and R&B. A classic “ballad with a beat,” the song is sung over a swaying piano triplets with sparse instrumental backing. The yearning lead vocal and ragged background voices created an amateurish” sound in the best sense.
The simple lyrics (“Earth Angel, will you be mine…”) have an innocence that the untrained voices and the “garage” sound only served to heighten. “Earth Angel” was literally recorded in the garage of Dootsie Williams, owner of Dootsie Records. The Penguins sound like what they were: a group of high school students singing a song for one of their girlfriends. The message of “Earth Angel” was “That it could be me,” by aspiring young singers who couldn’t imagine singing like The Ink Spots or leading a jump band like Louis Jordan, but could imagine writing or singing a song like “Earth Angel.” 1
(SOURCE: The History of Rock & Roll)
