A style of vocal rock and roll popular in America in the 1950s and early 60s. It was essentially an unaccompanied type of close-harmony singing by groups of four or five members; if an accompaniment was added it functioned as a restrained background, largely obscured by the voices. The beginnings of the style can be detected in 19th-century barbershop singing, and in the music of such black vocal groups as the Ink Spots in the 1930s and the Orioles in the late 1940s. The Orioles inspired a number of groups named after birds in the early and mid-1950s, among them the Larks and the Flamingos; other popular doo-wop groups included the Chords (Sh-boom), Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers (Why do fools fall in love?), the Moonglows and the Nutmegs. The black groups were soon imitated by white ensembles, which often consisted of Italian Americans from New York and Philadelphia; their style differed from that of the black groups in that their sound was closer to Tin Pan Alley, and their lyrics correspondingly more escapist and less sexually suggestive. Such groups as the Capris (There’s a moon out again), Danny and the Juniors (At the Hop), and Dion and the Belmonts (A Teenager in Love) enjoyed enormous popularity from 1961 to 1963, and many of them continued to perform in rock and roll revival shows. In the early 1980s there was renewed interest in doo-wop, and in 1982 several groups (including the Harptones, the Moonglows and the Capris) made recordings on the Ambient Sound label. For further information see M. Rosalsky: Encyclopedia of Rhythm and Blues and Doo-wop Vocal Groups (Lanham, MD, 2000).
JOHN ROCKWELL