Nothing like the sound of harmony. I think it was Billy Joel who made the song Lookin' for an echo.
Well that's what we did a lot. It was pretty easy in the projects to find an echo. You just went into the hallway and started singing. Until of course someone reported you to the Housing Police and then they'd chase you away.
Hitting Harmony or Chimin' off , you'd say " hit a note" Baaaa, that was me much of the time. I was mostly a baritone. Although with Al and the Candlelights I was officially the base.
That was me, Fuzzy, Mass, Lil Wick and Big Wick. Our demo record was My Girl ( the flip side of Babalu's wedding day). I had a great base part. A cross between the 4 disks bass and the Marcells.
I one of the best groups I sang with , We were the Escapades, me, Mass, and Woody, Moony on the lead. So many mixes of people that sang together.
A memorable night was singing baratone with Elk hitting 2nd tenor, Woody hitting 1st, Moony was bass and Wendy sang lead. Wendy sang lead for The Holidays. We sang When We Get Married by the Dreamlovers at Elk's house. It sounded amazing. Elk erased the tape. I think he was jealous of Wendy's lead.
Elk always sang lead when we did 40's songs like Chattanooga Choo Choo. Anyway, we had another group called Johnny and The Pumps. Me Johnny, Rigget, Moony, and Woody. We even had a manager Frank. Somehow he was hooked up with the Emotions. It was a funny group. Rigget had a heavy Brooklyn accent,,, when we sang Sunday Kind of Love he would say True instead of Through. " I'm true with my old love I loved her true and true" it was pretty hilarious.
Me and Chupper could hit harmony wthout chiming off. We knew each others notes. Me Stanley Chupper and Wein sang at Geno's kids wedding,,,, In the bathroom. Sounded good.
Songs we sang were Fine Little Girl, This is My love, Closer you Are, Mexico, Please say you want me, Sunday kind of love,
Wine Wine Wine, Roaches, some songs by the Tymes. So many good tunes.
We often would just sing background. Bom Bo Bom Shoobee doo wah, Doo wop dit dee,
We all could recognize a song by the first note. I could picture Moony, always snapping his fingers and moving in time with the beat. Singing was amazing if everyone hit the right notes.
Quite often, when we were like 15, we would want some wine. We would call it Singing Juice. We would pay this older guy Chan a quarter and he would buy us some Areba or Thunderbird for like 90 Cents. That stuff got you messed up, but you could hit some high notes.
There are other stories about drinking too much wine, and it didn't go over too well with my parents.
We used to hit harmony up at Curly's with these guys Fosta and Domenech , They were on an album produced by Al Brown. They were Johnny and the Moonlights. One night we went to see them and the Caravelles at this Church in Bushwick. It was pretty scary. Me , Moony, Jackie, Woody, were the only white guys in the place,,,, The Caravelles sang some Smoky Robinson songs. They were amazing. The lead singer was Speedo from the Impalas. They made Sorry, I ran all the way home,,,,, I thought I'd have to run all the way home... It was an exciting night,,,and we made it out of there without getting in any trouble.
Anyway, Doo Wop is so awesome,,,I know it's kind of dead, but things are coming back. Hipsters are wearing tight pants that are above the ankles. Reminiscent of the early 60s.
So Goodnite Sweet Heart, well it's Time to go ,,,,,,,,,,
