Doo(-)wop: trivial observation

[Benjamin Zimmer]

I wrote:
>
> -----
> http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:2tkvu3u5an1k
> The Odessa, TX-based Velvets are best remembered for their
> violin-enriched 1961 Top 40 hit "Tonight (Could Be the Night)," during
> which the group chanted "doo-wop" behind lead singer Virgil Johnson.
> It was one of the first uses of the phrase in a song (the Turbans' use
> of the phrase on the 1955 "When You Dance" predates it by a few
> years).
> -----

Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> I remember both "Tonight (May Be The Nigh-yi-yi-Night)" and "(Hold Me Tight)
> When You Dance" quite well and I don't recall call that the literal
> syllables "doo(-)wop" occurred in either of these songs.

Here's one transcription of the Velvets song...

-----
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/the_velvets/tonight_could_be_the_night.html
Tonight
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
Could be the night
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
To hear her say
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
Darling, I do
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
And tonight
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
Could be the ni-eye-eye-eye-ight
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
To get the ring
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
Around your finger
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
(Doo-wop, doo-wop-de-wop)
-----

> My best guess is
> that we must be working from different definitions of both doo(-)wop and the
> doo(-)wop genre, given that, beyond what would be a very strange lacuna in
> my memory, IMO, "Tonight" and "When You Dance" are not doo(-)wop songs. If
> you can't "dance on a dime" with your significant other to the rhythm - and
> you can't dance like that to these songs - it's not doo(-)wop.

Well, I was just repeating information from the Allmusic.com website
about those two songs. I don't personally have a very well-defined
concept of doo-wop, besides certain key aspects like four-part
harmony, with the lead vocalist carrying the melody and backing
singers providing rhythmic counterpoint. Both the Turbans and the
Velvets songs would seem to fit those criteria, but if they're not
actually doo-wop as properly construed, then I bow to your superior
knowledge of the genre.

Here's some more on sung instances of "doo-wop":

-----
http://www.electricearl.com/dws/origin.html
As far as we can tell (thanks to doo-wop fan Tim Lucy), the nonsense
syllables "doo-wop" first appeared on wax in 1954 on a song called
"Never" by a Los Angeles group called Carlyle Dundee & The Dundees
(Space 201). The background group sings "doo-wop" in the the song's
chorus. Members of The Dundees later became The Calvanes.
The first hit record showcasing "doo-wop" came in 1955 with The
Turbans' Top 40 recording of "When You Dance" (Herald 458). The group
chanted "doo-wop" several times, very plainly.
(Peter Bachelder reminds us that, though it wasn't released until
1960, Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters' 1953 recording of "Let The
Boogie Woogie Roll" featured the group behind Clyde clearly repeating
"doo-wop" again and again through the course of the song.)
In 1958 a group called The De Villes on Aladdin Records (3423)
recorded a song called "Kiss Me Again and Again." The flipside was
called "Do-Wop."
In 1961 The Velvets chanted "doo-wop" behind lead singer Virgil
Johnson on their hit recording of "Tonight (Could Be the Night)"
(Monument 441).
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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