Wop

Nonfiction. Italian American Studies. Italians have been subject to some of the most blatant, brutal, and course forms of discrimination to affect any people. This volume investigates anti-Italian discrimination in the USA.

In Doo-Wop Acappella: A Story of Street Corners, Echoes, and Three-Part Harmonies, scholar and musician Lawrence Pitilli details this too-little-explored area of 1950’s - early 60’s American culture. As Kenny Vance and the Planotones suggested in their classic song “Looking for an Echo,” every doo-wop acapella group’s mission—the search “for a sound, a place to be in harmony, a place we almost found”—was more than the story of street kids seeking recording glory. It is the tale of urban change, mass migrations, ethnic acculturation, a changing radio and recording industry, and the dynamics of cultural change in the “sounds”—sonic and linguistic—that every generation seeks to make and re-make for itself. In his study of this neglected period, Pitilli uncovers a rich musical tradition practiced largely by amateurs in an almost mythologized urban America. Although most of these practitioners were musically untrained, their lack of formal music education and financial support neither diluted their passion for singing or their quest for possible fame and fortune. In this engagingly written and celebratory work, Pitilli further demonstrates that doo-wop acappella was closely tied to broader issues, including the self-invented individual, gender roles, ethnicity, race, and class.

With abundant background and enticing images, this work covers more than just the gorgeous harmonies of the unforgettable doo wop groups. The landmark volume traces the development of the music, politics, art, architecture, and popular culture of the 1950s.

A must for all lovers of vocal group harmony and foo-wop music. Contains a collector's checklist of the Top 1000 foo-wop songs of all time. Other lists include the best leads, the best basses, the best of the female groups, white groups, schoolboy sound, gang sound, pop sound, etc.

Fun, colorful survey of Doo Wop architectural style unique to resorts in The Wildwoods, New Jersey.

Making Your Memories with Rock & Roll and Doo-Wop: The Music and Artists of the 1950s and Early 1960s digs back through the catalogue of popular music and brings to life the solo artists, duos, and groups whose music once filled the airwaves and turntables with rock & roll and doo-wop. The Doctor of Doo-Wop, J.C. De Ladurantey, brings his expertise, honed by hosting a weekly radio show, “Making Your Memories,” to his revelation of the backstories of these trendsetting artists. Until the British Invasion in mid 1963 changed the direction of American music, the sounds created by the artists profiled in Making Your Memories with Rock & Roll and Doo-Wop shaped the entertainment soundtrack of a generation. This music history shares the little-known details of the lives of these artists, the history of the period, the distinctiveness of the music, and the power and influence of the songs’ lyrics. Making Your Memories with Rock & Roll and Doo-Wop: The Music and Artists of the 1950s and Early 1960s will leave echoes of the time’s memorable songs in your mind’s ear and their lyrics on the tip of your tongue. You’ll discover a fresh desire to find the recordings and give them another “spin” on your “record player,” even if your digital music lives in the cloud.

Vanilla Doo-Wop shares accounts of various white vocal groups originating along the Atlantic Coast during the late fifties and early sixties. Many of these artists became endearing music legends, recording many lasting tunes. Others achieved notoriety as a one-hit wonder with a single tune. In Vanilla Doo-Wop, read how a melody composed for one promising group was unceremoniously given to another and became a Top Five hit. See how a popular group turned down a song that would be recorded by their former lead singer and become one of the top rock and roll songs of all time. Learn of the vocalist whose hit record came out while he served military duty. He later joined one of America's most successful rock groups to sing lead on their biggest hit ever. Stroll down Memory Lane as we recall many of the era's great songs, by some of the finest doo-wop artists. These intriguing stories are all here, plus many more in Vanilla Doo-wop.