Sunday, May 26, 2013

Del Vikings and A Sunday Kind of Love

Here is the true value of Doo Wop.  Do you see it?  Yes, there are black and white boys together in this band (you have to watch the video to see pictures of them, they're in there).

I'm no race history expert, but black/white pop acts where something new, I'm pretty sure.  It had only been ten years or so since baseball had been integrated (Go Dodgers!  Yes, I was a fan of the BROOKLYN Dodgers).  There were other salt and pepper Doo Wop groups, but the Del Vikings were the most famous.  "Whispering Bells" was a giant hit for them, and still one of my favorite records of all time (yes, I do still have my original copy of the forty-five, nine time zones away).  Great, and new, that the same radio station, the real Top-Forty stations in big markets, played records by black groups and white groups. It was pretty amazing, really. 

After this Golden Age of brotherhood it all went it's separate ways there for a while.  After the early Sixties radio went almost all white or all black.  "Pop" stations and "Soul" stations.  Then came Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimi, and the Chambers Brothers, the Staples Singers, and FM Rock.  It's this Fifties stuff that really speaks to me though.  I was a very young boy, and between the Rock and Roll and the baseball, well, it was all a great lesson for me. 

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