Editing Doo-wop (section)

===Philadelphia===

Young black singers in Philadelphia helped create the doo-wop vocal harmony style developing in the major cities of the US during the 1950s. Early doo-wop groups in the city included [[the Castelles]], [[the Silhouettes]], the Turbans, and [[Lee Andrews & the Hearts]]. They were recorded by small independent rhythm and blues record labels, and occasionally by more established labels in New York. Most of these groups had limited success, scoring only one or two hit songs on the R&B charts. They had frequent personnel changes and often moved from label to label hoping to achieve another hit.<ref name="McCarthy2016">{{cite web |author1=Jack McCarthy |title=Doo Wop |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/doo-wop/ |website=philadelphiaencyclopedia.org |publisher=Rutgers University |access-date=3 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921095844/https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/doo-wop/ |archive-date=21 September 2020 |date=2016}}</ref>

The migration of blacks to Philadelphia from the southern states of the US, especially South Carolina and Virginia, had a profound effect not only on the city's demographics, but on its music and culture as well. During the Great Migration, the black population of Philadelphia increased to 250,000 by 1940. Hundreds of thousands of southern African Americans migrated to the [[metropolitan area]], bringing their secular and religious folk music with them. After World War II, the black population of the metro grew to about 530,000 by 1960.<ref name="KernodleMaxille2010">{{cite book|editor1=Emmett G. Price III|editor2=Tammy Kernodle|editor3=Horace J. Maxile, Jr.|title=Encyclopedia of African American Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVxgs_E57_EC&pg=PA727|date=17 December 2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34200-4|page=727}}</ref>

Black doo-wop groups had a major role in the evolution of rhythm and blues in early 1950s Philadelphia. Groups like the Castelles and the Turbans helped develop the music with their tight harmonies, lush ballads, and distinctive [[falsetto]]s. Many of these vocal groups got together in [[secondary school]]s such as [[West Philadelphia High School]], and performed at neighborhood recreation centers and teen dances.<ref name="KernodleMaxille2010" /> The Turbans, Philadelphia's first nationally charting R&B group,<ref name="Talevski201019">{{cite book|author=Nick Talevski|title=Rock Obituaries: Knocking On Heaven's Door|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DykffzkFALoC&pg=PA19|date=7 April 2010|publisher=Music Sales|isbn=978-0-85712-117-2|page=19}}</ref> formed in 1953 when they were in their teens. They signed with [[Herald Records]] and recorded "Let Me Show You (Around My Heart)" with its B side, "When We Dance", in 1955.<ref name="Archive2011">{{cite web |title=The Turbans on Herald Records |url=https://archive.org/details/TheTurbansOnHeraldRecords/herald458aWhenYouDance.mp3 |website=archive.org |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=11 November 2020 |date=2011}}</ref> "When We Dance" became a national hit,
rising to no. 3 on the R&B charts and reaching the Top 40 on the pop charts.<ref name="Leszczak2013">{{cite book|author=Bob Leszczak|title=Who Did It First?: Great Rhythm and Blues Cover Songs and Their Original Artists|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQJ1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA238|date=10 October 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8867-8|page=238}}</ref>

The Silhouettes' crossover hit "[[Get a Job (song)|Get a Job]]", released in 1957, reached number one on the pop and R&B charts in February 1958, while Lee Andrews & the Hearts had hits in 1957 and 1958 with "Teardrops", "[[Long Lonely Nights]]", and "Try the Impossible".<ref name="McCarthy2016" />

[[Kae Williams]], a Philadelphia deejay, record label owner and producer, managed the doo-wop groups Lee Andrews & the Hearts, [[the Sensations]], who sold nearly a million records in 1961 with the song "[[Let Me In (The Sensations song)|Let Me In]]",<ref name="Warner2006287">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA287|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=287}}</ref> and [[the Silhouettes]], who had a number 1 hit in 1958 with "Get a Job". After the nationally distributed [[Ember Records (US label)|Ember label]] acquired the rights to "Get a Job", [[Dick Clark]] began to play it on ''[[American Bandstand]]'', and subsequently it sold over a million copies, topping the Billboard R&B singles chart and pop singles chart.<ref name="Jackson1999">{{cite book|author=John Jackson|title=American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29jhBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120|date=3 June 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028490-9|page=120}}</ref>

Although ''American Bandstand'''s programming came to rely on the musical creations of black performers, the show marginalized black teens with exclusionary admissions policies until it moved to Los Angeles in 1964.<ref name="KernodleMaxille2010" /> Featuring young whites dancing to music popularized by local deejays [[Georgie Woods]] and Mitch Thomas, with steps created by their black teenage listeners, ''Bandstand'' presented to its national audience an image of youth culture that erased the presence of black teenagers in Philadelphia's youth music scene.<ref name="Delmont201215">{{cite book|author=Matthew F. Delmont|title=The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6Z7VI39WDMC&pg=PT15|date=22 February 2012|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95160-0|pages=15–16, 21}}</ref><ref name="Jackson2004">{{cite book|author=John A. Jackson|title=A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ug0TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13|date=23 September 2004|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-514972-2|pages=13–14}}</ref>

Broadcast from a warehouse on 46th and Market Street in West Philadelphia, most of ''American Bandstand'''s young dancers were Italian Americans who attended a nearby Catholic high school in South Philadelphia.<ref name="Jackson2004" /> Like the rest of the entertainment industry, ''American Bandstand'' camouflaged the intrinsic blackness of the music in response to a national [[moral panic]] over rock 'n' roll's popularity with white teenagers, and the show's Italian American dancers and performers were deethnicized as "nice white kids", their Italian American youth identity submerged in whiteness.<ref name="LeonardD'Acierno1998">{{cite book|author1=George J. Leonard|author2=Pellegrino D'Acierno|title=The Italian American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nevq7gnw-WgC&pg=PA437|year=1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8153-0380-0|pages=437–438}}</ref><ref name="ConnellPugliese2017">{{cite book|author=John Gennari|editor1=William J. Connell|editor2=Stanislao G. Pugliese|title=The Routledge History of Italian Americans|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inM3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT580|date=27 September 2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-135-04670-5|page=580|chapter=Groovin': A Riff on Italian Americans in Popular Music and Jazz}}</ref><ref name="Tricarico201837">{{cite book|author=Donald Tricarico|title=Guido Culture and Italian American Youth: From Bensonhurst to Jersey Shore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzKBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|date=24 December 2018|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-030-03293-7|pages=37–38}}</ref>

Dick Clark kept track of the national music scene through [[Promotion (marketing)|promoters]] and popular disc jockeys. In Philadelphia, he listened to [[Hy Lit]], the lone white deejay at [[WHAT (AM)|WHAT]], and African American disc jockeys Georgie Woods and [[Jocko Henderson|Douglas "Jocko" Henderson]] on [[WDAS (AM)|WDAS]]. These were Philadelphia's two major black radio stations; they were black-oriented, but white-owned.<ref name="Jackson199951">{{cite book|author=John Jackson|title=American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29jhBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|date=3 June 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-028490-9|page=51}}</ref><ref name="McCarthy2016a">{{cite web |author1=Jack McCarthy |title=Radio DJs |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/radio-djs/ |website=philadelphiaencyclopedia.org |publisher=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia {{!}} Rutgers University |access-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319111927/http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/radio-djs/ |archive-date=19 March 2017 |date=2016}}</ref>

The program director of WHAT, Charlie O'Donnell, hired Lit, who was Jewish, to deejay on the station in 1955, and Lit's career was launched. From there he went to WRCV and then around 1956 to [[WNTP#History|WIBG]], where over 70 percent of the radio audience in the [[broadcast range|listening area]] tuned in to his 6–10 p.m. program.<ref name="Hatmaker2017">{{cite web |author1=Julia Hatmaker |title=25 memorable DJs and radio personalities from Philadelphia's past |url=https://www.pennlive.com/life/2017/06/25_memorable_djs_and_radio_per.html |website=pennlive |publisher=Advance Local Media |access-date=12 November 2020 |language=en |date=15 June 2017}}</ref>

[[Cameo-Parkway Records|Cameo Records and Parkway Records]] were major record labels based in Philadelphia from 1956 (Cameo) and 1958 (Parkway) to 1967 that released doo-wop records. In 1957, small Philadelphia record label XYZ had recorded "[[Silhouettes (The Rays song)|Silhouettes]]", a song by local group the Rays, which Cameo picked up for national distribution. It eventually reached number 3 on both the [[Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs|R&B Best Sellers]] chart and [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] Top 100,<ref name="Whitburn2004">{{cite book |title= Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004|author= Joel Whitburn |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year=2004 |publisher=Record Research |page=484}}</ref><ref name="Warner2006284">{{cite book|author=Jay Warner|title=American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mTM_9JTeoMIC&pg=PA284|year=2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-09978-6|page=284}}</ref> and also reached the top five on both the sales and airplay charts. It was the group's only top 40 hit.

Several white Philadelphia doo-wop groups also had [[Record chart#Chart hit|chart-toppers]]; [[The Capris (Philadelphia group)|the Capris]] had a regional hit with "[[God Only Knows (1954 song)|God Only Knows]]" in 1954.<ref name="Larkin2000">{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Brown, Marion – Dilated Peoples|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gkKAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Philadelphia%20sound%22|year=2000|publisher=MUZE|isbn=978-0-19-531373-4|page=175}}</ref> In 1958, [[Danny & the Juniors]] had a number-one hit with "[[At the Hop]]" and their song "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" reached the top twenty. In 1961, [[the Dovells]] reached the number two spot with "[[Bristol Stomp]]", about teenagers in [[Bristol, Pennsylvania]] who were dancing a new step called "The Stomp".<ref name="McCarthy2016" />

[[Jerry Blavat]], a half-Jewish, half-Italian, popular deejay on Philadelphia radio, built his career hosting dances and live shows and gained a devoted local following.
He soon had his own independent radio show, on which he introduced many doo-wop acts in the 1960s to a wide audience, including [[The Four Seasons (band)|the Four Seasons]], an Italian American group from Newark, New Jersey.<ref name="Blavat2013">{{cite book|author=Jerry Blavat|title=You Only Rock Once: My Life in Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2fIfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA157|date=13 August 2013|publisher=Running Press|isbn=978-0-7624-5018-3|page=157}}</ref><ref name="ConnellPugliese2017" />