Editing Doo-wop (section)

==Jewish influence in doo-wop==
{{main|Jewish influence in rhythm and blues}}
Jewish composers, musicians, and promoters had a prominent role in the transition to doo-wop and rock 'n' roll from jazz and swing in American popular music of the 1950s,<ref name="Rausch1996">{{cite book|author=David A. Rausch|title=Friends, Colleagues, and Neighbors: Jewish Contributions to American History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LklGAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Jewish%22%20%22Doo-wop%22|year=1996|publisher=Baker Books|isbn=978-0-8010-1119-1|page=139}}</ref> while Jewish businessmen founded many of the labels that recorded rhythm and blues during the height of the vocal group era.<ref name="RanMorad2016">{{cite book|author=Ari Katorza|editor1=Amalia Ran|editor2=Moshe Morad|title=Mazal Tov, Amigos! Jews and Popular Music in the Americas|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3iRzCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83|date=21 January 2016|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-20477-5|pages=83, 86, 88|chapter=Walls of Sounds: Leiber & Stoller, Phil Spector, the Black-Jewish Alliance, and the "Enlarging" of America}}</ref>

In the decade from 1944 to 1955, many of the most influential record companies specializing in "race" music{{emdash}}or "rhythm and blues", as it later came to be known{{emdash}}were owned or co-owned by Jews.<ref name="Kobrin2012">{{cite book|author=Jonathan Karp|editor=RebeccaKobrin|title=Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter with American Capitalism|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kOQwPXh2xZIC&pg=PA141|date=20 August 2012|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-5329-0|page=141|chapter=Blacks, Jews, and the Business of Race Music, 1945–1955}}</ref> It was the small independent record companies that recorded, marketed, and distributed doo-wop music.<ref name="Runowicz2010">{{cite book|author=John Michael Runowicz|title=Forever Doo-wop: Race, Nostalgia, and Vocal Harmony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqzcQgAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-824-2|pages=45, 48}}</ref> For example, Jack and Devora Brown, a Jewish couple in Detroit, founded [[Fortune Records]] in 1946, and recorded a variety of eccentric artists and sounds; in the mid-1950s they became champions of Detroit rhythm and blues, including the music of local doo-wop groups.<ref name="Liebler2016"/>

A few other Jewish women were in the recording business, such as [[Florence Greenberg]], who started the [[Scepter Records|Scepter]] label in 1959, and signed the African American girl group, [[the Shirelles]]. The songwriting team of [[Gerry Goffin|Goffin]] and [[Carole King|King]], who worked for Don Kirshner's Aldon music at 1650 Broadway (near the famed [[Brill Building]] at 1619),<ref name="Emerson200611">{{cite book|author=Ken Emerson|title=Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7N3tPSny6AC&pg=PT11|date=26 September 2006|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-101-15692-6|pages=11–13}}</ref> offered Greenberg a song, "[[Will You Love Me Tomorrow]]", which was recorded by the Shirelles and rose to number 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in 1961. During the early 1960s, Scepter was the most successful independent record label.<ref name="Stratton2017">{{cite book|author=Jon Stratton|title=Jews, Race and Popular Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Py8rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43|date=5 July 2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-56170-9|page=43}}</ref>

Deborah Chessler, a young Jewish sales clerk interested in black music, became the manager and songwriter for the Baltimore doo-wop group the Orioles. They recorded her song "It's Too Soon to Know" and it reached no. 1 on ''Billboard''{{'}}s race records charts in November 1948.<ref name="GoldsteinWeiner2018">{{cite book|author1=Eric L. Goldstein|author2=Deborah R. Weiner|title=On Middle Ground: A History of the Jews of Baltimore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QNTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA281|date=28 March 2018|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-1-4214-2452-1|page=281}}</ref>

Some record company owners such as [[Herman Lubinsky]] had a reputation for exploiting black artists.<ref name="CherryGriffith2014" /> Lubinsky, who founded Savoy Records in 1942, produced and recorded the Carnations, the Debutantes, [[the Falcons]], [[the Jive Bombers]], the Robins, and many others. Although his entrepreneurial approach to the music business and his role as a middleman between black artists and white audiences created opportunities for unrecorded groups to pursue wider exposure,<ref name="CherryGriffith2014">{{cite journal |author1=Robert Cherry |author2=Jennifer Griffith |title=Down to Business: Herman Lubinsky and the Postwar Music Industry |journal=Journal of Jazz Studies |date=Summer 2014 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–4 |doi=10.14713/JJS.V10I1.84 |s2cid=161459134 |doi-access=free}}</ref> he was reviled by many of the black musicians he dealt with.<ref name="Kukla2002">{{cite book|author=Barbara J. Kukla|title=Swing City: Newark Nightlife, 1925-50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbt1NiemfHsC&pg=PA153|year=2002|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-3116-8|page=153}}</ref> Historians [[Robert D. Cherry|Robert Cherry]] and Jennifer Griffith maintain that regardless of Lubinsky's personal shortcomings, the evidence that he treated African American artists worse in his business dealings than other independent label owners did is unconvincing. They contend that in the extremely competitive independent record company business during the postwar era, the practices of Jewish record owners generally were more a reflection of changing economic realities in the industry than of their personal attitudes.<ref name="CherryGriffith2014" />

New York rockers [[Lou Reed]], [[Joey Ramone|Joey]] and [[Tommy Ramone]], and [[Chris Stein]] were doo-wop fans, as were many other Jewish [[punk rock|punks]] and [[proto-punk]]s. Reed recorded his first lead vocals in 1962 on two doo-wop songs, "Merry Go Round" and "Your Love", which were not released at the time.<ref name="Beeber200643">{{cite book|author=Steven Lee Beeber|title=The Heebie-jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Loulao8hWM8C&pg=PA43|year=2006|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-55652-613-8|page=43}}</ref> A few years later, Reed worked as a staff songwriter writing bubblegum and doo-wop songs in the assembly-line operation at [[Pickwick Records]] in New York.<ref name="Beeber2006">{{cite book|author=Steven Lee Beeber|title=The Heebie-jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Loulao8hWM8C&pg=PA16|year=2006|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-55652-613-8|page=16}}</ref>