| Sh-BoomThe Chords |
Writer(s): William Edwards, Carl Feaster, Claude Feaster, James Keyes, Floyd McRae (see lyrics here) First Charted: July 3, 1954 Peak: 5 US, 3 HP, 17 CB, 2 RB, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 17.84 video, 93.02 streaming |
![]() | Sh-BoomThe Crew Cuts |
First Charted: July 10, 1954 Peak: 19 US, 3 HP, 17 CB, 3 HR, 12 UK, 14 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 16.7 video, -- streaming |
Awards (The Chords’ version):Click on award for more details. |
Awards (The Crew Cuts’ version): |
About the Song:“Doo-wop classic” JA “Sh-Boom” “seems fated to have been stumbled across on a street corner or in a subway station.” MA Member James Keyes destroys the myth, however, saying, “we never sang on the street corner, period. The Chords rehearsed at each other’s houses and over at P.S. 99 in the Bronx.” SJ Still, in the history of doo-wop, The Chords, came closer than any other group to being discovered on a street corner. Joe Glaser, who worked with leading black talent agency Associated Booking, saw them harmonizing as they walked into a subway station. MA He gave them a card and when they came to his office, his associate, Oscar Cohen, took them over to Atlantic Records. SJ Atlantic Records’ Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler “immediately snapped the group up, because its harmony style seemed tailor-made for the new style of R&B then finding a market among white teenagers.” MA The group had worked together several years MA and expressed a fondness for “any good singers,” SJ basing their sound on R&B harmony groups like the Ravens and the Orioles, but also on white jazz and swing groups like the Modernaires and Four Freshmen. SJ The Crew-Cuts, “a white group with the closely cropped hair,” TY did their own sanitized version of the song, crafting what has been called “the first rock and roll number 1 hit.” JA It topped the Billboard Best Sellers, Disc Jockey Hits, and Jukebox Hits charts. At the time, it was common for white artists to remake popular songs originally recorded by R&B artists. However, proving their song still had an audience, The Chords’ original still went top 5 on the pop charts – an “unprecedented achievement.” SJ
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First posted 8/7/2011; last updated 10/23/2022. |
The Crew Cuts was a bad white copy of the classic Chords original. Crew Cuts version cannot even be considered Doo Wop.
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