50 years ago: “Earth Angel” flew on to charts

Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) The Penguins

Writer(s): Curtis Williams, Jesse Belvin, and Gaynel Hodge (see lyrics here) Released: October 19, 1954 First Charted: December 18, 1954 Peak: 8 US, 3 CB, 7 HR, 13 RB, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, -- UK, 10.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 43.89 video, 51.7 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In the 1950s, it was common practice to refashion an R&B hit as a “sanitized, big-label cover.” RS500 The intent was to craft a version of the song which would be more palatable to mainstream white audiences and subsequently have a better shot at success on the pop charts. While the remake generally lacked the grit and soul of its source material, it would often outperform the original. “Earth Angel” was no exception – at least in terms of chart success. The Crew-Cuts, a “schmaltzy white group” RS500 from Canada, took the song to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the first version, by the Penguins, peaked at #8. Regardless of what the charts said, however, the Penguins’ take on the song became the more celebrated. The original outsold the remake and outperformed it on jukeboxes. DM In fact, when measured by appeal over time, Billboard called this “the top R&B record of all time.” NRR The Penguins were a vocal group of high-school friends who formed in Los Angeles in 1954. They recorded the song in a garage; producer Walter Williams recalls redoing takes because he had to quiet the barking dog next door. TB Their “artless, unaffected vocals…defined the street-corner elegance of doo-wop” RS500 and “Earth Angel” is “one of the finest examples” TB the genre has to offer. A 1997 listener poll done by New York’s WCBS ranked “Earth Angel” the scone best doo-wop song of all time, only behind the Five Satins’ “In the Still of the Night.” SS “Like many doo-wop ballads, [it] was structured on the chord changes of Rodgers & Hart’s ‘Blue Moon.’” TY2 “Earth Angel” is the song that cemented that chord progression. AH It has “virtually all the qualities cherished by doo-wop lovers: melodic beauty, a shimmering and earnest lead vocal, stripped-to-the-bone simplicity, and a pristine romantic innocence.” SS The idealized teen romance AH as well as the melody is similar to “Dream Girl,” a song the Penguins’ Jesse Belvin took to #2 on the R&B chart in 1952. SS The arrangement is from “I Know” by the Hollywood Flames, a band which featured Penguins’ members Curtis Williams and Gaynel Hodge. AH “Earth Angel” was originally intended as the B-side RS500 for “Hey Senorita,” AH released through DooTone, a black-owned and operated label. NRR It bore the distinction of being the first song from an independent R&B label to hit the Billboard pop charts. DM Even more significantly, it was one of the first crossover records NRR and “a pivotal record in rock & roll’s early development.” RS500 Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for The Penguins AH Andrew Hickey (2019). A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs: Volume 1. Page 277-86. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New York, NY; New American Library. Page 570. NRR National Recording Registry RS500 RollingStone.com (4/7/2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 382-4. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 11. TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 355. Last updated 3/23/2023.

50 years ago: The Crew-Cuts Hit #1 with “Sh-Boom”

Sh-Boom The 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 charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 17.84 video, 93.02 streaming

Sh-Boom The Crew Cuts

First Charted: July 10, 1954 Peak: 19 US, 3 HP, 17 CB, 3 HR, 12 UK, 14 AU (Click for codes to 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.

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Awards (The Crew Cuts’ version):

About the Song: “Doo-wop classic” DJ “Sh-Boom” “seems fated to have been stumbled across on a street corner or in a subway station.” DM 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. DM 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.” DM The group had worked together several years DM 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 Still, when it came to “Sh-Boom,” everyone at Atlantic reportedly hated the song. AH It was only recorded at the insistence of the Chords and released as a B-side. Then it started to hit with DJ’s. It’s hard to imagine now that the record company didn’t embrace the song at first. “Sh-Boom” “is, in many ways, an absolutely typical doo-wop song.” AH The genre “was basically an extension of the Ink Spots’ style. You have at least four singers, one of whom is a very prominent bass vcaolist who sings nonsense words like ‘doo wop’ or ‘bom bom da bom,’ another of whom is a high tenor who takes most of the leads, and the rest sing harmonies in the middle.” AH The genre was significant for introducing black artists to white audiences in the early days of rock and roll. However, in a time when racism was prevalent on the charts, record companies typically turned to white artists to produce sanitized versions of the original songs that were “appropriate” for the pop charts. In the case of “Sh-Boom,” the Crew-Cuts, “a white group with the closely cropped hair,” TY1 were the offenders, even getting credited with “the first rock and roll number 1 hit.” DJ It topped the Billboard Best Sellers, Disc Jockey Hits, and Jukebox Hits charts. However, the Chords’ original could not be denied. It still went top 5 on the pop charts – an “unprecedented achievement.” SJ In fact, it was the first R&B record by a black artist or group to reach the Billboard pop charts’ top 10. AH Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Chords DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Crew Cuts AH Andrew Hickey (2019). A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs: Volume 1. Pages 199-210. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 171. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 374-5. SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Brothers, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 170. TY1 Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. Quill: New York, NY. Page 160. First posted 8/7/2011; last updated 4/1/2023.