They All Sang on the Corner: A Second Look at New York City's Rhythm and Blues Vocal Groups

by Philip Groia

The greatest book ever written on African-American Rhythm and Blues (doowop) vocal groups of the 1950's. In its nine chapters, there are interviews with singers, musicians and choreographers, discographies and forty rare photographs. It chronicles the development of the early pioneers of Rhythm and Blues vocal the Ravens, Orioles, Dominoes, Harptones, Cadillacs, Five Keys, Flamingos, Moonglows, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and Solitaires. It contains over 700 references to groups and individuals who made R&B big-time. Record collectors call it the "bible."

Genres: Music

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

Reviews

[Richard]

It's tough to assign a single rating to this book. For people that only have a casual interest in this topic, the book deserves 2 stars at best. It is poorly organized. Very reader-unfriendly. Very long, run-on paragraphs. Few sub-topic headers. Embedded long lists of names. Some inaccurate information (song titles, e.g.).

On the other hand, for those who want to dig into this topic, the author does an amazing job of collecting and processing a lot of obscure information. I spent a lot of time looking up songs on YouTube and elsewhere that the author mentioned, so I could hear what he was writing about. There aren't very many good books on what is colloquially called "doo-wop". Any authoritative and in-depth resource is welcome. So, 4-stars for that.

Due to the nature of the topic (many short-lived groups, many personnel changes, many small record companies of dubious reputations and scant documentation, peoples' unreliable memories, and people no longer with us), this is a very difficult topic to put into book form. I sympathize with the author and applaud his effort. This is a highly desirable book for fans of the genre (as I am).

[Jonathan]

Groia's account of those halcyon days of vocal music in and around Spanish Harlem is a well-constructed and well-researched work. However, it is peculiarly inconsistent in that there are moments of absolutely blinding meticulousness (Groia details all the members through two decades of The Harptones, for instance) and then there are moments in which ostensibly important information is glossed over fairly quickly. This is one of those works that is so small that I think it would be somewhat difficult to produce an holistic conception of the world it seeks to research. All-in-all, however, it's very much worth the read if you fancy yourself a music historian or just an amateur music geek.

[Ray]

This book is a bit jumbled but it is a good introduction to the best of the black r&b doo wop vocal groups of the Fifties.