Race relations, and the origins of "Doo-wop" in the Bronx | Tony Guida's NY 

....Professor Mark Naison had just started at Fordham University/Rose Hill-Bronx campus, when I graduated. He's gotten a well-deserved stellar reputation over the years in his analysis of african-american culture, and other ethnicities' reaction to it.

Mark Naison brought back a lot of memories. Yet he missed a point, in his comments that The Belmont's were an African- American group. The group was a UN group composed of Puerto Rican, Black and Dion himself. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Puerto Ricans started to move into the Bronx, and they too fell in love with the classic R&B vocal groups. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers is a classic UN group along with many others. The book "Acappella Living in the shadows 1963-1973-A Social History" covers the influence of street corner singing by Jewish, Italian, Black and Puerto Ricans. Great interview...

I grew up in the 50's/60's at the east end of Fordham Rd. Blacks did not cross the "park" or the Zoo which separated the neighborhoods. The Prof. has it right. Things changed and the music made it happen. I lived near the projects and when Naison went to Evander, I went to Columbus HS. It was all about looking for an echo.

Something else that I would like to hi-light here is that the origins of doowop being credited to the Morrisania area of the Bronx is massively incorrect if your talking about the birth of vocal group RnR . Sh-boom by The Chords did indeed get to the top 10 in 1954 but it’s pretty much common knowledge now that the first RnR breakthrough was by a group from Baltimore called The Crows and there top 20 hit Gee which peaked on the hit parade charts at 14 and the RnB charts at no 2 in early March of 54 a full year after it was recorded 2 months before Sh-boom was recorded and released and believe me these songs were by no means the first of there kind the rest just didn’t chart hi enough but some doowop goes right back to the early 40’s but it’s just not RnR . The only other RnR doowop tunes that came close to charting back in 52 and 53 were 60 Minute Man by The Dominoes and Money Honey by The Drifters but they were different styles of RnB/Doowop and then there was a close hit in 53 by The Orioles ‘Crying in the Chapel’ but that again was a different style of Gospel ballad doowop and not really RnR...

His statements about doo-wop groups are misleading even if well meaning. Urban vocal harmony music (which we call doowop) originated on the street corners with primarily black groups, who deserve most all of the credit for its styling, innovation etc. The white groups largely tried to copy the black groups that they were enamored with. To aficionados, there were very few white groups whose artistry in the style could compete with the top quality black groups of the era---the latter of which included The Harptones, the Five Keys, the Moonglows, Ravens, Solitaires,, Teenagers, Flamingos, Channels, Heartbeats, Chantels, Larks, Orioles, Nutmegs.. --the list goes on and on. Most black groups were relegated to the R&B charts and airplay of most black groups very limited on mainstream programming. What is a bit sad is that if one goes to doo-wop revival shows, the audiences are overwhelmingly white and it has been this way since the 80s.

In the 50s and 60s we didn't give a s*** what color you were the Only thing that we cared about was, could you Harmonize, could you Sing... 'Nuff said!!!...

I have a problem with comment re "doo wop"!!!

doo woop is a black American creation not born in the Bronx.