Wonderful tribute! Buddy MacRae said it perfectly - "I thought history began at the beginning, not in the middle". The beginning was the doo wop groups who started it all. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seems to think the music started with the Beatles - ten years later. 1954 was a watershed year for popular music culture in the US and the world. Sh-Boom, Earth Angel, Gee, and on and on.....
Jimmy Keys is my uncle. He took me to a few rehearsals back in the 1960s. I used to see all the guys. They would come by the store owned by my uncle Jimmy. He was a strong father figure in the family. We all miss him.
Troy Ragland that’s so cool! Never got a chance to meet him but Buddy would tell me all the stories. Buddy passed away a few years ago so there’s no one original left. Sad! My goal was to try and get them inducted. My film partner and I even have a full play and full film script. Hopefully one day I’ll get the word out even more!! Thanks Troy!!
I'm a Big Do Wop fan...I really enjoyed this documentary. Love the history lesson even more. RIP Chords you are definitely in my Rock & Roll Hall of Fame...God Bless & Thanks for posting this!!!!
Chuck Harper Jr thanks Chuck! Im a good friend of Buddy Mcrae’s Son. Fascinating Story given to me directly from Buddy’s mouth. Unfortunately we lost Buddy a few years ago! God Bless!
Screw the Hall of Fame. If they don't get that these guys are the real deal, their authority is meaningless. It's 2021. Time to acknowledge our racist past, the whitewash and the actual founders of this amazing race/jump/R&B/rock n roll music. [Also, it'd be great to know all the players on the hit as well. And who did the arranging? That whole band was swinging! Who was killing on that saxophone solo? I've loved it since I was 8 years old.] Anyways, the internet does give us the tools to find the truth. Thanks for posting this and all the best to anyone who had anything to do with creating this incredible music and legacy.
OH MAN!!! Just listening to that keychange/sax break again. CHILLS! And almost tears. Wow. You guys made something so magic. Really affected me as a little kid. And it will last forever. It still makes me feel electric, just listening to it. Thank you, Chords!!!!
I guess they just don't have the real rock n' roll stuff like the other RnR's who are in like the Foo Fighters, the dynamic Lenny Cohen, Joan Baez, the Shakur guy? and Public Enemy, to name a few. What a joke.
"I always though history was supposed to about the beginning of things, not the end" is such a lovely quote. It makes me truly sad see Floyd McRae Singing Sh-boom on his own at the end, really quite tragic that they are still yet to be properly recognised.
These great early groups should be in the HOF.My favorite 70's band Blue Oyster Cult is being held out because of Jaan Wenners feud with a band member(I don't care if he denies it either).But I'll settle for a R&B HOF and all the UGHA shows showcasing these great groups.
The UGHA Hall Of Fame is the real deal. The Chords, with three original members, reunited and performed at UGHA. It was Carl Feaster. Buddy Mcrae, Jimmy Keyes, and Gary Morrison a veteran of other Bronx groups like the Mellows
As a canadian i just wanted a history of a song/group and it turns into a left wing rant against"white" people. First they were not rock and roll. It was just a regular song. the cover of it was excellent and maybe better. this group only had one song bin them. Black folks always were accepted by AMERICANS. The blacks were segregated and only played their own music, still that way, and simply were not very good. if they were then BANG a hit. this song was great and rightlv away accepted by the Americans. Doo wop was not that great. It was slow music. It died because it was not good. rock and roll was started by Bill Halety. Not Sh-boom.
You are out of your mind ,this is a great song,far better than that dreadful cover by the crudcuts,also bill haley"s cover of shake ,rattle and roll sucked too! White radio only played white covers of black music and cheated the black artists out of their royalties! .
Np thats sour grapes myths. i'm confident the vover here was better. its played more on classic hits. when they did it they traveled everywhere. both are good but the cover is superior. bills 'shake' was better too. its different. its not the first great rock song but his rock/clock was. tHat started it all. Bill was more rocking. the other guy is not remembered. i know him but most don't. playing covers is fine. normal. radio played everyone if they were good enough. Even black radio played some American music that was very good.
I do not deal in sour grapes,the truth is that the white record industry cheated black singers out of any profits they would make on their music by covering their music with inferior covers from people like the crewcuts and haley.When you cover someone"s song you make royalty payments to the artist who wrote the song.It took years of fighting for these black singers to get these payments they were owed.
Its not a white industry. White is a rem that denies actual identity and thus moral/intellectual/legal claims to anything. it was a american industry, very Jewish by the way, and the charge they desired to deny Africans(or blacks etc) profits is unproven. its simply they saw a way to make more, different, monies for a great song. covers were made of blacks, non blacks, and made money and did not. Crecuts/haley made more money because they made better songs. Possibly more exposure for the blacks ones would of helped but it hasn't since. anyways it was the blacks fault. they segregated themselves in music circles and still do. It was american kids who listened to anything good. Not blacks as everyone knows. If monies were denied then thats robbery. thats different. Thats not the charge. its a charge that non-blacks could get more exposure and so more sells. Doing covers is normal. Elvis did covers of all. By the way. Bill Haley loved fast R/B music and was friends with those he covered. There was corruption and injustice, remember they were Jews, but it was all lower class and seedy. Unlike today eh.
The fact that covers of black songs were recorded proves the fact that I am right,the fact that white radio stations would not play black songs on their stations but would play awful covers of black songs and not pay royalties proves my point also.People loved black music but the promoters and record companys wanted white singers to sing the songs.Furthermore,Jesse Stone,The Chords,and a number of black song writers obtained settlements for that injustice,and lets not leave mobsters out of the mix either,it was the mob who backed people likw George Goldner,Morris Levy and others involved in the payola scandle.elvis,haley and others all say they loved black music,what else could they say.Finally, corruption abides in any endever that makes large amounts of money,music,sports,politics to name a few things its as true today as it was yesterday!
