Doo Wop 50 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Doo Wop 50 was a PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

pledge drive

Pledge drive

A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time...

special created and produced for PBS member station WQED-TV by TJ Lubinsky

TJ Lubinsky

Terry James "TJ" Lubinsky is primarily a Pittsburgh radio host. However, he is also executive producer/director of many PBS pledge-drive programs. His cherubic bear-cub appearance endears him to millions of viewers of all the oldies-format music programs airing periodically on the network.Lubinsky...

, grandson of Herman Lubinsky (founder of Savoy Records

Savoy Records

Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part in popularizing bebop.Savoy Records is an American record label specializing in jazz, R&B and gospel. Starting in the mid 1940s, Savoy played an important part...

). The special was inspired by a 1994 CD box-set of doo wop music produced and sold by Rhino Records, which was also a development and production partner in the special.

Doo Wop 50 was videotaped live at The Benedum Center

Benedum Center

The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts is a theater and concert hall located at 719 Liberty Avenue in the Cultural District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

For The Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

on May 11 & 12, 1999. It showcased many doo-wop groups that had existed since the 1950s, and was hosted by former Impressions

The Impressions (American band)

The Impressions are an American music group from Chicago, originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes doo-wop, gospel, soul, and R&B....

lead and soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

soloist Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler (singer)

Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...

. It was followed by Doo Wop 51 and the American Soundtrack series. Doo Wop 50 became the highest-producing pledge drive special in the history of PBS at that time, garnering more than $20 million for its member stations.

The American Soundtrack series has become a mainstay for PBS and WQED.

Part One

Herb Reed's Platters

The Platters

The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...

Only You
The Great Pretender

Norman Wright's Dell Vikings

The Del-Vikings

The Del-Vikings are an American doo-wop musical group, who recorded several hit singles in the 1950s, and continued to record and tour with various lineups in later decades...

Come Go With Me

The Skyliners

The Skyliners are an American doo-wop group from Pittsburgh fronted by Jimmy Beaumont. The original lineup also included Wally Lester, Jack Taylor, Joe Verscharen, Louis M. Tutino and Janet Vogel...

This I Swear Is True
Since I Don't Have You

The Penguins

The Penguins were an American doo-wop group of the 1950s and early 1960s, best remembered for their only Top 40 hit, "Earth Angel ", which was one of the first rhythm and blues hits to cross over to the pop charts...

Earth Angel

Gene Chandler

Gene Chandler also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive. He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene...

with Pure Gold

Pure Gold

Pure Gold is a 1975 compilation album by Elvis Presley released as part of RCA's budget "Pure Gold" series of albums. Though at this point in his career Presley was focused more on the country music market, where he had a string of chart-topping records in recent years, this compilation focuses...

Duke of Earl

Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge

Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge is an American musical group, best known for their million selling rendition of Jimmy Webb's "The Worst That Could Happen" .-History:...

Sixteen Candles
Worst That Could Happen

Lee Andrews & the Hearts

Lee Andrews & the Hearts was a doo-wop quintet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania formed in 1953. They recorded on the Gotham, Rainbow, Mainline, Chess, United Artists, Grand and Gowen labels. Managed by Kae Williams, in 1957 and 1958 they had their three biggest hits, "Teardrops", "Long Lonely...

Long, Lonely Nights

The Cleftones

The Cleftones were a doo-wop group from Queens, New York. They were formed in 1955 at Jamaica High School. The group consisted of Herbie Cox , Charlie James , Berman Patterson, , William McClane , and Warren Corbin . They were originally called The Silvertones...

Little Girl of Mine
Heart and Soul

The Capris

The Capris are an Italian-American Doo Wop group originating in the Ozone Park section of Queens, New York in the late 1950s.-Biography:The group originated in Ozone Park, Queens in 1957 when they were teenagers...

There's a Moon Out Tonight

The Marcels

The Marcels were a doo-wop group known for turning American classical pop songs into rock and roll. The group formed in 1959 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and signed to Colpix Records, with lead Cornelius Harp, bass Fred Johnson, Gene Bricker, Ron Mundy, and Richard Knauss...

Blue Moon

The Jive Five

The Jive Five is an American doo wop group.The group formed in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1950s with Eugene Pitt, Jerome Hanna, Richard Harris, Thurmon Prophet, and Norman Johnson. The group found success in 1961 with "My True Story" on Beltone Records, which reached #3 on the U.S...

My True Story
What Time Is It?

The Legends of Doo Wop

The Legends of Doo Wop is a music group of 1950s doo-wop singers. The original members included Jimmy Gallagher of the Passions, Tony Passalaqua of the Fascinators, Frank Mancuso of the Imaginations, and Steve Horn of the Five Sharks. In 2006, Passalaqua left the group and was replaced by Tommy...

Just To Be With You
Oh Rosemarie
Guardian Angel

Earl Lewis and The Channels

The Channels

The Channels were an American doo wop group from New York City.The Channels formed in 1955 around the singers Larry Hampden, Billy Morris, and Edward Doulphin; they started as a quintet with two additional part-time members, but soon after they permanently added Earl Michael Lewis and Clifton...

That's My Desire
The Closer You Are

Part Two

The Cadillacs

The Cadillacs were an American rock and roll and doo-wop group from Harlem, New York; active from 1953 to 1962. The group was noted for their 1955 hit "Speedoo", which was instrumental in attracting White audiences to Black rock and roll performers.-History:...

Zoom
Gloria
Speedo

The Golden Group Memories

The Golden Group Memories is a touring music group that contains former members of doo-wop groups. The 2006 line-up includes:*Vito Balsamo of the Salutations*Randy Silverman of the Impalas*Leo Lucas of the Cavaliers*Jimmy Merchant of The Teenagers...

Unchained Melody
Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)

The Chantels

The Chantels were the second African-American girl group to have nationwide success in the United States, preceded by The Bobbettes. The group was established in the early 1950s and attended St. Anthony of Padua school in The Bronx...

Look At My Eyes

The Chantels

featuring Arlene Smith

Maybe

The Moonglows

The Moonglows were an American R&B and doo-wop group based in Cleveland, Ohio.-Early years:Originally formed in their native Louisville, Kentucky as the Crazy Sounds, the group moved to Cleveland, where disc jockey Alan Freed renamed them 'the Moonglows'...

featuring Harvey Fuqua

Harvey Fuqua

Harvey Fuqua, was an African-American rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, record producer, and record label executive.Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo-wop group the Moonglows in the 1950s...

Sincerely
Ten Commandments of Love

Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler (singer)

For Your Precious Love

The Harptones

The Harptones are an American doo-wop group, which formed in Manhattan in 1953.The group never had a top forty pop hit, or even a record on the national R&B charts, yet they are still considered one of the most influential doo-wop groups, both for their lead singer, Willie Winfield and their...

Sunday Kind Of Love
Life Is But A Dream

The Flamingos

The Flamingos were a doo wop group from the United States, most popular in the mid to late 1950s and best known for their 1959 cover version of "I Only Have Eyes for You".-Early quintet:...

I Only Have Eyes For You
Lovers Never Say Goodbye

The Channels

, The Legends of Doo Wop

The Legends of Doo Wop

, The Golden Group Memories

The Golden Group Memories

, The Cadillacs

The Cadillacs

Gloria Medley

The Spaniels

The Spaniels were an American R&B doo-wop group, best known for the hit "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite".They have been called the first successful Midwestern R&B group...

Stormy Weather
Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight

Part One

Part Two

See also