The Rivingtons
| The Rivingtons | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Doo Wop , Rhythm and Blues |
| former members | |
| Al Frazier | |
| Carl White († January 7, 1980 ) | |
| John "Sonny" Harris | |
| Turner "Rocky" Wilson Jr. | |
The Rivingtons was a doo-wop singing group founded in California , USA in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Band history
Before the vocal group was renamed The Rivingtons in the late 1950s , the group members had performed together under various other names for several years. During this time there had also been some changes in the line-up. The group appeared as The Sharps , among others, and contributed to several recordings of guitarist Duane Eddy background vocals in the late 1950s , including his 1958 hit Rebel Rouser. On the single Blau-Wile-Deveest-Fontaine by the young Paul Anka from 1956, the later Rivingtons members are listed as The Jacks .
The Rivingtons had their first own hit with the piece Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow, the single reached number 48 in the US charts in 1962. The lyrics of the song essentially consist of repetitions of the onomatopoeic nonsense words of the song title, so it uses onomatopoeia as a stylistic device. The following year, the single The Bird's the Word was released. Further recordings by The Rivingtons could not follow the success of the first singles.
In 1963, surf rock band The Trashmen used the two singles Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow and The Bird's the Word as the basis for their hit single Surfin 'Bird, which reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 . The first edition of the single showed The Trashmen as authors of the piece; after legal action by The Rivingtons, these were specified as composers on later pressings of the trashmen single .
Discography
Singles
- Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
- Kickapoo Joy Juice
- Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow (The Bird)
- The Bird's the Word
- The Shaky Bird (Part 1)
- Cherry
- The Weejee Walk
Albums
- Doin 'the bird
literature
- Warner, Jay: The Billboard Book Of American Singing Groups. A History 1940–1990 . Billboard Books, New York, NY 1992, pp. 437-439
Web links
- The Rivingtons at All Music Guide (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Band biography of The Rivingtons on allmusic.com (accessed June 30, 2012)
- ↑ Martin Schmidt: Surf Beat - The Who's Who of Surf and Instromusik, p. 45. Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2007. ISBN 978-3-931-555-85-6