Prologue<\/p>\n
James Keyes, Claude Feaster, Carl Feaster, Floyd F. (\u201cBuddy\u201d) McRae, and James Edwards shared credit for writing the early Doo-Wop classic \u201cSh-Boom.\u201d Collectively, they were members of the Bronx-based R&B vocal group The Chords, who had their only hit with the song in 1954. \u201cSh-Boom\u201d appeared on Billboard\u2019s R&B and Pop charts (reaching the #2 and #5 spots, respectively), a rare crossover phenomenon in that era. That same year, \u201cSh-Boom,\u201d in a paler pop arrangement, was a #1 hit for The Crew-Cuts, a Canadian quartet, backed by Dave Carroll\u2019s Orchestra. Some people consider \u201cSh-Boom\u201d to be one of the first \u201cRock and Roll\u201d songs (although references to \u201crocking\u201d can be found as early as 1947).<\/p>\n
I simply think of \u201cSh-Boom\u201d as one of my favorite songs. Lately, I have been wondering how well \u201cSh-Boom\u201d has been holding up to the test of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sh-Boom
Street Corner Renaissance
(US)<\/p>\n
My survey begins on the Left Coast in Los Angeles with Street Corner Renaissance, a five-man a cappella group, all of whom quit their day jobs to pursue their musical muses. Their debut album, appropriately enough titled Life Could Be a Dream<\/em>, came out in 2011. When last heard from, SCR was playing to big crowds in Dubai. These cats made a smooth cover which I thoroughly enjoyed.<\/p>\n Street Corner Renaissance – Life Could Be A Dream<\/a><\/p>\n Sh-Boom This girl group from the Great North is in no danger of displacing The Guess Who, The Band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Neil Young & Crazy Horse or Rush on the short list of Canadian bands most Americans can count on one hand. Still, the young ladies have established a regional reputation in their native Ontario.<\/p>\n The quartet of Canucks are longtime friends from formative years spent at St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School, and the alumnae still manage to reunite to add to their repertory of Doo-Wop covers (although their arrangement of \u201cO Canada\u201d is apparently their most requested tune). For the time being, a hit is something the 4Qs get on their fan page or YouTube, but they appeared on a compilation CD of Doo-Wop artists from around the world. Their version of \u201cSh-Boom\u201d comes bundled at the end of a medley. The execution is earnest and wants to please but the sound is a bit thin and doesn\u2019t take advantage of the opportunity to be more daring.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom In Vietnamese, \u201cnhip\u201d means a musical bar or measure. However, Nhip Am Girls was not a Vietnamese group; rather, they were students at UCLA. In 2010, the collegiate singing ensemble went co-ed and now goes by the name The AweChords.<\/p>\n The incorporation of dance steps and tap elements into their routine lent some satisfying kinetic energy to their performance. It would have been nice to have heard even more of that energy arc into their otherwise competent harmonies.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom The O!Sharels–Tomoco, Mihoko, and Ai\u2014purport to be the only female Doo-Wop group in Japan. They brought good energy, sass, and a quirky predilection for present participles to their English-language rendition of \u201cSh-Boom.\u201d The trio put out an EP in 2013.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom British bands have been covering \u201cSh-Boom\u201d ever since 1954 when it was first recorded by Ken Mackintosh and His Orchestra with vocals by the The Mackpies. It was the 2010 debut album of The Overtones, however, which brought \u201cSh-Boom\u201d to a new generation of fans across the pond.<\/p>\n The five-man Doo-Wop group draws talent from England, Ireland, and Australia. The lads were discovered by a talent scout whilst they were taking a tea break on Oxford Street in London where they were working as decorators. Cheers!<\/p>\n Sh-Boom This is a French-language rendering by a solo artist from Orl\u00e9ans identified only as Tatay (a Tagalog word meaning \u201cfather\u201d). The song is dedicated \u201cpour les rageux\u201d which may be translated roughly as \u201cfor the haters\u201d but may be gamer lingo for devotees of Rage, a first-person shooter video game. (Rage is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, following the impact the asteroid 99942 Apophis on Earth, and thus the artist\u2019s rendition of \u201cSh-Boom\u201d may be an ironic evocation of the meteoric impact itself–Sh-Boom!–as well as a paean–\u201cLife could be a dream\u201d–to a conditionally brighter future.) It has been speculated that the original \u201cSh-Boom\u201d was an oblique reference to the atomic bomb.<\/p>\n It augers well for \u201cSh-Boom\u201d that its words are being translated into foreign languages. Of course, the essence of Doo-Wop–like scat–is that its strings of syllables are stripped of traditional meaning. The vocals in this instance seem Frenchified with a lot of \u201cla la la\u201d phonemes, making it sound cheesy to anyone except Francophiles and hardcore Christmas carolers, but overall I think the artist nailed the song in spirit if not to the letter.<\/p>\n .Sh-Boom pour les rageux! ^^ cover guitar\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sh-Boom The original \u201cSh-Boom\u201d was an R&B-styled song that quickly found a second home with Pop arrangements. Over time, other musical genres have appropriated the song to suit their distinctive sonic profiles. The appropriation is evident in this recording of \u201cSh-Boom\u201d by The Ethiopians in 1968.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll leave it to the experts to pinpoint where on the ska-rocksteady-reggae continuum this particular recording resides; what\u2019s important to note is that \u201cSh-Boom\u201d has demonstrated its cross-cultural versatility. Nor is this recording a one-off: Alton Ellis (\u201cThe Godfather of Rocksteady\u201d), Toots and the Maytals, and The Marvels also covered the tune, and other Jamaican bands have put it in their playlists.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom Treskantalites hail from the Madrid suburb of Tres Cantos. Notice how the name of the band plays on the name of their home town and manages to incorporate the word \u201cska.\u201d Pretty clever, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n Two things stand out in this interpretation of \u201cSh-Boom.\u201d The band turns the tune into unrepentant dance music. The horn section is given free range.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom The Big Band era was waning by the time \u201cSh-Boom\u201d was first produced. In the 1980s, the Barcelona-based Topolino Radio Orquestra put out a cover of the song which is the closest thing to imagining a fully realized swing rendering.<\/p>\n Bonus points are awarded here for translating the lyrics into Spanish. Chi Bum!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sh-Boom \u201cSh-Boom\u201d has made it south of the border and into this Spanish-language cover by Cuarteto Arm\u00f3nico. (There\u2019s also Spanglish version sung by C\u00e9sar de Guatemala, and an English-language version performed south of the equator by Los Jamiltons (Argentina).)<\/p>\n Personally, I found the organ and whistling accompaniments distracting from an otherwise solid performance.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom If the Internet is any guide, \u201cSh-Boom\u201d is required harmonizing on many college campuses. This bodes well for the song\u2019s future, notwithstanding the fact that far too many sophomoric (ahem) arrangements make \u201cSh-Boom\u201d into a vehicle for barbershop quartets or, worse yet, a hymn.<\/p>\n A peek online yielded these contestants for what an exemplary representative example might be: (in no particular order) the Pittsburgh Panther Rhythms, the University of Rochester Midnight Ramblers, Tufts\u2019s S Factor, Western Washington University\u2019s Major Treble, Western Connecticut State University\u2019s The Parallel Fifths, the Stanford Mendicants, the Washington University Stereotypes, the Texas A&M Men of Moores, UC-Berkeley\u2019s Men\u2019s Octet, the Ft. Lewis College Men\u2019s Choir, and McMaster University\u2019s (Canada) Absolute Pitch. The Harvard Din & Tonics consider \u201cSh-Boom\u201d to be their signature song.<\/p>\n To choose a champion among all these worthy candidates would be harder than picking the perfect bracket for the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament. So, I have taken the easy way out and selected–envelope please–the Men\u2019s Choir of Poor Knights (loosely translated) at the University of Bergen.<\/p>\n Just thank me for not belaboring the point with high schools, summer camps, and family reunions.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom What\u2019s the harm in showcasing a group with \u201cCats\u201d in its name. It\u2019s click-bait, after all! The Alley Cats do a great a cappella al fresco cover too.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom Rockabilly? Really? This is just wrong!<\/p>\n Sh-Boom Doubtless The California Raisins are best remembered for their 1988 rendition of the Motown classic \u201cI Heard it Through the Grapevine,\u201d but they also did a cover of \u201cSh-Boom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSh-Boom\u201d has had a complicated relationship with regional foodstuffs. Iowans of a certain age can tell you that the song was used as a jingle in television commercials hawking Dubuque Hams.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom At the outset, I feel the need to get this out of my system:<\/p>\n What’s the difference between a ukulele and an onion? What’s the difference between a ukulele and a trampoline? Why do so many people take an instant dislike to the ukulele? All joking aside, the amalgam of sweetness and insouciance in this rendition by Rene\u00e9 Dominque was enchanting.<\/p>\n Shoe-Bomb Remember Richard Reid? Ronnie does.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom This is the best known version of \u201cSh-Boom.\u201d The Crew Cuts were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1984–having never recorded an original song.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom The Chords are the originals. There is an unbridled exuberance in their performance. The harmonies, the horns, and the cantering tempo all seamlessly coalesce and build to a crescendo verging on delirium.<\/p>\n Sh-Boom Epilogue<\/p>\n The year 1954 was pivotal in the nascent civil rights movement gaining momentum in the United States. The Supreme Court, in their unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, struck down school segregation as unconstitutional. Far from being universally and triumphantly heralded as a watershed moment for equal rights, racial fault lines were being exposed and racial tensions were rising.<\/p>\n The music industry was not immune from prejudicial attitudes or discriminatory practices. Most African-American recording artists were relegated to smaller and independent record labels with less marketing muscle and more modest production facilities than the big-name recording companies. Black groups found it hard to get airplay on mainstream media properties in a time when radio was the primary means of achieving national exposure, and disc jockeys were the gatekeepers and tastemakers of popular music. It was common for the big labels to repackage black music in ways which were perceived to be more palatable to white audiences. \u201cSh-Boom\u201d shook up the status quo with its unstoppable crossover appeal, but The Chords would wind up becoming one-hit wonders and historical footnotes.<\/p>\n \u201cSh-Boom\u201d was The Chords\u2019s only hit song. When it was established that another band had already been using The Chords\u2019s name, the group underwent a couple of reincarnations, firstly re-dubbed The Chordcats, and, finally, The Sh-Booms. By 1960, having switched record labels, and following some personnel changes, the group had disbanded. Buddy McCrae, the last surviving member of the original group, died in 2013.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prologue James Keyes, Claude Feaster, Carl Feaster, Floyd F. (\u201cBuddy\u201d) McRae, and James Edwards shared credit for writing the early Doo-Wop classic \u201cSh-Boom.\u201d Collectively, they were members of the Bronx-based R&B vocal group The Chords, who had their only hit with the song in 1954. \u201cSh-Boom\u201d appeared on Billboard\u2019s R&B and Pop charts (reaching the … Continue reading Sh-Boom<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-982","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14775,"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/982\/revisions\/14775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasseidman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Four Quarters
(Canada)<\/p>\n
Nhip Am Girls
(US)<\/p>\n
Oh!Sharels
(Japan)<\/p>\n
The Overtones
(UK)<\/p>\n
Tatay
(France)<\/p>\n
The Ethiopians
(Jamaica)<\/p>\n
Treskantalites
(Spain)<\/p>\n
Topolino Radio Orquestra
(Spain)<\/p>\n
Cuarteto Arm\u00f3nico
(Mexico)<\/p>\n
Mannskoret Arme Riddere
(Norway)<\/p>\n
The Alley Cats
(US)<\/p>\n
Bobby Williamson
(US)<\/p>\n
The California Raisins
(US)<\/p>\n
Rene\u00e9 Dominique
(Philippines)<\/p>\n
No one cries when you cut up a ukulele.<\/p>\n
You take your shoes off to jump on a trampoline.<\/p>\n
It saves time.<\/p>\n
Ronnie Golden
(UK)<\/p>\n
The Crew Cuts
(Canada)<\/p>\n
The Chords
(US)<\/p>\n
The Chords
(US)<\/p>\n