Ask anyone what R&B stands for—do you know? The answer takes us back to 1949 when the music trade publication Billboard Magazine coined the phrase rhythm and blues in a pioneering PC move to replace the phrase, race music. These were categories used by Billboard and other trade publications to describe music created by African American artists.
In 1949, rhythm and blues referred to just about anything. Among the earliest of the so-called R&B was cool jazz of the Nat King Cole Trio.
The swing of Louis Jordan and the Timpani Five.
The jump blues of Wynonie Harris.
The bebop of Charlie “Yardbird” Parker.
The smooth vocal harmonies of the Ravens and Sonny Til and the Orioles.
It was all rhythm and blues, R&B. But by the middle of the 1950s, when the rock and roll revolution was underway, one of the predominant Black music styles was the four-part male harmony vocal group, usually backed by a small band that included piano, guitar, bass, drums, and tenor sax.
This four-part harmony format would later be called doo-wop, but by that time it was already out of fashion, having been eclipsed by soul, Motown, the innovative funk of James Brown, and of course, the British Invasion.
R&B harmony groups were so popular in the 1950s that each major city in the United States could boast of hundreds of groups making records for local mom and pop record labels. A lot of these upstart companies were just a small studio in the back of a record shop on Main Street.
The groups themselves were made up mostly of high school aged boys who would rehearse in the boys room, subway stations and local community centers. The romantic image of a group singing under a lamp on a street corner is nice, but it’s not normally what happened.
There were a few girl groups in the mix as well. In New York City, we had the Chantels and the Clickettes.
In New Jersey, a group called the Kodoks featured a female lead singer and a male group behind her. The odds of any of these groups ever having a hit record were enormous. But once in a while, it happened. One of the biggest group hits of the ‘50s, “In the Still of the Night,” was recorded by the Five Satins in a church basement in New Haven, Connecticut.
Most of the young men and women who created this music were amateurs, but the youthful and innocent appeal reached far beyond the streets where it was created. Listen next time and we'll explore some of the better-known R&B vocal groups of the 1950s.
Listen to the segment, above.
Recommended listening:
“Tell Me So” by the Orioles (Baltimore)
“Gee” by the Crows (NYC)
“This Silver Ring” by the Castelles (Philadelphia)
“Desirie” by the Charts (NYC)
"Lover's Prayer” by the Clickettes (NYC)
“In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins (New Haven)
“A Thousand Miles Away” by the Heartbeats (NYC)
