The Moonglows, "Starlite"/"In Love," Chess 1605 (rel. Aug 1955)
Doo-wop innovators The Moonglows made so many great singles for Chess Records it's hard to keep track of them all. Music buyers had the same problem in 1955. With recent smash hits "Sincerely" (perhaps the first Black-written song to achieve chart-topping hits in pop, country and rhythm & blues) and "Most of All" (not up to that level of hit-ness, but still successful) continuing their airplay and on-the-chart-ness, plus two side projects by Bobby Lester and The Moonlighters, the public might have been sated when today's single came and went without the proverbial peep in the late summer of 1955.
Like "Sincerely," both sides of Chess 1605 had co-cleffing credit to DJ/influencer Alan Freed, who never wrote a song in his life but did a lot to publicize Black vocal groups and early rock 'n' roll. A middle-aged advocate of the emergent teen culture, Freed was the public face of adults who recognized and celebrated this much-needed infusion of energy to a music system that had been on life-support for a decade. Perry Como and The Four Lads didn't cut it for teens of 1955. They wanted music that had some oomph, and The Moonglows, et al, delivered. They needed a white man to mansplain the appeal to the doe-eyed people of mainstream America. Freed, to his credit, did that with conviction and enthusiasm.
By 1955 standards, that merited a co-writer credit on several Moonglows sides. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Do a buddy a solid. That mentality ruled the music world. No exploitation here! Just bros helping other, less institutional bros. You know.
"Starlite" was Harvey Fuqua's follow-up to the all-market success of "Sincerely." It doesn't sound like a bald rewrite of the hit, to Harvey Fuqua's credit. (And not to Alan Freed's credit, thank you.) It has that long-familiar "Blue Moon" chord pattern, which our modern ears must fight past to hear the song imprisoned by those oft-used progressions.
It opens with all Moonglows in dense harmony; then lead voice Bobby Lester steps forward with an impassioned ode to those night-time twinklers that show him the way to romance. It's well-performed, but as an example of too much of a good thing, it whizzed past public radar and failed to chart in any market. "Most of All," its predecessor, failed to repeat the fine showing of "Sincerely" on the pop charts; The Moonglows' original got to #20 in 1954 and The McGuire Sisters' pop rendition went to #1. Alan Freed got a free ride to Moolahville with all those royalties; it didn't happen with poor "Starlite."
Like "Sincerely," both sides of Chess 1605 had co-cleffing credit to DJ/influencer Alan Freed, who never wrote a song in his life but did a lot to publicize Black vocal groups and early rock 'n' roll. A middle-aged advocate of the emergent teen culture, Freed was the public face of adults who recognized and celebrated this much-needed infusion of energy to a music system that had been on life-support for a decade. Perry Como and The Four Lads didn't cut it for teens of 1955. They wanted music that had some oomph, and The Moonglows, et al, delivered. They needed a white man to mansplain the appeal to the doe-eyed people of mainstream America. Freed, to his credit, did that with conviction and enthusiasm.
By 1955 standards, that merited a co-writer credit on several Moonglows sides. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Do a buddy a solid. That mentality ruled the music world. No exploitation here! Just bros helping other, less institutional bros. You know.
"Starlite" was Harvey Fuqua's follow-up to the all-market success of "Sincerely." It doesn't sound like a bald rewrite of the hit, to Harvey Fuqua's credit. (And not to Alan Freed's credit, thank you.) It has that long-familiar "Blue Moon" chord pattern, which our modern ears must fight past to hear the song imprisoned by those oft-used progressions.
It opens with all Moonglows in dense harmony; then lead voice Bobby Lester steps forward with an impassioned ode to those night-time twinklers that show him the way to romance. It's well-performed, but as an example of too much of a good thing, it whizzed past public radar and failed to chart in any market. "Most of All," its predecessor, failed to repeat the fine showing of "Sincerely" on the pop charts; The Moonglows' original got to #20 in 1954 and The McGuire Sisters' pop rendition went to #1. Alan Freed got a free ride to Moolahville with all those royalties; it didn't happen with poor "Starlite."
Cash Box thought the world of "Starlite." The gritty, rockin', brink-of-soul music "In Love" was not "fairly much in the same vein;" it suggests the reviewer fairly much didn't listen to that blistering, superior B.
"In Love" is a hidden gem in the Moonglows catalogue. This could be from the Moonlighters sessions; you can hear two stellar examples in THIS RECENT POST. From the git-go, this cooker delivers the bluesy goods. Wicked guitar drives this slow-burner that shows what good r&b singers the group were when they weren't busy delivering the expected pop ballads.
I found this single at the recent Canby record show. Its grooved were caked with dust but I could see a good-playing record under all that crud. Several cleanings later, I was rewarded with my first listen to this scorching side.
Fun Fact: UK pop icon Petula Clark covered this song in 1964, with its composer credited as Harvey Suqua. It's a credible rendition that you can hear HERE. Worth the spin! But after you hear the riveting original...
I found this single at the recent Canby record show. Its grooved were caked with dust but I could see a good-playing record under all that crud. Several cleanings later, I was rewarded with my first listen to this scorching side.
Fun Fact: UK pop icon Petula Clark covered this song in 1964, with its composer credited as Harvey Suqua. It's a credible rendition that you can hear HERE. Worth the spin! But after you hear the riveting original...
Tomorrow: Tippie and The Clovers are the first of my finds from this past weekend's record show. Two bossa-nova themed songs, written and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, via a hard-to-find 1962 Tiger Records platter--pressed on good-quality vinyl.
Two pretty cool doo-woppers! Interesting that the Petula version makes "In Love" a bluesier number—well, for her anyway.
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