Arguably the last time that popular music was actually happy, doo wop became massively popular in from the mid 50’s until The Beatles took over American airwaves in the early 60’s. It was one of the few genres that had audiences in both white and black markets, and is still used these days by various vocal and pop groups. From that musical hotbed called Canada, The Diamonds came into prominence and rode the R&B/doo wop bandwagon, first getting on the charts with a cover of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” and “Willows.” This two disc set covers all of their hits as well as B sides, and give a wonderful perspective of music before the bottom fell out of class and style with The British Invasion and psychedelic rock.
The original members of Dave Somerville, Ted Kowalski, Phil Levitt and Bill Reed are recorded in various settings, sometimes with big studio bands, others fairly spartan, sounding like they are trying to figure out which will gain the most traction. They struck gold with the mix wonderful harmonics and humor of “Little Darlin’” which defies anyone not to sing along, while “Silhouettes” runs a close second. The band even started a trend of its own with the irresistible bluesy “The Stroll” which inspired everyone from Dick Clark to Candy Barr for the dance steps, with the and trying to re-create the magic on “Walking The Stroll.” Most of the other songs are wonderful novelty tunes such as “Zip Zip,” “Straight Skirts” and “The Pencil Song,” with the team closing out with pop pieces such as “Oh, Carol” and “San Antonio Rose.” Where did we make a wrong turn?