The last time that music was actually happy was during the late 40s to late 50s, when vocal R&B, termed “Doo Wop” ruled the air waves. Most of the bands were either Italians or black, almost all from the East Coast originally and the created harmonies and rhythms with wonderfully sappy lyrics that were loved by fans of pop, gospel and R&B. The original team of Gene Alford/ten, Oscar Broadway/b, Clarence Dixon/bar and guitarist John Wallace/ten were sort of a cross between the Ink Spots and Mills Brothers, with Wallace’s strumming setting the pulse for the gorgeous velvety voices.
They had a number of big hits over the year, a buoyant “Oh Happy Day” from ’52 (not to be confused with the Edwin Hawkins Singers version) and nostalgic mega seller “(Oh Baby Mine) I Get So Lonely”. They were also able to handle jazz tunes and standards such as “Perdido” and “It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie” as well as silly novelties such as “Doo Wacka Doo”. The find a perfect teammate when Nat “King” Cole comes along for a hit for audiences both black and white on “That’s All There Is To That” and “My Personal Posession” and they got a bit more sophisticated in their arrangements later on with orchestration and choral support in the last years before the barbarians stormed the gates. Still, this collection of vocal Pax Romana is a memory of life before civilization collapsed under the Vandals.