Monday, January 25, 2016

Music Monday - Church Bells May Ring by The Willows (1956)

"Church Bells May Ring" is an old fashioned doo wop song.  Doo wop was a 1950's style of R&B music featuring vocal harmonies.  This was before my time, but I've discovered doo wop thanks to SiriusXM radio, and I truly love it.  I love a song with strong vocals, and especially with harmonies.

"Church Bells May Ring" was by The Willows.  This group hailed from Harlem, New York.  They started out as The Dovers, and then became The Five Willows.  Eventually they settled on The Willows as a group name.  The vocal group consisted of:  Tony Middleton (lead), Ralph Martin (tenor), Richie Davis (tenor), Joe Martin (baritone), and John Steel (bass).  This song charted at #114 on the Billboard record charts in 1956.

This song is new to me, but I love the energy and the great vocals.  And here's a bit of trivia -- Neil Sedaka plays the bells (chimes) on this record!

Do you like doo wop music and old fashioned 1950's vocals?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments, below.

4 comments:

scaro said...

Grew up with doo wop music and still love it today.
Always had a good dancing beat and good lyrics.
Listen to the 50's whenever I can.
Carol Smith
penelope223@yahoo.com

Unknown said...

We love doo wop music! PBS occasionally plays their Doo Wop special during fundraising seasons, so I'm familiar with it from there, plus I guess I did grow up with it in the pre-Beatles era. Your video got me in the mood, so I just went and found "Doo Wop Hits of the 50s and 60s" on Amazon Prime to listen to this morning (love streaming free music with Prime!).

Mary Huckaby said...

My husband and I are BIG fans of Doo Wop music too! It's amazing what music can do for your mood--and this kind of music always makes me happy and gives me a much-needed boost of energy! I have never heard this song before...but I like it!

Birdhouse Books said...

Thanks for visiting! Glad to hear from some doo wop fans.

Susan, thanks for the head's up about the PBS doo wop special ... I am going to look for it. That sounds great.

The Willows toured on the reunion circuit in the 1970's (and maybe 1980's??), so there may be some old footage of them performing this song on one of those programs.