60s Rock And Roll Vocal Group - Doo Wop - Song from the movie : "Don't Knock the Twist" is a 1962 comedy musical film starring Lang Jeffries, directed by Oscar Rudolph and produced by Sam Katzman for release by Columbia Pictures.
It is a sequel to the 1961 film Twist Around the Clock, featuring musical artists including Chubby Checker.
Studio version was release on Parkway Records - P 827 (1961)
The Dovells were an American doo-wop group, formed at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1957, under the name "The Brooktones".
The original members were Arnie Silver, Len Borisoff (alias Len Barry) , Jerry Gross (alias Summers)
, Mike Freda and Jim Mealey (alias Danny Brooks).
Gross left the Brooktones in 1959 to form the group The Gems with Jerry Gross, Mark Stevens, Mike Freda, Warren Purdy, and Roland Scarinci.
The remaining Brooktones signed to Parkway Records in 1960 and added Jerry Sirlen and William Shunkwiler to the group, while changing the band's name to The Dovells.
While rehearsing "Out in the Cold Again", which turned out to be the B-side of "Bristol Stomp", Len called Jerry and asked for help with the harmonies.
After two days of trying, Len asked Jerry to be part of the group and replace two of the other members.
Sirlen and Shunkwiler were replaced by Gross and Freda.
Mark went on to start his own group Tony & the Raindrops
("Our Love is Over", a local hit), and later joined The Dovells in the 1960s.
The Dovells at that point (1961) were Len Borisoff (aka Len Barry), Gross, Silver, Mealey, and Freda, which went on to record eight hit records, starting with the "Bristol Stomp".
Mealey left the group in 1962 for personal reasons, but still did some recordings with them.
The Dovells first national hit was "Bristol Stomp", a dance song.
This was followed by the similar hit "Do the New Continental" (featured in the John Waters movie Hairspray for a minute).
"Bristol Stomp" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
They appeared performing both songs in the Chubby Checker movie Don't Knock The Twist in 1961.
They released a series of singles over the next few years.
These included "You Can't Sit Down", a top hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.
Len left at the end of 1963 for a solo career under the name Len Barry.
The high point of his solo career was the Top 5 smash "1-2-3" in 1965, and the follow-up hit "Like a Baby".
The Dovells released "If You Wanna Be Happy" on the album You Can't Sit Down in 1963.
The song was previously released by Jimmy Soul earlier that year and based on the song "Ugly Woman" by Roaring Lion.
In 1963, American Bandstand signed the band to Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour which was scheduled to perform its 15th show on the night of November 22, 1963, at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas until suddenly the Friday evening event had to be cancelled moments after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated that afternoon while touring Dallas in an open car caravan.
The Dovells performed at both of President Bill Clinton's inaugural balls, with Clinton guest appearing on saxophone.
In 1991, Len Barry reunited with The Dovells twice.
He died in a Philadelphia hospital of myelodysplasia, a bone marrow disease, on November 20, 2020, he was 78 years old.

#rockandroll #vocalgroup #doowop

свернуть