| Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers |
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Biography | ||
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Born: September 30, 1942 City and Country of Origin: New York, NY Music Training: Awards: 1993 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; 2000 inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Top Recordings: "Why Do Fools Fall In Love," "I Want You To Be My Girl," "I Promise To Remember," The ABC's Of Love," "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent," "Paper Castles," "Out In The Cold Again," "Goody Goody" Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers Biography: Frank Joseph "Frankie" Lymon was an African-American rock and roll//R&B singer, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll group called The Teenagers. The interracial group included five boys, all in their early to mid teens. The original lineup included three African-American members, Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Rican members, Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni. The groups' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," was their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, the careers of both Lymon and the Teenagers went into decline. Lymon eventually fell into heroin addiction, and died in 1968 at the age of twenty-five. Frankie Lymon was born in Harlem, New York to a truck driver father and a domestic mother. His father, Howard Lymon, sang in a gospel group known as the Harlemaires; Frankie and his brothers Louis and Howie sung with the Harlemaire Juniors (a fourth Lymon brother, Timmy, was also a singer, but not with the Harlemaire Juniors). The family struggled to make ends meet, and Lymon worked as a grocery boy at ten, augmenting his legitimate income with proceeds gained from hustling prositutes. At twelve, Lymon heard a local doo-wop group known as the Coupe De Villes at a school talent show. He befriended the groups lead singer, Herman Santiago, and eventually became a member of the group, which then called itself both The Ermines and The Premiers. In 1955, a neighbor gave members of the group several love letters that had been written to him by his girlfriend, with the hopes that he could give the boys inspiration to write their own songs. Merchant and Santiago adapted one of the letters into a song called "Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?" With Lymon's input, the song became "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." The Premiers became The Teenagers, got their first shot at fame after impressing Richard Barrett, a singer with The Valentines. Barrett in turn got the group an audition with record producer George Goldner. On the day of the group's audition, Santiago was sick, and Lymon led the Teenagers through "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." Goldner signed the quintet to Gee Records, and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" became their first single in January 1956. The single peaked at number 3 on the Billboard pop singles chart, and at number 1 on the Billboard r&b singles chart. Several other r&b top ten singles followed over the next year, among them "I Want You To Be My Girl," "I Promise To Remember," "Who Can Explain?", "Out in the Cold Again," and "The ABC's of Love," although no other Teenager's single entered the pop chart. "I Am Not A Juvenile Delinquent" and "Baby Baby" were also popular Teenager's releases. With the release of "I Want You to Be My Girl," the group's second single, The Teenagers became Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. In December 1956 a long-playing album, The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon, was released. Lymon became the first African-American teen idol. In March 1956, the Teenagers began appearing with pioneering rock and roll DJ Alan Freed's rock and roll revues, performing alongside acts such as Little Richard, The Platters, and Bill Haley and His Comets. The group also appeared in two of Freed's early rock and roll films, Rock, Rock, Rock (1956) and Mister Rock and Roll (1957), and performed on Freed's radio and television programs. While touring with the Platters, Lymon befriended that group's sole female singer, Zola Taylor, with whom he became romantically involved. In early 1957, Lymon and the Teenagers split apart while on a tour of Europe. During an engagement at the London Palladium, Goldner began pushing Lymon as a solo act, giving him solo spots in the show. Lymon began performing with backing from pre-recorded tapes. The group's latest singles, "Out In The Cold Again" and "Goody Goody", retained the Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers credit, but were actually solo recordings (with backing on "Goody, Goody" and its b-side by session singers). Lymon had officially departed from the group by September 1957; an in-progress studio album called Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers at the London Pallladium was instead issued as a Lymon solo release. As a solo artist, Lymon was not a success. Beginning with his first solo release, "My Girl", Lymon was moved to Roulette Records. On a July 19, 1957 episode of Freed's live ABC TV show The Big Beat, Lymon began dancing with a white teenage girl while performing. His actions caused a scandal, particularly among Southern TV station owners, and The Big Beat was subsequently canceled. Lymon's slowly tapering sales fell sharply after he lost his signature soprano voice. Adopting a falsetto, Lymon carried on. His highest charting solo hit was a cover of Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One", which peaked at number 58 on the r&b charts in 1960. Having been addicted to heroin since age 16, Lymon fell further into his habit, and his performing career went into decline. In 1961, Roulette, now run by Morris Levy, ended their contract with Lymon and the singer entered a drug rehabilitation program. After losing Lymon, the Teenagers went through a string of replacement singers, the first of whom was Lymon's immediate successor Billy Lobrano. By 1959, Howard Kenny Bobo was the lead singer of the Teenagers; a year later, Johnny Houston was on lead. The Teenagers, who had been moved by Morris Levy onto End Records, were released from their contract in 1961. The Teenagers briefly reunited with Lymon in 1965, without success. I worked with Frankie in 1962. I distinctly remember him introducing me to a girl named Mickie who he claimed was his old lady (girlfriend). He was always strapped for cash in those days, inspite of his earlier commercial successes. He even reluctantly showcased trying to get his career back on track, but his reputation was that of an addict and no one would touch him. Over the next four years, Lymon struggled through short-lived deals with 20th Century Fox Records and Columbia Records. Lymon began a relationship with Elizabeth Waters, who became his first wife in January 1964. Lymon's marriage failed, and he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, where he began a romantic relationship with Zola Taylor. He appeared at the Apollo as part of a revue, adding an extended tap dance number. His final television performance was on Hollywood a Go-Go in 1965, where the then twenty-two year old singer lip-synched to the recording of his thirteen-year-old self singing "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, although their relationship ended several months later because of Lymon's drug habits. The same year, Lymon was drafted into the United States Army, and stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia near Augusta, Georgia for training. While in the Augusta area, Lymon met and fell in love with Elmira Eagle, a schoolteacher at Hornsby Elementary in Augusta. The two were wed in June 1967, and Lymon repeatedly went AWOL to secure club dates at small Southern clubs. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, Lymon moved into his wife's home and continued to perform sporadically. In 1968, manager Sam Bray signed Lymon to his Big Apple label, and the singer returned to recording. Roulette expressed interest in releasing Lymon's records in conjunction with Big Apple and scheduled a recording session for February 28. Lymon, staying at his grandmother's house in Harlem where he had grown up, celebrated his good fortune by taking heroin -- he had remained clean ever since entering the Army three years prior. On February 27, 1968, Lymon was found dead from a heroin overdose. He was twenty-five years old. He was buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx in New York. "I'm Sorry" and "Seabreeze", the two sides Lymon had recorded for Big Apple before his death, were released later in the year. Some years later, after Diana Ross returned "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" to the top 10, a controversy arose over Lymon's estate. It seems that although Frankie had been married three times, he had never gotten a divorce. After much legal wrangling the estate finally went to Elmira Eagle. Died: February 27, 1968 Source Wikipedia |
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