Frankie Lymon, His 3 Widows and the Gay Birds

[luisam]

It all started in the Edward D. Stitt Junior High School in the Washington Heights section of New York City with a group named The Earth Angels, founded by two black teens called Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes. Eventually, Garnes and Merchant had added Puerto Ricans Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni to their lineup and evolved into The Coupe De Villes, participating at a school talent show with Santiago as lead singer. Frankie Lymon, then 12 years old, was friend of Herman Santiago and eventually became the fifth member of the group, renamed as The Ermines and later as The Premiers. All of them were in their mid-teens.

 

One day in 1955, a neighbor of Sherman Garnes gave The Premiers several love letters that had been written to him by his girlfriend, with the hopes that he could give the boys some 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 Herman Santiago to lead, and adjusting the harmony to take advantage of Frankie Lymon's high tenor / soprano.

 

Along the way, Herman changed some of the lyrics naming the song "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" though leaving the line in reference in the lyrics. Presume he realized the connotations of the word "gay", not much extended but already established by the mid-fifties, but gave it no major importance because the line still appears in the context of the song. There are some significant later examples of the original meaning of the word being used in popular culture without any other intention, like the theme song to the 1960–1966 animated TV series The Flintstones, whereby viewers are assured that they will "have a gay old time." Similarly, the 1966 Herman's Hermits song "No Milk Today", which became a Top 10 hit in the UK and a Top 40 hit in the U.S., included the lyric "No milk today, it was not always so / The company was gay, we'd turn night into day." In June 1967, the headline of the review of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in the British daily newspaper The Times stated, "The Beatles revive hopes of progress in pop music with their gay new LP.

 

 

Here are the lyrics:

 

Ooh wah, ooh wah

Ooh wah, ooh wah

Ooh wah, ooh wah

 

Why do fools fall in love?

Why do birds sing so gay

And lovers await the break of the day

Why do they fall in love?

Why does the rain fall from up above?

Why do fools fall in love?

Why do they fall in love?

 

Love is a losing game

Love can be a shame

I know, I'm a fool you see

For that fool is me

 

Tell me why

Tell me why

 

Why do birds sing so gay

And lovers await the break of the day

Why do they fall in love?

Why does the rain fall from up above?

Why do fools fall in love?

Why do they fall in love?

 

Why does my heart

Skip a crazy beat?

For I know

It will reach defeat

 

Tell me why

Tell me why

Why do fools fall in love?

Tell me why

Tell me why

 

The Premiers got its first shot at fame after impressing Richard Barrett, a singer with The Valentines who got the group an audition with record producer George Goldner. On the day of the group's audition, Santiago, the original lead singer, was late. Lymon stepped up and told Goldner that he knew the part because he helped write the song. At Goldner's suggestion, the lead in subsequent recording sessions was given to Frankie. Frankie did some improvising and re-created the melody to match his own style. According to Jimmy Merchant, what happened at the recording session was a combination of "Frankie's singing talent coupled with George Goldner's special ability to bring out the best in Frankie." Goldner also decided rename the group "Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers".

 

Although early single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and George Goldner as co-writers of the song, later releases and cover versions were attributed only to Lymon and record producer George Goldner. Goldner's name was later replaced by Morris Levy when Levy bought Goldner's interest in Gee Records, The Teenagers' record company.

 

With Lymon on boyish soprano lead it was recorded in November of 1955 and immediately became a top R&B pop hit. By January 1956 it reached No. 1 on the R&B chart, No. 6 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and in July 1966 number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in July. As lead vocalist with The Teenagers, Frankie Lymon became the first black teenage singing idol. Also it was first top British hit by an American vocal group. The song was ranked #314 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

 

A Canadian group called The Diamonds did a more traditional doo wоp version that came out in March 1956. This version spent 19 weeks on the Billboard chart, topping out at No. 12; it was subsequently covered by Gale Storm. Unlike most songs rerecorded by white artists, the original proved to be the biggest hit.

 

The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," was also their biggest hit. The song helped to make Frankie Lymon a household name and would make him an R&B pioneer. Sporting a clean-cut, wholesome image and benefiting from dance instructions provided by a noted choreographer, the group began touring extensively. They soon scored another R&B pop hit with "I Want You to Be My Girl". They also appeared in the 1956 film "Rock, Rock, Rock," performing "I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent."

 

In 1957 Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers toured Great Britain, appeared in the film "Mister Rock and Roll," and scored their last major R&B hit with the ballad "Out in the Cold Again" but they broke up while on tour. 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 last single, recorded in London, "Goody Goody" and the B-side initially retained the "Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers" credit, but they were actually solo recordings with backing 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 Palladium was instead issued as a Lymon solo release.

 

On a July 19, 1957, episode of Alan 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. There is no surviving footage of this, because the episode was taped over.

 

Although their period of success was brief, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' string of hits were highly influential on the rock and R&B performers who followed them. Their success inspired the formation of a number of youthful black vocal groups, from The Students in the '50s to the Jackson 5 in the '60s. The group's sound, specially Lymon's high-voiced sound is said to be a direct predecessor of the girl group sound, and the list of performers who name him as an influence include Michael Jackson, Ronnie Spector, Diana Ross, The Chantels, The Temptations, George Clinton, Smokey Robinson, Len Barry and The Beach Boys, among others. The performers most inspired by and derivative of Lymon and the Teenagers' style are The Jackson 5 and the future superstar Michael Jackson. Motown founder Berry Gordy based much of the Jackson 5's sound on Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' recordings, and The Teenagers are believed to be the original model for many of the other Motown groups he cultivated.

 

After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and that of the Teenagers fell into decline. As a solo artist, Lymon was not nearly as successful as he had been with the Teenagers. The Teenagers persevered for a time without Lymon, recording through 1961. Lymon did not achieve another hit until 1960's remake of "Little Bitty Pretty One." Losing his youthful soprano voice to age, he was unable to make a convincing comeback. After experimenting with narcotics since 1958, Lymon entered a drug rehabilitation program in 1961; nonetheless, in 1964 he was convicted of narcotics possession. The Teenagers briefly reunited with Lymon in 1965.

 

Lymon struggled through short-lived deals with 20th Century Fox Records and Columbia Records. By 1963 Lymon began a relationship with Elizabeth Mickey Waters, who became his first wife in January 1964 and the mother of his only child, a baby girl named Francine who died two days after birth at Lenox Hill Hospital. Lymon's marriage to Waters was not legal, because she was still married to her first husband.

 

After the marriage failed, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, where he began a romantic relationship with Zola Taylor, a member of The Platters. Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, although their relationship ended several months later, purportedly because of Lymon's drug habits. Lymon, however, had been known to say that their marriage was a publicity stunt and Taylor could produce no legal documentation of their marriage. In Major Robinson's gossip column of June 6, 1966, Zola said the whole thing was a joke that she went along with at the time (October 1965).

 

His final television performance was on Hollywood a Go-Go in 1965, where the then-22-year-old singer lip-synched to the recording of his 13-year-old self singing "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." The same year, Lymon was drafted into the United States Army and reported to Fort Gordon, Georgia, near Augusta, Georgia, for training. There he met and fell in love with Emira Eagle, a schoolteacher at Hornsby Elementary in Augusta. The two were wed in June 1967. While in service, Lymon repeatedly absented without a valid pass or leave to secure gigs at small Southern clubs and finally he was discharged dishonorably from the Army. Lymon moved into his wife's home and continued to perform sporadically.

 

Traveling to New York in 1968, Lymon was signed by manager Sam Bray to his Big Apple label, and the singer returned to recording. Roulette Records expressed interest in releasing Lymon's records in conjunction with Big Apple and scheduled a recording session for February 28. A major promotion had been arranged with CHO Associates, owned by some important radio personalities (Frankie Crocker, Herb Hamlett and Eddie O'Jay).

 

Lymon, staying at his grandmother's house in Harlem where he had grown up, celebrated his good fortune by taking heroin. On February 28, 1968, Frankie's body was found on the floor of in his grandmother's bathroom. His success was short-lived; by the age of twenty-five he was dead of a heroin overdose.

 

Sherman Games died of a heart attack on February 26, 1977, and Joe Negroni died on September 5, 1978, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. In the early '80s, surviving members Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant reformed The Teenagers with Pearl McKinnon of The Kodaks. In 1981 Diana Ross scored a near-smash pop and R&B hit with "Why Do Fools Fall in Love."

 

 

 

Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

 

Lymon's troubles extended to others after his death. After R&B singer Diana Ross returned "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" to the Top Ten in 1981, a major controversy concerning Lymon's estate ensued. In 1984 Lymon's widow, Emira, filed for renewal of the copyright to "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," only to discover that it was the property of Morris Levy, the music impresario who retained possession of Lymon's copyrights and his royalties, because he had acquired George Goldner's catalog.

 

Both Elizabeth Waters and Zola Taylor also claimed to be Lymon's rightful widow and Merchant and Santiago pressed their own legal case too. In 1986, the first of several court cases concerning the ownership of Lymon's estate began.

 

Trying to determine who was indeed the lawful Mrs. Frankie Lymon was complicated by several issues. Waters was already married when she married Lymon; she had separated from her first husband, but their divorce was finalized in 1965, after she had married Lymon. Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, but could produce no acceptable evidence of their union. Lymon's marriage to Eagle, on the other hand, was properly documented as having taken place at Beulah Grove Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, in 1967; however, the singer was still apparently twice-married and never divorced when he married Eagle. The first decision was made in Waters' favor; Eagle appealed, and in 1989, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court reversed the original decision and awarded Lymon's estate to Eagle.

 

However, the details of the case brought about another issue: whether Morris Levy was deserving of the songwriting co-credit on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". Although early single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant as co-writers, later releases and cover versions were attributed to Lymon and George Goldner. When Goldner sold his music companies to Morris Levy in 1959, Levy's name began appearing as co-writer of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" in place of Goldner's. Lymon was never paid his songwriting royalties during his lifetime.

 

One result of Emira Eagle's legal victory was that Lymon's estate would finally begin receiving monetary compensation from his hit song's success. In 1987, Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant, both then poor, sued Morris Levy for their songwriting credits.

 

In December 1992, the United States federal courts ruled that Santiago and Merchant were co-authors of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". However, in 1996 the ruling was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on the basis of the statute of limitations: copyright cases must be brought before a court within three years of the alleged civil violation, and Merchant and Santiago's lawsuit was not filed until 30 years later. Authorship of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" currently remains in the names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy.

 

Obviously neither George Goldner nor Morris Levy were co-writers or authors of anything, so this is one more of many cases where producers, promoters and the record industry remained with all the gains, leaving original authors and singers without any compensation.

 

Lymon's music and story were re-introduced to modern audiences with the 1998 biographical film Why Do Fools Fall in Love, directed by Gregory Nava, also the director of the Selena biopic. Why Do Fools Fall in Love tells a comedic, fictionalized version of Lymon's story from the points of view of his three wives as they battle in court for the rights to his estate. The film stars Larenz Tate as Frankie Lymon, Halle Berry as Zola Taylor, Vivica A. Fox as Elizabeth Waters and Lela Rochon as Elmira Eagle. Why Do Fools Fall in Love was not a commercial success and met with mixed reviews; the film grossed a total of $12,461,773 during its original theatrical run.

 

In 1973, Lymon became known to a slightly younger generation than before with the release of American Graffiti, which included "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" on its soundtrack.

[funkyy]

" Obviously neither George Goldner nor Morris Levy were co-writers or authors of anything, so this is one more of many cases where producers, promoters and the record industry remained with all the gains, leaving original authors and singers without any compensation."

Don't you just love the record industry's executives...those poor maligned executives just trying to steal..err, make a buck?