mierra

In 1957, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers split up while on a tour in Europe. Goldner and Levy began promoting Frankie as a solo act and Frankie began to perform songs using recorded tapes of the songs as his backround singing. The groups last song released was "Goody Goody", in which Frankie recieved most of the credit for as he continued to perform it as a solo act. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers at the London Palladium was suppose to be released as a group album but was released as Frankie's solo album. While becoming solo, Frankie's career wasn't as successful as it had been when he was with the Teenagers. When his first solo, "My Girl" released, he was sign to Roulette Records. On July 19, 1957 Frankie appeared on Alan Freed's show, who was a Disc Jockey that promoted African-American R&B music, dancing with a white girl. The episode was canceled due to the color difference, which Frankie and the white girl faced. Later, in the 1960's, Frankie's sales began to drastically change when he lost his soprano voice. After adopting a falsetto voice, Frankie began loosing a large percentage of his white audience and a small percentage of his black audience. His highest selling song after his "voice change" was, "Litty Bitty Pretty One", which reached number 58 on the Hot 100 pop chart in 1960, and which had actually been recorded in 1957. Having been addicted to heroin since he was 15, Frankie fell further into his habit and his performing career went into decline.According to Frankie in an interview with Ebony 1967, he said that he was first introduced to heroin by a woman twice his age. In 1961, Roulette Records, who was now owned by Morris Levy, ended their contract with Frankie and he later entered a drug rehabilitation program. After losing Frankie, the Teenagers went through many replacement singers, the first was Frankie's immediate successor Billy Lobrano. In 1960, Howard Kenny Bobo sang lead on "Tonight's The Night" with the Teenagers; later that year, Johnny Houston sang lead on two songs. The Teenagers, who had been moved by Morris Levy onto End Records, were released from their contract in 1961. The Teenagers briefly reunited with Frankie's in 1965, without success.