mierra

Mierra Isaac
Many people would faithfully call Elvis "The King" but Frankie Lymon was the original king of Rock N' Roll, even though he was about four years younger than Elvis. His story starts off in Harlem, New York, where he started his singing in the midst of his father's gospel group. His passion for entertaining began when he watched the "Coupe De Villes" rehearse for their high school talent show. The Coupe De Villes consisted of Herman Santiago,Jimmy Merchant, Sherman Garnes and Joe Negroni. Frankie later joined the Coupe De Villes, who later changed their name to the "Ermines" following "The Premiers". Frankie Lymon's inspiration to write his own music came from one of his neighbors who gave Frankie numerous love letters, written to him from his girlfriend. Frankie and the other members modified one of the letters into a song titled, "Why Do Birds Sing So Gay", which Frankie later named "Why Do Fools Fall In Love". Then, one evening "The Premiers" sang the song outside of Richard Barret's (member of the group "Valentines") window. After hearing the group, Barret took them to audition for record producer, George Goldner. While listening to the Premiers, Goldner noticed that although Herman Santiago was the lead singer, Frankie's voice seemed to be more appealing, he then asked Frankie to sing lead. This was an early start to a new type of music called Doo-Wop! After Goldner signed The Premiers to Gee Records, he later named them The Teenagers and "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" became their first single in January of 1956. The song also became an immediate hit, being #6 on the Billboard Pop singles chart and reaching #1 on the R&B charts. That same year, the Teenagers released "I Want You To Be My Girl", which was #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When "I Want You To Be My Girl" released, the Teenagers, fans began calling them "Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers". The group later released an album, "The Teenagers featuring Frankie Lymon", in December of 1956. The success of the Teenagers, landed them many gigs such as tours with Alan Freed, who was a Disc Jockey from Windberg, Pennsylvania. He was known for promoting African-American R&B music on radio and in Europe, where it was call Rock N' Roll. This later, led to Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers performing with other popular Doo-Wop and Rock N' Roll acts such as Little Richard, The Platters, Bo Diddly and Bill Haley. Frankie even appeared on Freed’s radio show numerous times. While on Freed’s tour, Frankie began to become sexually attracted to Zola Taylor, who was the only female in the early Doo-Wop group, “The Platters.” The Teenagers' fame landed them performances in two popular movies of the 50's, beginning with " Rock, Rock, Rock " and later " Mister Rock and Roll ". All of Frankie's publicity earned him to later being known as "the first teenage idol". In 1957, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers split up while on a tour in Europe. Goldner and his partner Levy, began promoting Frankie as a solo act. In his performances Frankie used previously recorded taped songs,with the voices of The Teenagers as his backround singers. Due to his continued performance, Frankie received most of the credit for songs that he and Teenagers wrote. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ album, “At the London Palladium,” was suppose to be released as a group project but was released as Frankie's solo album, which is why he got full credit for the song “Goody Goody.” 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, with Goldner’s ex partner Morris Levy. On July 19, 1957 , in an appearance on Alan Freed's show, The Big Beat, he danced with a white girl. This act caused much controversy and the episode was canceled due to the color difference, in 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." It reached number 58 on the Hot 100 pop chart in 1960, although it had previously 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 Billy Lobrano. In 1960, Howard Kenny Bobo sang lead on "Tonight's The Night" with the Teenagers; later that year, Johnny Houston led two other 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 in 1965 without success. Over the next four years, Lymon struggled through short- lived deals with 20th Century Fox Records and Columbia Records. In January 1964, Elizabeth Waters became Frankie’s first wife. It was later discovered that Frankie and Elizabeth’s marriage wasn’t technically legal, considering the fact that she was still married to her first husband. After Frankie's marriage failed, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid 1960's, where he moved in with Zola Taylor and later began a romantic relationship. While living with Zola, Frankie made very few musical appearances at legendary places like the Apollo. His final television performance was on Hollywood a Go-Go in 1965, where the then, twenty-two year old singer, lip-synched to the original recorded version of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." According to Zola, she and Frankie got married, 1965 in Mexicali,Mexico, but there was no marrige license to prove that she was married to him. One day Zola left to tour with The Platters. She left Frankie in charge of her house, left him her money and left him the car. About five months later, Zola recieved a call from her sister explaining that Frankie had some woman at her house and that they were arguing so loud, the neighbor had to call the police. When Zola returned home, she found an eviction notice on her door and her once beautiful home, boarded up! She later learned that the morgage hadn't been paid since she left. When she went to the bank there was no money either. After trying to reach Frankie in New York, she'd learned that later that year, he had been drafted in the army. While in the army, Frankie was stationed at Fort Gordon, which was near Agusta Georgia. When Frankie was in the Augusta area, Frankie met and fell in love with Elmira Eagle, a schoolteacher at Hornsby Elementary. The two were married in June of 1967. Frankie repeatedly went AWOL to prform at small Southern clubs. This led to Frankie being dishonorably discharged from the Army. He the moved into his wife's home, where he continued to carry out duties of a traditional husband. In 1968, Frankie traveled back to New York to get signed with Sam Bray, in hopes of making a comeback. His career was unsuccessful, considering the fact that music had moved on with a new sound and a new look. It was said that he became so depressed, that on the night of Febuary 27th 1968, in his grandmother's bathroom, he was found dead of a heroin overdose. Years after Frankie's death, Elizabeth, Zola and Emira went to court claiming to be the widow of Frankie, in order to gain future royalties and copyright entitlements. The first decision was made in Elizabeth's favor. Eagle appealed, and in 1990, the New York State Supreme Court reversed the original decision and awarded Emira the estate of Frankie Lymon. Although, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' had a short amount of time in the music industry, his hits were very influential on the rock and R&B performers who followed them. Lymon's soprano sound was said to be a direct ancestor of the girl group sound, like The Chantels and The Supremes. Frankie also influenced several groups such as, The Temptations, The Beach Boys and The Jackson 5. Frankie influenced individuals like Ronnie Spector, Diana Ross and his biggest influence, Michael Jackson. The list goes on and on!