[RegulatorCountry]

Much of what you guys call doo-wop is known as Beach Music down here, Virginia Beach all down the southern Atlantic coast, withe the capital being Myrtle Beach, SC. Very popular scene at the time and all the way through to today with dance clubs and dance contests dedicated to the music and the unique dance associated with it, a sort of heavily modified Jitterbug known as the Shag (yes we know what it means in England). Students at southern universities would be familiar, too, learning to Shag has been a rite of passage for many a fraternity brother and sorority sister.

One of the definitive Shag tunes would be “It Will Stand” by The Showmen. Couldn’t find a good YouTube of it, so here’s a video of a Shag dance contest from the Spanish Galleon in Myrtle Beach, amateurs, a second grade teacher and a policeman, turning in a very respectable performance to “White Port Lemon Juice” by The Bel Aires:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAtiyPmEFSg

[Fiji Hill]

here’s a video of a Shag dance contest from the Spanish Galleon in Myrtle Beach, amateurs, a second grade teacher and a policeman, turning in a very respectable performance to “White Port Lemon Juice” by The Bel Aires:

Those dancers are talented! The also picked a great tune for their dance. The Bel-Aires were from Los Angeles and later became the Vel-Aires. About the time they recorded "White Port Lemon Juice" in 1955, another group from the San Francisco Bay Area put out a record on the same subject:

WPLJ--The Four Deuces

[riverdawg]

I grew up with beach music in Virginia and North Carolina. I saw General Johnson sing many times with Chairmen of the Board along the east coast. But doo wop predates beach music by about 10 years and obviously was a strong influence on it.