Matt’s cab pulled to a silent stop on the pre-dawn street Monday. Fifteen minutes early, every time. I hoisted my duffle bag and brief case onto my shoulder and out the door I went.
In the cab, Matt was ready to bubble over. He’s a recent convert to Facebook and through the online social network, he’d been found by friends from Jackson Heights, Queens he’d lost touch with some 45 years ago.
“I was in a doo-wop group back then,” he said. “We were all in doo-wop groups. It didn’t keep us off the streets, but it did keep us out of trouble.”
Matt’s group, a quintet, was Jimmy and the Chapels. “The name never made any sense, but it sounded good.” The Jimmy in the group was Jimmy Spinelli, who now tours with the professional doo-wop group The Duprees.
“I sang bass and baritone and occasionally I’d get off a tenor piece, but mostly bass and baritone,” Matt said. “Jimmy, of course was the best. He was born with a cleft palate and when he spoke, you could hardly make out what he was saying, but when he sang, it was crystal clear. Singing was the therapy back then. And he had a great voice, just a great voice.”
“He was the best singer in the group, but I was still shocked to find out he’s still doing it – and doing it professionally – all these years later.”
“We all had ethnic names – there was Jimmy, Tony Perez, Paul Horowitz, me (Matt’s Irish) and Steve, whose last name I just can not remember. Steve sang falsetto. He sounded like a soprano. Strange thing – he couldn’t carry tune as a baritone or tenor, but that falsetto – wow. If the song didn’t have a falsetto part, we’d make one up.”
“There was a candy store on the corner by my high school and we’d all be out there at lunch time, trios, quartets, quintets – sometimes we’d join together and have a whole doo-wop chorus. We’d do ‘In the Still of the Night,’ ‘Goody Goody,’ all those songs.”
“There was this group from over in Jersey City – that’s where doo-wop got started – and they’d had an audition at CBS records, so they told us who to talk to. I was elected spokesman for the group. I called the guy up and they brought us in. There was this big room, like an atrium with all these smaller rooms off of it.”
By now, we were at the airport and I had a plane to catch, but Matt’s eyes were shining and he was fully engaged in the story, so I let him roll on.
“These two guys from CBS took us into one of the rooms and said, ‘Let’s hear your stuff.’ We sang one and they said, ‘Sing another,’ and then another and another. We must have sung ten or twelve songs in all and when we came out of that little room everyone was standing … and applauding.” He seemed to be on the verge of saying “standing ovation,” but didn’t want to go that far.
“They were shaking our hands and slapping us on the back. That was the high point of my career – of my life, really.”
“We never got any further than that. One of the guys joined the Marines soon after, then I joined the Air Force and that was it, until last week, when I found out about Jimmy.”
“I went to The Duprees web site Friday and left Jimmy an email with the general email. I sure hope I hear back from him.”
Jimmy and the Chapels
Matt’s cab pulled to a silent stop on the pre-dawn street Monday. Fifteen minutes early, every time. I hoisted my duffle bag and brief case onto my shoulder and out the door I went.
In the cab, Matt was ready to bubble over. He’s a recent convert to Facebook and through the online social network, he’d been found by friends from Jackson Heights, Queens he’d lost touch with some 45 years ago.
“I was in a doo-wop group back then,” he said. “We were all in doo-wop groups. It didn’t keep us off the streets, but it did keep us out of trouble.”
Matt’s group, a quintet, was Jimmy and the Chapels. “The name never made any sense, but it sounded good.” The Jimmy in the group was Jimmy Spinelli, who now tours with the professional doo-wop group The Duprees.
“I sang bass and baritone and occasionally I’d get off a tenor piece, but mostly bass and baritone,” Matt said. “Jimmy, of course was the best. He was born with a cleft palate and when he spoke, you could hardly make out what he was saying, but when he sang, it was crystal clear. Singing was the therapy back then. And he had a great voice, just a great voice.”
“He was the best singer in the group, but I was still shocked to find out he’s still doing it – and doing it professionally – all these years later.”
“We all had ethnic names – there was Jimmy, Tony Perez, Paul Horowitz, me (Matt’s Irish) and Steve, whose last name I just can not remember. Steve sang falsetto. He sounded like a soprano. Strange thing – he couldn’t carry tune as a baritone or tenor, but that falsetto – wow. If the song didn’t have a falsetto part, we’d make one up.”
“There was a candy store on the corner by my high school and we’d all be out there at lunch time, trios, quartets, quintets – sometimes we’d join together and have a whole doo-wop chorus. We’d do ‘In the Still of the Night,’ ‘Goody Goody,’ all those songs.”
“There was this group from over in Jersey City – that’s where doo-wop got started – and they’d had an audition at CBS records, so they told us who to talk to. I was elected spokesman for the group. I called the guy up and they brought us in. There was this big room, like an atrium with all these smaller rooms off of it.”
By now, we were at the airport and I had a plane to catch, but Matt’s eyes were shining and he was fully engaged in the story, so I let him roll on.
“These two guys from CBS took us into one of the rooms and said, ‘Let’s hear your stuff.’ We sang one and they said, ‘Sing another,’ and then another and another. We must have sung ten or twelve songs in all and when we came out of that little room everyone was standing … and applauding.” He seemed to be on the verge of saying “standing ovation,” but didn’t want to go that far.
“They were shaking our hands and slapping us on the back. That was the high point of my career – of my life, really.”
“We never got any further than that. One of the guys joined the Marines soon after, then I joined the Air Force and that was it, until last week, when I found out about Jimmy.”
“I went to The Duprees web site Friday and left Jimmy an email with the general email. I sure hope I hear back from him.”
© Mark Floegel, 2010