The Edsels

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Edsels
Country	Campbell, Ohio
Years active	1957 – 1963
Genres	Doo-Wop
Labels	Dub Records, Twin Records, Roulette Records, Tammy, Capital records
Members	George Jones, Jr. Larry Green James Reynolds Harry Green Marshall Sewell

The Edsels were an American Doo-Wop group active during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The name of the group was originally The Essos, after the oil company, but was changed to match the then-new Ford automobile, the Edsel. The Edsels recorded over 25 songs and had multiple performances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand with other original recordings. Before their national hit "Rama Lama Ding Dong", songs like "What Brought Us Together", "Bone Shaker Joe" and "Do You Love Me" helped The Edsels land a major record deal with Capitol Records in 1961.

The Edsels were one of the few doo-wop groups to sign with a major record label, as most groups of that era found success with small independent labels.

Today, the group is known almost exclusively for their song, "Rama Lama Ding Dong." The song was recorded in 1957 and released, under the errant title "Lama Rama Ding Dong," in 1958. The song did not become popular until 1961, after a disc jockey in New York City began to play it as a segue from The Marcels doo-wop version of "Blue Moon." The song eventually became popular throughout the country, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard charts.

The group continues to perform today. In addition, James Reynolds performs with his five sons Jeff, Baron, Patrick, Chris and Carlise (The Reynolds Brothers). The Reynolds Brothers have released a CD, "The Reynolds Brothers", featuring songs written by James and fellow Edsels member George Jones Jr.

1 Personnel
2 Influence of the song Rama Lama Ding Dong
3 External links
4 Sources

[edit] Personnel

George Jones, Jr. – lead vocals
Larry Green – first tenor
James Reynolds – second tenor
Harry Green – baritone
Marshall Sewell – bass

[edit] Influence of the song Rama Lama Ding Dong

A version of the song was performed on the The Muppet Show once: in Episode 89 (or season 4, episode 17), the episode that also had Mark Hamill, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca from Star Wars as guests, a shepherd, his sheep and his girl perform the song.
Rocky Sharpe and The Replays covered the song in 1979
Barry Mann wrote a song called "Who Put the Bomp" in 1961, in which he sings about his girl falling in love with him after listening to some Doo-Wop style songs with their recognizable nonsense lyrics. One of the phrases he uses in the song is actually Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong.
"Rama Lama Ding Dong" is heard in the Grease song "We Go Together".