Fact #93061
When:
Short story:
R'n'b vocal group The Chords record Sh-Boom, Cross Over The Bridge and other tracks for Atlantic Records in New York City, USA. Sh-Boom is intended as a b-side to Cross Over The Bridge, but deejays soon flip the disc over making Sh-Boom one of the first doo-wop hits to cross over to white
audiences. Unfortunately, Sh-Boom also inspires white doo-wop group The Crew-Cuts to make their own sanitised cover version and take it all the way to No1 in the Billboard Top 40 Singles Chart, far-outselling the original.
Full article:
Ahmet Ertegun (founder, Atlantic Records) : What bothered me was when we couldn't get our records on white stations. We couldn't get any of the major stations to play "Sh-Boom" [by the Chords, in 1954]. I was going crazy, because it was a pop hit.
Then the Crew-Cuts made it; they were an unknown group of four Canadians, who just copied it exactly. It was like real discrimination. For once, I could feel what black people feel every day, because I was being discriminated against. The only reason [pop stations] wouldn't play our record was because the group was black.
(Source : interview in Billboard magazine, Feb 16, 2007)
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Then the Crew-Cuts made it; they were an unknown group of four Canadians, who just copied it exactly. It was like real discrimination. For once, I could feel what black people feel every day, because I was being discriminated against. The only reason [pop stations] wouldn't play our record was because the group was black.
(Source : interview in Billboard magazine, Feb 16, 2007)