Big Mama Thornton - The Best Of Big Mama Thornton 1951-58 - Powerhouse performer, Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, was a singing sensation who did not get the recognition her talents so richly... more

Bill Black's Combo - White Silver Sands: The Singles & Albums Collection 1959-62 - He represented a fascinating and very particular strand of pop during these years, which makes for fun listening.... more

Clyde McPhatter - The Very Best Of Clyde McPhatter 1953-62 - This collection provides a worthy showcase for his distinctive talents. Clyde McPhatter was one of the most imitated vocalists to emerge... more

The Four Coins - Shangri-La: The Singles & Albums Collection 1954-62 - The Four Coins were one of the many vocal groups to emerge onto the pop scene in the wake of the classic early doowop groups... more

Arthur Prysock was an American jazz, R&B and pop singer, renowned for his mellifluous baritone voice, which many people likened to that of Billy Eckstine. Born in 1924 and hailing from the Carolinas

The Impressions were one of the R&B vocal groups that heralded the transition from doowop to the more pop-oriented styles of the late '50s, and were notable for bringing to the fore two of the great... more

Dee Clark, real name Delecta Clark, was born in Arkansas in 1938 and started out in gospel before recording at the age of 14 with a group called The Hambone Kids.

Gene McDaniels was an African-American singer, who started out performing gospel, before turning to jazz, and came to the fore as vocalist with the Les McCann Trio in Los Angeles. Signed by Liberty,... more

The Chantels were an all-girl vocal group from New York, who followed in the footsteps of The Bobbettes as one of the first African-American girl groups to enjoy major chart success in the USA. They... more

The doowop and pop vocal group which eventually became The Vibrations began life as The Jayhawks, having a 1956 hit with "Stranded In The Jungle", and recording under different names before becoming... more

The Crests were a ground-breaking multiracial pop/doowop group formed in the mid-1950s when singer Johnny Mastrangelo joined forces with a doowop quartet comprising three African-Americans and one... more

Annie Laurie was an R&B, blues and sophisticated jazz and pop singer born in Atlanta, Ga., in 1924, who came to prominence in 1947 with her debut hit "Since I Fell For You", and over the next 15... more

Pianist, singer and songwriter Ivory Joe Hunter was a blues balladeer extraordinaire, specialising in a unique brand of highly tuneful and soulful blues songs that bucked the trend for more raucous... more

The Hollywood Flames were a doowop and R&B vocal group, who formed in Los Angeles in 1949, and remained active under a variety of names and with evolving line-ups through into the early 1960s,... more

Mickey Baker was a guitarist and Sylvia Vanterpool was a singer who was also one of his guitar pupils, and they teamed up to make records as Mickey & Sylvia, becoming famous for recording the first... more

Huey 'Piano' Smith was one of the many influential musical figures to emerge from New Orleans during the 1950s, becoming a noted and successful pianist, singer and songwriter on the R&B scene, and... more

Frankie Lymon was just 14 years old when he burst onto the scene as leader of an R&B doowop group in the wake of the first flush of rock 'n' roll in the charts during the mid-50s, and the... more

Clarence Henry was a rhythm & blues singer an pianist from New Orleans and an early disciple of Fats Domino and Professor Longhair, playing in the early '50s with Bobby Mitchell & The Toppers and the... more

Perhaps more than any other artist, Ruth Brown helped lead the way in bridging the gap between R&B and pop as far as female artists were concerned, paving the way for the likes of Mary Wells and... more

Born Harrison Nelson, in Texarcana, Texas, in 1925, Peppermint Harris was a jump blues and R&B singer and guitarist, who originally recorded in Houston in 1948 as Peppermint Nelson, but acquired his... more

Evolving out of the Brown Dots and the Sentimentalists in the mid-'40s, the Four Tunes initially sang in the traditional style of the Ink Spots and Mills Brothers. But these tracks (late '40s to late... more

Only a tragic backstage gun accident could have halted the rise of this wonderfully talented singer/pianist, who worked with B.B. King and Bobbie "Blue" Bland before taking off as a solo artist. Here... more

It's a cold, hard fact that some groups are crucial to their genre but aren't a big part of its chart history. Such was true for the Harptones, one of the greatest doo-wop groups but the owners of... more

Like the Orioles, the Ravens flew ahead of the doo-wop pack; here are 103 tracks with which they soared from NY to national fame. This comprehensive cross-label collection of their prime A- and... more

This North Carolina group transitioned from gospel to secular music in the early '50s, becoming one of the most esteemed early African-American doo-wop groups. Bask in their sweet style and... more