Frankie Lymon
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Franklin Joseph "Frankie" Lymon (September 30, 1942 – February 27, 1968)[1] was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African-American members, Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Rican members, Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni.
The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love,"
was also its biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his
career and that of the Teenagers fell into decline. He was found dead at
the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom from a heroin overdose.[2] His life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall In Love.
Early years: joining the Teenagers
Frankie Lymon was born in Harlem[3]
on September 30, 1942 to Howard and Jeanette Lymon. Howard worked as a
truck driver and Jeanette worked as a maid. Howard and Jeanette Lymon
also sang in a gospel group known as the Harlemaires; Frankie and his
brothers, Lewis and Howie, sang with the Harlemaire Juniors (a fourth
Lymon brother, Timmy, was a singer, though not with the Harlemaire
Juniors). The Lymons struggled to make ends meet, so, at age 10, Lymon
began working as a grocery boy.
At the age of 12 in 1954, Lymon heard a local doo-wop group known as the Coupe De Villes at a school talent show. He became friends with the lead singer, Herman Santiago, and he eventually became a member of the group, now calling itself both The Ermines and The Premiers. Dennis Jackson of Columbus, Georgia, was one of the main influences in Lymon's life. His personal donation of $500 helped start Lymon's career.
One day in 1955, a neighbor gave The Premiers several love letters
that had been written to him by his girlfriend, with the hopes that he
could give the boys inspiration to write their own songs. Merchant and
Santiago adapted one of the letters into a song called "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love". The Premiers, now calling itself The Teenagers, got its
first shot at fame after impressing Richard Barrett, a singer with The Valentines. Barrett, in turn, got the group an audition with record producer George Goldner.
On the day of the group's audition, Santiago, the original lead singer,
was late. Lymon stepped up and told Goldner that he knew the part
because he helped write the song. The disc jockeys always called them
"Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers".
Life and career
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love": fame and success
Goldner signed the group to Gee Records, and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" became its first single in January 1956. The single peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard pop singles chart, and topped the Billboard R&B singles chart for five weeks.
Six other R&B top 10 singles followed over the next year or so:
"I Want You To Be My Girl", "I Promise To Remember", "Who Can Explain?",
"Out in the Cold Again" and "The ABC's of Love", "I'm Not A Juvenile
Delinquent" and "Baby Baby" were also popular Teenagers releases. "I
Want You To Be My Girl" gave the band its second pop hit, reaching No.
13 on the national Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Goody Goody"
(written by Matty Malneck and Johnny Mercer and originally performed by
Benny Goodman) was a No. 20 pop hit, but did not appear on the R&B
chart. The Teenagers placed two other singles in the lower half of the
pop chart.
With the release of "I Want You To Be My Girl", the group's second single, The Teenagers became Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. An album, "The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon", was released in December 1956.
Going solo
In early 1957, Lymon and the Teenagers broke up while on a tour in Europe. During an engagement at the London Palladium,
Goldner began pushing Lymon as a solo act, giving him solo spots in the
show. Lymon began performing with backing from pre-recorded tapes. The
group's last single, "Goody Goody"
backed with "Creation of Love," initially retained the "Frankie Lymon
& the Teenagers" credit, but they were actually solo recordings
(with backing by session singers). Lymon had officially departed from
the group by September 1957; an in-progress studio album called Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers at the London Palladium was instead issued as a Lymon solo release.
As a solo artist, Lymon was not nearly as successful as he had been
with the Teenagers. Beginning with his second solo release, "My Girl",
Lymon had moved to Roulette Records. On a July 19, 1957, episode of Alan Freed's live ABC TV show The Big Beat,
Lymon began dancing with a white teenage girl while performing. His
actions caused a scandal, particularly among Southern TV station owners,
and The Big Beat was subsequently canceled.[4]
Lymon's slowly declining sales fell sharply after his voice changed and he lost his signature soprano voice. Adopting a falsetto,[citation needed] Lymon carried on. His highest charting solo hit was a cover of Bobby Day's "Little Bitty Pretty One", which peaked at No. 58 on the Hot 100 pop chart in 1960 and which had been recorded in 1957. Addicted to heroin
since the age of 15, Lymon fell further into his habit, and his
performing career went into decline. According to Lymon in an interview
with Ebony magazine in 1967, he was first introduced to heroin when he was 15 by a woman twice his age.[5] In 1961, Roulette, now run by Morris Levy, ended their contract with Lymon and he entered a drug rehabilitation program.
After losing Lymon, the Teenagers went through a string of
replacement singers, the first of whom was Billy Lobrano. In 1960,
Howard Kenny Bobo sang lead on "Tonight's the Night" with the Teenagers;
later that year, Johnny Houston sang lead on two songs. The Teenagers,
who had been moved by Morris Levy to End Records, were released from
their contract in 1961. The Teenagers briefly reunited with Lymon in
1965, without success.
Later years
Over the next four years, Lymon struggled through short-lived deals with 20th Century Fox Records and Columbia Records.
Lymon began a relationship with Elizabeth Mickey Waters, who became his
first wife in January 1964 and the mother of his only child, a baby
girl named Francine who died two days after birth at Lenox Hill
Hospital.[6]
Lymon's marriage to Waters was not legal, because she was still married
to her first husband. After the marriage failed, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, where he began a romantic relationship with Zola Taylor, a member of the Platters. Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965,[7]
although their relationship ended several months later, purportedly
because of Lymon's drug habits. Lymon, however, had been known to say
that their marriage was a publicity stunt and Taylor could produce no
legal documentation of their marriage. In Major Robinson's gossip column
of June 6, 1966, Zola said the whole thing was a joke that she went
along with at the time (October 1965).[8]
He appeared at the Apollo as part of a revue, adding an extended tap
dance number. Lymon recorded several live performances (such as
"Melinda" in 1959), but none rose on the charts. His final television
performance was on Hollywood a Go-Go in 1965, where the then-22-year-old singer lip-synched to the recording of his 13-year-old self singing "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." The same year, Lymon was drafted into the United States Army and reported to Fort Gordon, Georgia, near Augusta, Georgia, for training.[citation needed]
While in the Augusta area, Lymon met and fell in love with Emira Eagle,
a schoolteacher at Hornsby Elementary in Augusta. The two were wed in
June 1967, and Lymon repeatedly went AWOL to secure gigs at small Southern clubs. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, Lymon moved into his wife's home and continued to perform sporadically.
Traveling to New York in 1968, Lymon was signed by manager Sam Bray
to his Big Apple label, and the singer returned to recording. Roulette Records
expressed interest in releasing Lymon's records in conjunction with Big
Apple and scheduled a recording session for February 28. A major
promotion had been arranged with CHO Associates, owned by radio
personalities Frankie Crocker, Herb Hamlett and Eddie O'Jay. Lymon,
staying at his grandmother's house in Harlem where he had grown up,
celebrated his good fortune by taking heroin; he had remained clean ever since entering the Army three years earlier.
Death
On February 27, 1968, Lymon was found dead of a heroin overdose at the age of 25 on the floor his grandmother's bathroom.[9][10] Lymon, a Baptist, was buried at Catholic Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx, New York City, New York.
"I'm Sorry" and "Seabreeze", the two songs Lymon had recorded for Big Apple before his death, were released later in 1968.
Posthumous troubles
Lymon's troubles extended to others after his death. After R&B singer Diana Ross returned "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" to the Top Ten in 1981, a major controversy concerning Lymon's estate ensued. Zola Taylor, Elizabeth Waters and Emira Eagle each approached Morris Levy,
the music impresario who retained possession of Lymon's copyrights and
his royalties, claiming to be Lymon's rightful widow; Lymon had
neglected to divorce both Taylor and Waters. The complex issue resulted
in lawsuits and counter-lawsuits, and in 1986, the first of several
court cases concerning the ownership of Lymon's estate began.
Trying to determine who was indeed the lawful Mrs. Frankie Lymon was
complicated by more issues. Waters was already married when she married
Lymon; she had separated from her first husband, but their divorce was
finalized in 1965, after she had married Lymon.[11] Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, but could produce no acceptable evidence of their union.[7]
Lymon's marriage to Eagle, on the other hand, was properly documented
as having taken place at Beulah Grove Baptist Church in Augusta,
Georgia, in 1967; however, the singer was still apparently twice-married
and never divorced when he married Eagle. The first decision was made
in Waters' favor; Eagle appealed, and in 1989, the Appellate Division of
the New York State Supreme Court reversed the original decision and
awarded Lymon's estate to Eagle.[12][13]
However, the details of the case brought about another issue: whether
Morris Levy was deserving of the songwriting co-credit on "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love". Although early single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in
Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago
and Jimmy Merchant as co-writers, later releases and cover versions
were attributed to Lymon and George Goldner. When Goldner sold his music
companies to Morris Levy in 1959, Levy's name began appearing as
co-writer of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" in place of Goldner's. Lymon
was never paid his songwriting royalties during his lifetime; one result
of Emira Eagle's legal victory was that Lymon's estate would finally
begin receiving monetary compensation from his hit song's success. In
1987, Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant, both then poor, sued Morris
Levy for their songwriting credits.
In December 1992, the United States federal courts
ruled that Santiago and Merchant were co-authors of "Why Do Fools Fall
in Love". However, in 1996 the ruling was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on the basis of the statute of limitations:
copyright cases must be brought before a court within three years of
the alleged civil violation, and Merchant and Santiago's lawsuit was not
filed until 30 years later. Authorship of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"
currently remains in the names of Frankie Lymon and Morris Levy.[14]
Legacy
Although
their period of success was brief, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers'
string of hits were highly influential on the rock and R&B
performers who followed them. Lymon's high-voiced sound is said to be a
direct predecessor of the girl group sound, and the list of performers who name him as an influence include Michael Jackson, Ronnie Spector, Diana Ross, The Chantels, The Temptations, George Clinton (musician), Smokey Robinson, Len Barry and The Beach Boys, among others.[15][16] The performers most inspired by and derivative of Lymon and the Teenagers' style are The Jackson 5 and their lead singer and future superstar Michael Jackson. Motown founder Berry Gordy based much of the Jackson 5's sound on Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' recordings,[16] and the Teenagers are believed to be the original model for many of the other Motown groups he cultivated.[17]
Lymon's music and story were re-introduced to modern audiences with Why Do Fools Fall in Love, a 1998 biographical film directed by Gregory Nava, also the director of the Selena biopic. Why Do Fools Fall in Love
tells a comedic, fictionalized version of Lymon's story from the points
of view of his three wives as they battle in court for the rights to
his estate. The film stars Larenz Tate as Frankie Lymon, Halle Berry as Zola Taylor, Vivica A. Fox as Elizabeth Waters and Lela Rochon as Elmira Eagle. Why Do Fools Fall in Love was not a commercial success and met with mixed reviews;[18] the film grossed a total of $12,461,773 during its original theatrical run.[19]
In 1973, Lymon became known to a slightly younger generation than before with the release of American Graffiti,, which included "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" on its soundtrack.
In September 1979 at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Joni Mitchell performed a
version of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" which subsequently appeared on
the release of her album of the concert entitled "Shadows and Light"
the following September. During the opening mix of the album, Joni
Mitchell also spliced sections of "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent" into
the title track refrains.
The song "Harlem Roulette" by The Mountain Goats, off its 2012 album Transcendental Youth,,
contains reference to Frankie Lymon, the song "Seabreeze" and Roulette
Records. Frontman John Darnielle has stated that the song is about the
last night of Lymon's life.[20]
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993,[21] and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000.[22]
Lymon was mentioned in the 1992 Stephen King short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band".
Lymon is named as the one who cut off the waitress Sissy's finger for
trying to help the protagonists, Mary and Clark Willingham, escape from
the town of Rock & Roll Heaven, Oregon, who is inhabited by
musicians like Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Roy Orbison, and other musicians who died young.
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