r/doowop

After over a decade of watching Jorge’s vids, if I know one thing about our community, it’s that we can get ANYTHING found very quickly, please help if you can!!!

Here’s some background:
On October 23, 1950, the original line up of the Dominoes, Clyde McPhatter (Lead Singer/1st Tenor), Charlie White (2nd Tenor), Joe Lamont (Baritone), and Bill Brown (Bass) along with the group’s founder, Billy Ward (who was the group’s pianist and arranger as well) supposedly appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts singing an at the time current hit song, “Goodnight Irene”.

The performance was seen by Rene Hall, a talent scout and guitarist for King Records. He told label owner, Syd Nathan, of the group. Well, just 3 weeks later, they were in the studio cutting their first records and by the end of 1950 they’d record the Bill Brown led smash hit “Sixty Minute Man” which if anyone knows the Dominoes, it’s mostly likely because they heard this song in Fallout.

However being the massive Dominoes fan I am, especially with the original line up, I tried to search for it. YouTube, Internet Archive, Facebook, Dailymotion, etc. all turned up nothing, at least when I looked. Then, about almost 3 years ago someone to told me to contact the Arthur Godfrey Archives (I believe at UMD) and I did. I went through the necessary procedures and finally got the audio, and wouldn’t ya know it? No Dominoes. Maybe I got the wrong audio, I don’t know. I left for Navy boot camp shortly after my search and never reattempted to track down the footage or audio.

While there is footage of the 1957 Dominoes singing Stardust, (which minus Billy Ward, is a completely different group) I think it’s important to find this footage of this seminal R&B and Rock N Roll group in their infancy to preserve history and the legacy of the men who are no longer here.

I say no longer here because, unsurprisingly, all original members of the Dominoes are deceased:

Bill Brown (c. 1920s-early 1970s; not the mid to late 1950s as other sources claim)
Clyde McPhatter (1932-1972)
Joe Lamont (1920-1991)
Billy Ward (1921-2002)
Charlie White (1931-2005)

Even sadder the 4 original singers and some of their replacements (James Van Loan, Jackie Wilson, Gene Mumford, Milt Grayson, Cliff Givens and Milton Merle) have yet to be inducted in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. They were considered once in 1997 and never again.

Ironically, King Records founder, Syd Nathan, was inducted that same year as a non performer. Luckily, Clyde McPhatter was inducted in 1987 as a soloist and in 1988 as a member of the Drifters, becoming the first double inductee. Jackie Wilson was also inducted in 1987 as a soloist.