Earth Angel (Rerecorded)

One of the most popular doo-wop songs of all time, "Earth Angel" was just the second doo-wop song to hit the Top 10 on the pop charts, following the Chords' "Sh-Boom." The Penguins were four black high school students from Fremont High in Los Angeles who were named for the logo on Kool cigarettes - a penguin named Willie (the group was originally called The Flywheels). They recorded this song in a garage and released it on a small black-owned label called Dootone Records. When it sold over 4 million copies, it proved that independent record labels could succeed, and many more began operating across America.

The composition of this song has a strange and convoluted history which came under scrutiny after it proved to be a lucrative hit. A singer-songwriter named Jesse Belvin composed the first version of this song. He was among the group of friends, including members of The Penguins, who would share ideas and work with each other's songs. The Penguins recorded a demo of the song in 1953 and took it to Dootone Records, but when they tried to record it, it was clear that the song needed more work. The Penguins bass player Curtis Williams helped simplify the arrangement, and a session piano player named Gaynell Hodge tweaked the song further. According to Dootone owner Dootsie Williams, a member of the group The Flairs named Cornel Gunter also helped out. Williams told Record Exchanger magazine: "They had the melody and the harmony but they didn't have the background. This Cornel Gunter got with them and rehearsed them. 'Man,' I said, 'Now we've got something.' In my estimation it had the perfect melody, the perfect harmony and the perfect background which are the three things that it needed." Doing forensics on the songwriter credits was up to a judge, and complicated by the fact that Curtis Williams sold the song to a publisher. If Law & Order was around in the '50s, this would have made a great episode: Jesse Belvin was asked to stand up and sing his version of the song in court, which convinced the judge that he deserved some, but not all of the songwriting credit. The judge ended up awarding the credits to Belvin, Curtis Williams and Gaynell Hodge.

The song was recorded in June 1954, and released in September. It was issued as the B-side of another song called "Hey Senorita," but DJs flipped the record and "Earth Angel" was deemed the A-side. It was a huge hit, and landed The Penguins a major label record deal with Mercury Records. The Penguins never had another hit, although a re-release of "Earth Angel" bubbled under at #101 in 1960. It wasn't the worst deal for Mercury Records, however, as the Penguins were managed by Buck Ram, who as part of the deal insisted that Mercury also sign another of his acts: The Platters. The Penguins broke up in 1962, but The Platters had 23 US Top 40 hits, including four chart-toppers: "The Great Pretender," "My Prayer," "Twilight Time" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."