
RARE OLDIES VIDEO WITH MR LEWIS LYMON & THE TEENCHORDS ! Lewis was the third of the Lymon brothers (Howie and Frankie were older; Timmy was the youngest); he was all of 12 years old in 1956. The group that coalesced around Lewis' lead tenor consisted of Rossilio Rocca (second tenor), Lyndon Harold (baritone), and David Little (bass). When it came time for a name, it wasn't a big leap from "Teenagers" to "Teenchords." Rossilio was the oldest (at 19), David was 17, and Lyndon was 15. They were an integrated group: Lewis and David were black, Lyndon was white, and Rossilio was Hispanic. But there was something missing from their sound: a first tenor. Lyndon had a friend named Ralph Vaughn, whom he thought would be a good candidate. He arranged for 13-year-old Ralph to audition one evening in early June, 1956. The day of the audition, however, the Teenchords, with Ralph in tow, went to the Apollo Theater (walking the two miles from 165th to 125th Street) to see the Teenagers (this would have been sometime during the week of June 8). They were hanging out behind the theater, when all of a sudden, Charles Sampson (lead of the Red Robin Velvets and a friend of Ralph's) wandered by. Sampson mentioned that Bobby Robinson (who owned Red Robin) was looking for acts to record and manage. Were these guys Ralph's group? Well, you don't let a chance like that go by, and suddenly Ralph, without having sung a note, was touted by Lyndon as their new first tenor. Bobby Robinson's store <b>...</b>
LEWIS
LYMON
DOO
WAP
OLDIES
FIFTIES
VIDEO
TEENCHORDS