Frankie Lymon

Early years: joining the Teenagers

Frankie Lymon was born on 30 September, 1942 in Harlem, New York to a truck driver father and a domestic mother. Lymon's father, Howard Lymon, also sang in a gospel group known as the Harlemaires; Frankie Lymon and his brothers Louis and Howie sung with the Harlemaire Juniors (a forth Lymon brother, Timmy, was also a singer, but not with the Harlemaire Juniors). The Lymon family struggled to make ends meet, and Lymon began working as a grocery boy at age ten, augmenting his legitimate income with proceeds gained from hustling prositutes.

At the age of twelve, Lymon joined a local doo-wop group known as The Teenagers. The Teenagers had their origins in The Earth Angels, a group founded at Edward W. Stitt Junior High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan by second tenor Jimmy Merchant and bass Sherman Gaines. Eventually, Gaines and Merchant had added lead singer Herman Santiago and baritone Joe Negroni to their lineup and evolved into The Coupe De Villes. Twelve-year-old Frankie Lymon heard the Coupe De Villes at a school talent show, and, befriending Santiago, eventually became a member of the group, now calling itself both The Ermines and The Premiers.


"Why Do Fools Fall in Love": fame and success

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 Birds Sing So Gay?" With Lymon's input, the song became "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". The Premiers, now calling themselves The Teenagers, got their 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. However, on the day of the group's audition, Santiago was sick, and Lymon led the Teenagers through "Why Do Fools Fall in Love".


Goldner signed the quintet to Gee Records, and "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" became their first single in January 1956. The single peaked at number-three on the Billboard pop singles chart, and at number-one on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Several other R&B top ten singles followed over the next year, among them "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", although no other Teenagers single entered the pop chart. "I Am Not A Juvenile Delinquent" and "Baby Baby" were also popular Teenagers releases. With the release of "I Want You to Be My Girl", the group's second single, The Teenagers became Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. A long-playing album, The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon, was issued in December 1956.


The group's success made Frankie Lymon the first African-American teen idol. In March 1956, the Teenagers began appearing with pioneering rock and roll DJ Alan Freed's rock-and-roll revues, performing alongside acts such as Little Richard, The Platters, and Bill Haley and His Comets. The group also appeared in two of Freed's early rock and roll films, Rock, Rock, Rock (1956) and Mister Rock and Roll (1957), and performed on Freed's radio and television programs. While touring with the Platters, Lymon befriended that group's sole female singer, Zola Taylor, whom he later began a romantic relationship with.


Going solo

In early 1957, Lymon and the Teenagers split apart while on a tour of 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 latest singles, "Out In The Cold Again" and "Goody Goody", retained the Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers credit, but were actually solo recordings (with backing on "Goody, Goody" and its b-side 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 Pallladium was instead issued as a Lymon solo release.


As a solo artist, Lymon was not a success. Beginning with his first solo release, "My Girl", Lymon was moved to Roulette Records. On a July 19, 1957 episode of 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.


Lymon's slowly tapering sales fell sharply after his voice changed and he lost his signature soprano voice. Adopting a falsetto, Lymon carried on. His highest charting solo hit was a cover of Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One", which peaked at number 58 on the R&B charts in 1960. Having been addicted to heroin since age 16, Lymon fell further to his habit, and his performing career went into decline. In 1961, Roulette, now run by Morris Levy, ended their contract with Lymon and the singer entered a drug rehabilitation program.


After losing Lymon, the Teenagers went through a string of replacement singers, the first of whom was Lymon's immediate successor Billy Lobrano. By 1959, Howard Kenny Bobo was the lead singer of the Teenagers; a year later, Johnny Houston was on lead. The Teenagers, who had been moved by Morris Levy onto End Records, were released from their contract in 1961. The Teenagers briefly reunited with Lymon in 1965, without success.

Later years and death

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 Waters, who became his first wife in January 1964. Lymon's marriage failed, and he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s, where he began a romantic relationship with Zola Taylor. His final television performance was on Hollywood a Go-Go in 1965, where the then twenty-two year old singer lip-synched to the recording of his thirteen-year old self singing "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, although their relationship ended several months later because of Lymon's drug habits.


The same year, Lymon was drafted into the United States Army, and stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia near Augusta, Georgia for training. While in the Augusta area, Lymon met and fell in love with Elmira Eagle, a schoolteacher at Hornsby Elementary in Augusta. The two were wed in June 1967, and Lymon repeatedly went AWOL to secure club dates at small Southern clubs. Dishonorably discharged from the Army, Lymon moved into his wife's Augusta home and continued to perform sporadically.


Traveling to New York in 1968, manager Sam Bray signed Lymon to his Big Apple label, and the singer returned to recording. Roulette expressed interest in releasing Lymon's records in conjunction with Big Apple and scheduled a recording session for February 28. 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 prior. On February 27, 1968, Lymon was found dead from a heroin overdose. He was twenty-five years old. He was buried at Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx in New York. "I'm Sorry" and "Seabreeze", the two sides Lymon had recorded for Big Apple before his death, were released later in the year.


By 1973, the Teenagers had resorted to using a female singer to imitate Lymon's prepubescent voice; the last of their lead singers was Pearl McKinnon. The Teenagers disbanded in 1973. Sherman Garnes died of a heart attack in 1977, while Joe Negroni passed away a year later due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Santiago and Merchant have carried on since, touring at various times with three other performers as The Teenagers.


Legal issues

Lymon's troubles did not end with 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 Elmira Eagle each approached Morris Levy, 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. Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, but could produce no acceptable evidence of their union. Lymon's marriage to Eagle, on the other hand, was properly documented as having taken place at the 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 1990, the New York State Supreme Court reversed the original decision and awarded Eagle Lymon's estate.


However, the details of the case brought about another issue: whether Morris Levy was deserving of the co-credit on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". Although early vinyl single releases of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" credit Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago, and Jimmy Merchant as co-writers of the song, 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 songwriters' royalties during his lifetime; one result of Elmira 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 songwriters' 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.


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 Ronnie Spector, The Chantels, Diana Ross, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and Len Barry, among others. The performers most inspired by and derivative of Lymon and the Teenagers' style are The Jackson 5 and its lead singer and future superstar Michael Jackson. Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr. based much of the Jackson 5's sound on Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' recordings, and the Teenagers are believed to be the original model for many of the other Motown groups he cultivated.


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: although it met with mixed reviews, the film grossed a total of $12,461,773 during its original theatrical run.


Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000.




Contributions to music:

* First rock and roll group consisting of teenagers
* One of the first black groups whose music broke the color barrier
* 13-year-old lead singer Frankie Lymon was a tremendous influence on all future vocal groups in R&B, doo wop, and rock
* Established the template for boy and girl groups
* A fine doo-wop outfit adept at many styles of music
* Berry Gordy of Motown modeled his assembly-line approach to vocal groups after The Teenagers
* Lymon popularized the falsetto lead in pop, R&B, and rock