The Herald Records Doo Wop Collection, 1953-1963 (3-CD)

by Various Artists

Herald was founded in 1952 by Fred Mendelsohn, formerly with Savoy, and he was soon joined by Al Silver, who owned the pressing plant that made the label’s records. Silver had an ear for R&B and doowop, and built Herald into a creative hub for R&B recording and most particularly becoming renowned for its output of recordings by a string of different groups during the late 50s and into the 1960s. Most notable among those groups were The Nutmegs, The Turbans, The Mello Kings and Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, who all had hits on the label.

This 89-track 3CD set brings together most of the label’s releases by artists whose work falls broadly into the category of doowop, although this is obviously not a definition which can be slavishly or precisely applied. It features the A & B sides of most of the Herald releases by the groups named above, plus The Embers, The Five Willows, The Sonnets, The Cashmeres, The Rocketeers, The Thrillers, The Sunbeams, The Mint Juleps, Little Butchie Saunders, The Four Js, The Desires, The Loungers, The Vocalaires, The Concords and The Premiers.

It features the Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs’ R&B No.1 Stay, and their other hits I Remember and Come Along, The Nutmegs’ hits Story Untold and Ship Of Love, The Turbans’ No.3 When You Dance and the Mello-Kings’ Tonite, Tonite. Herald, its sister label Ember Records and Silver’s Angel Publishing, faced large tax bills in the early 1960s. Silver opted to liquidate and pay creditors who had helped him build the business, rather than seek protection through bankruptcy. This is a feast of classic doowop from a label which was at the heart of the genre.