Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A great voice from the Belmonts has passed.
Fred Milano one of the original voices of the Belmonts has passed at the age of 72. One of the greatest doo-wop groups of all time, the Belmonts took off for the sky when Dion joined and they recorded a string of hits including Runaround Sue. Dion went off on a solo career and the Belmonts eeked out a living in show business. I saw them many times and they always put on a great show.
Fred worked for the department of corrections while he pursued his music career. He was a working musician and a loving father and grandfather.
May he rest in peace. Thank you for the hours of fun you gave me. When we were drunk hanging on the streetcorner trying to sing doo-wop....I wanted to be you man. Rest in peace brother, rest in peace.
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3 comments:
At first glance I thought this was going to be about Chic Anderson, who made that phenomenal call of Secretariat's win at the Belmont Stakes.
But then I remembered that he died a long time ago.
Sad. Great song, the video crowd reaction shots are hilarious.
Hey stuffed shirts, what were you expecting, O sole Mio?
Dion and the Belmonts, what a great group.
I love doo wop music. It's so purely American, so happy and so lush. There is nothing else like it.
I drove a '57 Chevy my last two years of high school. It was cool but it was also a clapped-out ten year old rust bucket in an era when cars were used up in about four years.
I loved driving around town, windows down, AM radio blaring great tunes like this. Runaround Sue, a classic Belmonts piece.
My old man had a '61 Impala convertible. He'd let me borrow it (in exchange for a day's chores) if I had a special date.
I've done a lot of things, but few were as gently satisfying as rolling through our leafy suburb on a June night, top down, one arm around my date, the radio tuned to WLS in Chicago, listening to great songs like this.
Every time I watch the doo-wop special on PBS I wish that there'd be a revival. But then, the revival music could never be as good as the originals, and the memories are just that: they need to stay where they are.
But still.....I'd love to have a '57 Chevy again, to be young and lean and unafraid of the future, to have Cuban heel shoes and a duck-ass haircut, and not a worry in the world.
The magic of doo-wop is that hearing it takes us back to an age where we had no worries; where all was good and secure and happy.
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