The Edsels: “Rama Lama Ding Dong” / “Bells” (1958)
Doo-wop isn’t generally considered good “driving music,” but The Edsels seemed to think so because they took their name from the Ford Motor Company division of that name, after changing it from The Essos, taken from the massive oil conglomerate that ironically later changed its name to Exxon.
Uh, where was I? Oh yeah!
If anything, doo-wop, to me, is the musical genre most inextricably associated and well-represented by the 7-inch, 45rpm format -- not least because the style was rife with one-hit wonders instead of “album groups” -- and that’s obviously why I collect and cover them here on VinylSpinning.
In the case of The Edsels, their singular and fleeting brush with stardom came in 1961 with the effusive, nonsensical classic “Rama Lama Ding Dong,” which the Youngstown, Ohio-based quintet actually released three years earlier, and it went something like this:
“Oh, I've got a girl named Rama Lama Lama Lama Ding Dong. She's everything to me ... Rama Lama Lama Lama Lama Ding Dong. I'll never set her free; For she's mine, all mine.”
Anyway, The Edsels may have gone down as zero-hit blunders if a popular New York City DJ hadn’t decided to spin the song with enough regularity (as a segue to The Marcels’ similarly upbeat version of “Blue Moon,” go figure) to spark national airplay and push it to No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
By then, The Edsels had released a few more singles in the weepy “What Brought Us Together,” the novelty number “Bone Shaker Joe” and the plaintive “Do You Love Me,” all of which helped land them a rare major label deal with Capitol, once “Rama Lama Ding Dong” took off.
Unfortunately, Capitol couldn’t snap doo-wop’s historic one-hit wonder curse on The Edsels’ behalf, and the group never saw another hit, their recording career was finished by 1968, and they went on to join so many of their ‘50s and ‘60s peers on the oldies circuit.
I almost forgot: this 7-inch’s B-side contains a rather formulaic, vocally-ornate wedding ballad called “Bells,” whose only distinctive feature are the insistent chiming bells that accompany The Edsels’ acrobatic harmonies.
p.s. -- Trivia note: “Rama Lama Ding Dong” is the official “goal song” of German soccer club VfL Wolfsburg.
More Doo-Wop: The Channels, The Crests, The Del-Vikings, The Drifters, The Duprees, The Flamingos, The Hollywood Flames, The Jive Five, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Ruben & The Jets, The Skyliners, The Penguins, The Teen Queens, The Turbans, The Willows, Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs.
