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(James Keyes/Claude Feaster/Carl Feaster/Floyd F.
McRae/James Edwards)
Written and published by members of the Bronx group,
The Chords, in 1954, this nonsense song is often referred to as the first Doo-Wop
song that would become a popular success and has been said to be the first
time that a white audience would experience a black R&B song. According to James
Keyes, who was a co-writer and member of The Chords, it began its life being
written in the back of a Buick and the word "boom" was slang used regularly
by the kids of the neighbourhood when they were talking to each other. The "sh" was added to it to make it
sound like the noise from a nuclear explosion, that was a fear paramount in
the thoughts of Americans at the time, the "alangala alangala" emanated
church bells, and the rest of the song was spent giving out the message
that everything was OK and life could be good. It was first recorded that year by The Chords as a B-Side
to "Cover of the Cross" which had been a hit for Patti Page and it would
become their only hit when it reached No. 2 in the pop charts and No.5 on
the R&B chart. This would
be the only time the group would achieve chart status, but Rolling Stone
have named it their No. 215 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Such was the popularity of the song
that The Chords even added some new words to it and used it as a to promote
Robert Wagner, who was running for the Mayor of New York City, in his first
election campaign. Following
on the heels of The Chords, The Crew-Cuts also released a version of the
song in 1954 and they went one better in the August when they soared to the
No. 1 position on the Billboard charts and remained there for seven
weeks. They also made an
appearance singing the song on the Ed Sullivan Show. Remaining ever popular it was
brought back to the fore again when the British group, Darts, slowed it
down and took it to No. 48 in the UK chart as the flip side of their 1980
rendition of "White Christmas".
The host of Juke Box Jury in the 1950s, Peter Potter, asked
if anyone would remember the song "in five, let alone twenty years time and
whether any record label would want to re-release it", but the answer to
that has proven itself to be "yes" many times over. A regular in the movies, it can be
heard in films that include Clue, Liberty Heights, Cry-Baby and Mona
Lisa Smile. It has also
been heard on the small screen in the mini-series From the Earth to the
Moon and Lipstick on Your Collar and as a featured piece of
music in the computer game Destroy All Humans! Often parodied it has been used by
Stan Freberg, Ronnie Golden and featured in the Jack Benny Show.
Big Wheelie & The Hubcaps recordings
MCA-40951 (MC7914R) (US promo 45)
Sources:
- British and American Hits Singles: 1947-1997
by Chris Davies (published by Batsford)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh-Boom
- http://www.doowopcafe.com/shboom.html
- http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6596060/shboom
- http://www.history-of-rock.com/dootwo.htm
- http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cjas/print/shboom.pdf
- http://home.att.net/~uncamarvy/Chords/chords.html
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